Your first CRPG

GothicGothicness said:

I doubt it was because of being the first one Anyway how come you started with this game? it must be a very unusual way to start... most people I know played it because they already knew about the greatness of the wizardry brand...

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I got it from my friend who had it and didn't have interest in it. So I said 'give it to me and I'll give it a try'. Strangely enough the Monstery and Arnica road simply got me. Well probably just the Monastery because I nearly wasn't able to get from the starting beach before the Monstery. Somehow this - what made may friend go away - made me stay. Finally a challenge so rarely seen in the games I was playing by that time.

In chronological order:
1983 - Mattel Intellivision: Treasure of Tarmin
1988 - C64: The Bard's Tale
1991 - PC: Hack (predecessor of NetHack).

There were some periods in life when I didn't have the possibility to play much, so these are not exactly the release years for the games. But better late than never!

Wiz8 could have been great - if just it had some more story and atmosphere! I've tried to play it recently, and I really tried to like it, but the game has *nothing* but combat it seems (slooow combat even, though wizfast helps). I like the combat and stat/skill system actually, but what killed the game for me was that after having fought through a bunch of combat areas I finally reached a town - Arnika - and I expected the plot to really unfold. But then I discovered that Arnika is *also* filled with encounters.. and the few friendly NPCs that I did encounted had almost nothing interesting to say to me. Ok, on towards the next town .. and after even more fighting I reached Trynton. Cool! A town in the trees! But again, it's almost completely empty of friendly NPCs - but *stuffed* with more encounters. At this time I've spent quite a few hours with the game and I decided that if *that* was the level of immersion and story that the game could offer - then the game was just not for me

As for the first CRPG I played - hmm, hard to say.. can't really remember - I've played *a lot*. But some early ones that stands out in my memory is M&M3, EoB1, LoL1, Ultima6, Betrayal at Krondor.. and many many more.

Hmm... Die dunkle Dimension... a german Ultima-Clone was the first RPG I finished... I tried a Ultima before that (Part III I guess), but since I couldn't speak english as a Kid I couldn't get far

Bards Tale III was the first english RPG I was able to play a few years later (everything C 64)

xSamhainx said:

the Ultima with Sheri the mouse.

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That's Ultima VI, my first one too. My dad got an old computer from a friend of his to do work on and it had U6, Eye of the Beholder and Bard's Tale II on it. Good times.

MasterLich said:

In chronological order:
1983 - Mattel Intellivision: Treasure of Tarmin
...

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That's 24 years now :-o

Kings Bounty, if it can be called an RPG. If not, then it was Might & Magic 6; I used to be a strategy/adventure gamer before that.

I might've played some RPGs before that, but MM6 is what really got me hooked on the genre.

Maylander said:

If not, then it was Might & Magic 6; I used to be a strategy/adventure gamer before that.

I might've played some RPGs before that, but MM6 is what really got me hooked on the genre.

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Moria and Ultima on a friend's Apple II was first, but my path was pretty much the same as yours.

hmm... Im not sure, EoB1 or UltimaVI.

good old times...

I was recently messing with an Amiga emulator which brought back the memories. My first RPG - difficult to remember exactly which one it was. Ultima V? Eye of the Beholder 1? Or perhaps Shadowlands. Still it was clear that the games producers were starting to move away from the Amiga (mine was 500 Plus followed by the A1200) and the type of RPGs I liked were headed towards the PC. I followed the software.

Played a PC copy of the EoB recently - despite the graphics & movement system it was still engrossing.

SleepingDog said:

Played a PC copy of the EoB recently - despite the graphics & movement system it was still engrossing.

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I have the game, but can't get it to work at all, not even with a Dos simulator I would love to play it, it sounds great. Unfortunately it won't let me save, says it needs CD6 (or something) inserted, but I only have 1 CD...

