The Classic PC Gaming Era (1977-1989) - Enjoying PC Role-Playing Games Today
Need some PC RPGs games to play? I've built a list of all of the notables as well as those you definitely ought to consider once you've played the ones I'll be featuring.
Do you enjoy keeping graph paper near your PC so you can obsessively map out every twist and turn of a dungeon? Even if you do, you still first might want to try a more modern experience like the Nintendo DS series Etrian Odyssey or Persona Q before delving into the likes of the classic Wizardry or Ultima games, as you’ll soon discover that taking detailed notes and keeping written logs is not optional if you intend to play all the way through them.
The games we are going to cover this time around run from 1980-1989; we’ll save the 1990s CRPGs for a future volume. We’re also going to leave out the foundational Japanese games that were not officially released in English on the PC (sorry, Dragon Slayer and The Black Onyx!).
The games we’re not going to cover, unsurprisingly, are the following notable or essential titles:
The Dunjonquest games, the Temple of Apshai series and Gateway to Apshai (1979-1983) – The series that popularized the action RPG. While these games are a bit dated today, they’re still regarded as classics because they were so easy to pick up and play.
Wizardry I – V (1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988) – One of the most influential series in all of gaming with one of the most enduring names and logos of any series in gaming history. Create a party, venture into a maze-like dungeon, battle monsters and solve puzzles, but plan to break out the graph paper and take lots of notes. The first three and part five are all pretty much the same; the fourth game (by far the hardest in the series) flips the script by having you play as the first game’s villain as he rises back to power.
Akalabeth: World of Doom and Ultima I-V (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988) – Richard “Lord British” Garriott’s highly influential series of dungeon crawlers popularized the top-down overworld view and included 3D dungeons similar to those in Wizardry. All of the Ultima games were popular, but Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is the breakout game in the series due to its focus on morality rather than monster slaying; it’s perhaps one of the most important and influential RPGs ever made.
Telengard (1982) – A graphical dungeon-crawler based on Daniel Lawrence’s 1976 mainframe game DND, featuring real-time adventuring with a solo character. It’s primitive and basic by today’s standards, but it was every bit the equal of Temple of Apshai in its day and was highly influential upon the CRPGs that followed it.
The Bard’s Tale Trilogy (1985, 1986, 1988) – The first game was a breakout hit that included a memorable 3D overworld setting of Skara Brae and several novel mechanics, including having a bard in your party. The second game is a step down in terms of setting and quality, but the third returns the party to the ruined city of Skara Brae and provides a decent (if unintended) conclusion to the series. Interplay followed this series up with 1989’s Dragon Wars, an underrated game (and unofficial part IV to the series) that few people played. The original series concluded with 1991’s The Bard’s Tale Construction Set and sat largely dormant (aside from one very different 2004 comedic action RPG) until 2018.
Might and Magic I-II (1986, 1988) – Two humongous fantasy CRPGs that pushed the boundaries of what the genre could do in the late 1980s with huge crossover appeal to both Ultima and Wizardry fans. If you enjoy exploration and discovery, these games are fantastic, and their non-linear approach puts a lot of the shape of the adventure in your hands. Just be warned: They’re challenging games until you grind your way up the level progression, and even at low levels, the games involve significant amounts of combat.
Dungeon Master (1987) – A huge evolutionary step for the CRPG genre that translated the dungeon crawling experience into a highly playable and then-stunning graphical action RPG first person interface with 3D dungeons and real-time combat. Atari ST owners got it first, and it was a game to be envious of until it finally made its way to other 16-bit PCs.
Ys: The Vanished Omens (1987) – The foundation of an epic and highly accessible action RPG series from Nihon Falcom detailing the adventures of red-headed swordsman Adol Christin as he searches for the secret of a forgotten mythical realm called Ys. While this series has primarily been available in the West through its console ports, it started out on the PC in Japan and was ported faithfully to MS-DOS and the Apple IIGS for North American audiences in 1989.
