The Codex’s Best Computer RPGs (pre-Diablo)

[negator2vc]

Top 20 is full of awesome games!

 

[Captain Rufus]

At this point its clear my votes don't friggin matter anyhow so I'm just gonna pop 5 each into my 2 favorite computer RPGs period:

5 for Curse of the Azure Bonds

5 for Ultima 5: Warriors of Destiny

Honorables to Pool of Radiance, Star Control 2, and Ultima 1.

Console Honorables to Phantasy Stars and Dragon Quests and Kings Fields but this is computer rpgs so they don't count except DQ1 which was on the MSX IIRC but its like the worst of them anyhow. (And I guess Kings Field 1 got a Win 9x or XP era port as an example game in a construction set. Still doesn't count but I'm gonna mention it anyhow.)

I'm getting my Amiga running again so maybe its time to try some forgotten or barely touched with classics? I mean early last year I finally played through World of Xeen and got far as hell in Wizardry 7. What better thing to celebrate my 30th year of owning an Amiga in summer 22 than actually maybe playing more than a taste of Crystals of Trazere n only having finished EoB 2 in the few months between getting the thing and then going into the Navy? Like if playing on old hardware got me to play through Curse through Darkness to finally complete the first Gold Box series (albeit on a Mac iisi as opposed to the C64 I originally beat the first 3 on..) maybe it'll do the same here?

 

[Captain Rufus]

About time I do more than stare at the thing and then parts break before I get to my next upgrade or part.

 

[Rincewind]

About time I do more than stare at the thing and then parts break before I get to my next upgrade or part.

Noice! I have the exact same A500 + GVP HD8+ setup (among a few other other A500s and C64s) but sadly on a different continent... Never really noticed that Sysinfo was developed by a guy around here in Toowoomba, that's a new discovery for me

 

[4too]

My Wonder Years


Auto side mirror warning: "objects in (the) mirror are closer than they appear"...

5 Wasteland (Interplay)

1 Mines of Titan (Westwood) a.k.a. Mars Saga

2 Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (SSI)

1 Sword of Aragon (SSI)

1 Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (SSI)


Enjoying others’ variations on the theme.
Stunned by my personal vehicular blind spots when driving by meme mirrors.
For, your experience, most delightfully, will vary.


4too

 

[himmy]

5P: Daggerfall
3P: Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse
2P: Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

My Wonder Years


Auto side mirror warning: "objects in (the) mirror are closer than they appear"...

5 Wasteland (Interplay)

1 Mines of Titan (Westwood) a.k.a. Mars Saga

2 Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (SSI)

1 Sword of Aragon (SSI)

1 Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (SSI)


Enjoying others’ variations on the theme.
Stunned by my personal vehicular blind spots when driving by meme mirrors.
For, your experience, most delightfully, will vary.


4too

Buck Rogers: Countdown twice?

Also

Spoiler

 

[Disciple]

214 votes so far .

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Thanks for all of the votes, the participation, and your patience with the rules that were set. I especially really enjoyed reading some of the reasoning behind your votes. I know the manner this was done was not perfect, and I encourage someone to put together an online poll and post it in the thread if they want to allow people to rate all of these games instead of just assigning points to a few. As for me, I'll be working on tallying and verifying the results with the Ring of Prestigious Gentlemen.

Although I didn't expect the order they came in (I expected Pool of Radiance higher and Betrayal at Krondor lower), these are the top CRPGs so far according to the initial summation: Betrayal at Krondor, Daggerfall, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, Darklands, Might and Magic: World of Xeen, Pool of Radiance, Ultima 7, Ultima Underworld, and Wizardry 7. There are some surprises in the results, too. Dark Heart of Uukrul got some love despite being an obscure title, but no one voted for the equally obscure Magic Candle series. Exile 3 ended up being more than twice as popular than Exile 1. There were no votes for Wizardry 2 or 3, nor Ultima 1 and 2; but each franchise easily leads the pack in votes, with the Might and Magic series trailing at a respectful third place. However, if we were to tally votes by company than SSI would smash the competition with the two Dark Sun games, Gold Box series, Eye of the Beholder games, Ravenloft games, and a number of others. Interplay's The Bard's Tale trilogy performed much weaker than I expected despite its name recognition, and was outgunned by the indie Exile trilogy. I doubt Exile would even be mentioned on a less prestigious site.

Albion, Princess Maker 2, Conan the Cimmerian, and Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol made a respectful showing, outperforming more well known titles as Realms of Arkania 1 and 3, Quest for Glory 2 and 3, Elder Scrolls: Arena, Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception, and Bard's Tale 2 and 3. FRUA also got some love; more so than most of its felow Gold Box games. I was shocked that Disciples of Steel only got one vote.

We'll have the final numbers announced as an official post later this month.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Wait a second...

The final release in the Exile trilogy takes place some time after Exile II, released in January 1997.

That's it, we have to start all over again.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Good luck with calculating the results! A very interesting poll it was.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Wait a second...

The final release in the Exile trilogy takes place some time after Exile II, released in January 1997.

That's it, we have to start all over again.

And now all the votes that went to Exile III should be declared null and void (according to Wikipedia II is still a 1996 release).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiderweb_Software

 

[rusty_shackleford]

New poll needed

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Happy 25th birthday, Exile 3!

Spoiler

 

[Decado]

Interesting. Why QFG3? The usual thought tends to be that it's the second worst game in the series (but still pretty good imo).

