Dungeons & Dragons Classic Videogame Retrospective

[TheLe]

[imager]http://retromedia.ign.com/retro/image/article/857/857143/dungeons-dragons-videogame-retrospective-20080306014211925.jpg[/imager]IGN.com has done an retrospective of all the D&D video games starting with 1982.

See it Here.

The list is clearly incomplete, but it brings back many memories for me. As an avid PC Gamer, I am ashamed to say that I have not played most of those games.

But gosh, I do so remember spending countless hours trying to free myself from the Curse of the Azure Bonds...

-The Le

 

[DM_Jeff]

The list is clearly incomplete, but it brings back many memories for me.

I'll say! They got the first Intellivision cartridge but forgot the very neat first-person sequal for Intellivision, AD&D Treasure of Tarmin. Still, the romp was a good read, thanks!

-DM Jeff

 

[drscott46]

No disrespect at all to IGN, but GameSpy did an even better D&D computer game retrospective around the celebration of the game's 30th anniversary back in 2004. They also did a long interview with Gary Gygax, incidentally.

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/articles/538/538848p1.html

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

They didn't mention Wizardry : Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, or Ultima I . These games were pretty much the first serious contenders in the Computer RPG genre, and were clearly derivative of D&D. I played the hell out of both of them. Their existence motivated me to buy my Apple II PC, with a loan my dad cosigned on.

Ken

 

[Orius]

Hmm, does this belong in general RPG or video games?

I'll say! They got the first Intellivision cartridge but forgot the very neat first-person sequal for Intellivision, AD&D Treasure of Tarmin. Still, the romp was a good read, thanks!

Mmmmm, Treasure of Tarmin. I had (actually I think I sill have it somewhere) that cart on my Intellivision. That was a pretty good game, one of my favorites back when I was a kid. We'd play it all the time, and go deep into the dungeon, collect all three magic books and tons of treasure. I remember when I was older and had actually played D&D I mapped out some of the levels; they were only semi-randomly generated from several set of 10x10 or 12x12 geomorphs.

Heroes of the Lance: I had this for a while on my NES, but I got rid of it because it was pretty boring. It has a reputation for being one of the worst NES games ever made, while it's not tht bad, it just isn't that replayable.

Baldur's Gate is THE definitive old-school D&D video game experience. And BG2 is supposed to be even better, though unfortunately I've never played it. It's a shame the article stopped at the first BG. I remember reading the old GameSpy article, that covered the games a bit deeper IIRC.

 

[airwalkrr]

I'm surprised they didn't mention ToEE. Though it wasn't a commercial success, the game incorporated d&d rules better than any other game to date. On that level alone it was a landmark achievement. I really enjoyed the game and always wished that Troika would have the gumption to use the engine to develop more games ala Baldur's Gate and Icewindale. Had the game not been so buggy at the outset, it might have been enormously more popular.

 

[GammaPaladin]

Yeah, I'd kill for a ToEE engine game set in Eberron.

 

[Orius]

My guess is that ToEE is too recent for classic. That's why it only went to BG, there's no Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, BG2, NWN, or NWN 2 on that list either.