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What game introduced you to the genre?

G Ziets

Digimancy Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
66
Location
Columbus, OH
My experience was very similar to JasonNH, but for my first RPG, I’d have to give credit to a game called Dragonstomper on the Atari 2600.

The player took the role of a dragon hunter, and the game played out in three parts, Part 1 was a wilderness adventure in which you gathered gold and equipment to improve your combat abilities. In order to leave the wilderness, you had to get past a powerful guard at the village gate, and there were multiple ways to do it... but it was up to you to decide when you were ready to move on. Part 2 was the village – a peaceful interlude in which you used your assembled wealth to purchase weapons, armor, and potions - and hire companions - to face the dragon. You had to make strategic decisions about what you’d take with you, as you’d never have enough money to buy everything. Part 3 was the harrowing assault on the dragon’s lair.

I must have put hundreds of hours into that game. Highly underrated, and it was my first real exposure to the genre.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,759
Neat cover, too:

45405_front.jpg


45405_back.jpg


gfs_37655_2_1_mid.jpg
 

Haplo

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
6,138
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I believe that was Ishar II Messangers of Doom in my case.

Afterwards long nothing. Came back with the likes of M&M World of Xeen and Betrayal at Krondor. Than I played Fallout 1, Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment. Was hooked since then. There was also Lands of Lore 2 and TES 2: Buggerfail.
 
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Humanophage

Arcane
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
5,032
Depends on the definition of 'introduced'.

The first CRPG I actually tried was Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession in 1995 or so. It was on a pirated collection, and hence incredibly buggy and prone to crashes. I liked party generation, but didn't really play the game. Moreover, my English was insufficient to understand much.

I liked reading about RPGs in thick gaming magazines, especially looking at assorted tables for races and classes. I also read solutions to games like Lands of Lore or Diablo, as well as many reviews. I did not, however, play the games. At the time, I mostly preferred adventure games or strategies such as Sam & Max Hit the Road, Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth, Alone in the Dark, Warlords II, or Civilization I. Frankly, I think I had an exquisite taste for someone in their early teens, and I only liked silly racing games and FPS in my first year (and they made my head hurt anyway). In fact, the main racing game I liked wasn't too bad (IndyCar Racing), and the FPS I played the most was Descent, which also is not as braindead as the genre generally is.

The first RPG I truly enjoyed was Baldur's Gate I. I was pretty hyped after reading a long preview of it in a magazine in mid-1998, and I was thoroughly satisfied by it. The second was Might & Magic VI, which I initially disliked, but then changed my opinion. Generally, 1999-2000 were transformative in terms of my tastes, and I played an onslaught of good games like Fallout 2, P:T (for which I was very hyped after reading a lot about the setting), HoMM3, Age of Wonders, and a few other less important ones. My interest in tabletop games also grew (I got my first rulebook at that time and started playing M:tG in 1999).
 

hivemind

Guest
actually I guess technically the first RPG I played was a Czech port of a Russian game called Golden Land where you like had to pass through this hidden mountain path to another land and stop the great evil

goldenland_cz.jpg

it was gifted to me on a cd by my very first friend in elementary school soon after I got my first computer :love:

then I didn't play any singleplayer stuff at all for years as me and all my friends got hooked into WoW
 

Grumpy Grognard

Inn Between Worlds
Developer
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
103
Location
Grizzled Gnoll's Gorge
Same here, on 5.25", unforgettable.

I had the C64 version, which came out in the UK a couple of years after it was released in American, and in a pretty poor plastic box. But it still had the cloth map and wonderful booklets, although maybe not as expensively printed as the US version. I still think the C64 version is best because of the music. The disk swapping was a bit of a pain, but the sluggishness as the 6510 processor reached meltdown temperatures made me feel as though my party was really working hard to cross hills and forests. The PC and Amiga versions never had the same sense of struggle. The Amiga version was a frankly piss-poor port as well.

: oldfag:

Apple IIe myself. There was sluggishness when casting spells etc, which I thought was intentionally dramatic.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,287
Hahaha! I still remember the casting.

First you cast the spell.
Pause half-a-second.
Sound of casting.
Screen lights up.
Pause half-second.
Effect occurs.

