Incline History of D&D games video by Obviousplant

[Infinitron]

Up to NWN, anyway.

***Table of Contents***
Chapter 0: Introduction
Introduction&the early history of RPGs 0:06
PLATO games 6:57

Chapter 1: Intellivision games
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Cloudy Mountain) (1982) 11:55
Treasure of Tarmin (1983) 12:56

Chapter 2: Goldbox 13:58
Pool of Radiance (1988) 15:50
The Order of the Griffon (1992) 36:09

Chapter 3: Action RPGs 37:26
Heroes of the Lance 1988&Dragons of Flame (1989) 37:46
Hillsfar (1989) 38:08
War of the Lance (1989) 39:19
DragonStrike (1990) 39:49
Shadow sorcerer (1991) 40:39

Chapter 4: Real time dungeon crawlers
Eye of the Beholder (1990) 41:50
Dungeon Hack (1993) 44:34
Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession (1994)&Stone Prophet (1994)/Menzoberranzan (1994) 45:25
Al-qadim: Genie's curse (1994) 47:16
Slayer (1994)&DeathKeep (1995) 48:06

Chapter 5: Dark Sun 49:32
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993) [ Longer review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxqcQ... ]
Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands (1996) 52:50

Chapter 6: Fighting games/beat em ups 53:21
Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft (1996)
Tower of Doom (1993)&Shadow over Mystara (1996) 53:37

Chapter 7: Strategy Games 57:38
Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace (1992) 58:00
Fantasy Empires (1993) 58:51
Stronghold (1993)&Blood & Magic (1996) 59:22
Birthright: The Gorgon's alliance (1997) 1:00:15

Chapter 8: Infinity Engine 1:02:04
Baldur's Gate (1998)&Descent to Undermountain (1997)
Baldur's Gate 2 (2000) 1:04:49
Planescape: Torment (1999) 1:25:55
Icewind Dale (2000)&Icewind Dale 2 (2002) 1:41:30

Chapter 9: Temple of Elemental Evil 1:45:53
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001)
Temple of Elemental Evil (2003) 1:46:48

Chapter 10: Knights of the Chalice 1:55:44
Knights of the Chalice (2009)

Chapter 11: Rest 2:00:11
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001)&Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 (2004)
Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes (2003)
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (2004)
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard (2005)
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (2006)
Dungeons & Dragons Tactics (2007)
Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (2011)
Dungeons & Dragons: Arena of War (2013)
Lords of Waterdeep (2014)
Sword Coast Legends (2015)

Neverwinter Nights (2002)&Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) 2:02:24

Chapter 12: Closing thoughts 2:03:20

 

[Mortmal]

Chapter 11 is like the sack of rome , or at least it gives me that feeling really, vandals taking down my beloved D&d license.

 

[Neanderthal]

Austin Grossman talkin about Tomb of Horrors being inspirational for a level in Ultima Underworld, I wonder if he means Tomb o Praecor Loth, cause i've gotta admit when trawling through it I thought it were hard as balls an like Acerarek's kip.

 

[DDZ]

BG II PERFECT GAME

 

[Mustawd]

BG II PERFECT GAME

EDIT: We all know SCL deserves that honor

 

[Infinitron]

There's some video footage of the Codex Top 70 RPG article before that. Guy's definitely a reader.

Also, he sounds like a non-autistic Chris-Chan.

 

[Jaesun]

No Advanced Dungeons And Dragons For The Intellivision?

 

[Infinitron]

Wait a minute, this is the same Youtube channel that hosted Dawnrazor's UA interview...oh, it's this guy: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...channels-on-youtube.91187/page-9#post-4414618

 

[Lyric Suite]

BG II PERFECT GAME

EDIT: We all know SCL deserves that honor

He doesn't say it is a perfect game. He says it might be the best RPG because it is good at everything, where as other games are much more uneven, even while being better at some particular aspect.

It is a decent write up, with several Codexian opinions guaranteed to piss off modern gaymers.

Unrelated to the video, but his write up of Torment reminded me just how fucking great that game was, and the fact we'll never get anything like that ever again enrages me to no end. God damn it i hate modern games so fucking much.

 

[mutonizer]

There's some video footage of the Codex Top 70 RPG article before that. Guy's definitely a reader.

Shit drew little tear to my eyes when he popped the cover of tomb of horrors...<sniffles>

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Obviousplant]

First I got re-tweeted by Matt Barton and now this?

FYI: this video is more aimed at people who are unfamiliar with D&D games and I'm relatively new to them myself, so it might piss off some seasoned veterans how superficially I cover many of the games I hadn't played prior to starting this project.

Jaesun: I've got some footage from that game on my channel. Tumblr would have a field day with it.

