Explore Barton’s Dungeons and Desktops: ‘The Silver Age’
By Shawn on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 6:25 PM PST In Computer, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games
Matt Barton has written a book Dungeons and Desktops inspired by a series of articles written for Gamasutra in 2007. Barton has allowed Gamasutra to offer gamers an excerpt from his book; Chapter 5 ‘The Silver Age.’
The fifth chapter focuses on the RPGs of the 80s. Ultima and Wizardry are probably the most memorable of these desktop adventures, and both titles inspired sequels that continued to evolve as computers became more sophisticated. Take a look back at these titles and other CRPGs that laid the foundations for the games we enjoy today.
From this point forward, we will be able to describe most CRPGs as combinations of elements from Silver Age games. What is The Pool of Radiance but Tunnels of Doom meets Wizardry? What is Diablo but Telengard with better audiovisuals? How far have we really come from pedit5, dnd, and Moria? It’s impossible to truly appreciate or understand these later games without at least some knowledge of the groundbreaking CRPGs that came before them.
via Gamasutra
