Old RPGs - WTF?

[Felch]

I was playing a couple old NES Ultimas (Exodus and Quest of the Avatar), and I realize why most people back then really hated RPGs. There is virtually no indication of what does what, the difficulty makes arbitrary jumps as your characters level up, and the entire time I'm wondering why I don't just pop in Mario or Zelda. Who ever thought that menus were fun?

Anybody have fond memories of these games? As a kid I played Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, but those were Japanese and were virtually on rails. They were grind-heavy, but at least you had some definite idea of where to go and what to do. My brother played Ultima and seemed to like it, but I was never any good. As it turns out, I'm still terrible.

[DrSpike]

I never liked the early RPGs (Spectrum/Amiga ones) either - a fact that actually stopped me playing them once they became good for a few years.

[DarkCloud]

No fond memories of old JRPGs or cRPGs before Bioware came out with Baldur's Gate, save the classic Moraff's World. There were some interesting old DnD Gold Box games, but they were buggy or something was wrong with most of them. Kings Quest and Adventure games don't count... but at least they were decent.

You're not alone. I dislike games without clear guidance on what to do- I'd rather think as little or as much as I desire while playing a game-- I'd rather not be forced to think unless I wish to do as such. Thus, games like Civ (fun to play, difficult to master) strongly appeal to me.

[Nostromo]

I have fond memories of games like Tunnels of Doom on the TI-994A (it was on a cassette!) and Dungeon Master on the Atari ST. Both were dungeon crawlers...

[Jon Miller]

Nethack for life

JM

[DaveV]

Nethack for life

Heh. More like Nethack for Yet Another Stupid Death .

[Lord Avalon]

Bard's Tale and Wasteland

[Grandpa Troll]

I am trying to remember the game, you play as a Nazi soldier..Mor...something or other..go through dungeions and up through tunnels..

I got it in a bargain baesment, maybe 10 years old..was not too bad except kinda didnt like being a Nazi...

[Grandpa Troll]

http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/guides/mortyr_gg/

The game was called Mortyr...probably a FPS not role play

[Spaced Cowboy]

I played a shedload of them back in the day....almost all of them in fact, but I know that I'm looking through rose colored glasses just to think of them.

I have used emulators to boot them again, but alas, the glasses were really rose colored.

Every year they came up with something new. Automap...awesome...then you play one without it and not so good.

I remember finding graph/engineering paper with maps notes etc from the old days when we moved about 10 years ago. Can't believe that I went to the trouble.

I remember staging something on my keyboard in one of the early Ultima's to spawn more random enemies while I was safe is a spot on the map with very difficult access (one path that zig-zagged in).

[Felch]

I remember staging something on my keyboard in one of the early Ultima's to spawn more random enemies while I was safe is a spot on the map with very difficult access (one path that zig-zagged in).

If I'm reading this right, it looks like you were taking advantage of an AI glitch to help make the game playable.

That's the sort of thing I remember. Games from the eighties were often impossibly hard without cheating in some way, either by taking advantage of a glitch or by expressly entering a cheat code (like Contra). I wonder how many nostalgic gamers remember just how freaking insane most games were back then. Challenge is one thing, but a game that requires the player to manipulate the system just to play is badly designed.

[Lord Avalon]

Yeah, in Wasteland by the time I got to the last (5.25"!) disk, I was burning through the energy weapon/rocket ammo in Vegas, and when I ran out of that, the slugthrower ammo did very little damage, even if you burned a whole clip. So I made a copy of a previous disk that had a base with supplies and traveled the shadows a few times till I could finish.

[Boris Godunov]

Dragon Warrior games on the NES were awesome.

[DaShi]

I was playing a couple old NES Ultimas (Exodus and Quest of the Avatar), and I realize why most people back then really hated RPGs. There is virtually no indication of what does what, the difficulty makes arbitrary jumps as your characters level up, and the entire time I'm wondering why I don't just pop in Mario or Zelda. Who ever thought that menus were fun?

When we were younger my sister and I used to write diaries for the characters we made in Ultima Exodus (because they had no given stories of their own!!!). Still it and Avatar were amusing enough games at the time.

[DaShi]

Dragon Warrior games on the NES were awesome.

Ugh, I only played the first one and hated it. Although somehow I remember that I finished it. I also finished the first Final Fantasy game and vowed never to play it again. It would be many years before I'd pick up Final Fantasy II (IV in Japan) and give the series another try.