Amiga, Apple, Atari and Commodore Exclusive Must Play RPGs

[:Flash:]

i'll do my best.
[...]
Alternate Reality: The Dungeon
Newcomer
[...]

Most of these are non-exclusive and crossed multiple platforms. Are any of these exclusively non-IBM PC and belong on a Must Play list?

I have never played them, but these two are the games I have always wanted to try, because of their ambition and creation history. (I guess Luzur didn't include Alternate Reality: The City, because it has a PC port, but I'd still only play the original version by Price)
Here is an interesting article and an Interview about Alternate Reality.

Newcomer is possibly the most ambitious RPG ever developed for the C64. It's development was started when the C64 was a common machine, but it took 20 years of development time to finish it. It certainly has impressive graphics (for a C64). Here's a short article.
I just love these games that are developed by crazy people with no regard for commercial viability.

 

[DaveO]

While neither Wizard's Crown nor Eternal Dagger are exclusive to one platform, both are the building blocks of SSI's Gold Box series.

 

[Luzur]

I have never played them, but these two are the games I have always wanted to try, because of their ambition and creation history. (I guess Luzur didn't include Alternate Reality: The City, because it has a PC port, but I'd still only play the original version by Price)
Here is an interesting article and an Interview about Alternate Reality.
.

actually, i didnt include it because i couldnt remember it.

 

[Kwota]

Not really a MUST play but then again it's worth a tryout

rpg/startegy mix called Legion, resident potatobros that had AGA amigas might played it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeu4N5qLQWI

 

[:Flash:]

I have never played them, but these two are the games I have always wanted to try, because of their ambition and creation history. (I guess Luzur didn't include Alternate Reality: The City, because it has a PC port, but I'd still only play the original version by Price)
Here is an interesting article and an Interview about Alternate Reality.
.

actually, i didnt include it because i couldnt remember it.

I found the intro to Alternate Reality on Youtube. It's a must watch. I have never seen an 8-bit intro so well done. From the start with the City sounds becoming music, over the music being synched with both sound and visual effects to the loading screen that seems to be part of the intro and has sound effects, it is just awesome.

 

[Niektory]

Ahaha it even has karaoke.

 

[Luzur]

Ahaha it even has karaoke.

it got karaoke in the bars too.

 

[Tramboi]

Some Amstrad CPC / French exclusives:
http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/le_maitre_des_ames.htm
http://www.genesis8bit.fr/amstrad/game-rom/amstrad-game.php?prog_id=1707

No need to play these, though

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO I HAVWE POSTED ABOUT ALTERNATE REALITY THE DUNGEON BEFORE

WAY AHEAD OF ITS TIME

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Why have so few people played Fate: Gates of Dawn ffs! Even if they had an Amiga most people haven't played the best RPG for this system.

Apparently it's very rare, english version even more so. Can't read anything about it without a comment on how hard it is to find.

It's less about patience and more about fun. I doubt the game stays fresh for "hundreds of hours" if it does then it must the best CRPG ever flying under everyone's radar

I have to admit that I'm anything but a Fate expert, but I have yet to meet someone who has played it for more than an hour and didn't think it was great.
At the same time there are very few people who have actually finished the game (I'm not one of them). But that is actually one of the cool things about it. It was designed by a Neanderthal to be a real challenge to beat. When the creator was still alive and posting on forums, he was rather proud of the fact that so few people finished it.
I'll readily admit that I'll possibly never finish it, but that doesn't mean I think that games like this shouldn't exist.

I wonder if the reason few people have finished it is really the difficulty, or if it's just so big that it loses steam after a while. If everyone who tries it ends up liking it, then I figure many would persevere until the end. What was it you couldn't get past?

edit: heh

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/fate-gates-of-dawn.41788/

 

[Mortmal]

Some Amstrad CPC / French exclusives:
http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/le_maitre_des_ames.htm
http://www.genesis8bit.fr/amstrad/game-rom/amstrad-game.php?prog_id=1707

No need to play these, though

Another well known french cpc exclusive, Fer et Flamme:
http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/fer_et_flamme.htm

Not a must play either i guess ,never played it as i dont own an amstrad CPC , i was a commodore integrist . Since we started a listing we may as well finish it.


Mandragore on C64:

http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=12428&d=18&h=0

 

[Tramboi]

My second link was Fer et Flamme

And of course, Mandragore!
Didn't even know there was a C64 port.

 

[Wolfus]

Working fan-patched versions of Ambermoon and Evil's Doom are here:
hobring.esero.net
There are also WHD-based versions of FATE and Moonstone but they need whd.key.

