What was your first RPG?

[ZedClampet]

Mine was Wizardry. My friends and I had just gotten into D&D, and I was absolutely spellbound by Wizardry, even as simple as it was. Having a computer for a dungeon master seemed too good to be true. I think this game was only available in the US and Japan, but I'm sure that with the move to digital that you could get it anywhere.

After a few Wizardry games, the next one I played was Bard's Tale. I remember it as being difficult, and it's where I started grinding for levels, going into a dungeon, fighting the first fight, and then leaving the dungeon and doing it again, over and over. I thought I was a genius.

Most of the computer games I played for my first 20 plus years of gaming were RPG's.

So what was your first RPG?

 

[Frindis]

The first one I can vaguely remember was a game on Amiga called Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. I played it at a friends house and I think he was trying to scare me with the game because the only thing I can remember is some horrifying face of a lady that pops out of a door you open and kills you.

 

[Ryzengang]

I'm honestly not totally sure. If we count MMORPGs, then I'd imagine it would be RuneScape. During my younger days of gaming I mostly played multiplayer shooters like Halo and CoD, but I've played RuneScape on and off since about 2006. During my late teens-early 20's I didn't game a massive amount. I really didn't get super into gaming until I got a PC like 4 years ago or so.

 

[Colif]

Mine was Wizardry. My friends and I had just gotten into D&D, and I was absolutely spellbound by Wizardry, even as simple as it was. Having a computer for a dungeon master seemed too good to be true. I think this game was only available in the US and Japan, but I'm sure that with the move to digital that you could get it anywhere.

which version?
I played Wizardry 1 & Wizardry 2: Knights of Diamonds on an Apple iie in 1982ish
So I guess those were my first RPG too.

I remember KOD, not sure about number 1. they all look the same on Apple but different on consoles

no ingame map, only way you could track progress was graph paper.
from memory, last levels map was the initials of the programmer.

I have looked at series since but its stayed clunky and didn't adjust to newer games.

 

[ZedClampet]

which version?

Whichever was the first one that launched on Apple. It's been way too long for me to remember details I didn't even know they had console versions.

 

[Colif]

it was a hard game, no tutorial screens here people. You can die real fast.

no internet to see tips, expect its a little easier now if you follow a guide.

its 40 years ago, I can't say I remember it all that well myself

 

[ZedClampet]

it was a hard game, no tutorial screens here people. You can die real fast.

no internet to see tips, expect its a little easier now if you follow a guide.

its 40 years ago, I can't say I remember it all that well myself

I probably didn't notice the difficulty that much because my D&D dungeon master was brutal. First game we ever played lasted less than 5 minutes.

 

[SleepingDog]

Like most people here I am struggling to be sure which game it was. Shadowlands was a 4 party squad, came out in 1992. I remember that it was a dungeon crawler with puzzles like you had to use different members to step on pressure plates to open doors. Torches were important. Can't remember much more. An alternative could of been "Abandoned Places: A Time For Heroes" - again released in 1992. Had some non-dungeon areas and felt more like the RPGs that were out at the time - more rules etc but can't be sure (it was 30 years ago!)

Always found Wizardry too complex by the time I got around to it but that was probably 7 or 8. Had a copy of Elvira 2 - always felt that it was more adventure with RPG bits though Elvira 1 might not of been the same.

With no internet getting stuck often meant game over though some of the bigger boys also sold solution/ guide books.

 

[Colif]

we never seriously played AD&D, i also remember playing Traveller - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller_(role-playing_game)
I had Wizardry 8 as well. Didn't get very far.

I know we got a fair way into Wizardry but i can't be sure. It was a grind.

 

[Zloth]

Wizardry 8 was pretty good! I didn't quite make it all the way through, though. All the poison in the swamps annoyed me to the point of quitting, I think. I tried replaying it and got as far as the city, but the graphics are sooooo old now.

I played Temple of Apshai a little on my friend's Atari 400 but only just a little. I played Ultima 2 all the way to the end but, I think if you look at the game now, I'm not sure it would even be called an RPG. There's not much for quests or skill advancement.