Dragonlance: Heroes of the Lance and Dragons of Flame (1988, 1989) – Sometimes known as the first two “Silver Box” games, SSI’s first attempt to translate the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons license to RPG gaming without utilizing the ruleset and focusing on the then-popular Dragonlance setting. They were popular in their day, but aren’t great to play now. The later “Gold Box” Dragonlance games were far better.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds (1988, 1989) – It took until the late 1980s for AD&D to make its official debut the PC, and the result was groundbreaking for the time, combining first person adventuring with tactical combat while staying true to the paper and pencil game’s ruleset. These games created a template for many CRPGs to come and are still highly regarded as classics.
Wasteland (1988) – Interplay’s precursor to the Fallout series that defined the post-apocalyptic setting for CRPGs. It’s a vast game with many memorable moments, but it also has a fairly unique skill system that allows characters to interact with the world in interesting ways.
While the above list includes a number of well-known titles that most CRPG fans would point out as foundational, the unfortunate truth about the CRPG genre is that most of these games are not terribly fun to go back and play, especially when you could instead be playing far more accessible titles from the 1990s and 2000s like Baldur’s Gate, Fallout or Neverwinter Nights. Most of these classic CRPGs are extremely difficult and feature brutal mechanics with no handholding whatsoever. The graphics are often unimpressive and tend to reflect a mishmash of art styles that don’t go well together. Most are also combat-focused and don’t have very engaging plots, particularly since the focus of the genre was to allow players to create and roleplay their own parties rather than to play as established characters with a predetermined story.
For those reasons, it’s actually hard to recommend many of the above games since so many of their best features have been done so much better by more modern titles. Even Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, which is certainly one of the most important PC games ever made, is difficult to enjoy today because it lacks so many of the comfort systems modern RPGs incorporate (though I will say it is worth the trouble if you are willing to make the effort!).
Games I’ll Feature in the Book
I’ve spotlighted quite a few RPGs already, but a few titles I’ll additionally feature in the book edition of The Greatest Games You’ve (Probably) Never Played Vol. 1 include:
Gemstone Warrior and Gemstone Healer (1984 and 1986) - An action RPG series from Paradigm Creations and SSI that’s similar to both Diablo and Gauntlet, albeit with far less sophisticated graphics and gameplay. Gemstone Warrior was far more popular and even has a great version on the Macintosh; Gemstone Healer is more obscure and is best-played on the Apple II or Commodore 64.
Starflight and Starflight II: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula (1986 and 1989) - These are the CRPGs I first cut my teeth on as a gamer, and I would be remiss not to include them in this series. I thought both were pretty popular, but the failed attempt on the part of creator Greg Johnson to launch an official Starflight III through crowdfunding platform Fig in 2018 made me realize this series deserves far more exposure. Starflight is an amazing game you need to experience, and you ought to be begging for a modern update. The original is a PC classic that’s actually best on the Sega Genesis (which updates the combat to be more like Star Control), but the sequel is probably best on the Amiga.
Phantasie III: The Wrath of Nikademus (1987) - SSI’s trilogy of Phantasie RPGs is decent and quite playable, but you can honestly skip the first two and just enjoy the third one since it resurrects the original’s villain and streamlines the gameplay. With your party of six characters (including some wonderfully odd choices thanks to the inclusion of monsters), you delve into dungeons in the land of Scandor and let the computer do the mapping for you.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Hillsfar (1989) - Between Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds came this collection of arcadey minigames created by Westwood Associates. It’s a polarizing game that some fans list as one of the worst SSI AD&D titles ever made (thanks in no small part to its crummy NES port), but it is honestly quite a lot of fun if you give it a chance. It’s also one of the few AD&D games to lack a combat mode, focusing instead on a stealthy minigame where you evade guards while you steal from mansions.
