Where did it all start?Follow

Very cool stories, I remember some of those mentioned, Monkey island were definantly up there in my list of best adventure games without a doub,t and I often use Scummvm to play them for nostalgic reasons.

My first was also Adventure on Atari 2600. Another great game that was RPGish was The Raiders Of The Lost Ark game on 2600, for its time it was very in depth. The Swordquest games were great too. Finally Montezuma's Revenge was one of my favorites, The Atari 5200 version is amazing for its day, the 2600 version is nowhere near as good, but a good game none the less.

If you haven't played or heard of these games, I'd suggest at least getting them on an emulator and checking them out.

I know they are more Adventurish type games than true RPG but They were the closest thing at the time.



Haha I had to edit this post just to add the fact that some of the sounds from Montezuma's Revenge and Swordquest are still as clear in my mind as they were 25 years ago, and some of the graphics from The Raiders Of The Lost Ark are there too. I can imagine the sounds and sights perfectly as if I was just playing them 5 minutes ago.. I still have all these games and systems, I need to pull them out and play them.



Edited, Jun 2nd 2009 12:41am by Zeke

Zelda: Link's Awalening when I was 5 . . . that game kicked my *** . . . never finished it . . . wish i still had >_>

Later . . .does Battle Toads count?


But the game that really got me in the genre was FFVII . . . remember thinking those graphics were just out of this world . . . gogo box hands!

I have played all FF's since and gone back to play most of the old ones . . . love them all except X-2 -_- and X and XII I didn't like near as much, main characters whined too much and it was way too serious.

An upstairs neighbor was moving out (his girlfriend was kicking him out, actually) and in his haste he left behind his Sega master system and a copy of Phantasy Star. It was my first RPG and I loved every second of it! Myau, Noah, Alis, and Odin will forever be my first and probably fondest memory of a video game. :)

My absolute first RPG game was probably Oregon Trial on the Apple II GS now that I think about it. For those who never played it, you'd basically simulate traveling from Missouri to Oregon on a wagon. You'd pick a job that determines the money you start with, and then buy supplies and then head off. You could buy more supplies at forts along the way, but for the most part you had to keep up on food by hunting (which everyone at my elementary school loved to do.) Along the trail you'd there'd be random events where you'd find maybe wild fruit for food, or (more likely) end up having someone come down with Dysentery. Most people who started playing the game in my class would eventually die early on since they just liked to hunt, leaving only a tomb stone behind (which you could carve with a message for future players to see, was kinda funny some of the messages people left). I remember when I finally got the game myself at home finally learning how to actually beet the game, and then trying to impress people at school (they didn't care, lol).

After that, there was Space Quest on the same computer. One of those games where you have to type in text commands and hope you get the right command to work. I remember trying to use the computer console and typing everything from "use computer" "push buttons" "turn on computer" and couldn't get the damn thing to work... finally realizing that you needed to type "use keyboard". That was also the first game to require hint books, as this was before the internet, so that hint book was your only way to figure out what the heck you needed to do. They were also pretty humorous with many of the answers, which probably contributed to me now collecting guides, including the infamous Brady guide for FFXI (hey, you can't argue that reading through that isn't funny).

Finally as far as console games go, my first was good ole FF I on the NES. I remember not knowing how to equip items, and just running away from everything until I actually managed to get to (and lose) to the first boss... pretty sad. When I finally figured out more of the game, I didn't know how to turn up the message speed, and so battles were sloooow as hell, and then I ran into enemies that can poison. And when the PURE potions need to cure poison cost half your money at that point, I learned to dispise those poison users, running away whenever I saw them. In fact, that first game nearly required you to run away to make it through half the dungeons, so I started picking up the bad habit of running all the time, and never getting xp or gold. I actually made it all the way to elfland, where I wasn't prepared for the epic grind required to move forward, and quit the game for the longest time thinking is sucked.

I next moved onto to Dragon Quest III, which had much more developed text then the one screen of text all NPCs had in FF. I played around with it, figured out the party system somewhat, but then got pissed that I never had any gold, and then even more pissed when I ran into poisonous enemies, even though antidotes were much more reasonably priced (hey, I needed that gold for the equipment I could never afford! grrrr). So I deemed that game sucked and moved on, thinking I'd never pick up another game like that.

Well one day I started reading about FF IV (II in the US at the time), and it actually sounded kind of interesting. I rented it and was amazed at how much better it was! I still wasn't that good at the game, but I was impressed at how incredible the story was compared to the other games I had played. It had drama and adventure and romance, heck when I tried to explain the game to my sister she called it a video game soap opera. Of course, I still wasn't that good at the game since I was still following that bad habbit of running away all the time and never getting xp. However, I would play the game on other people's files (it was a rental after all) and got to try out different characters and explore the world.

