The History of Dungeons & Dragons in Video Games, Part One

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its good to see the dragonlance gold box games getting some love. by the time the first game champions of krynn was released they had ironed out all the buggy and annoying stuff from the earlier games. its still one of my favourite game series ever
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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stanleygoober said:
Are the two Buck Rogers SSI AD&D games going to be included as well?
I hope so, as they were the highlight of the Gold Box era for me. Also, Spelljammer was the most disappointing game ever. It doesn't sound like the author has played most of these games, more likely read up on them and written a piece. We'll know for sure if he says Descent to Undermountain is a "decent game which some found underwhelming".
 

StewShearerOld

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Blood Brain Barrier said:
stanleygoober said:
Are the two Buck Rogers SSI AD&D games going to be included as well?
I hope so, as they were the highlight of the Gold Box era for me. Also, Spelljammer was the most disappointing game ever. It doesn't sound like the author has played most of these games, more likely read up on them and written a piece. We'll know for sure if he says Descent to Undermountain is a "decent game which some found underwhelming".
That sucks. When I was looking around for information on Spelljammer it sounded cool and like something I might enjoy checking out. Any particular complaints?
 

IanDavis

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Man, I knew there were a lot of old DOS DnD games, but I had no idea just how much SSI saturated the market. Those games have NOT aged well.
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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StewShearer said:
Blood Brain Barrier said:
stanleygoober said:
Are the two Buck Rogers SSI AD&D games going to be included as well?
I hope so, as they were the highlight of the Gold Box era for me. Also, Spelljammer was the most disappointing game ever. It doesn't sound like the author has played most of these games, more likely read up on them and written a piece. We'll know for sure if he says Descent to Undermountain is a "decent game which some found underwhelming".
That sucks. When I was looking around for information on Spelljammer it sounded cool and like something I might enjoy checking out. Any particular complaints?
The plot, mainly. There isn't one. You just roam about completing missions until the game ends. Very little character development too, making it feel more like a simulation than RPG. Some of the mechanics are nice but it's not a rewarding game and I got bored of it after a few hours. Buck Rogers outdoes it in every aspect, including the space combat.

I don't really 'get' the Spelljammer universe either. It's 100% Forgotten Realms until you go into space, where some other rules apply. It's a bit silly going into battle with a galleon (yes, one with sails and all) in space then being boarded and fighting lizards with your mages and clerics, with your swords and spells like bless and magic missile. And then every world you go to is the same medieval town you find in the Forgotten Realms universe.

I still think the idea is incredibly cool and could lend itself to an excellent game IF the execution was right. That's what makes the game so disappointing.
 

Brad Tritone

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stanleygoober said:
Are the two Buck Rogers SSI AD&D games going to be included as well?
I wondered this myself a couple years ago... but technically I believe the two Buck Rogers SSI games were never part of the AD&D universe, but set in their own universe created by TSR called "Buck Rogers XXVC". Maybe Stew will have more on this, but I doubt he would cover it as part of this series.
 

Brad Tritone

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small said:
its good to see the dragonlance gold box games getting some love. by the time the first game champions of krynn was released they had ironed out all the buggy and annoying stuff from the earlier games. its still one of my favourite game series ever
I'm glad to hear they're so good. I hope GOG picks up this series someday! I never got around to picking these up, and now I want them even more!
 

small

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Brad Tritone said:
small said:
its good to see the dragonlance gold box games getting some love. by the time the first game champions of krynn was released they had ironed out all the buggy and annoying stuff from the earlier games. its still one of my favourite game series ever
I'm glad to hear they're so good. I hope GOG picks up this series someday! I never got around to picking these up, and now I want them even more!
they have one of the bet romances ive seen in a game and its not with a PC, they also allow you to transfer characters to the next games.

unfortunately i doubt they will have them on GOG.com, they were made back in the day when storage space was a premium so you got little books with them and the game would actually say read passage x in the handbook
 

StewShearerOld

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small said:
Brad Tritone said:
small said:
its good to see the dragonlance gold box games getting some love. by the time the first game champions of krynn was released they had ironed out all the buggy and annoying stuff from the earlier games. its still one of my favourite game series ever
I'm glad to hear they're so good. I hope GOG picks up this series someday! I never got around to picking these up, and now I want them even more!
they have one of the bet romances ive seen in a game and its not with a PC, they also allow you to transfer characters to the next games.

unfortunately i doubt they will have them on GOG.com, they were made back in the day when storage space was a premium so you got little books with them and the game would actually say read passage x in the handbook
Don't be so sure. GOG actually has several other games like that, though granted to a lesser degree. Ultima IV, for instance, came with a lengthy manual and in-game instruction to read certain pages. They just include a PDF with the game download.
 

small

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StewShearer said:
small said:
Brad Tritone said:
small said:
its good to see the dragonlance gold box games getting some love. by the time the first game champions of krynn was released they had ironed out all the buggy and annoying stuff from the earlier games. its still one of my favourite game series ever
I'm glad to hear they're so good. I hope GOG picks up this series someday! I never got around to picking these up, and now I want them even more!
they have one of the bet romances ive seen in a game and its not with a PC, they also allow you to transfer characters to the next games.

unfortunately i doubt they will have them on GOG.com, they were made back in the day when storage space was a premium so you got little books with them and the game would actually say read passage x in the handbook
Don't be so sure. GOG actually has several other games like that, though granted to a lesser degree. Ultima IV, for instance, came with a lengthy manual and in-game instruction to read certain pages. They just include a PDF with the game download.
hmm i didnt realise that, hopefully it does then
 

kurashima

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The first D&D game I came across, albeit rather loosely based on D&D, was The Bards Tale

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bard%27s_Tale_(1985_video_game)

How did this not make it into the list? Its a classic.
 

Brad Tritone

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kurashima said:
The first D&D game I came across, albeit rather loosely based on D&D, was The Bards Tale

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bard%27s_Tale_(1985_video_game)

How did this not make it into the list? Its a classic.

If I had to guess, this... "Based loosely on traditional Dungeons and Dragons gameplay and inspired by the Wizardry computer games" - from the link you posted.

Someone last week mentioned the Buck Rogers "Gold Box" games... great classics but not AD&D licensed. I forgot about Bards Tale, another good one (or is that two? or 3? or 4 with a remake?)