"RPG Glory days" when were yours?

[moist thong]

I guess I'd have to say from '97 to around 2002 when I found Fallout, Fallout 2, and Arcanum.

Same here. I found Fallout 2 and then couldn't get enough. I had never even owned a computer until I played Fallout 2 on a friend's pc. Because of Fallout 2 I learned to build my own and proceeded to play Baldur's Gate, BG 2, Torment, Fallout, all the Icewind Dale's and Arcanum. Thanks to GoG these games are all got put back on my pc and replayed this year. Thanks to Bioware putting out a piece of shit Final Fantasy 12 clone I discovered this site. I had no idea there were so many people that loved the same games I do. I apreciate this fucking site.

 

[J_C]

I'm in a little disadventage here, because we didn't have a computer when I was little. So for me the golden age of RPGs are mid '90s to 2000. BG, IWD, PT, M&M 6-8, FO. This era is not just the golden are of RPGs, but the golden era of video games IMO. I admit that I like lots of recent games, but I have the fondest memories of the games from 1995-2000.

 

[Mister Arkham]

I got into RPGs kind of late. A friend who I was in a tabletop game with gave me a copy of Baldur's Gate as a birthday gift when the title first came out, and I spent the next couple of years devouring everything that Black Isle worked on before or since. Really, I guess it would be the space between BG1 and Throne of Bhaal that was my Golden Age, because it included things like the early Fallouts and PS:T, Arcanum and Icewind Dale...

I know that at least part of it is my own list of expectations for the genre, but nothing since that span has ever come close to captivating me in the same way. The closest I've come has been New Vegas, funnily enough.

 

[Topher]

Like many others my golden days were about '97-'02. I remember the Fallout demo that ran slow on every computer I tried to play it on but that didn't stop me from playing through it a dozen times. I'd always played games on both the console and PC (mostly Doom and PC gamer demo disks) but I really became a core PC gamer and RPG gamer with Fallout 1 and I quickly moved to the Infinity Engine games as they released. I finally played Daggerfall for the first time around '98 after seeing it in PC gamer a couple years earlier but without any way to get my hands on it and picked up Morrowind shortly after it release (my computer couldn't even run it properly for another year or so).

It was a great time for other genres as well with games like Thief, Deus Ex and System Shock. My PC wasn't very top of the line back then and that always left me out of the loop for some titles. I remember that I spent a lot of time playing adventure games like Sanitarium, Blade Runner and the Tex Murphy titles and even RTS's of every sort (C&C, KKnD, Close Combat) which is a genre I hardly even touch these days unless you count the older Total War games. Heck I even started playing tactical games after getting the full version of X-com for free on a PC gamer demo disk and I ended up playing a whole bunch of mediocre clones line Enemy Infestation.

It just seems that no matter what genre I think back to there were just an abundance of interesting titles to play and even then there was already such an amazing back-log of slightly older titles to spend time with.

 

[Jaesun]

It just seems that no matter what genre I think back to there were just an abundance of interesting titles to play and even then there was already such an amazing back-log of slightly older titles to spend time with.

I just cried. That is so fucking true.

 

[Nael]

I'd say the Winter of 1996. We had a blizzard that swept through and canceled classes at my high school for a whole week and a half leading up to Christmas Break (BIG UPS TO JESUS!). Then we had another heavy snow storm that canceled classes for about 3-4 days AFTER we were supposed to go back. So basically I had a little less than a month to do absolutely NOTHING but play Daggerfall for about 20 hours straight everyday. Holy shit, it's amazing I still have perfect eyesight today.

Those were the glory days.

 

[Dark Elf]

What I would call my glory days constitutes a fairly long period of time; say '94 to '04 or something like that. It began with JRPG's on our SNES in the mid 90's: Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger etc (was introduced to fantasy literature and PnP around the same time). I suppose that the apex of the JRPG era was when I played FFVII at its release. When PC's became available to me, we're looking at a chronological progression of BG2, Arcanum, Morrowind, NWN, ToEE, Bloodlines and curiously, Fallout and PS:T. Turned an angry old cunt for the same reason as the rest of you; later games never quite managed to hit the same chord with me.

It's a matter of expectations, I suppose. JRPG's were great at a time when I didn't know about anything else. BG2 hinted at the great potential in the RPG genre, and Arcanum simply blew me away. All the games listed, in different aspects, showed what could be done. Then something happened.

Knowing full well that a Harry Potter reference probably wouldn't be well received here, I'd say that Troika was the Horcrux of the RPG market. When they died, the soul of the genre died as well.

 

[deus101]

When did my glory days begin? TODAY!

I just got Daggerfall through daggerfall setup...and....i had no idea....

 

[Nael]

When did my glory days begin? TODAY!

I just got Daggerfall through daggerfall setup...and....i had no idea....

It was nice knowing you! See ya in a few months! :D

 

[Morkar Left]

My glory days were the early to mid nineties on the best console forever: Amiga. Amberstar was the first rpg I finished and the one I enjoyed the most. Never liked dungeon master and the likes. Realtime is pretty annoying compared to turnbased.

 

[crazy_dave]

I think it was 1999 or 2000 when I got Fallout 2, Fallout and Planescape : Torment. So it started then, before that I didn't have much interest in CRPG:s because I thought all this shit with swords, elves and magic was gay, unlike strategy games with tanks or maybe spaceships. I suppose Fallout 2 changed all that with hookers, guns and gore, heh.

Me too!

Well my glory days probably began with Fallout 2. Before that I didn't have access to computers that could play games, except monochromatic green Prince of Persia.

