Role Playing Games; you either love them or hate them, and usually to extremes that border on obsession or the “it has cooties, get it off me” variety.
Hellish demons, slimy aliens, and dark dungeons to abandoned space stations; for 35+ years we have traveled across hundreds of worlds and galaxies to accomplish the goal of being the most powerful entity in the game world.
The line of what is and what isn’t an RPG has been harder to classify in recent years with new sub-genres continually created. New art styles, game play styles and very short games have made this even more difficult.
Distinguishing what game was an RPG and what game wasn’t came easier when we didn’t have full 3D graphics, fast computers and consoles. This multi-part retrospective will cover several major games and changes to the RPG genre that have happened over the last four decades, and what we may expect to happen in the future.
History – Akalabeth to Gold Box and the first CRPG’s
Most gamers have heard of the Ultima series of games and have possibly heard of their creator Lord British, but many may not know of Akalabeth, also known as Ultima 0. This was the first game created by Lord British himself, Richard Garriott. This game was his 28th attempt at creating an RPG and until it was officially published was sold in plastic baggies and provided a source of income while he was in school.
Akalabeth is widely considered the first graphical RPG for home computers and certainly was the main influence for many game makers in the years to come.
After Akalabeth, there were several very important Role Playing Games released, including Wizardry and the first Ultima game in 1981, the industry standard-setting Ultima III in 1983, and a well-received game Bards Tale in 1985. All of these games were popular and have become classics in their own right.
One game that came out in 1985 that continued the RPG industry standardization and is quite possibly the most influential RPG in the history of 2D Role Playing Games is Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.
Ultima IV was the game that standardized the hack and slash game play with true story elements. What made this important to RPG players is that the games became more of an adventure than an arcade game. This style was copied and cloned in several games for over a decade and is still one of the most frequently, legally downloaded games on the internet. Amazing for a twenty-year-old game with 2D tiled graphics and low quality sound effects.
Ultima to this day remains a series of games that has a huge worldwide following. In 1987, PC gamers saw the release of a new RPG that also has a strong long-standing following, Might and Magic. The Might and Magic games became very popular because of a strong story, a large world, and a combat-heavy game style that appealed to the less hardcore RPG fan. This also helped create a new style of RPG with faster game play. This style was better showcased by the first true real-time RPG, Dungeon Master.
Dungeon Master was a breath of fresh air for many people; it offered faster game play instead of the slower turn-based combat common in almost every RPG to date. It also allowed for object and environment manipulation instead of using text-based commands, using runes to cast spells and requiring the player to remember rune combinations for casting. It is a game that was certainly ahead of its time and not easily copied. Many tried and none really came close to cloning the game until years later.
In 1988, one of the most popular RPGs and one of the first to legally use the Dungeons and Dragons game play rules and universe hit the market: The Gold Box game Pool of Radiance. This is widely considered the best Dungeons and Dragons (CRPG) release before Baldur’s Gate a full decade later. An amazingly full storyline and a battle system that felt similar to the pencil and paper version of D&D helped propel this game in to superstar status.
The Gold Box games became very popular with a total of 14 titles released over four years, including Dungeons and Dragons, Dragonlance, Buck Rogers and Savage Frontier Forgotten Realms. This was certainly a list of too many games to be released in such a short time. Over-saturation of the market and the rise in popularity of other game genres almost stalled out the CRPG.
While PC gamers bathed in virtual worlds and sprites in their favorite RPGs for many years, personal computers were not the only place to play Role Playing Games; console gamers had a limited variety of choices, usually with a single game on each console for several years. From Atari’s Dragonstomper to Intellivison’s less than stellar Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games, console gamers opened up the CRPG door and never let it close.
The first truly amazing console RPG was introduced for the Famicom, called Dragon Warrior (also called Dragon Quest). This stellar game was first introduced in Japan in 1986 and later on the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, but with enhanced graphics and sound effects. This game was the first game in a long-lived series so popular in Japan that that during each initial game release, Japanese stores couldn’t sell the game until the weekend due to people missing work and school. No other game, including the Final Fantasy games, has had such a wide impact.