Games You Might Want To Try
The CRPG genre was quite popular in the 1980s, and in addition to the titles above, there were many excellent games released throughout the decade that are worth checking out if you’re interested:
The Wonderful World of Eamon (1979) – An RPG adventure game that plays like a cross between Zork and dnd, but which has a huge library of over 270 official adventures thanks to an active community and modding tools provided by the original author, Donald Brown.
ICON: Quest for the RING (1984) – A unique action adventure RPG based on the Ring of the Nibelungen saga that did some impressive things with limited CGA graphics of the day on IBM Compatible systems. The 1987 follow-up based on Egyptian mythology, Seven Spirits of Ra, is profiled in this section. Both are DOS exclusive.
Alternate Reality: The City and Alternate Reality: The Dungeon (1985, 1987) – An interesting RPG series where you are transported into an alien world and forced to find a way to survive. Both games utilize a 3D raycasting engine which was fairly cutting-edge for the time. The first game is largely about exploring the city of Xebec in an open-world fashion with a loose goal in mind and no real plot. The second game takes your character into a multi-level dungeon and includes a more linear story. Several more sequels were planned, but never happened. It’s a shame, because the series had great promise.
Bronze Dragon: Conquest of Infinity (1985) – An Apple II CRPG that was written for a hardcore audience, and it shows – like Eamon, everything’s written out in text with no graphics whatsoever. But don’t dismiss this game without trying it; it’s massive, well-written and is extremely easy to set up and play, combining some of the best elements from several popular 1980s CRPGs. It even has a local multiplayer mode.
Swords & Sorcery (1985) – A ZX Spectrum dungeon crawler from the UK that’s sort of like a cross between Wizardry and The Bard’s Tale. If you love old-school CRPGs with complex menus, this will definitely keep you busy.
AutoDuel (1986) – An action RPG centered around driving in a post-apocalyptic future that’s notable for its open-ended structure and top-down driving gameplay. It’s a loose adaptation of the Steve Jackson Games board game Car Wars.
Wizard’s Crown and The Eternal Dagger (1986 and 1987) – A series by Paul Murray that feels like the missing link between the Ultima games and the Gold Box AD&D games. The deep tactical combat is a big draw, but the game is old school to a fault. Best on the Commodore 64.
Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set (1987) – The ancient ancestor of today’s RPG Maker series that allows gamers to create Ultima-style RPGs from a top-down perspective with a variety of themes and tilesets. The included Rivers of Light game and seven mini-adventures are decent as well.
Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic (1988) – An interesting space-themed RPG with good writing, repetitive gameplay and artwork so obviously sourced from popular films and TV shows it borders on copyright infringement. It’s worthwhile, but your interest may wane as you hit the tedious midgame.
Battletech: The Crescent Hawks’ Inception (1988) – A brief but fun entry into the Battletech universe from Westwood Associates that’s mainly held back by its lack of battlemechs (only a few light mechs are included) and single planet setting. Just when you feel like things are finally getting interesting, the game ends with a huge tease as you stumble upon the transforming Phoenix Hawk LAM, which was modeled off the Macross anime Valkyrie fighter designs. The 1990 sequel continues the story and expands your mech options considerably (sadly minus the Phoenix Hawk LAM), but it’s a real-time strategy game with no RPG mechanics.
Mars Saga (1988) – Another neat science fiction tactical CRPG from Westwood Associates. Unfortunately, it gets tedious midway through and never recovers, so I recommend it more as a title to check out than to play through.
Blooodwych (1989) – A Dungeon Master-style game from Mirrorsoft with a 2-player splitscreen mode. It’s a neat game brimming with innovative ideas, but few of them feel fully-formed.
The Dark Heart of Uukrul (1989) – A great hardcore fantasy CRPG for those who really enjoy the genre. It’s notable for squeezing in so much RPG gameplay that the developers decided to leave out music and sound effects. Genre fans often consider this one a highly overlooked gem, but I would suggest it has limited appeal to most gamers today.