As ashamed as I am to admit this, the first cosole RPG that taught me how to play them correctly was... Final Fantasy Mystic Quest ><. Heck, compared to the early games I played, it still had a decent story, and some of the mechanics were cool, like using weapons interactively on the maps, such as an axe to cut down trees and a claw to climb walls. I guess I was one of the few people that game was aimed at, to teach how to play RPGs, lol.

Anyways, after that, the rest is history. RPGs became my game of choice, and my main complaint nowadays is that I find them all too easy, lol.

I clearly remember the first time I ever heard of Final Fantasy 1. I was visiting my friend Joey, and we went to his grandmother's house for the day. We were inside for lunch, when I look over and see their Nintendo. We went over to see what games they had, and OH BOY A GAME WITH SWORDS AND AXES!

So we put in the cartridge (alright we didn't have to blow on it!) and start it up. Cool, cool music... what's up here...

Oh my god. How stupid. Who wants to play a game where you just walk through town?

We turned it off. Then, we grabbed a book off his grandmother's shelf, and went outside pretending to be wizards and summoning demons to fight other demons.

If you don't count Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy II (IV) was my first RPG that I actually played, after I went through Video Pro's other games. When III (VI) came out, and I saw the box, I thought it was so cool, and rented it. And rented it. And rented it. That year for my birthday, my mom bought me the game.

I was hooked, and have played just about every RPG I could get my hands on.

And yes, The Immortal was a hard %&$#ing game.

Does "Liesure Suit Larry" on my old Tandy count? If not, then the original FF on NES was my first.

Edit: Grammar

Edited, Jun 2nd 2009 10:37am by Lostkaws

I miss playing those games, and for a long time I never knew what they were because they said Final Fantasy but... they weren't Final Fantasy. Oh the insanity.

On the adventure one I got lost in that oasis and could never figure out where I was supposed to go. Find the 8 palm trees or whatever, damn that oasis. It would be nice to pick that back up and finish it after all these years.

I loved FF legend II but I lost it before I could finish it; there is supposed to be a DS remake of it coming out soon, and I'm pretty excited!

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Sir-Tech 1981 for the Apple ][) was the first RPG I played. I also played Wizardry II and III in 1982 and 1983, but by the time Wizardry IV came out in 1986, Bard's Tale was out and there had been a sea change in RPG games.

Years before Wizardry, there were the Avalon-Hill board games. (Anyone remember Panzer Blitz?) I spent many a lost weekend moving pieces on a hexagonal grid.

Someone mentioned Shining Force 2. That was my "gateway drug". Was about 9 year old maybe and had the Sega Genesis with the Sega Channel they had out.

I still remember the cheat code "Configuration".
up up, down down, left left, right right, up right, down left hold B press start.

Anyone remember Sega Channel? lol.

Ah, nethack, Zork, and the gang...

I played a fair bit of AD&D in junior high and high school, but in college added GURPS and Shadowrun. College was also when I discovered larn (another roguelike game vaguely in the nethack category), which took up a fair bit of time. When I finally saved up to invest in a smokin' fast 14.4 modem, Niakohr got me hooked on MUD II. We spent so much time dying thanks to trans-Atlantic lag that the arch-wiz introduced a new mob to "honor" us - the netlag.

Thanks, Nia, for reminding me about this thread and mentioning our MUD II times. I wonder if Ug is still running around The Land killing off every player he can find. Thanks to you, I spent an hour this afternoon looking up MUD II references, and now I have an itch to sip tea, visit the inn, and swamp some treasures (preferably without carrying a lit brand into the swamp and exploding).

Oh, and for the record, I was quite good at becoming grue food in my youth.

Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars was the first RPG I ever played. I was 9 years old, back in 96 I think. Only game I know of that squaresoft and nintendo worked together on.

I had such a hard time getting through it. But I eventually took it down. That PEARLS puzzle got me stuck for weeks. No one in my family could figure out how to solve it. I remember figuring out what each letter is on my own. I was so proud lol. I got stuck on Smithy for months, couldn't take him down. Eventually I did one day.

Then I came back to the game 3 years later..And after playing other RPG's, I pretty much went through the whole thing without any trouble, even taking down that crystal dude which was pretty much it's version of ruby weapon.

After Super Mario RPG I started playing things like Pokemon, Dragon Warrior monsters, Zelda, and eventually led up to FF7 when I was in 6th grade. Ever since FF7 i've pretty much been hooked on RPG's.

Edited, Jun 3rd 2009 4:20pm by Zafire