What game/games first got you into CRPG's?

Landers78 · Post by **Landers78** » February 8th, 2023, 03:43

Just wondering what was the game or games that struck a nerve with you and got you into CRPG's.

For me, the first game I watched someone play was The Bard's Tale as a kid. I have to admit that I wasn't overly excited with this one. I tried it out, got slaughtered a few times, but I found the whole 'making a class' and going out as adventurers to be a great thing. The second game I played was Ultima IV, and this one really hooked me. I played it, off and on, for years (my copy was not retail, but copied disks, so I didn't have a map, manual, spellbook, etc, so I had to explore everything, trial and error my way through spells and reagents, etc) before finally managing to finish the game in the early 90's.

The other game that I started around the same time was Legacy of the Ancients. While this is a pretty simplistic game, it managed to be nice and doable as a kid; a really good "Baby's First CRPG" experience, and made me feel like I had this RPG thing downpat.

After this, I moved on to Goldbox games, Wasteland, Starflight and so on.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » February 8th, 2023, 03:45

Too long ago to remember. I definitely wasn't really interested in cRPGs until I got older though, as my family couldn't afford a PC when I was a young kid.

Barabus · Post by **Barabus** » February 8th, 2023, 03:45

fable

MadPreacher · Post by **MadPreacher** » February 8th, 2023, 03:47

I had an old person moment, my first crpg was Bard's Tale 1 on the Apple 2C. I used to play it in high school. Curse was my second one.

SSI Gold Box Curse of the Azure Bonds is what started my journey. I was playing TT AD&D 1E when I picked up. A funny story is that my mother had a Tandy 1000 RL and the copy I got was for a C64. I didn't know anything about computers back then, so I had a game I couldn't play.

The_Mask · Post by **The_Mask** » February 8th, 2023, 03:51

Baldur's Gate 2. But since then I've went back in time, and played others.

Landers78 · Post by **Landers78** » February 8th, 2023, 03:53

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ February 8th, 2023, 03:45
Too long ago to remember. I definitely wasn't really interested in cRPGs until I got older though, as my family couldn't afford a PC when I was a young kid.

I was pretty lucky in that regard, as the guy that lived in the granny flat down the back was wanting to get rid of his C64, monitor and disk drive when he upgraded to an Amiga, so my parents grudgingly paid the small amount of cash to grab it as a birthday present for me.

Acrux · Post by **Acrux** » February 8th, 2023, 03:53

The oldest games I remember playing are Munchman (a Pac-Man clone), A-Maze-Ing, and Hunt the Wumpus on the TI-99/4a my parents bought. I would have been around 5 at the time.

Ravenloft · Post by **Ravenloft** » February 8th, 2023, 04:03

Probably Baldur's Gate. At the time it seemed to overwhelm with its multitude of options, stats, NPCs to talk to, and places to go. Very fond memories of confusion.

BlueMemphis · Post by **BlueMemphis** » February 8th, 2023, 04:43

Baldurs Gate 2 and Neverwinter nights.

I was a console peasant for most of my childhood and adolescence but one of my friends who did have a pc had those games and yeah, they blew my mind due to how open ended and non linear they seem compared to the console jrpgs i was used to. When my parents bought a family pc for general use and left me home alone to go on holiday, damn straight the first thing i did was borrow those 2 games and marathon them, was a very good 2 weeks.

Post by **Nemesis** » February 8th, 2023, 05:14

Morrowind then Baldur's Gate

Gregz · Post by **Gregz** » February 8th, 2023, 06:50

The Bard's Tale when I was 12.

gerey · Post by **gerey** » February 8th, 2023, 07:00

I remember the sequence of events quite vividly even after all these years.

Me and my family were on a vacation to Spain back 2000 or 2001, and while waiting in line in some podunk supermarket I saw a bunch of games - basically just CDs in a cardboard sleeve costing about 2 of today's EUR each. Just having gotten my first PC, and being even more green on the internet, I had no idea what all the games were, so I just bought two that had the most interesting covers and screenshots on the back.

One of the games was a neat, cartoony racer called Ignition, and the other game was Fallout 1. I had to wait a week to see what these new games were like, which had hyping them up in my mind and, to my surprise, they actually lived up to the hype. Granted, when just starting out playing games they all seem great, since you have nothing else to compare them to, but I still had a lot of fun with each.