Quickly following on the mass hype of the first game, Enix in 1987 brought out Dragon Quest II in Japan. Dragon Quest II, while not as widely popular as the original, cemented the fact that consoles could have games that were compelling to play and did not require a keyboard.
Also in 1987 a small, almost unsuccessful company put everything on the line with a single game, and the last game before closing its doors. This game would change the company’s future and really change the course of role-playing games forever. Of course, this game was Final Fantasy, Square Co.’s greatest game series and a series that has spawned a feature film, a very popular MMORPG, two strategy games and a dozen sequels. This last-ditch effort helped change the way all games were created in Japan and across the world.
Final Fantasy has really changed the RPG genre with advancement in a movie-style cinematic system that has been copied more times than can be counted, possibly selling more consoles for Nintendo and subsequently Sony than any other video game, thus raising the bar for other developers to follow. Square saw that with the Sony Playstation, it could do something never seen before and released one of the highest selling Role Playing Games in the history of consoles and personal computers, Final Fantasy VII.
If you see the screens for the games listed, they have not really changed much in the fifteen years or so covered thus far, but by the 1990’s games began to push their platforms and their developers, moving the game development from smaller developer houses to larger teams.
Evolution of Graphics in Role Playing Games from Akalabeth to Oblivion
From the original graphical RPG, Akalabeth, to the great Final Fantasy II, computer graphics did not really change at all; simple line art and iconic tile maps with two to sixteen colors really forced players’ imaginations to work overtime if they wanted to feel the deep dungeons, hear the scraping of skeletal feet and even hear the crossing of swords.
Interestingly, many of these games did not require color monitors at all. Monochrome screens worked as well as the temperamental CRT monitors that showed but three colors (when they warmed up they were able to show four). It really wasn’t until the creation of standards for PC gaming with EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter/Array) and VGA (Video Graphics Adapter/Array) that games required better monitors, better video cards, and, ultimately, the need for more money.
Consoles at the time would work on any old TV, and even the Playstation 2 and Xbox would be happy on a 25-year-old TV without any real issues. The quality wasn’t there, but it worked.
PC Gaming has pushed the advancement of video cards to new heights, extreme prices, and regular updates. While RPGs have not pushed this need as fast as other game genres such as First Person Shooters, the evolution of animation and texturing has progressed more with RPGs in recent years than any other genre.
Advanced animation techniques, terrain rendering, texture creation, model rendering and lighting have really been pushed by the creation of creatures and living worlds upon which they roam. This progress has been particularly evident in Eye of the Beholder, Ultima VII, Baldur’s Gate, Never Winter Nights, Elder Scrolls series and certainly the Final Fantasy VII game.
In the last decade, Role Playing Games have moved to the forefront with the creation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), which to efficiently run require faster computers and more powerful video cards. While these games are not often graphically competitive with single player games, they do require the graphic horsepower. This has aided in the ability to build more richly textured worlds, with more players and more varied landscapes.
Possibly the one game that has benefited from this advancement in graphic horsepower is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion is certainly one of the nicest looking games to come out in the last couple of years in an almost seamless world that varies from night to day, from grasslands to forest to mountains, and has set a benchmark for game developers to follow.
Companies have also become standardized for graphics cards, with nVidia and ATI the most popular brands. Releasing more powerful cards almost on a monthly basis, most users can easily spend more on a single video card than the rest of the computer. New computer purchases are rarely made anymore without deciding which video card to install.
In the future, games will improve graphically. This is a guarantee. We are seeing renders and early alpha images from games that are becoming closer to real life in every way. But in the next ten years will we see a dramatic jump, such as the one we saw from line art to 2D to 3D? As gaming systems become more powerful, we will most definitely see better and more detailed real time shadowing, higher resolutions and procedural animation and rendering, which will create worlds of wonder and excitement we could not have before imagined.
