What was your first computer RPG?

[Pladio]

Hello all, just saw @Lucky Day post this on the Discord server and thought it would make for a fun little thread.

What was your first computer RPG ? And if you'd like to expand on how that shaped your likes and dislikes since then.

I will start. The first game I would now coin as a proper RPG is Gothic. I played it and had a blast. I couldn't get past some of the puzzles without JemyM's FAQ who used to post on the Watch. I loved the game and I wouldn't have tried any other RPGs if not for Gothic.

However, my gateway drug to the world of RPGs was actually Diablo 2, from which my username has been derived. I played online as a Paladin and since I am not very creative, I tried to name my character paladin, but it was taken. So I tried slight derivatives until I found Pladio.

In the longer term I found some TB RPGs like Fallout, which drew me closer into narrative and stat based RPGs and I know much prefer TB RPGs to other genres, although I still play some others once in a while.

 

[HiddenX]

My road to RPGs goes over these games (the most important ones):
Temple of Apshai
Wizardry 1
Bard's Tale II
Dungeon Master
Ultima VII
Might and Magic IV & V
Wizardry 6 & 7
Amberstar
Ambermoon
Albion

after that I played all RPGs I could get and bought and played older ones as well.

 

[bkrueger]

We had a thread like this in 2007.
Edit: I always forget, whether Fallout or Baldur's Gate was my first one. I am sure I posted it somewhere, but that must have been in even another thread...
Edit 2: Found the thread, where I posted that, it was about the age, at which people started to play RPGs and obviously therefore contains people's first RPGs...

 

[Carnifex]

If I remember correctly, Wizardry one was the first crpg that I actually played, and Ultima four was the first that I purchased for myself.

 

[pibbuR]

First it was Bard's tale 2. After that: Ultima 5.

And after that: .... eh ....

pibbuR who can't remember.

 

[shaf]

My first game on the C64 was Temple of Apshai, I also have fond memories of a Wizardry clone called Oubliette also on the C64, then the early Ultimas.

 

[JFarrell71]

Ultima IV, I think.

I have vivid memories of waiting for my birthday so I could get The Bard's Tale, which I had asked my grandmother to get for me. I also remember begging her (successfully) to let me look at the manual ahead of time.

 

[Pladio]

We had a thread like this in 2007.
Edit: I always forget, whether Fallout or Baldur's Gate was my first one. I am sure I posted it somewhere, but that must have been in even another thread...
Edit 2: Found the thread, where I posted that, it was about the age, at which people started to play RPGs and obviously therefore contains people's first RPGs...

JemyM is there on the second post randomly enough

 

[Shagnak]

In the early 80s a friend and I played a roguelike on his TRS-80 a lot. I can't remember the name of it but I remember it had hobbits and orcs n stuff.
The first "proper" RPG was probably Ultima IV on the C64 (I still have the box).
My memory fades a bit whether I attempted (but didn't finish) Ultimas I-III (I had a box set of them, but they seemed a big step backward), or whether I played Ultima V next.

 

[Couchpotato]

Mines predictable as I've said before I was primarily a console gamer untill the late 1990's. My very first PC games were Dune 2000 and Command and Conquer.

Now my first two CRPG's were Fallout and Baldur's Gate.

Probably why I love all types of JRPGs, RPGs, and Strategy games.

 

[blatantninja]

I played Ultima III a bunch on a C64 but I was so young I really didn't know what I was doing. Didn't finish it until many, many years later.

 

[Hurls]

Collosal caves on a Honeywell time-sharing service in 1973

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I can't be positive but the ones that I remember being the first CRPG, would be Pools of Radiance and all the others in that series, along with Dark Sun and similar SSI games. Pools was on the Apple II.

 

[bjon045]

My list would be similar to HiddenX's. I started with the Gateway games, Bard's Tale 1, Ultima 1 etc. I didn't get into Wizardry until Wiz 6 and M&M until M&M 3. It wasn't till the gold box games and Ultima 4-6 that RPG's became my preferred genre. I skipped Ultima 2/3 and went straight to 4 from 1 but I played 5&6 extensively.

 

[bizorker]

The very first I played I'm pretty sure was Wizardry but not certain which version. The first one that really hooked me was Bards Tale. Tales of the Unknown! Pretty much fantasy RPGs ever since

 

[JDR13]

Dungeons of Dagorath on the TRS 80 Color Computer.

 

[Redglyph]

The first proper RPG I remember is Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds. But I only embraced the genre with a pre-alpha open-source MMORPG and, in parallel, Neverwinter Nights, its extensions and some MP mods, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights 2, and other MMORPGs - mainly Everquest II. Then I continued with the Bethesda series, starting with Morrowind (much later than its release).

The first one that counted and made me want to continue the genre was NWN. It set the benchmark for classic RPGs: wall-of-text narrative, companions, 'isometric' combat with special effects, and D&D 3E ruleset. Later, Morrowind set another benchmark for open-world RPGs: story-driven exploration, unexpected discoveries, and dangerous areas that required more skills.

The MMORPGs taught me to stay away from MP games. It was taking too much time, it added too much time constraints, it had too much grind and felt too artificial.

PS: There may have been others before in all those ZX Spectrum and C64 games, but obviously they didn't count.

 

[Lakorus]

I think it was Eye of the Beholder, although Wizardry 6 was around the same time. Those two games I played a lot as a teenager, especially Wiz 6.
Dungeon Master is the game that led me to RPGs, though. I never actually played it but reading about it in magazines and looking at the screenshots definitely left an impression on me.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

- Lands of Lore I
- Realms Of Arcania : Blade of Destiny
- Albion, I think, too

That's what i remember.

My first love were adventure games, though. And Jump&Run.
"Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" is still my personal "standard" I measure against all adventure games and RPGs. Because I play because of story.

 

[HellRazor]

Colossal Cave Adventure was installed on our Wang word processor at work, this is what got me into personal computers and RPGs, adventure games, and interactive fiction.

When I bought my first computer, a C64, the first games I bought for it were Ultima III and Zork II.