Vapourware The definitive, authoritative, and probably non-exhaustive list of non-(IBM) PC cRPGs

[rusty_shackleford]

Went through every single game on CRPGAddict's master list. Time to find new games.
Probably going to hunt through more of those disk magazines eventually, might be some good things buried in those.

 

[Jarpie]

The two late Amiga-games Blade and The Prophet: The Tome Of Primall - Chapter 1 are very shit, wouldn't recommend even to my worst enemies.

 

[Rincewind]

You didn't go through the Hall of Light archives yet, did you?
I just found one that's not on your Amiga list:
https://hol.abime.net/5714

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You didn't go through the Hall of Light archives yet, did you?
I just found one that's not on your Amiga list:
https://hol.abime.net/5714

Rejected it for not being a cRPG(it's an adventure game afaict) before I started the rejection list. You can find gameplay footage here:

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I think I have the massive majority of the games for the more popular platforms(e.g., Amiga, Apple II, ...), Going to do some manual cleaning and start working on the more obscure platforms.
One thing that surprised me was how few games the Atari ST had.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Oracle's Cave (1984) for the ZX Spectrum and C64.

Spoiler

 

[octavius]

Damned, I missed so many Speccy games.
But unlike old DOS/Apple games I can't play emulated Speccy games. But I will always have the nostalgia...

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Damned, I missed so many Speccy games.
But unlike old DOS/Apple games I can't play emulated Speccy games. But I will always the the nostalgia...

As in can't actually run a Spectrum emulator or the emulation of Speccy games isn't as good as advertised?

 

[octavius]

Damned, I missed so many Speccy games.
But unlike old DOS/Apple games I can't play emulated Speccy games. But I will always the the nostalgia...

As in can't actually run a Spectrum emulator or the emulation of Speccy games isn't as good as advertised?

Can't get back to the primtive UI. Most of the Speccy games were real time as well, which make non-standard UIs harder to get into.
Also, I think the nostalgia argument may be valid for Speccy games. Tir Na Nog certainly felt much smaller when I replayed it ten years ago.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Damned, I missed so many Speccy games.
But unlike old DOS/Apple games I can't play emulated Speccy games. But I will always the the nostalgia...

As in can't actually run a Spectrum emulator or the emulation of Speccy games isn't as good as advertised?

Can't get back to the primtive UI. Most of the Speccy games were real time as well, which make non-standard UIs harder to get into.
Also, I think the nostalgia argument may be valid for Speccy games. Tir Na Nog certainly felt much smaller when I replayed it ten years ago.

That makes sense, I've tried a few, and they were practically impossible to control. Not any of the popular ones, just random titles. Its that combination of non-standardized controls and the color scheme that makes it hard for people to go back to. You have some computers from the era, and while they may have bizarre controls or look unholy, its never really together, unlike the Spectrum.

 

[almondblight]

For pre-OSX Mac stuff:

Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers

I'm pretty sure there was some Codexer that was talking about playing this some years ago and said it was good.

Pillars of Garendall


Also, if you're going to include Escape Velocity, you might as well include it's sequel Escape Velocity: Override. Though people are apparently [working on bringing it](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmicfrontier/cosmic-frontier-override/description) to modern machines.

As for The Odyssey and Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis, they are indeed unrelated. I believe Jeff Vogel has talked about how the latter (which is supposed to be a somewhat unusual RPG) inspired some of the stuff in his games.

Here's a good blog post going over Jewels of Arabia, Odyssey: Legend of Nemesis, and Cythera, all of which a lot of people seem to have good things to say about.

 

[octavius]

For pre-OSX Mac stuff:

Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers

Looks like Realmz, I game I really tried to like but...

Gave PC Realmz another try.
A wizard joined the party and the first thing he did was to attack three gnomes. Suddenly 15 of their cousins appeared. My guys hardly ever hit them, they resisted or saved against most spells, and it soon turned into a slaughter.
I guess you either need to meta game or play with maxed out characters.
Anyway, I took it as a sign that I'm not just meant to play this game.

Some of the games on that blog you mentioned may be worth checking after I've finished Arcanum.

 

[Rincewind]

Here's a good blog post going over Jewels of Arabia, Odyssey: Legend of Nemesis, and Cythera, all of which a lot of people seem to have good things to say about.

Nice find! I wanted to post info about Odyssey - The Legend of Nemesis here today, but you beat me to it.

 

[almondblight]

Looks like Realmz, I game I really tried to like but...

Gave PC Realmz another try.
A wizard joined the party and the first thing he did was to attack three gnomes. Suddenly 15 of their cousins appeared. My guys hardly ever hit them, they resisted or saved against most spells, and it soon turned into a slaughter.
I guess you either need to meta game or play with maxed out characters.
Anyway, I took it as a sign that I'm not just meant to play this game.

One thing to keep in mind with Realmz is that it's a proto-NWN (or Neo-FRUA). You probably played the included City of Bywater scenario (I remember enjoying what I played of it), but there were a ton of others. I believe the Sword Lands Trilogy is supposed to be one of the most well regarded. This discussion on the Watch claims the Sword Lands Trilogy "features some of the most impressive instances of choices/consequences I've ever seen in a RPG."

One of the interesting things about Realmz (and probably Blades of Exile as well) is that some of these scenarios are supposed to be really good, but they also seem to be pretty close to extinction. There's still a little bit of information floating around on the net about how to play them, but if they're not properly preserved they could well become lost.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

For pre-OSX Mac stuff:

Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers

Looks like Realmz, I game I really tried to like but...