It was my first experience with an RPG. I had played many games prior to QfG 3 - typically platformers, 3d shooters, civilization, point and click adventures - and I enjoyed all of them, but I was not immersed in them. I never felt like it was *me* killing the nazis in Wolf 3D, driving the car in Stunts or leading the Roman tanks in their battles against the Japanese Catapults. Every time I loaded QfG, I felt like being transported into a different world inhabited with brave paladins, terrifying villains, magic, sexy waitresses serving delicacies blended with the finest of spices ... so much more interesting than my shitty real world existence, which consisted of sitting through boring classes all day long.

Of course, many games have better design, nicer graphics, higher quality writing But very few games have made me feel so invested in them as QfG3.

QFG3 sucks compared to 1,2, and 4 but this is a lovely post.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Wait a second...

The final release in the Exile trilogy takes place some time after Exile II, released in January 1997.

That's it, we have to start all over again.

And now all the votes that went to Exile III should be declared and void (according to Wikipedia II is still a 1996 release).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiderweb_Software

I was curious about this, so I decided to do some checking around. Mobygames lists the original Macintosh version as a 1996 release, but there's no month/day. Checking the Macintosh Garden, and they list it as a 1997 release, and what do you know, they have a citation for it? Check that lower right image, and we can see that the game could not have been released earlier than January 1997.
This could be a problem.

 

[V_K]

Just assign all the E2 and E3 votes to E1, let's get it in the top.

 

[OSK]

Although I didn't expect the order they came in (I expected Pool of Radiance higher and Betrayal at Krondor lower)

Shouldn't be too surprising. Betrayal at Krondor was ranked the highest of all these games in the 2019 RPG Codex's Top 101 PC RPGs. Though Pool of Radiance was just below it.

That said, the prestigious RPG Codex ranks all these games below Twitcher 3.

 

[Jason Liang]

Escape from Hell should have more votes. I mean, it's not a top 5 RPG but it's better than most of the RPGs on the poll. It's certainly a better game than say, Wasteland.

Hey, found a LP by our beloved @crookedbee

Let's not keep forgetting about this classic.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Oh, I dunno if it is better than wasteland. It has a comedic tone and you do need certain npcs over others. I think a possible turn-off is not creating your own character. I found it pretty entertaining. It is way better than the movie.

 

[Biggus]

Dungeon Master (Psygnosis Limited)
The Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate (Interplay)
Might and Magic 2: Gates to Another World (New World Computing)
Fate: Gates of Dawn (reLINE Software)
Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (Sir-Tech)

2 each

 

[BarãodoDesterro]

I’d like to thank the Ring of Prestigious Gentlemen, who helped me put together the above list and gave me advice on how to proceed. The members were Decado, mondblut, ERYFKRAD, Fowyr, Zed Duke of Banville, JarlFrank, Dorateen, octavius, and zwanzig_zwoelf.

Calling upon the following fans of older CRPGs to vote on this thread, but readers should feel free to invite others:

octavius
Zed Duke of Banville
Unkillable Cat
Darth Canoli
Meredoth
V_K
Null Null
Butter
Dorateen
ERYFKRAD
Decado
Sceptic
Gregz
newtmonkey
ProphetSword
KeighnMcDeath
DaveO
Ladonna
mediocrepoet
mondblut
Fluent

Considering curatorship is everything, maybe it would be nice to highlight (maybe a separate thread, maybe a separate graphic) the results only considering "Ring of Prestigious Gentlemen" votes (and/or "invited" voters — there is apparently an intersection).

I'm not saying that the hive is mediocre like me; but imagine if, for example, I just played two of the games previously selected, and, because I have problems with my ego, I decided that if I had chosen to play that games before the other games I am therefore infallible in knowing they are preemptively the best.

Even though these things tend to adjust, even because, more than less, the most sought games tend to be, at least, good, there appear to be no embarrassments towards the previous idea.

Nonetheless, accompanying the separate list (or even if it is decided my previous idea is bad), the "RPG" could comment, for example, if they think (based on their opinions, but trying to be objective) if it is agreeable, understandable, absurd, ok (...) that certain game occupies a spot on the list (they could even trash their own votes — something in the lines: "how can we consider ourselves the 'Ring of Prestigious Gentlemen' if this piece of trash was selected to be top five on our list").

 

[Diggfinger]

Giving 1 point to each of these.

Wasteland
Champions of Krynn
Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
Death Knights of Krynn
Ultima 7: The Black Gate
Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant
Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
Ultima 7 Part 2: Serpent Isle
Might and Magic: World of Xeen
Swords of Xeen

5. Games. Max.

Deuce Traveler, maybe you should bold that part in the OP since so many do not get it.

Wasteland 2
Wizardry 6 2
Wizardry 7 2
Ultima 7:Black Gate 2
Death Knights of Krynn 2


Yes BOLD that shit and also FUCK MATH.

Wasteland 2's not eligible for voting. Sorry bro

 

[Lady Error]

So the Prestigious Gentlemen still haven't compiled the results? If you do not want to do it, ask for help. Two or three people were already doing it anyway.

To make sure the count is correct, it is probably best to have at least two people count the votes independently of each other.

 

[Lord_Potato]

So the Prestigious Gentlemen still haven't compiled the results? If you do not want to do it, ask for help. Two or three people were already doing it anyway.

To make sure the count is correct, it is probably best to have at least two people count the votes independently of each other.

The problem is one of the most praised games (Exile III) was proven to be a post-Diablo release. And now noone knows what to do with the results