Dead · Post by **Dead** » February 8th, 2023, 07:04

Pokémon Gold and Silver

wndrbr · Post by **wndrbr** » February 8th, 2023, 07:15

My family was able to afford a PC only by 2004 or something like that. And since i had no access to internet nor money to spend on gaming magazines, I was forced to rely on recommendations of my classmates, who played mostly shooters (and WarCraft 3). My first RPG was... Morrowind? Either Morrowind, or Diablo 2. I got my hands on proper crpgs relatively late.

Fargus · Post by **Fargus** » February 8th, 2023, 07:15

From what i remember it was fallout 1 and 2 that got me into the genre. Then i just naturally went to play as many rpgs as i could in early 2000s: NWN, Icewind Dale games, Pool of Radiance, Siege of Avalon, Arcanum, Morrowind, Gothic games etc-etc. Whatever i could get my hands on, because back then i had no internet and just went to some store with pc games and asked the salesman to recommend me some or just browsed through the disks myself and found something interesting.

What i especially loved was making my own character and enjoying the story, at least back then. But i'm much less of a storyfag these days.

Watser · Post by **Watser** » February 8th, 2023, 07:19

Only 10 years ago or so. I remember browsing steam looking for something to play when I saw Divinity 2 DKS. I had no idea what the game was and had never played an rpg before, only being vaguely familiar with something called oblivion, fallout, and baldurs gate.
I had a lot of fun with the game and ended up playing DD soon after. Suddenly finding interest in a genre I had no knowledge of I ended up finding the codex to get a better idea of the genre as a whole and which games to play. Quickly found an interest in the old M&M and Wizardry games; The simple UI, abstract wireframe dungeons and the need for mapmaking appealed to my inner autist. And so I started playing M&M 1 on DOSBox and immediately fell in love with the game and blobbers as a subgenre.

Suffice to say my backlog has grown to an unfathomable monster I only dare to pull out if I cannot decide on what to play next.

EDIT: I played a lot of Diablo 2 but I didn't consider that an rpg then and I still don't today.

Nigromancer · Post by **Nigromancer** » February 8th, 2023, 07:28

Didn't realise so many other people got started on bard's tale as well. That was my first foray into crpgs, but it was wasteland (and later dragon wars) that sealed my fate, as it were.

agentorange · Post by **agentorange** » February 8th, 2023, 08:02

Mother 2 when I was in 4th/5th grade is the first time I played a game that was distinctly an RPG. If CRPGs then Fallout 1 when I was in high school; that was the game that made me realize the possibilities of the genre, and I then immediately played Fallout 2, then tried Wasteland, then got into Arcanum, Baldur's Gate, etc. I played Oblivion before that but I wouldn't say that game got me into CRPGs because it didn't lead me to try anything else.

Tweed · Post by **Tweed** » February 8th, 2023, 10:03

The first was Moraff's Revenge which was just a simple blobber, but Wasteland really drew me into crpgs. I didn't really grasp the game that well as a kid, but it didn't stop me from playing or marveling at how many different ways there seemed to be to solve problems. Naturally I spent most of my time trying to get stronger just so I could shoot everything that moved. I also spent a lot of time trying to see how many ways I could force entry, from natural attributes, to crowbars, to explosives and it was great that most of them worked.

Fireblade · Post by **Fireblade** » February 8th, 2023, 10:25

I played a bunch of Moraff's Revenge as well, fun game. But my first RPGs were before that: Ultima 5, Might and Magic 1, and Pool of Radiance. They all came out within a year or two of each other, and I can't remember what order I played them in, I just remember those being the original 3 that got me hooked for life.

Cedric · Post by **Cedric** » February 8th, 2023, 10:26

That's very hard because my memory is a bit foggy. I will just list a few things, any of which could have done it:

Secret of Mana on the SNES - this was my first SNES game and might also have been my first (action-)(J)RPG. I never forgot it.
Lands of Lore or Dungeon Master II. I can't recall but either of them were my first CRPG and I loved them very much.
Realms of Arkania 2 (also 1 and 3, but 2 was my first) - a masterpiece and it really solidified what kind of RPGs I like best: those with tactical combat, lots of skills and spells and a travel system.
Baldur's Gate/Fallout - although very different games, they taught me that my love for RPGs wasn't just a childhood fad, but continued in my teens
Various old AD&D adventures I printed out at school - these taught me to really love how old-school adventures were built and paced, and how much freedom and fun details they have.

aeternalis · Post by **aeternalis** » February 8th, 2023, 19:36

Baldur's Gate 1, and from there Fallout. I was just getting into tabletop AD&D at the time I found Baldur's Gate (this would've been around age 12).