The line of what is and what isn’t an RPG has been harder to classify in recent years with new sub-genres continually created. New art styles, game play styles and very short games have made this even more difficult.
Distinguishing what game was an RPG and what game wasn’t came easier when we didn’t have full 3D graphics, fast computers and consoles. This multi-part retrospective will cover several major games and changes to the RPG genre that have happened over the last four decades, and what we may expect to happen in the future.
History – Akalabeth to Gold Box and the first CRPG’s
Most gamers have heard of the Ultima series of games and have possibly heard of their creator Lord British, but many may not know of Akalabeth, also known as Ultima 0. This was the first game created by Lord British himself, Richard Garriott. This game was his 28th attempt at creating an RPG and until it was officially published was sold in plastic baggies and provided a source of income while he was in school.
Akalabeth is widely considered the first graphical RPG for home computers and certainly was the main influence for many game makers in the years to come.
After Akalabeth, there were several very important Role Playing Games released, including Wizardry and the first Ultima game in 1981, the industry standard-setting Ultima III in 1983, and a well-received game Bards Tale in 1985. All of these games were popular and have become classics in their own right.
One game that came out in 1985 that continued the RPG industry standardization and is quite possibly the most influential RPG in the history of 2D Role Playing Games is Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.
Ultima IV was the game that standardized the hack and slash game play with true story elements. What made this important to RPG players is that the games became more of an adventure than an arcade game. This style was copied and cloned in several games for over a decade and is still one of the most frequently, legally downloaded games on the internet. Amazing for a twenty-year-old game with 2D tiled graphics and low quality sound effects.
Ultima to this day remains a series of games that has a huge worldwide following. In 1987, PC gamers saw the release of a new RPG that also has a strong long-standing following, Might and Magic. The Might and Magic games became very popular because of a strong story, a large world, and a combat-heavy game style that appealed to the less hardcore RPG fan. This also helped create a new style of RPG with faster game play. This style was better showcased by the first true real-time RPG, Dungeon Master.
Dungeon Master was a breath of fresh air for many people; it offered faster game play instead of the slower turn-based combat common in almost every RPG to date. It also allowed for object and environment manipulation instead of using text-based commands, using runes to cast spells and requiring the player to remember rune combinations for casting. It is a game that was certainly ahead of its time and not easily copied. Many tried and none really came close to cloning the game until years later.
In 1988, one of the most popular RPGs and one of the first to legally use the Dungeons and Dragons game play rules and universe hit the market: The Gold Box game Pool of Radiance. This is widely considered the best Dungeons and Dragons (CRPG) release before Baldur’s Gate a full decade later. An amazingly full storyline and a battle system that felt similar to the pencil and paper version of D&D helped propel this game in to superstar status.
The Gold Box games became very popular with a total of 14 titles released over four years, including Dungeons and Dragons, Dragonlance, Buck Rogers and Savage Frontier Forgotten Realms. This was certainly a list of too many games to be released in such a short time. Over-saturation of the market and the rise in popularity of other game genres almost stalled out the CRPG.
While PC gamers bathed in virtual worlds and sprites in their favorite RPGs for many years, personal computers were not the only place to play Role Playing Games; console gamers had a limited variety of choices, usually with a single game on each console for several years. From Atari’s Dragonstomper to Intellivison’s less than stellar Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games, console gamers opened up the CRPG door and never let it close.
The first truly amazing console RPG was introduced for the Famicom, called Dragon Warrior (also called Dragon Quest). This stellar game was first introduced in Japan in 1986 and later on the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, but with enhanced graphics and sound effects. This game was the first game in a long-lived series so popular in Japan that that during each initial game release, Japanese stores couldn’t sell the game until the weekend due to people missing work and school. No other game, including the Final Fantasy games, has had such a wide impact.