@Deuce Traveller : Deathlord exist for c64 too.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I probably need to reformat my initial post by naming the Must Play games followed by the system they are ported on, instead of how I have it now where I list the system and have the games underneath each. Does anyone have a different preference?

Also I am thinking of removing Amberstar and Hired Guns from the list since HiddenX mentioned that they were ported to IBM-compatible systems. I have avoided putting games like Eye of the Beholder on the list since it was a well-known IBM PC port. At the same time, Hired Guns and Amberstar seem to be exactly the kind of games I wanted this thread to focus on; the type of games that were gems but few people knew about. Which begs another question. If Hired Guns and Eye of the Beholder were both good games ported on various PC operating systems, why do so many old school CRPGers know about Eye of the Beholder while so few know about Hired Guns and Amberstar? Was Eye of the Beholder made for the IBM PC primarily, then ported to other systems later while the reverse was the case for Hired Guns and Amberstar? Or was it simply the case of poor marketing for the more obscure games?

 

[Telengard]

Hired Guns did not sell that well in the US. It didn't do incredibly with reviewers either. But setting that aside, and entering personal theory mode, possibly there are two big issues. One, it was often billed as an FPS. Probably to try to cache in on the rising FPS popularity. Yet it's not a game setup for FPSers to like. Two, Commodore crashed in 1994 (Hired Guns is '93). Thus leaving the DOS version as its main sales arm, which had a suckier version (and bugged out on me lots, too).

Conversely, Eye of the Beholder was branded, well-reviewed, and quite popular.

 

[octavius]

Hired Guns was designed to be played multi-player, IIRC. That may also have influenced things back in the pre-Internet for all days.

 

[:Flash:]

I probably need to reformat my initial post by naming the Must Play games followed by the system they are ported on, instead of how I have it now where I list the system and have the games underneath each. Does anyone have a different preference?

Also I am thinking of removing Amberstar and Hired Guns from the list since HiddenX mentioned that they were ported to IBM-compatible systems. I have avoided putting games like Eye of the Beholder on the list since it was a well-known IBM PC port. At the same time, Hired Guns and Amberstar seem to be exactly the kind of games I wanted this thread to focus on; the type of games that were gems but few people knew about. Which begs another question. If Hired Guns and Eye of the Beholder were both good games ported on various PC operating systems, why do so many old school CRPGers know about Eye of the Beholder while so few know about Hired Guns and Amberstar? Was Eye of the Beholder made for the IBM PC primarily, then ported to other systems later while the reverse was the case for Hired Guns and Amberstar? Or was it simply the case of poor marketing for the more obscure games?

Amberstar and Ambermoon were made by Thalion and thus suffered from poor marketing and distribution outside of Germany. Thalion had evolved from the Atari demoscene and they often had technically impressive games, but they were the kind of company that wasn't good at the business stuff. They still coded for the Atari/Amiga when the world outside of Germany had long switched to PCs. Their PC ports were released later than the original versions, which wasn't positive as well. The company went bankrupt shortly after the release of the Amiga version of Ambermoon, so that the PC version was never finished.
Now I don't know too much about Hired Guns, but it must have had at least some success. Somewhere in the late 90s/early 2000s there was a remake announced that had exactly the same screen layout. In fact I didn't even learn until much later that there had already been a Hired Guns until much later.

 

[HiddenX]

Deuce Traveler

Name your list <Rare gems and good unknown underdogs of the CRPG genre> and everything is good
Just don't care for the platform. Just care for quality and relative unknown games.

This list would be a good supplement to the felipepepe top list.

 

[Excidium]

if a game is an unknown underdog at this point it's probably for good reason

 

[HiddenX]

There a quite a few games out there, that are worth playing, but never sold well and are only known to die hard fans of the genre.

I search for them too, because like Deuce Traveler I have played most of the known western CRPG stuff.

 

[Morkar Left]

You shouldn't focus literally on system-exclusive games. There are games that are only good on the system it was primarily developed for and wastely inferior or abysmal with the ported versions. You should mention these, too.

 

[Tramboi]

I agree with Morkar : when the PC port is so inferior to another version that nobody would play it, it should be there.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Captive 2: Liberation! I still haven't finished it, but it's loads of fun. Kill everyone for loot and keycards!

 

[Tramboi]

Did you play Knightmare too? I tried it after a Captive binge on my ST a long time ago but I had to play something different. And I never got to it.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Did you play Knightmare too? I tried it after a Captive binge on my ST a long time ago but I had to play something different. And I never got to it.

You asking me or Deuce Traveler? Me, I haven't played Knightmare, no.