Before that, it was JRPGs that introduced me to the "RPG" concept in general; FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Mother 2 (as agentorange mentioned)

Come to think of it, I also played Might & Magic 3 ("Isles of Terra") on the SNES, so that would've been my first actual CRPG, even though I didn't play it on a computer...

Konjad · Post by **Konjad** » February 8th, 2023, 19:50

Baldur's Gate. I was 9 years old at the time when it came out and had no idea what I'm getting myself into. But something persuaded me into wishing it as a birthday gift and my parents made it true. I still love BG today and it is probably the most replayed game by me to this day (back then there was no internet here, I was the only person I knew with a PC, and I don't come from a city where you could buy pirated copies of games), I have played all possible class/race combinations... and remember most of the dialogs. At least in Polish, since I haven't knew any other language at the time. I know lots of people consider BG a decline or trash, but for me it was the door into RPGs. I will always consider it great for what it was,

Ratcatcher · Post by **Ratcatcher** » February 8th, 2023, 20:01

If we talk cRPG, like asked in the OP, I had my first PC around '98 so I missed the old glories, my first titles were various SSI entries like EotB, Ravenloft, Menzoberranzan, Stone(d) Prophet etc.

Before that, I was strictly a console peasant but I liked titles like Phantasy Star I - III, Sword of Vermillion and (my fav of the era) Warriors of the Eternal sun for SEGA genesis:

► Show Spoiler

Landers78 · Post by **Landers78** » February 9th, 2023, 04:46

Konjad wrote: ↑ February 8th, 2023, 19:50
Baldur's Gate. I was 9 years old at the time when it came out and had no idea what I'm getting myself into. But something persuaded me into wishing it as a birthday gift and my parents made it true. I still love BG today and it is probably the most replayed game by me to this day (back then there was no internet here, I was the only person I knew with a PC, and I don't come from a city where you could buy pirated copies of games), I have played all possible class/race combinations... and remember most of the dialogs. At least in Polish, since I haven't knew any other language at the time. I know lots of people consider BG a decline or trash, but for me it was the door into RPGs. I will always consider it great for what it was,

Decline or trash? Baldur's Gate is a pretty good game, and I replay it from time to time. I am not a huge fan of the real time with pause system, but there are certainly worse systems out there. It was pretty good having a new DnD game get released at the time, and I still have the little Baldur's Gate comic book that the store person threw in the bag when I bought Fallout not long before.

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Bal ... te_(comic)

My copy does have a Milo stain or something on the front cover, but still in decent condition.

GothGirlSupremacy · Post by **GothGirlSupremacy** » February 9th, 2023, 07:29

Eye of the Beholder for PC, Shadowrun for Genesis.

Incognito · Post by **Incognito** » February 9th, 2023, 09:59

My first computer was the ZX Spectrum. I don't remember any RPG of notice on that micro. The closest thing were the text adventures, like The Hobbit, and also a few of collect-objects-to-solve-puzzles like Terramex, Sir Fred and Dizzy. Those were the first games, although not really RPGs, to capture my attention.

Then came the Commodore Amiga and what are really a bunch of foundational titles. From the top my head:

Dungeon Master

Bard's Tale

Eye of the Beholder

A bunch of SSI's titles based on the Dragonlance series, like Champion's of Krynn and Dark Queen of Krynn

Might and Magic

Hero Quest (the turn-based isometric thing, not the Sierra title)

Hm, a lot of blobbers in that list. Then came the PC and Baldur's Gate but by then I wasn't a youngling anymore.

Cheers.

Mystic_Sausage · Post by **Mystic_Sausage** » February 9th, 2023, 19:45

Firstly my friends have shown me Gothic and KotOR and later my sister started playing Baldur 2 and me as well. Since they were fun, I started looking for something similar by myself.

Maggot · Post by **Maggot** » February 9th, 2023, 19:49

Morrowind was probably my first proper RPG. PC was for shooters and RTS before that.

Griffin · Post by **Griffin** » February 9th, 2023, 20:17

First Ultima 4 on C64 in 1990, and then Dungeon Master on Amiga 1991 when I bought Amiga and Dungeon Master for it. I never manage to complete Ultima 4 at the time, but I did finish Dungeon Master. I actually replayed Dungeon Master from start to finish again first time since mid 90s a few years ago, and it was as fucking great as I remembered. The UI still very intuitive and the game wouldn't actually need much to be "modernized".