Quickly following on the mass hype of the first game, Enix in 1987 brought out Dragon Quest II in Japan. Dragon Quest II, while not as widely popular as the original, cemented the fact that consoles could have games that were compelling to play and did not require a keyboard.
Also in 1987 a small, almost unsuccessful company put everything on the line with a single game, and the last game before closing its doors. This game would change the company’s future and really change the course of role-playing games forever. Of course, this game was Final Fantasy, Square Co.’s greatest game series and a series that has spawned a feature film, a very popular MMORPG, two strategy games and a dozen sequels. This last-ditch effort helped change the way all games were created in Japan and across the world.
Final Fantasy has really changed the RPG genre with advancement in a movie-style cinematic system that has been copied more times than can be counted, possibly selling more consoles for Nintendo and subsequently Sony than any other video game, thus raising the bar for other developers to follow. Square saw that with the Sony Playstation, it could do something never seen before and released one of the highest selling Role Playing Games in the history of consoles and personal computers, Final Fantasy VII.
If you see the screens for the games listed, they have not really changed much in the fifteen years or so covered thus far, but by the 1990’s games began to push their platforms and their developers, moving the game development from smaller developer houses to larger teams.
Evolution of Graphics in Role Playing Games from Akalabeth to Oblivion
From the original graphical RPG, Akalabeth, to the great Final Fantasy II, computer graphics did not really change at all; simple line art and iconic tile maps with two to sixteen colors really forced players’ imaginations to work overtime if they wanted to feel the deep dungeons, hear the scraping of skeletal feet and even hear the crossing of swords.
Interestingly, many of these games did not require color monitors at all. Monochrome screens worked as well as the temperamental CRT monitors that showed but three colors (when they warmed up they were able to show four). It really wasn’t until the creation of standards for PC gaming with EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter/Array) and VGA (Video Graphics Adapter/Array) that games required better monitors, better video cards, and, ultimately, the need for more money.
Consoles at the time would work on any old TV, and even the Playstation 2 and Xbox would be happy on a 25-year-old TV without any real issues. The quality wasn’t there, but it worked.
PC Gaming has pushed the advancement of video cards to new heights, extreme prices, and regular updates. While RPGs have not pushed this need as fast as other game genres such as First Person Shooters, the evolution of animation and texturing has progressed more with RPGs in recent years than any other genre.
Advanced animation techniques, terrain rendering, texture creation, model rendering and lighting have really been pushed by the creation of creatures and living worlds upon which they roam. This progress has been particularly evident in Eye of the Beholder, Ultima VII, Baldur’s Gate, Never Winter Nights, Elder Scrolls series and certainly the Final Fantasy VII game.
In the last decade, Role Playing Games have moved to the forefront with the creation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), which to efficiently run require faster computers and more powerful video cards. While these games are not often graphically competitive with single player games, they do require the graphic horsepower. This has aided in the ability to build more richly textured worlds, with more players and more varied landscapes.
Possibly the one game that has benefited from this advancement in graphic horsepower is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion is certainly one of the nicest looking games to come out in the last couple of years in an almost seamless world that varies from night to day, from grasslands to forest to mountains, and has set a benchmark for game developers to follow.
Companies have also become standardized for graphics cards, with nVidia and ATI the most popular brands. Releasing more powerful cards almost on a monthly basis, most users can easily spend more on a single video card than the rest of the computer. New computer purchases are rarely made anymore without deciding which video card to install.
In the future, games will improve graphically. This is a guarantee. We are seeing renders and early alpha images from games that are becoming closer to real life in every way. But in the next ten years will we see a dramatic jump, such as the one we saw from line art to 2D to 3D? As gaming systems become more powerful, we will most definitely see better and more detailed real time shadowing, higher resolutions and procedural animation and rendering, which will create worlds of wonder and excitement we could not have before imagined.