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I'm also in the process of compiling a list of pre-2000 RPGs worth playing (strictly Western RPGs and no console stuff), with a heavy bias towards playing games on the C64 and the Amiga, as I'm quite fond of those machines from my childhood.
Couple of remarks.
1. First, your list is pretty good already and contains all the good Amiga stuff and a lot of the more obscure titles. You might just stop here, but if you want to be methodical about it, request an API key from MobyGames and write a script to compile a comprehensive list of games that fit your criteria. Or take CRPGAddict's unfiltered master list which is very good and contains even more entries than MobyGames (nomen est omen...) The Addict's list has info about all the platforms the games were ported to, so it's easy to massage it a bit further.
Having said that, I recommend automating this as much as possible; I started with the Addict's list, but now I'm in the process of just writing a script, then I can create links back to MobyGames automatically, or extend the spreadsheet with more info if I want, etc. Maintaining and updating everything manually is a massive pain in the ass.
2. Based on my list, here's the Amiga exclusives that you missed:
Antares
Champions of Dawn (Black Dawn VII)
Darkmere: The Nightmare's Begun
Dragonstone
Dungeon of Nadroj
Kargon
Legends
Litil Divil
Prey: An Alien Encounter
Quelle von Naroth, Die
Riamel: Black Prophecy
Seelenturm, Der
Skarbnjk
Space Hulk
Speris Legacy, The
The Immortal
ThunderDawn (Black Dawn IV)
Witchcraft
World of Arch
3. You really should have a Macintosh section as well, there's quite a few Mac exclusives from the pre-2000 era.
5. Temple of Apshai has a (much later) Amiga port (in the form of Temple of Apshai Trilogy).
6. Picking the "best" port of a given game is really a subjective thing, based on your predisposition towards certain platforms. More resolution & colours is not always "better". C64 ports might have lower resolution, but some games just feel more "right" on it, and the SID music adds a certain atmosphere that is unique to that machine.
For example, here are my notes for the Ultima series (generally I don't care about importing characters; that would restrict your choices a lot, of course):
Ultima V
C128 (has full musical score, unlike the Amiga version)
Amiga version is buggy and laggy. Second best appears to be the DOS version.
Ultima VI
DOS with MT-32 sound
(Amiga version is a bad port (slow, 256->32 colour conversion, heavily cut soundtrack & critical bugs)
The C64 version is even worse, with large parts of the content being cut.)
And some more:
Bard's Tale I-II is best on the Apple IIgs as the game is buggy on every other platform. But for III you need to use the DOS port with a fan made patch for the best experience.
Might & Magic II has animations in the Amiga version, but not in the DOS version.
Gold Box games are best on the Amiga (if you can live with the Cloak of Displacement bug, and you don't care about automapper companion apps).
Legend of Faerghail appears to have a buggy DOS port (or maybe just the crack is bad); there are no enemies in any of the dungeons (CRPGAddict ran into this, then had to restart on the Amiga)
Eye of the Beholder I-II has a fan-made Amiga AGA (256 colour) version that's superior to the DOS port (e.g. the outro animations were cut from the DOS port). But you cannot import characters in the second part...
Anyway, as you can see every game is kinda unique and needs lots of research, so good luck I might also share my list in the future, but it needs some further work.
I do, which is why I made it public from the start. While I plan on marking games that are considered 'good', I mostly made this list for myself as a reference.
I actually excluded a couple of these based on personal criteria that I should probably be more open about, which is definitely an issue with automation. A lot of games that are Zelda-likes or are simply adventure games with health bars and weapons are marked as RPG, despite those typically not being considered an RPG by the Codex's standards.
As these games will inevitably be brought up again, I'll think of a way to deal with this issue.
6. Picking the "best" port of a given game is really a subjective thing, based on your predisposition towards certain platforms. More resolution & colours is not always "better". C64 ports might have lower resolution, but some games just feel more "right" on it, and the SID music adds a certain atmosphere that is unique to that machine.
