The Digital Antiquarian - The Gold Box, Part 2

@The Digital Antiquarian Jimmy Maher talks about why D&D was not present on the home computer despite being a sure winner.

For much of the 1980s, TSR's tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons was both a looming presence and a baffling absence in the world of computer games. In one sense, this new thing that Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson had wrought early in the previous decade was absolutely everywhere, not only in the many CRPGs that paid it obvious homage but also in many other, less obvious derivatives that owed so much to its vision of interactive storytelling: Infocom's text adventures, Sierra's graphic adventures, even Microprose's flight simulators with their career modes that let you play the role of a single pilot.

Yet strangely absent were computer-game boxes with the actual name of Dungeons & Dragons on them. A licensing deal for this, one of the most recognizable names in nerd culture, would be a surefire winner, as was clear to every executive and marketing MBA in the computer-game industry.

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Great article! Thanks for sharing!

T$R was a great lesson on how to ruin a small business. Gygax hit upon the right product at the right time, then converted it into a failure. Peter Adkison is to be commended for turning that around.

Gygax did not have the money at the time and his partners forced him out. He did make a mistake by going to Hollywood and doing the D&D cartoon show and trying to make a D&D movie. He did not know that back in Wisconsin people were plotting against him. If his original partner had not died at such a young age I think AD&D would have been very stable thru the 1980's.

I think you meant the most evil women in the history of gaming Loraine Williams or whatever here name was ruined AD&D. It was not Gygax that converted it into a failure and you are talking bad about the father of gaming.