D&D and Computer Games, through the ages

[Bullgrit]

Video games and D&D arose from their primoridial beginnings at about the same time in our world's history. They seemed to share a common fan: nerds and geeks. Since the beginning, there have been D&Desque video games trying to ride the coattails, or exploit the interest, or dupicate the experience, or however you want to phrase it.

My friends and I, when we first started playing D&D in 1980, grabbed onto the various video games as secondary experiences for our dungeoneering desires.

We played Adventure on the Atari 2600, of course. There were various dungeon crawls for the different home computers (I had a Commodore 64), which, unfortunately, I can't remember their names. We actually played Zork (I think it was then called Dungeon) a little bit before we started playing D&D.

There was also an arcade game where you (a circle or something similar, with a bow and arrows) moved around in some kind of dungeon with rooms full of monsters to shoot and treasure to loot. Can anyone tell me what this game's name was?

What year did you start playing D&D, and what were the adventure video games you played to get the D&D feel when not actually playing D&D?

Bullgrit

 

[renau1g]

I started playing the mid-90's and grabbed Baldur's Gate II for my fix away from the table (although it was a pretty darn good fix)

 

[Danzauker]

There was also an arcade game where you (a circle or something similar, with a bow and arrows) moved around in some kind of dungeon with rooms full of monsters to shoot and treasure to loot. Can anyone tell me what this game's name was?

That was Venture

 

[Nebten]

There was a Dungeons & Dragons game for Intelivision. What I remember the most was that as you went through the maze, the closer you got to the main bad guy, the louder you could hear his growl. As a 3 year old that scared the poop out of me. Its like watching a horror movie and knowing something bad is going to happen right around the corner.

 

[Chainsaw]

There was also an arcade game where you (a circle or something similar, with a bow and arrows) moved around in some kind of dungeon with rooms full of monsters to shoot and treasure to loot. Can anyone tell me what this game's name was?

What year did you start playing D&D, and what were the adventure video games you played to get the D&D feel when not actually playing D&D?

Bullgrit

You mean Gauntlet?

Anyway, I started playing in the late 80s with the red dragon/black box beginner's set. I think it was 1988-1989 maybe? Leading up to this, I was playing Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Ultima Exodus, Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy on Nintendo and King's Quest on the PC. I continued to play those and their successors alongside D&D through middle school (also, Bane of the Cosmic Forge). Once I started high school, I didn't really play many console/computer games anymore, though I periodically played 2E for 2-3 months at a time (usually after a book or movie inspired my group of friends).

Edit: Scratch that, I think maybe you mean an ASCII game called Rogue - it might have had other names. It was a tough as hell game! No coddling with that one!

 

[Bullgrit]

That was Venture

I just checked Wikipedia, and yep, that's it! Thanks.

This confirmed the images in my memory:
Venture - Videogame by Exidy (1981) - The International Arcade Museum and the KLOV

You mean Gauntlet?

Gauntlet came later, but it was good for its much better graphics and letting four players play together -- closer to the D&D experience.

Chip

 

[Rykion]

There was a Dungeons & Dragons game for Intelivision. What I remember the most was that as you went through the maze, the closer you got to the main bad guy, the louder you could hear his growl. As a 3 year old that scared the poop out of me. Its like watching a horror movie and knowing something bad is going to happen right around the corner.

This was one of my favorite games as a kid. You had to go from dungeon to dungeon trying to get to a volcano that had fragments of a crown guarded by dragons. It was one of the first games I played that you could actually win. In the dungeons, you could hear the creatures before you coud see them.

 

[CarlZog]

Wizardry on the Apple II

 

[Infernal Teddy]

The Bard's Tale I-III

 

[avin]

Baldur's Gate > BG Tales of the Sword Coast > Icewind Dale > Bg2 > TOB > Planescae: Torment > IWD2 > Temple of Elemental Evil > NWN (never finished) > NWN2 (never finished).

But Ultima owns every D&D game.