Doesn't necessarily have to be "best", just how it differs from the title on other platforms. Yeah, that list will probably take a very long time to fill out, but I'd like to at least try to do it.
I'll probably start with the more well-known titles(e.g., Wizardry, M&M, Ultima, etc.,) that are much more documented.
I've been establishing my own emulated Amiga and Apple II library on my laptop the past few weeks and have often recalled feeling the same way growing up. I remember wanting an Amiga so badly back then, but my mother could never have afforded something like that. The Silmarils games (Ishar, Crystals of Arborea, Transarctica, Robinson's Requiem &c) and Attic games (Realms of Arkania, Spirit of Adventure) had the most gorgeous art designs. I've since gotten boxed copies of Wizardry 6, early Might & Magic games, and a few others for the Amiga that I would have gone ecstatic over as a kid.
Doesn't necessarily have to be "best", just how it differs from the title on other platforms. Yeah, that list will probably take a very long time to fill out, but I'd like to at least try to do it.
I'll probably start with the more well-known titles(e.g., Wizardry, M&M, Ultima, etc.,) that are much more documented.
According to the Dungeon Master Encyclopedia, there are minor graphical and gameplay differences in v3.6 relative to the original Amiga (v2.0) release.
Hm,gonna see how much of these games i nabbed in my collection and update if missing.
For anybody wondering i posted a collection of computer rpg/strategy games in the emu thread.
Edit:Uploaded: https://mega.nz/file/ACYgXDZK#Scd6ohL9QfaruQvqZb7p8Q5QvQPKMhBOyiRTUHS9SM0
This only contains missing stuff.
Another thing for the different pile. The DOS versions of Pirates! and Pirates! Gold were both inferior in different ways. The original, well, it was just hamstrung by period graphics and sound, PC Speaker exclusive. Gold on the other hand, had issues with its controls, specifically the mouse controls were crap.
Yeah, as posted above the definition of 'RPG' really gets stretched by some of these databases that it has to be done on a game-by-game basis manually. Most common is definitely the Zelda-like games being tagged as such, but a lot of games that are simply first person exploration games get tagged RPG too.
Going to be updating the list with release year and CRPG Addict(CA) or dungeoncrawlers.org(DC) links where available.
Thinking of a way to make "Also available on so-and-so" less verbose. I don't want to merge the lists together as people often look for games on a specific platform, might switch to using symbols to represent what platforms it's available on rather than typing it out though.
I can say that there is no evidence of a C64 version of this game, but I have a simple and basic theory which will be explained in the next coming post.
I posted that one link anyway and will test it. I'd be damned surprised if someone actually found or finished making the c64 version.
I tried to play the vic-20 version and got horribly lost on what to do of how to read the damn screen. Maybe it was a bugged version. I've played magdarr's to death but never found the bastard nor the diamonds.
found a fuckton of spiders dropping from the ceiling.
Expanded the platforms, added a few missing Apple II games, started going through foreign databases.
I plan on excluding the various Asian-exclusive platforms, and any games on those platforms are excepted from Rule #1 -- I don't know if they even count as consoles. If you're a weeb uhh... sorry.
Out of curiosity, what about games with interesting ports to those systems? Of interest, I believe the original Ultima games and Dungeon Master got superior ports on FM Towns, Dungeon Master's in English even. Not even gonna argue otherwise, because a list of weeb computer RPGs that aren't on DOS is really just a list of weeb computer RPGs.
Out of curiosity, what about games with interesting ports to those systems? Of interest, I believe the original Ultima games and Dungeon Master got superior ports on FM Towns, Dungeon Master's in English even. Not even gonna argue otherwise, because a list of weeb computer RPGs that aren't on DOS is really just a list of weeb computer RPGs.
Dunno, whenever I look at screenshots of those kind of ports I have a bad feeling that they weren't made for heterosexuals. Might be wrong though, never played any of them
I might also share my list in the future, but it needs some further work.
