RPGWatch Feature - The CRPG Book Review

We never did a book review before, but here is our first one. Corwin went through Bitmap Books' CRPG book and remembered a lot of things from the past and learned some things as well. It is not a very long review, but it describes very well why Corwin liked the book.

Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing and I've been around long enough for it to really take hold. I remember when there were only mainframes and punch cards; I remember seeing Pong when it first took the world by storm; I remember buying an Intellivision and playing two simplistic DnD games for hours; I remember being excited when I bought a Commodore 64 and played 'Bard's Tale', 'Phantasie', 'Might and Magic' and 'Ultima'. I remember buying my first IBM clone PC and being extremely annoyed when it wouldn't play the first PC game I'd ever bought 'Quest For Glory' because it needed a '286' to run. (Who reads the fine print on the back of a box?) I remember having to upgrade to a '386' a '486' and a Pentium (complete with assorted memory managers) just so I could play the latest game in the Ultima series. Ah, the joys of nostalgia.

More information.

Well done RPGWatch and Corwin.

Bought it twice already (one as a gift). Its a really nice nostalgia trip.

Excellent and thank you @Corwin

I'm late to the party - just ordered the standard edition. Hope it arrive safely soon!

Nice work Corwin. The kind of review I enjoy. Well written and to the point.

Thanks for the review Corwin, but you are too nice. I want to improve the book in the future, so if you have any suggestions, please say.

One change will be adding Black Crypt and Quarterstaff, and maybe important non-English/non-translated RPGs, like Tulip Warriors and French RPGs…

Might be an idea to put a link to the purchase page in the review. The search engine bots partially rank things by links, which is why the spammers are always trying to sneak their URLs in somewhere.

Here is the link:

https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/collec…-playing-games

It also tells you important thinks like the approximate page count, games reviewed, et.
I am surprised the price is low as it is. Its about the cost of the Pathfinder core book, which I find incredibly low for a book which must have pretty limited print run.

@Corwin: Thanks for the review. The book fully deserves the praise and visibility.
@Felipe: Thank you so much for this - your book a beautiful piece of work and at the same time an important asset to the preservation of this medium that fascinates all of us so much.
I read that you are still planning to fill in some gaps. Black Crypt, yay! Are you going to crowd-source those extensions again? I was inexplicably lazy in the past and I would love to contribute.

Thank you @Corwin and @felipepepe - great book with many interesting games in it.

Fantastic book and a great walk down memory lane! Well worth the money.
Big thanks to Felipepe and all the contributors!

Added the link to the article.

Everyone needs a copy of this book, so order it today; it would be worth it at twice the price!!

But… gotta wait for the DLC so I can get the GOLD edition!

The book is really nice. Both form and content wise. Enjoying every page.

Beautiful book, well put together with fair assessments of the games and gaming history. I'm dipping in while I wait for the kettle to boil then realise I've been for an hours dip. Not just romantic nostalgia for us oldies, plenty to interest younger players just starting out. An absolute bargain for the price and would make a wonderful gift. Certainly a book that I will return to over and over.

I'll hold off for a bit . . . to pay via dollars and Amazon/Barnes. But not too long. The book looks gorgeous. I am so in.

My gaming started in the early 80s so I know just about every game featured in their book. Hmm. I wonder what's the status of the CRPG book at Codex???

The idea for writing a CRPG book started on the Codex in 2014 when felipepepe organized an RPG Codex PC RPGs top 70 list.

Thanks for the review, I've got my copy and I know I'm going to order a few more once the holidays are upon us, they'll make excellent gifts!