Favorite OLD RPG's and Why We Fell in Love With Them

venturin

venturin

CAGiversary!
When I first bought my spanking new Commodore 128 in 1986 it was from Games and Gadgets and it came with my choice of 5 or so games.

I got some of those original EA games, the ones in packaging that resembled record albums.

Pinball contruction set, Hard Hat Mack, Archon, M.U.L.E. (worthy of a post all it's own) and one called The Standing Stones.

I put in the game and when it loaded a screen asked me 'by what name will thou be known?" or something like that. I sat in my room, thinking, "What's my computer name"? I thought, "I am venturing into a whole new world" (I know I'm such a geek) Then I thought "Venturing in...venture in... Venturin!"
So it was with an EA RPG that I created my name. My best friend still calls me Venny. His first choice of a name for himself was not quite as good... I still call him Rad Russ. He doesn't like me to use the name so much.

The Standing Stones was an old wire frame first person dungeon game that was extremely difficult. If you died it was game over. Done. Start all over. You could save the game, but if you were killed the saved game was gone!

I cheated.. I got a disk copy program and every time I saved I would copy the disk to another disk. I did finish the game this way, and even though I cheated it was an amazing experience and I felt a great sense of accomplishment.

I later tried to play Ultima IV, but it seemed very difficult to me, very convoluted and very complicated. (I know, I'm not too smart)

But later, I picked up another game that looked interesting, "Legacy of the Ancients". Does anyone remember this one??

The dungeons were also first person, but they were colored, not wire frame. The story was fun, there was a lot of interesting things to do (even mini-games!) and there were constant rewards. You earned entry into various exhibits in the Galactic Museum which led you deeper into the game, and into more challenging dungeons.

This game, while not difficult in any way, was great fun for me, and led me to love RPG's.

I spent countless hours marking out maps with graph paper in games like the Bards Tale, Wizardry, Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, not to mention the legendary Gold Box Games. (Pool of Radiance... Ahhh)

Most of us know the big titles. Do many of you remember my first loves? The Standing Stones and Legacy of the Ancients?

What RPG's made you fall in love with the genre? What were the earliest of endless hours you spent with an RPG?
 
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dragon warrior for nes was the first rpg i remember playing. at the time i was allowed to leave school for lunch and recess since i lived so close to the school, and would spend the entire time playing dragon warrior. that game was awesome.
 
To tell you the truth, it was the "big title" that made me fall in love with the genre. Final Fantasy VI (III at the time) was the first video game I ever bought on my own after watching my older cousins playing it every time I would visit. Considering it came out in 94, I was 9 at the time. It sparked a love of the genre in me which has yet to fade, and it's still my favorite game. That's some staying power right there.
 
:) :) :) Sega's Sword of Vermillion! Oh did I love that game. I remember being so pissed when the lady in the house hit me over the head with the frying pan and stole all my stuff...thankfully I realize later in the game its the only way to obtain the sword of vermillion. I beat that game over and over...
 
mario rpg

was my first rpg game... didnt know what the ripig meant at the end. :D

Was a great game that has fond memories that I still try to play annually.
 
My first computer was also a C128. I think the only RPG's I had were the Ultima games and Pirates, if you'd consider that an RPG. My favorite at the time was Psi-5 Trading Company.

I don't think I got too heavy into RPG's until the consoles. I played a few dungeon crawlers on the NES but it wasn't until Phantasy Star and Shining Force that I really got into them.
 
My first computer was also a C128. I think the only RPG's I had were the Ultima games and Pirates, if you'd consider that an RPG. My favorites at the time were Psi-5 Trading Company and the Sierra adventure games.

I don't think I got too heavy into RPG's until the consoles. I played a few dungeon crawlers on the NES, of course Zelda and Dragon Warrior too but it wasn't until Phantasy Star and Shining Force that I really got into them.
 
The first Adventure RPG I remember playing was Zelda. The first turn-based I remember playing was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES.
 