Actually, I may have played the Eamon Adventures before U2. Those were all-text adventures, similar to Zork, but your character persisted from game to game, with stats and equipment gained in the adventure. The adventures themselves were public domain. (Wiki entry)

 

[redmark_]

Mine was Wizardry. My friends and I had just gotten into D&D, and I was absolutely spellbound by Wizardry, even as simple as it was. Having a computer for a dungeon master seemed too good to be true. I think this game was only available in the US and Japan, but I'm sure that with the move to digital that you could get it anywhere.

After a few Wizardry games, the next one I played was Bard's Tale. I remember it as being difficult, and it's where I started grinding for levels, going into a dungeon, fighting the first fight, and then leaving the dungeon and doing it again, over and over. I thought I was a genius.

Most of the computer games I played for my first 20 plus years of gaming were RPG's.

So what was your first RPG?

My First ever MMORPG was RAGNAROK ONLINE. It started around 2006 here in the Philippines, I remember those old times that I have to rent a PC at internet cafe just to play it..

 

[Pifanjr]

Crusaders of Might and Magic is probably the first one I played. I couldn't understand English yet though, so I had no idea what was going on story wise. And I wasn't very good at the rest of the game either. I remember using cheats just so I could play around with all of the spells and didn't have to worry about dying all the time. I never got to the end, as I got bored of all the running around you had to do.

 

[ZedClampet]

Crusaders of Might and Magic is probably the first one I played. I couldn't understand English yet though, so I had no idea what was going on story wise. And I wasn't very good at the rest of the game either. I remember using cheats just so I could play around with all of the spells and didn't have to worry about dying all the time. I never got to the end, as I got bored of all the running around you had to do.

Never heard of that one. I never followed game news back in the day. I just went to the store occasionally to see what games were available. I played a lot of the mainline Might and Magic games, up until I think 8. Don't think I would have played this because it wasn't turn-based. I pretty much only played turn-based, party-based games.

 

[mainer]

The very first one that I can remember was the Ultima IV-VI trilogy (yeah, I know that's technically 3 games, so !V would be the very first):

But those were the games that really hooked me into the RPG genre. And, hey, the trilogy had cloth maps for each game! I've always been a sucker for cloth maps, you just don't see things like that anymore unless and occasional collector's edition has them.

I played the rest of the Ultima series as they came out, until EA killed off the single player games, ending with the heavily criticized Ultima 9. The Might & Magic series through #9 (though it was terribly broken in parts), the last 3 Wizardry games (especially Wizardry 8), the Realms of Arkania series, and the Ultima Underworld games. Those are what come to mind off the top of my head, but that Ultima trilogy was the break through set of games for me.

 

[SleepingDog]

Like Mainer Ultima had a serious impact on my gaming (hardware) decisions. I was happily playing all sorts of games and genres on my Amiga 500P and later the Amiga 1200 when I happen up on the Ultima series. This is early 1990s. Played Ultima 6 and thought omg this is excellent. Went looking for U7 but it was not available on the Amiga. After much cursing I knew I had to move to PC gaming which I did.

Glad I did, picked up U7, U8, UW1 & UW2. U9 came later which was disappointing (but it may of been my hardware wasn't good enough or too many bugs in U9). I also realised that I had a strong preference for RPGs.

 

[mainer]

@SleepingDog - Absolutely. The Ultima games set my path for how I viewed PC games & gaming. U9 was so buggy, unoptimized, and poorly play tested when it released that I don't think it ran on any hardware very well. That's the only one that I just gave up on and didn't complete.

 

[ZedClampet]

@SleepingDog - Absolutely. The Ultima games set my path for how I viewed PC games & gaming. U9 was so buggy, unoptimized, and poorly play tested when it released that I don't think it ran on any hardware very well. That's the only one that I just gave up on and didn't complete.

I was a weirdo (as usual) and didn't play the Ultima games because I wanted the first person perspective like in Wizardry, Bard's Tale and Might and Magic. I did watch my college roommate play one of the Ultima games (the primitive solution to streaming--sitting next to them), which may have been called Quest of the Avatar or something like that.