BG II PERFECT GAME

BG2 doesn't make my personal Top 5 (maybe even Top 10) CRPG list, I just used that MS paint scribble to demonstrate my point about BG2 feeling almost unusually well-rounded for a full blooded CRPG made in the late 90s/early 2000s, as I've noticed that most good CRPGs only get 2 out of 3 components right (story/writing, combat/gameplay, mechanics/RPG systems)

Also, he sounds like a non-autistic Chris-Chan.

That's actually not me who's talking, but I'll forward your compliments to Hadriex I'm Finnish so I've had guys like Dawnrazor and Hadriex read my scripts for me (Dawnrazor&I wrote the OtherSide interview together though). It's a bit schizophrenic when sharing anecdotes, but I think it's better than using my monotonous voice and capturing the voice over with a video camera/cellphone.

 

[Infinitron]

I can think of somebody better to read your scripts for you. You might have to pay him though.

 

[Mustawd]

BG2 doesn't make my personal Top 5 (maybe even Top 10) CRPG list

 

[Excidium II]

I can think of somebody better to read your scripts for you. You might have to pay him though.

How am I going to concentrate on the content with that voice caressing my ears?

 

[Ninjerk]

It's what I imagine getting your ear fucked is like.

 

[Alienman]

I like the guy who is doing the talking. Soft spoken, easy to listen to.

 

[Got bored and left]

I've only managed to watch a fragment so far, but I like what I saw (and heard). It's always nice to see something concentrated on the history of gaming; despite the valiant efforts of people like felipepepe , there's a lot of work to be done to cover it in detail, not to mention bringing all this knowledge to the general audience. Keep up the good work!

Loved the pronunciation of "Geralt", btw.

 

[Snorkack]

Good job obviousplant, really enjoyed the video. Too bad Neverwinter Nights 2 + mods didn't get the screentime it deserved. Other than that the coverage of the different titles were absolutely appropriate.
Plus, now I know your youtube channel, which seems to be worth visiting from time to time.

 

[karfhud]

Love the video, tremendous work!

Did you play through the entire PS:T with the widescreen mod, though...?

Edit: finished the video, seriously, you've put so much work into this, it's amazing; thank you!

 

[Obviousplant]

Thanks for the feedback.
karfhud yes I did, though I started to regret my choice of aspect ratio around the time I first entered a tiny shop I'd recommend something like 1200 for width if you use Ghostdog's mod, 1920 is too zoomed out.

I've only managed to watch a fragment so far, but I like what I saw (and heard). It's always nice to see something concentrated on the history of gaming; despite the valiant efforts of people like felipepepe , there's a lot of work to be done to cover it in detail, not to mention bringing all this knowledge to the general audience. Keep up the good work!

Loved the pronunciation of "Geralt", btw.

I actually quoted two of Felipe's articles in one of my first English videos, didn't know back then he was working on a CRPG book.
I've done a few reviews/design analysis videos with a similar emphasis on history, but nothing as extensive as this. The Looking Glass Studios retrospective is probably the most history intensive video I've done though, at least I did a lot more fact checking, reading up on interviews, old game magazines etc for it than I did for this.

 

[Got bored and left]

The Looking Glass Studios retrospective is probably the most history intensive video I've done though, at least I did a lot more fact checking, reading up on interviews, old game magazines etc for it than I did for this.

Yes, I've seen that, I'm certainly going to watch it soon. For a young guy interested in history such as myself, seeing those kind of in-depth retrospectives, post-mortems, and so on is very interesting.

And, having now watched the entire video, I'll say again - very nice work. Any plans for making some other materials of this kind in the foreseeable future?

 

[Jaesun]

I haven't seen the LGS video yet, I'll have to give that a try sometime.

 

[Mustawd]

Obviousplant,

Since you're taking feedback:

-I think breaking up your videos might make watching them a bit more palatable. I'm still going through the video, but when you move on from one obvious section, say Gold Box games, to the other, the fact that it's one long video seems a bit awkward. It's like you're just talking about one thing. And the transitions aren't very clear. A series of vids would help alleviate this problem. In addition, it helps even more if I'm only interested in looking at, say the IE games era. Or whatever. It's like the difference between a cassette tape and a CD with different tracks.

Plus, I think it helps to focus the commentary and theme of the video a bit more.

-Great examples of gameplay and showcasing pics as you talk about each game. Really helps to get into it.

-I liked the narration. But it definitely has a feel of someone reading the script you wrote. If the narrator can maybe make it his own a bit more, it might sound a bit more natural. Not change a lot fo things, but just reflect the narrator's speaking patterns. Right now it's obviously being read. Take LGR's youtube videos for instance. He reads from a script but you can tell it's how he generally talks. It might be hard to implement, but thought I'd throw it out there.

-Having the game's name in text pop up on the screen when you talk about each game would be helpful. Sometimes the gameplay doesn't quite show the game name and/or the transition to each game is quick enough for me to miss it. I'm not 100% sure if you did this, but I don't recall it.


Hope that helps. Make some more vids. I subscribed.

 

[Lhynn]

Good video, but jesus, you should have split this over 4 or even 8 parts.