Monday, July 05, 2010
CRPG Addict
I thought this morning I’d give a plug to a blog that’s been in my rss reader for some time, CRPG Addict.
So far he has played through games listed on the wikipedia page for DOS in release order.
Right now he is on to playing Might and Magic 1 after a mixup in Bards Tale II.
I do particularly like the GIMLET post.
THE RULES
There must be rules. Otherwise we have chaos. These are my rules as I work my way through every PC CRPG ever published.
1. Wikipedia’s list is my Bible. The titles on this list are heavily biased towards CRPGs commercially released through established publishers. I understand there are some really good freeware, browser-based, and otherwise noncommercial RPGs out there, but honestly this project is taking enough time as it is. I’m also going to work through the list based on initial publication date, even if the version I’m playing is a re-release or newer port.
2. Only PC RPGs. To appear on my play list, the game has to have been released for DOS or the PC, if only as a port. I’m not going to frig around with C64 or Apple II emulators.
3. No hints, no cheats, no walkthroughs. We didn’t have these in the 1980s, and I don’t need them now. If I make mistakes, or it takes me a little longer, well that’s part of the fun of the game. I will only use the Internet to solve technical problems. I will allow myself one exception: if anyone reading this blog wants to post non-spoiler gameplay hints to problems I’ve posed, I’ll use them.
4. I don’t have to win every game, but I must at least make a sincere effort to play it. I’m writing this initial posting after already starting on my project. The second game I played (as you’ll soon read) was an early version of Rogue. It took me four months of playing to beat it. It became almost an obsession. Four months is an acceptable time to beat some games if the world is big enough (think Daggerfall), but the reason it took so long to beat Rogue is that the game is punishingly difficult. After even a few days of playing it, there was really nothing new left to discover. I won’t do this for every game. I will devote a minimum of six hours to each one, but if after that I’m having no fun or the play is repetitive, it’s on to the next game.
4. If the game is still available commercially, I will buy it. I believe in rewarding game developers and publishers for their hard work. But if it is not avaiable commercially, I will have no compunction downloading it from abandonware sites or otherwise obtaining it illegally.
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