Gave PC Realmz another try.
A wizard joined the party and the first thing he did was to attack three gnomes. Suddenly 15 of their cousins appeared. My guys hardly ever hit them, they resisted or saved against most spells, and it soon turned into a slaughter.
I guess you either need to meta game or play with maxed out characters.
Anyway, I took it as a sign that I'm not just meant to play this game.

Some of the games on that blog you mentioned may be worth checking after I've finished Arcanum.

fyi, there's a game made using the Realmz engine in a sci-fi setting
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-sci-fi-rpg-thread.130822/page-6#post-7523566

 

[Fluent]

Hey guys. Just wanted to add, if u want to see more awesome vintage Mac games, check out Macintosh Garden online. Go to the RPGs section and have a blast! I bought a vintage Mac specifically for the purpose of playing all those old 80s-90s-early 2000s Mac games because I love the aesthetic. Have almost every interesting one installed in some way on it. So just check out that site's list and you'll see a lot of cool Mac games! Cheers. <3

 

[rusty_shackleford]

For pre-OSX Mac stuff:

Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers

I'm pretty sure there was some Codexer that was talking about playing this some years ago and said it was good.

Pillars of Garendall


Also, if you're going to include Escape Velocity, you might as well include it's sequel Escape Velocity: Override. Though people are apparently [working on bringing it](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmicfrontier/cosmic-frontier-override/description) to modern machines.

As for The Odyssey and Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis, they are indeed unrelated. I believe Jeff Vogel has talked about how the latter (which is supposed to be a somewhat unusual RPG) inspired some of the stuff in his games.

Here's a good blog post going over Jewels of Arabia, Odyssey: Legend of Nemesis, and Cythera, all of which a lot of people seem to have good things to say about.

Added Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers, Pillars of Garendall appears to have a windows version so it was not added.
I looked at Escape Velocity and it didn't appear to be a cRPG(not sure how it made it to my list,) what say Codex?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Cleaned up the BB code(graphical editor makes a mess when adding/removing list elements), added release years to all games so far to the best of my ability(please make a post if they're wrong -- release years are for that specific platform and may differ between platforms,) removed some non-RPGs.

As this got way bigger than I expected it to get originally, I'll probably move the second idea (exhaustive list of the differences between cRPGs on their available platforms) to a separate thread when I begin working on it. I don't think there's really anything like that to start from so it will probably take much more community effort, I'll likely start with the big name titles.

Probably going to go through the consoles to find some more excloosive cRPGs(NOT jrpgs)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Rings of Power for the genesis looks cool

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Goldbox-style...ish... game for the TurboGrafx by Westwood similar to the one they made on Genesis. Huh, appears to use basic D&D rather than AD&D though, that's pretty unique.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/turbo-grafx/order-of-the-griffon
As an aside, I hate youtube videos where the person tries to be a personality, I just want to see gameplay footage...

 

[Grauken]

For pre-OSX Mac stuff:

Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers

Looks like Realmz, I game I really tried to like but...

Gave PC Realmz another try.
A wizard joined the party and the first thing he did was to attack three gnomes. Suddenly 15 of their cousins appeared. My guys hardly ever hit them, they resisted or saved against most spells, and it soon turned into a slaughter.
I guess you either need to meta game or play with maxed out characters.
Anyway, I took it as a sign that I'm not just meant to play this game.

Some of the games on that blog you mentioned may be worth checking after I've finished Arcanum.

fyi, there's a game made using the Realmz engine in a sci-fi setting
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-sci-fi-rpg-thread.130822/page-6#post-7523566

When I found out about it a couple of years ago I tried to get my hands on it but never managed. Maybe you get luckier

 

[rusty_shackleford]

When I found out about it a couple of years ago I tried to get my hands on it but never managed. Maybe you get luckier

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This game looks like modern day Unity shovelware


(Not going on the list, just happened by it and was curious)

 

[flyingjohn]

For pre-OSX Mac stuff:

Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers

Looks like Realmz, I game I really tried to like but...

Gave PC Realmz another try.
A wizard joined the party and the first thing he did was to attack three gnomes. Suddenly 15 of their cousins appeared. My guys hardly ever hit them, they resisted or saved against most spells, and it soon turned into a slaughter.
I guess you either need to meta game or play with maxed out characters.
Anyway, I took it as a sign that I'm not just meant to play this game.

Some of the games on that blog you mentioned may be worth checking after I've finished Arcanum.

fyi, there's a game made using the Realmz engine in a sci-fi setting
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-sci-fi-rpg-thread.130822/page-6#post-7523566

When I found out about it a couple of years ago I tried to get my hands on it but never managed. Maybe you get luckier

Dude,there is like two mac game hosting websites.
Hint:Repository.

 

[Grauken]

For pre-OSX Mac stuff:

Jewels of Arabia: Dreamers

Looks like Realmz, I game I really tried to like but...

Gave PC Realmz another try.
A wizard joined the party and the first thing he did was to attack three gnomes. Suddenly 15 of their cousins appeared. My guys hardly ever hit them, they resisted or saved against most spells, and it soon turned into a slaughter.
I guess you either need to meta game or play with maxed out characters.
Anyway, I took it as a sign that I'm not just meant to play this game.

Some of the games on that blog you mentioned may be worth checking after I've finished Arcanum.

fyi, there's a game made using the Realmz engine in a sci-fi setting
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-sci-fi-rpg-thread.130822/page-6#post-7523566

When I found out about it a couple of years ago I tried to get my hands on it but never managed. Maybe you get luckier

Dude,there is like two mac game hosting websites.
Hint:Repository.

They didn't have it when I was looking a couple of years ago, seems to have changed since then