Editorial Forgotten Ruins: The Roots of CRPGs

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Reggie Carolipio; Strategic Simulations, Inc.

<p>Bitmob started a new series of retrospectives covering the last 30 years in CRPGs. <a href="http://www.bitmob.com/articles/forgotten-ruins-the-roots-of-computer-role-playing-games-strategic-simulations-inc" target="_blank">Here's part one</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>SSI: The Midas Touch<br />1979 - 2001</strong><br /><br />The very first impression that I had of Strategic Simulations, Inc. was that they made games for old people. At the time, I had no idea why I should care about the Fulda Gap or superpowers colliding, only that it didn't seem all that exciting. That is until I saw their CRPGs. Those boxes looked a lot more interesting.<br /><br />What I didn't know then was that they were one of the de facto masters of tabletop-styled simulations on PCs. Looking at their catalog (and wishing they did more CRPGs), it seemed as if they did everything from the Civil War to the Cold War with some football and baseball thrown in between just for giggles. From fighting along the Eastern Front on the Apple to the beaches of the Commodore 64, they were there.<br /><br />They were also one of the most prolific developers and publishers in PC gaming history with a catalog of well over a hundred and fifty titles stamped with their logo. If you think the WW2 genre is saturated with shooters, you should have seen their catalog during the eighties when it came to turn-based strategy. Yet no one complained.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/100660-forgotten-ruins-the-roots-of-crpgs-part-one.html">GB</a></p>

 

[Trash]

Man, that picture brings back some memories. Loved those cloth maps that came with the Ultima games.

 

[Azira]

Too bad that cloth map is from the piece of steaming faeces that is Ultima IX..

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Many of SSI's stars still make war and strategy games and sell them on Matrix games, Battlefront, etc.

It has been brought up before as to whether they should bring out new 'Goldbox' like CRPG's, but they have said there is no market for it. I told them there is just as much, if not more of, a market for these kinds of games than their current hardcore strategy titles, but I guess they were burned too hard back in the day.

 

[Silellak]

Too bad that cloth map is from the piece of steaming faeces that is Ultima IX..

Yeah, just seeing the map of the "re-imagined for Ultima IX" layout of Britannia makes me

 

[Excommunicator]

The U9 map is better because it was realistically portrayed as a planet that had been in a collision with its own moon.




Besides, Trinsic was always a Hindu temple built over the ocean.















Problem, ultimafags?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Too bad that cloth map is from the piece of steaming faeces that is Ultima IX..

Yeah, just seeing the map of the "re-imagined for Ultima IX" layout of Britannia makes me

Look at the bright side, at least it's accurate and useful, unlike the map that came with Ultima VIII.

 

[Ruprekt]

Ultima 8 didn't even come with a map over here.

 

[Luzur]

Man, that picture brings back some memories. Loved those cloth maps that came with the Ultima games.

cloth map for Neverwinter? whats that from?

 

[Excommunicator]

NWN1 had one

 

[AlaCarcuss]

cloth map for Neverwinter? whats that from?

NWN1 had one

I got a cloth map with NWN2 CE as well (along with an alignment ring and a few other goodies). Probably the last we'll see of them though.

 

[Phelot]

I remember the NWN cloth was more like a handkerchief

 

[commie]

Many of SSI's stars still make war and strategy games and sell them on Matrix games, Battlefront, etc.

It has been brought up before as to whether they should bring out new 'Goldbox' like CRPG's, but they have said there is no market for it. I told them there is just as much, if not more of, a market for these kinds of games than their current hardcore strategy titles, but I guess they were burned too hard back in the day.

True, if Vogel can sell his stuff and do ok with it, why not a reboot of Gold Box which has a lot more recognition?

Speaking of SSI, those guys must be the most underrated developers in history: apart from Gary Grigsby and Keith Brors for the wargames, almost everyone is anonymous. Who knows about the guys that made Gold Box or Panzer General?

SSI rank equal top on my all time great developers lists, maybe not always the most innovative of developers and they churned out a lot of crap too(Hillsfar anyone?), but their games both RPG and wargame(among other genres they dabbled in) were defining in creating my essential tastes as a gamer.


As for cloth maps, Baldur's Gate II also had a blurry cloth/rubbery map.

 

[Decado]

Phantasie. Hnnnnngggggg shit I remember this game. It was ball-breakingly hard for a 12 year old. God in heaven. I remember I faked being sick for two days so I could stay home and play it and try to beat the goddamn thing.

 

[Sceptic]

apart from Gary Grigsby and Keith Brors for the wargames, almost everyone is anonymous.

Russ Brown of Dark Sun: Shattered Lands fame

 

[Silellak]

Ultima IX

Look at the bright side

No.

 

[commie]

apart from Gary Grigsby and Keith Brors for the wargames, almost everyone is anonymous.

Russ Brown of Dark Sun: Shattered Lands fame

Well who's Russ Brown? That's what I'm talking about: everyone knows Lord British, Chris Roberts, Feargus, MCA, Sid, Todd and all manner of developers for all manner of companies, yet SSI's geniuses are largely forgotten which is fucking bullshit.

 

[SCO]

The U9 map is better because it was realistically portrayed as a planet that had been in a collision with its own moon.




Besides, Trinsic was always a Hindu temple built over the ocean.















Problem, ultimafags?

Considering that in ultima 7 and entire region is transposed to a alternate world, and in ultima 7 the world was.... the size of 4 conjoined building blocks.


No.



I didn't play ultima IX.

 

[SCO]

NWN1 had one

Motherfuckers! I was stolen!

 

[Luzur]

maybe because they didnt give interviews and dress up as medieval kings?

 

[MisterStone]

Whats all this newfag SSI goldbox shit. I was owning Tunnels of Doom in my underoos and pajamas before this dude's dad even got laid for the first time!

:rgpcodex:

 

[Luzur]

pfffft, i raise you with a Pyramid of Doom.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Well, may be a big potential market for new gold box style CRPGs, but after the death of classic CRPGs those people have scattered to the four winds and some may no longer be paying attention to the genre. There is no guarantee that the potential market would crystallize into an actual good number of people who would buy any given game.

For example, nobody bought Natuk, despite its superficial* similarities to the classics.

It would take marketing to turn that widely scattered group of potential buyers into an actual market for a game, and it would be risky try and do it.

Whereas the market for tedious counter based wargames is pretty well established, so even if it's not a particularly large market, you can reliably predict that if you take your last game and rename all your WW2 units as Korean War units, you will sell X number of copies, so it's not particularly risky for HPS sims to churn out another game as long as they keep expenses low.

Similarly Vogel has an established market of fans he sells to. He also benefits from having built up that fanbase over well over a decade of making the same shit and an unbroken connection to the days when games like that were actually common.

I don't think you can assume that making an old school style CRPG would be a great financial decision.

* At a superficial level Natuk seems like it has a lot of similarities to the classics and appears well made. But I'm not sure if the combat ever become tactical/fun... I played it for like 6 hours and it never did.

 

[Sceptic]

pfffft, i raise you with a Pyramid of Doom.

I thought I was the only guy alive who played Scott Adams games. I love you bro

Oh yeah, and I raise you a Beneath Apple Manor

(played it years after release though)

 

[MisterStone]

Scott Adams fuck yeahr, I beat Pyramid of Doom and Pirate Adventure (say yoho bitchiz)