RPGs - A General Overview
                          by James Judge

Hah, that's a better title than before. Took me all of two months
to come up with, too. Clever old me...

Anyway, you're back for another tour down memory lane. I think
this article will wrap up the look back at part of the series and
the next article I'll try and get onto classifying the many
different types of CRPG that is around. After that will come some
general overviews of all the major RPGs (for the PC and ST, at
least) including a look at a few PD ones that I've got my hands on
(or Sue'll be sending to me). After that, well, we'll just have to
see...

So, where were we? Oh yes, Dungeon Master had just been gobbed
onto everyone's screens and anyone who was anyone was going 'oh,
Dungeon Master, I love you'.  Funny thing is, some still do it
today for no particular reason. I blame it on the parents.

After DM and CSB came the inevitable flurry of copycats. Month
after month games were released that tried to capture the old DM
experience and (to my mind) did exceedingly well. One of the most
notable was Bloodwych.

This was still in the DM style, but had slightly more interaction
as you could talk to monsters and traders, but the fun really
started when you roped a friend in to play with you. Yes, two
people could take control of two separate parties and help (or
hinder) one another through the dungeon right up until the meeting
with the final entity. Then, of course, there was the data disk,
which was harder and more enjoyable (but I have yet to finish
it...). The game was released on all the platforms going, from the
mighty PC (well, not so mighty in those days) right down to the
C64 and Speccy.

Other great copycats of the DM style were:

Captive: You were stuck in a futuristic prison and had to guide
four droids through ten space stations (and then the prison) to
free you. Then you could do it again, and again, and again. The
sheer longevity of the game was immense.  I once figured it out
that if you completed one base every day for the rest of your life
you would have to be around 180 before you saw the final base.
Quite a challenge, if you ask me...

Knightmare: Programmed by the same person who programmed the award
winning Captive, this tried to capture the essence of the kids' TV
gameshow. This wasn't a remix of the incredibly hard and terrible
Spectrum game, but a new first person game, much in the style of
DM, but with far better graphics. It was a very good, enthralling
game that included so many taxing puzzles - both spatial and
mental. It didn't have that magic something for me, though. It was
probably because you didn't get enough info on all the different
type of beings your party could have been made up from. And the
fact that T-Shirts and Swiss army knives were the order of the day
for the first part of the game...

The Ishar Quartet: Starting with the boring and easily completable
(took me about 4 hours) Crystals Of Arborea, this quartet has just
been completed with Ishar 3. All three Ishar games brought
something new to both the ST and Amiga - the best graphics and
sound seen on either platform at the originals time.  Still, ST
owners use the game to show off its 'stunning' graphics and
'realistic' sound (they've never seen a PC, that's what I say...).
All of this extra sheen was at a cost of speed, though. The
original was a vast game with no real thread that you could cotton
on to. Also it was V E R Y slow. The second was (in my opinion)
the best game as it was 6 times the size of Ishar 1, but had a
proper storyline that didn't lose you halfway through. It was also
marginally faster. The third is (from what I've heard) not all
that good.  ST owners think it's OK, but from the PC reviews I've
read, it doesn't sound all that brilliant.

Eye Of The Beholder 1, 2 and 3: This trio never saw the light of
day on the ST, but had a huge response with the first two on the
Amiga. Standard AD&D fair here, with better than average graphics
(for 2 and 3, at least), these are classics in their own right.
Not wonderfully difficult, but enjoyable at the same time. It is


also a nice touch that you can continue the same party through all
three instalments. If you are new to RPGs or want just a little
bit of light entertainment then you'll get your money's worth with
these three.

I'll leave more in-depth reviews until a later date.

On with the story...

These copycats came and some stayed and some went. Others
spluttered and died a quiet death. On the PD side of things we
were still being assailed by these ASCII type RPGs that I talked
of last issue, the most notable being Moria, Hack and Larn (being
available on all three platforms, I think). The reason why these
were kept alive was the small, but hard-core, sect of adventurers
who had access to a modem. Then they could all get together and
play a multi-user version of the same game. Sounds great fun,
doesn't it? <ahem>

And this is nearly the end for the ST side of things. The Amiga
I'm not so sure about. But for the PC, well, the PC went (and
still is) going from strength to strength.

The next big landmark was in the Ultima games. For many years now
this (once) small company had been producing RPGs with the depth
that no-one had ever conceived. There were no pretty graphics or
funky sound effects, just good solid entertainment and WHAT
entertainment. My mind still goes numb thinking about trailing
through the land of Ultima 5, looking for the next vital clue.
Each game would take a hell of a long time to complete, and with
every new game the world of Ultima and Lord British just got more
and more rich. Ultima 6 was the last instalment either the ST or
Amiga saw of Lord British, but the PC had yet more juicy steaks in
store from Origin's programming department.

Ultima 7 (parts one and two) came and went and, somewhere around
that point in time, Looking Glass Technologies got involved with
the original programming team. Together they produced one of the
greatest first person 3D RPGs seen to date and its sequel. Gone
were the six characters, sprawling landscape and bird's-eye view
of the map. In were a one character affair, beautiful graphics,
wonderful quests and subquests to go on, intriguing characters to
meet and a fully working 3D environment.

Gone was the standard step-movement as seen in Dungeon Master and
in came a true 3D world where you could see nothing from any
angle. You could rotate a full 360 degrees, jump, duck, shuffle
from side to side, walk, jog or run, fight in a realistic way and
all in a beautiful backdrop. The games were Ultima Underworld 1
and 2, the second being the superior. The puzzles were damn
difficult, but the game was so large and fun, you couldn't help
but liking it.  From the way your heels clicked on marble floors
and crunched on snow, the way you slipped on ice and the way the
snow cats do cute little back-flips when you kill them, these
games reek class.

Then, following in their shoes was Ultima 8: Pagan. This followed
neither of its predecessors formats (3D or 2D) but went in for 3D
isometric (you see your character in a 3D world from a 45 degree
angle from the floor. It's weird for the first few minutes, but
you get used to it after a while). There were two camps of
following with this game - people either liked it or loathed it,
but plenty still got stuck in it. More arcady than the others, it
was still something of a feather in Origin's cap.

And that, my friends, brings us pretty much up to date. Of course,
there have been plenty of copycats of the Ultima game (such as
Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession, Arena: Elder Scrolls, Betrayal At
Krondor, System Shock) and some of them have been damned good
(while others have been appalling).

On the ST the only full 3D game to make it for a while was Legends
Of Valour, but that wasn't a brilliant game.

The most recent full 3D game to be released across all three
platforms (and most probably the last, I feel) was Robinson's
Requiem. Again, ST reviewers thought it was pretty good, but PC
people thought it had potential (cutting off your leg due to
gangrene sounds pretty fun), but the voxel graphics and large,
empty locations (not to mention the sheer monotony of keeping
yourself alive) let it down somewhat.

At the moment we await (on the PC platform) the graphical
splendour of Lands Of Lore 2 (oh, and Dungeon Master 2 <hehe>)
while the ST peeps don't seem to have a wonderfully rosy future.
The Amiga owners? Dunno about them. Funny breed of people are
Amiga owners, from what I heard they 'don't do it, they emulate
it', but I s'pose that's sheer speculation (hope?). ;-> Until next
time.

Happy RPGing everyone!







                              - o -