Don’t Go Alone (1989) – While it’s essentially a modern-day horror reskin of dungeon crawler games, it’s competently made and at least different enough to be interesting, sort of like Dungeon Master meets Alone in the Dark. Published by Accolade and developed by Sterling Silver Software, who mostly developed golf games after this. Only available on MS-DOS.
Dragon Wars (1989) – Interplay’s follow-up to The Bard’s Tale trilogy in much the same style, but with a bit of Wasteland’s mechanics added in. It’s a high-quality game with a lot to offer the hardcore CRPG fan, including a great game world, non-linear progression, a nice character generation system and decent quests. Genre fans consider it one of the most underrated of gems, while Bard’s Tale fans have long considered it the unofficial fourth entry in the classic run of the series.
Drakkhen (1989) – A French RPG with a distinctive visual style, a fun island to explore and some excellent monster art. It’s a shame the combat system is awful and character creation can require multiple restarts to get right. The Amiga version is the standard, but the 1991 SNES port (which is different in many ways; some better, some worse) is the one people seem to remember.
Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick (1989) – The first game by popular developer Naughty Dog (after they changed their name from JAM) – you can even visit their office at one point! This first-person RPG has great graphics and a light-hearted story, though it’s not quite as humorous as its box art would suggest. It’s very accessible, but also maddeningly difficult in places.
Knights of Legend (1989) – Creator Todd Mitchell Porter spent nearly the entire decade creating a deep and complex CRPG designed to replicate the fun of a tabletop RPG. ORIGIN Systems published it, and while it looked great, it was too slow and plodding for most players. With a modern emulator to speed things up (and overcome the game’s lousy save system), it’s far more playable today, but still recommended for hardcore genre fans only.
The Magic Candle: Volume I (1989) – A huge Ultima-style hardcore CRPG that is jam-packed with things to do and see and which offers a tactical battle system similar to Pool of Radiance. Modern gamers who aren’t used to lengthy games that require extensive mapping and note-taking will find this one far too tedious, but CRPG fans will love it. Despite being obscure today, it was mildly popular in its time and received two sequels, a prequel and several spin-offs in the 1990s. (The NES game The Magic Candle by Japan Soft Technology is unrelated.)
In addition to that lengthy list, there were still many other CRPGs during the 1980s which were not part of a major series which are still worthy of a second look. Some helped establish styles of play that became popular later while others experimented with simplifying the more complex elements of the genre. Several also broke away from the fantasy trappings and took place in space or in everyday life.
It’s also important to remember that terms like “Adventure RPG” and “Action RPG” were not established genres during the 1980s, so these games might have been classified as something else at the time by publishers, critics or retailers. I’ve defined the games in this section by the standards of today moreso than the standards of the 1980s.
Because there are so many titles I could recommend, I’ve opted to include a few familiar choices as well as some more unusual selections with an eye on what a modern player unfamiliar with the genre might appreciate most. And before you hardcore CRPG fans dismiss me as being someone who clearly doesn’t like or understand the genre, please understand that I’ve prioritized featuring games that are short and easy to learn over games that are complex simply because the genre standards – Ultima, Might & Magic, Wizardry, Wasteland, The Bard’s Tale and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance – are well-established and already offer plenty for those who want a lot of depth.
As Our Series Continues…
In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about 3D games, arcade action games, wargames, grand strategy games, RPGs, sports games, gameroom games, puzzle games and so much more.
And while you’ll definitely see some titles from prominent North American publishers like Sierra On-Line, Infocom, Activision, Electronic Arts, Brøderbund, SSI, MicroProse, Lucasfilm Games, Epyx and Sir-Tech in the mix, you’ll also see references to games from the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Spain and Japan.
This series will continue to cover games written by unique personalities like Chris Crawford, Roberta Williams and Danielle Bunten Berry, by great writers like Steve Meretzky, Michael Bywater, Robert Pinsky and Brian Moriarty, and based on the work of famous authors like Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, William Gibson and Douglas Adams.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 1. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!