I had a C64 as well and fell in love with SSI Classic Pool of Radiance. I still love that game. I was starting to play D&D at the time and this just was awesome to me. I spent so much time thinking of character names and creating battle icons. Then Curse of the Azure Bonds came out and I could move my characters into that (and finally make a Ranger!) Hells yeah! Those SSI RPGs are classic and I loved them all.
 
Might and Magic 6.

The amount of freedom you had in plot progression and free roaming, the option to fight in either turn-based or real-time and the ability to switch modes just by hitting a key, the phat lewt, the awesome "3D" world.

Truly a fantastic RPG in the vein of other greats like Morrowind.
 
The old Gold Box Dungeons and Dragons RPG's were awesome. The first game holds the record for me for the longest time playing continuously in one sitting, over seven hours.

I also loved Autoduel which was based on the Steve Jackson "Car Wars" RPG that was all the rage with my friends during middle school.
 
I was kinda a late bloomer when it came to RPGs. The first one that actually brought me into it was Super Mario RPG. It was after that I discovered Square Soft developed it and I started playing FF6 or FF3 at the time and Chrono Trigger.
 
I have fond memories of the original Ultima series (I-V), Wizardry, Bard's Tale, and Demon Master on my Apple IIgs back in the day.

Centauri Alliance was also a good one, if not very obscure. It was one of the first computer-based RPG's with a future theme, instead of a medieval one.

Lands of Lore 1, 2 and 3 were all great games, but 1 was the best, IMO.
 
I was also late coming to the RPG fold (played a few like Pokemon Blue or FF Taactics), but the first one that made me love the genre was Star Ocean: The Second Story for the PSX. I'm not really sure what it was at the moment, but something about that game sucked me in, and one of the few to this day where I've actually logged hundreds of hours.

Of course, when I played morrowind for the xbox a couple years later, that pretty much sealed the deal for me.
 
The first RPG I really got into was Super Mario RPG. from there I went on to other RPGs and really enjoyed Earthbound, FF6, and Chrono Trigger...ironically, they're all on the same console...
 
Asides from The Legend of Zelda series, I would definitely have to say Earthbound on the SNES. The reason why I liked it so much was because it was not a typical D&D story with the typical D&D type enemies. I don't even like turn-based RPGs, but Earthbound is the exception.
 
Well, I didn't get any of the retro consoles until more recently as I'm only 16, so I didn't have an opportunity to play some of those games until the last few years. However I can say that Final Fantasy X on my PS2 was the first RPG I played and that got me hooked and got me to go back to all the old games.
 
I have very fond memories of the first Dragon Warrior game on NES. I got a Nintendo Power subscription, which came with a free copy of Dragon Warrior and a bunch of other stuff like a player's guide, map, item reference, and a bestiary thing.

The game looked simple graphically, but I got so much stuff with the game that it made the world seem bigger than life. When you're 6 years old and living in the middle of nowhere, fantasy's all you have.:D

If there wasn't so much interesting stuff to peruse, I probably wouldn't have been so engaged.

When I saw Final Fantasy, I just about had a kiddie heart attack! I still love FFI to this day.
 
Mario RPG was my first also. I consider it a "gateway" RPG. After that I played Chrono Trigger and I was hooked on the genre.
 
Unless you count Zelda games - I pretty much learned to read so that I could play Link's Awakening without help - I think Phantasy Star IV was my first RPG. Needless to say, I was in way over my head with that one as a kid. I've kind of hopped around eras ever since then. Breath of Fire III was the one that really got me hooked, though. My oldest favourite is probably Ultima Underworld (this is debatable; tehnically, Shining Force came out seven days earlier... in Japan), but my favourite old RPG is easily Planescape Torment. I would like to sit down with the writers over at Bethesda and supervise their forced playthrough of that game.
[quote name='Apushmataha']When you're 6 years old and living in the middle of nowhere, fantasy's all you have.:D[/QUOTE]
Man. You fuckin' said it.
 