But the worst was the 3 cycles at the shrines. You can go to the kitchen, fix a sandwich, eat the sandwich, get a drink, come back, and the idiot would still be meditating (OK, maybe I exaggerate... a little). Om!
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,287
To me, THIS was Hero's Quest:

227899-hero-s-quest-so-you-want-to-be-a-hero-dos-front-cover.jpg


I still remember the manual: "It is recommended you go into battle armed, or you will be dis-armed rapidly."
 

Bigg Boss

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
7,528
The first RPG I played is hard to remember since I was so young, but I do know I tried Final Fantasy for the NES at a very young age. It was a rental. Says here it came out in 1987 so that fits the timeframe I would have played it before I knew how to read. My mom read the stuff off for me at that age, but I didn't get far. First RPG's I was able to actually progress in came later which was Shadowrun, Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, and the big daddy Fallout popped my CRPG cherry.

I saw the ads for Hero Quest as a kid but my aunt did not find it for me. Shame. It would have been so cool to me as a kid. Still is.
 

Paul_cz

Arcane
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Messages
1,996
Fallout 1. I only played the popamole Diablo before it, loved it, but then friend from school (was 10 at the time) gave me pirated Fallout in 1998 and I never looked back. Waiting for Fallout 2 was excruciating.
 

Sizzle

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
2,471
1997, my father bribed me with several games in order to break the news that my mom was pregnant again.

Most were crap, but one of them was Realms of Arkania - Shadows Over Riva. Before that I was mostly into adventure games, platformers, etc. I started playing it, without really comprehending much about the system, what the game was about (I played it with a dictionary in front of me, it was the first time I encountered words such as "avarice", and had no idea what they meant), but soon got into the hang of things. I loved it - the character building, the weapons, the magic, the quests that required thinking about how to solve them.

After that I got really interested in the genre, sought out other games such as Might & Magic VI, and never looked back. It was, is, and will likely always remain my absolute favorite genre.
 

Nerevar

N'wah
Patron
Repressed Homosexual
Joined
Jul 10, 2017
Messages
1,128
Location
Balmora
Make the Codex Great Again! Pathfinder: Wrath
First RPG I played I cannot remember the name It was an old Windows/dos one where you started off naked topdown 2d. I remember being killed by someone called mojo or jojo many times.

Pokemon Red on Gameboy was my first RPG I fully remember though.
 

JasonNH

Augur
Joined
Jun 10, 2009
Messages
277
Probably Temple of Apshai on TRS-80.

Oh, yes. This game was second only to Forbidden Forest on the C64 where the ambient soundtrack created an immediate tension that left a lasting impression.
 
Self-Ejected

c2007

Self-Ejected
Joined
May 24, 2017
Messages
1,091
Location
404
Ultima ][.

It was fun, and a real pain in the ass. Space travel was a bit borked, and I didn't know that at the time. 3-6 were less broken, and great games. Had to get Akallabeth and Ultima I at some point, to complete the early circle.

Still have never played 7, though I have it sitting there waiting.
 

Shin

Cipher
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
677
Technically it is the original rogue. It was on grandpa's computer (think it was a XT) together with prince of persia and simcity. On the computer @ home it's probably... Daggerfall. It's one of the reasons I still have a tiny place in my heart for the TES series. Even after Oblivion.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,930
it was not exactly an rpg or a computer game but after play that game i started to be interested on rpgs.

What game?

Hero quest.

pic1006545.jpg
I had this and warhammer one, the warhammer version was so visually appealing I even convinced my wife to play and then she liked it enough she ended up playing and finishing Icewind Dale and getting her sister into it as well.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,230
Drakkhen. Not a great introduction to the genre, but it was still weird and wonderful in its own way.

Edit: Hero Quest posted above was probably my first RPG if we're counting that.
 

Decado

Old time handsome face wrecker
Patron
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
2,544
Location
San Diego
Codex 2014
The Bard's Tale on an IBM XT with CGA (4-color) graphics

Bard%27s_Tale_Box_Cover.jpg

hqdefault.jpg

Bard%27s_Tale_for_Apple_IIGS_screenshot.png

Picture1.gif

There is something cool about that era of PC game art. So fucking brutal. The Sierra games (think QFG1 and 2) were also really kick ass at this.
 

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