Wow! I'm not sure I remember. The first computer game was Collosal Caves I think. It wasn't a crpg though, just an adventure game. I then got hooked on Zork, when it came out. I messed with Rogue for a while and then I got a Vic20 and then a C64. I think the first crpg I played might have been Wizard's Crown or Phantasie or the first Apshai game. I think I was on adventure games til about 1980, when Zork came out. I didn't have an Apple II, so I played on my buddies machine. I knew I was a crpg'er for life after Ultima IV. I had played earlier games but becoming the Avatar changed me.

There is a very good EoB mod for NWN, which uses the original maps etc. Our online group played it a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. From memory, it was created by 'Dark'!!

The original Eye of the Beholder series can be found on misc "abandonware" websites as a preinstalled zip file. The sequel, Legend of Darkmoon, is one of the better RPG's made in the early 90'ies, making even EoB1 look like a generic dungeonhack. EoB2 was one of the first RPG's to actually tell, visually, a storyline while you were progressing further and further into the game. I might even say that EoB2 is one of the better RPG's until Baldurs Gate arrived, several years later.

We started to build a NWN module on EoB2 and was about 65% complete when the news of NWN2 came along. We decided to put the project on hold until then. For the NWN2 project Dark also signed up on our team. With NWN2 in hand however, some insisted we wait on an expansion in hope for more monster models before we start working. We lacked around 5-10 monsters in NWN1 and now we lack 10-15 in NWN2, including the most difficult ones to model.

Danicek said:

That's 24 years now :-o

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I must say that writing "1983" put me into thinking how old I actually am! Also surprised about the fact that you can still find some information and even a manual of the game by googling.

I played Tof T on the Intellivision too, plus the other DnD game produced for it, but they weren't really CRPG's!! They were fun and a) I still have my Intellivision, and b) I still have both those games!!

Jemmy, I'm REALLY interested in this EoB2 project for NWN2. Loved the original. When you're ready for testers, give our group a yell, and we'll be happy to put it through its paces for you!! I've done a lot of beta testing for several developers in the last few years. Dark asked me to test his mod, but at the time I couldn't!!

My first true RPG for computer was Bards Tale. We had played pnp for some years before and realizing you could do it on a 'puter. WoW! The Computer we tried it on was an apple and soon after i got it to my 286 with hercules graphic. The downside was that EVERYTIME you would venture down the sewer the game crashed. It didn't worked well with the simcga command. I later on bought me a EGA card, i must have been 15-16 years old at the time when i finally could play it.

In 16 color. ( Not the boing 4 color that cga offered. (loosers! )).

In the time awaiting this to happened i found myself be blown away with elite (my second love is spacegames). After the experience with Bardstale 1 it was 2 and i got bored when number 3 arrived. At that time i wanted something different. I found Might and magic when they entered in to the 4th in the series and before that i think i played through EOB.

I like the exploration part in the game, the thrill, to learn whats next.

Anyway, it was with great satisfaction I could continue with my childhood RPGs into my adult life and still enjoy it! Much easier finding a great RPG at my age than a GameMaster willing to succumb to hours of vivid imagination!

Corwin said:

Jemmy, I'm REALLY interested in this EoB2 project for NWN2. Loved the original. When you're ready for testers, give our group a yell, and we'll be happy to put it through its paces for you!! I've done a lot of beta testing for several developers in the last few years. Dark asked me to test his mod, but at the time I couldn't!!

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The website is http://www.eob2.com. That website is severly outdated now though. When I started on the EoB2 module I took a different approach than Dark did with the EoB1 remake. The goal was to strengthen the story with better looking environments, fleshed out companions etc, but keeping the story intact and the same level range as the original (giving room for the 3rd game later).

If I remember correctly, it was in 1983 when I played a game called Dungeon on the Commodore Vic 20.

A text adventure game.

My first was either Pool of Radiance on the C64, or Wizardry I on the NES. I cannot remember which one it was, but I believe it would have been 1988.

I did play Adventure and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" on the Atari 2600 years before that, but I never considered those to be RPGs.