Lords Of Midnight (as well as Doomdark's Revenge) by Mike Singleton, surely one of the greatest 8-bit RPGs ever and virtually unknown outside of Europe. Might I suggest a visit to World Of Spectrum where you might try it in your browser?

I was also a huge fan of the SSI games, especially Renegade Legion: Interceptor on the Amiga.
 
Bard's Tale 1,2 and 3, Ultima IV, the Gold Box games particularly Pool of Radiance for me. Wasteland probably would be on my list of early RPGs but I didn't get to play it until much later. I technically owned it for my Apple II compatible computer, but that was one of the games that didn't work with it.

Bard's Tale probably got the most sheer hours from me. I even bought an old Amiga so I could play the best version again.
 
I had a very cliche start to RPGs... I played Zelda and Mario RPG growing up, but didn't really, really get into them until Final Fantasy 7. I remember playing it for the first time... working through the reactor, struggling through the first boss, and then that damn timer- I was actually screaming at the TV at one point. I got out with under a minute left, and the CG of the thing blowing up kicked in... and I said to myself, "that was awesome."

20 hours of gameday later, I got out of Midgar and realized there was a whole world I'd barely touched. I went to set out- but wait! My brother wants to try the game! Well, ok, I can stop for awhile... at the first save point, he picks the wrong slot and copies over my file. I cried.

Of course, by then I'd gotten over my horrible, horrible RPG newb-ness that made me take 20 hours for that bit of time, and got out in well under half the time (maybe a quarter, I don't remember anymore.)

I've since jumped around through my whole gaming history, looking for the RPGs I missed becuase I didn't know about them when they came out.
 
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Not sure if it qualifies as "OLD", but FFVII got me into the genre.

I'm playing Chrono Trigger on the DS for the first time and I don't quite get it. It's a decent game, but I don't understand all the hype. Was there certain concepts, like time travel, that were new at the time of the original release? I don't really feel connected to any of the characters.
 
My first RPG was Lunar the Silver Star for Sega CD and it’s still one of my top favorite games. I even place it above Lunar: SSSC for PS1.

The main reason I bought it as a kid was because that was around the time I discovered anime and was fascinated by the art style, but I fell in love with the game when I started playing it. Looking forward to each new town to get new gear, leveling up to get new spells, coming up with tactics to beat the bosses, meeting new characters, and looking forward to each new cut scene. The story also really sucked me in. I remember being really shocked by Nash’s betrayal (especially since he was my favorite character at the time) and when Laike revealed who he really was. I was also miffed that Tempest and Fresca didn’t join your group, but found it cool that they came to help you at the end.

I also remember when I got stuck at the Black Dragon, I wrote a letter to Working Designs asking how to beat it. They responded and told me what to do, but by the time I got the letter I beat him on my own.

It also gave me one of my most memorable boss fights ever. I was on Ghaleon’s final form and he killed all of the characters. The only one left was Nall who was now attacking Ghaleon on his own. I was sitting there watching and waiting for a game over, when suddenly, Nall attacked, one HP damage, Ghaleon was dead! I was able to beat the game for the first time because of Nall.

I think I’ve gone on long enough about Lunar for now.

I also remember drooling over Phantasy Star IV, but I wasn’t able to get it at the time.
 
Yes the Lunar games are great. I have both I and II of the collectors editions complete for the PS. Love em, they're two of my treasures!
 
I probably got into RPGs with Final Fantasy 7. I didn't have a Playstation, though. No, I got into it by reading GamePro's walkthrough a million times and imagining how awesome this game must be. I still have that issue, though it's falling apart. I keep it in a magazine bag to prevent further damage.

Funny thing is, when I finally got FF7, I tried to use that walkthrough, only to find that there were so many typos and mis-directions in it, it was unusable. If I had used that guide, I would have missed some important stuff that would have prevented me from reaching the end. :lol:
 
Not the oldest of titles, but the thing that got me really into RPGs was probably Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I was never into the Final Fantasy much...
 
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