I finally started playing isometric cRPG's in the 90's since that was about all there were anymore other than Might and Magic.

 

[Zloth]

Eh? Ultima 2 had first person perspective when you went into a dungeon.

View: https://youtu.be/ts-zYdjDyAI?t=17685


P.S. All (?) the Final Fantasy games have a spell called Ultima as an homage to the Ultima games. Here's a few (but you might want to turn down the sound)

View: https://youtu.be/0k3dBySNaYE

 

[ZedClampet]

Eh? Ultima 2 had first person perspective when you went into a dungeon.

I wanted it all the time, not just in dungeons. Please follow the instructions in the below video, then go talk some sense into me. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Summer of 1986. I'll be on the 9th floor of North Carrick. Room 903. There will be beer there, so be sure to ask for one. Oh, two people live there. If a black guy answers the door, that's not me. Ask for Joe, not Zed. Also, if a girl answers the door, slap her and run. She deserves it later.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caDTre23eyE

 

[Zloth]

Slap Joe's beer and run off with the girl. Got it!

 

[Sarafan]

It was around... 25 years ago! Damn, I'm getting old. The lucky game was Stonekeep and I didn't fall in love with it. My love to the genre began a few years later thanks to the first two Fallout games.

 

[mainer]

he lucky game was Stonekeep and I didn't fall in love with it. My love to the genre began a few years later thanks to the first two Fallout games.

I remember playing Stonekeep from Interplay when it came out, but not loving it either, as I thought I would when it was announced. The one thing I remember the most is the weird shaped box it came in, and it had a hardcover novella (well, more of a short story really) called Thera Awakening, which gave some backstory to the game
.

Fallouts 1 & 2 were definitely better RPG games, also from Interplay.

Stonekeep also has a Steam Store page which surprised me, I didn't think that game was even available anymore.

Stonekeep on Steam

Reader's Choice Role-Playing Game Of the Year in 1996 (Computer Gaming World)Journey through many fantasy locations like Fairy Land or a goblin-infested castleCreated by Christopher Taylor, one of the designers of Fallout and Fallout 2

store.steampowered.com

 

[Sarafan]

I remember playing Stonekeep from Interplay when it came out, but not loving it either, as I thought I would when it was announced. The one thing I remember the most is the weird shaped box it came in, and it had a hardcover novella (well, more of a short story really) called Thera Awakening, which gave some backstory to the game
.

Fallouts 1 & 2 were definitely better RPG games, also from Interplay.

Stonekeep also has a Steam Store page which surprised me, I didn't think that game was even available anymore.

Stonekeep on Steam

Reader's Choice Role-Playing Game Of the Year in 1996 (Computer Gaming World)Journey through many fantasy locations like Fairy Land or a goblin-infested castleCreated by Christopher Taylor, one of the designers of Fallout and Fallout 2

store.steampowered.com

Wow! Don't tell me you own the thing from the photo! And yep! Stonekeep is available on both Steam and GOG.

 

[mainer]

@Sarafan - I do, I just took a shot of it yesterday morning. Before the age of digital distribution, it was really the only way to get a PC game. I'm a kind of pack-rat, so I've kept most of those games that I bought & played over the years, going back to the early 1980s. They're something that is rarely made anymore, outside of an occasional physical collector's edition of a game. While digital games are really the only way to install a game nowadays, but I do miss having real game manuals, the occasional cloth map, or oddities like that hardcover book in Stonekeep.

 

[ZedClampet]

You all mentioned Fallout 1 and 2, and those were my first RPG's that weren't in the fantasy genre. I didn't pay attention to gaming news and had never heard of them. I was at work and told a co-worker that I couldn't find anything to play, and he asked me what I liked and told me I could get these two games in the $9.99 bin just about anywhere.

I'll never forget stepping out of the vault and fighting those rats in the cave. My guy couldn't shoot worth a darn. But I was used to the old school cRPG's, and I explored every inch of that cave. It was small, but I think I must have fought four different rat battles. Loved those games, though. Wish they would be remade and kept as top-down, turn-based RPG's.