 

[Ruprekt]

Early 90s:

Ultima 6-8, Underworld 1,2

Magic Candle 2,3

Lands of Lore

Betrayal at Krondor

 

[Sceptic]

Probably 88 to 94. 1988 was a special year, now that I think back: Ultima 5, Wizardry 4, Wasteland, Dungeon Master, the criminally underrated Demon's Winter, and of course Pool of Radiance. There had already been hints of great things to come with Ultima 4, MM1 and a few others, but 88 started the concentrated awesome, a deluge of great CRPG's every year, year after year. And it went on into the early 90's. 93-94 was an apex in some ways: Dark Sun, Star Trail, WOX, Betrayal at Krondor... then suddenly nothing. 1997-2001 was a mini-revival of sort: first Fallout, then MM6-7, then PST, Arcanum, Wiz 8, even Anachronox to prove that JRPG's could be awesome... and instead of continuing the exponential trend upwards we instead hit a complete dead end, with only sporadic releases every once in a while (TOEE, MotB) outside of the indies. I'm tempted to include all of 1988-2001 as my golden age, but the gap between 94 and 97 is too noticeable, so I'll stick to 88-94.

 

[Mister Arkham]

It just seems that no matter what genre I think back to there were just an abundance of interesting titles to play and even then there was already such an amazing back-log of slightly older titles to spend time with.

I just cried. That is so fucking true.

ITT: Topher speaks truths that move men to tears. I am among them.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

Gold Box era with the Infinity Engine era a close second.

 

[janjetina]

I got my first PC in late 1993. I used to play all kinds of games except RPGs back then, but I enjoyed adventure (Lucasarts) and strategy (X-Com, Civ 2) games the most. The reason I haven't played RPGs back then was the first RPG I tried playing, shitty Eye of the Beholder, which lead me to a conclusion that the whole RPG genre was shit. It took death of the adventure game genre and lack of strategy titles after Civ II for me to consider playing another RPG. Late 90's and early 2000s were that golden RPG era for me, with Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment and Baldur's gate 2 as my favorite games at that time. I had no internet access at the time and wasn't aware of the existence of Arcanum. My first disappointment and the end of the golden RPG era for me was Neverwinter Nights OC.

 

[waywardOne]

right now. i'm not stuck in the fucking past.

 

[Serious_Business]

You faggots need to find a new hobby

The golden age of rpg is every time I play a rpg. It's right now

Fuck yeah



Edit :

right now. i'm not stuck in the fucking past.

That's right, my negroid! I'm with you

 

[Destroid]

1998-2002: Fallout 1, Fallout 2, Morrowind.

 

[sser]

Ultima Underworld was the first RPG I remember playing around with.

But Elder Scrolls Morrowind is the first RPG that had me legitimately molding over by playing it too much.

 

[Arcanoix]

I'd been playing EQ for 2 years on a 12mb GPU with a 166mhz processor until then. For two years pixels were surrounded by 2D black boxes.... God Damn It....

And then in 2000/2001 my old man got a bonus and purchased a Compaq Presario with an nVidia GeForce 2 GPU. He allowed me to purchase Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn....

OH how I cried tears of joy.... That and I was so planning to have my pixelated character romance Imoen....Then found out, OH SHE'S MY SISTER - our dad was a GOD. FUCK!

Maybe the children could have been like - Gods with Downs or something....

Le sigh. Jaheira was good enough. Something about Elves and their slim, slender builds that maintain such stamina. The choices in those games and the experiences affected my adolescence, that is certain.

 

[tennishero]

the improvement in graphics has caused a decline of the human imagination

^thats a tennishero quote that should be put into everyones signture

when i was a child, my mind filled in all the details the limited hardware couldn't

we had developers with similar imaginiations who pushed the respective hardwares to the limit

the first (and only) game that from start to finish had me lost in its universe and beauty was final fantasy 7

the steam punk atmosphere
the decay of society
the use of terrorism as a necessary evil against the evils of greed (just writing that sends shivers through me when i think of todays world and the lies of american media)
a main character who wasn't a happy go lucky pretty boy (the original cloud was an absolute bastard- recons raped him worse than star wars episode one-three)
a complex story
a magnificent battle system that was easy to get into
amazing side quests that were fun
mini games you could spend a few hours in
secrets that were actually worth going for

perfect just perfect. video games are supposed to be about experience
that game was my defining experience in video games

 

[Alex]

I started with computer RPGs with Ultima 8, which came bundled with my sound card. I many days just exploring the city of Tenebrae, exploring the environments, talking with the npcs and getting blown up for stealing stuff. Eventually, I began to understand english enough to get that dagger for the Necromancer. Later, I would manage to get Ultima 7 and Underworld off a friend andfind a copy of Might & Magic IV. Eventually, I did manage to get my hands in both Fallouts, Planescape and Daggerfall and those are certainly the games I hold dearest in my heart. Troika is my favorite company, and I hold its games in the highest regard, but these games actually opened my eyes to many possibilities.

Still, I am not satisfied. In fact, I flat out refuse to believe these great games were part of a golden age, never to return. I still see so much potential here to improve. I won't put the mantle of golden age over them. My golden age hasn't arrived, the best is yet to come.

 

[Baron]

1981 - 1985 : Wizardry I, Sundog : Frozen Legacy, Autoduel, Moebius, Ultima IV ...general Apple IIc badassery.

Also 1989 was a vintage year for gaming : Space Rogue, Knights of Legend, Mechwarrior, Midwinter, Mines of Titan

(Mechwarrior is an RPG as long as Tricky Nick is in your squad.)

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

For me, the memories are centered around individual games rather than time periods, but the late 80s and early-to-mid 90s were unrivaled in that feeling Topher talks about: no matter how many great games you played, there were always more left, with new ones coming in all the time. Discovering Ultima with The Black Gate in 1993 felt staggering. There are 6 more? How can I even hope to ever play them all?