old D&D style video games

ggroy · January 25, 2011, 06:49:55 PM

Just recently acquired some old D&D style pc video games. (A friend gave them to me). Some stuff I decided to try out today:

- Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
- Diablo II
- Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
- Neverwinter Nights

On a first few tries, these games seem kind of mundane meh.

Perhaps I'm not understanding what's suppose to be fascinating about these particular video games.

I didn't really play these types of video games in the past. The last several video games I spent a lot of time playing, were titles like: "Grand Theft Auto III", "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City", and the original Quake (from the 1990's).

Benoist · January 25, 2011, 07:54:07 PM

Shadows of Amn is reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally good.

Insufficient Metal · January 25, 2011, 08:13:27 PM

NWN is a great way to play D&D if you don't have a group, because it's freakin' D&D. And lots and lots of user-created content.

Diablo is where Blizzard perfected the "intermittent series of rewards" Skinner box formula they use in WoW.

I thought the Baldur's Gate series were lots of fun too. And Icewind Dale.

Oddly enough, when the original Quake came out I was really unimpressed with it.

ggroy · January 25, 2011, 08:14:04 PM

Oddly enough, I find myself wanting to go back to playing in my previous 4E Encounters game (which abruptly died last month), than playing further in any of these D&D style video games.

EDIT: (A day ago, I never thought I would ever be saying something like this!)

Insufficient Metal · January 25, 2011, 08:22:52 PM

I sorta get what you're saying. The bug comes and goes. I bought a copy of Avernum VI a little while back, played it intensely for about a week, then lost intererest.

David Johansen · January 25, 2011, 08:25:07 PM

huh, I thought this would be about old ones. Zork or Adventure maybe. Dungeons & Dragons the computerized boardgame. Or maybe even Dungeons & Dragons for the Intellivision.

You kids get off of my lawn!

Insufficient Metal · January 25, 2011, 08:26:23 PM

Quote from: David Johansen;435224huh, I thought this would be about old ones. Zork or Adventure maybe. Dungeons & Dragons the computerized boardgame. Or maybe even Dungeons & Dragons for the Intellivision.

You kids get off of my lawn!

Pool of Radiance is pretty damn old isn't it?

I remember Zork. Fuck Zork in its stupid ass!

ggroy · January 25, 2011, 08:30:02 PM

Quote from: David Johansen;435224huh, I thought this would be about old ones. Zork or Adventure maybe. Dungeons & Dragons the computerized boardgame. Or maybe even Dungeons & Dragons for the Intellivision.

You kids get off of my lawn!

I use to play the atari 2600 version of Adventure a lot.

Zork I never really got into.

Other similar style games I was into in those days: "Sword of Fargoal" and "Temple of Apshai" (on a vic 20).

I played the D&D game for Intellivision a few times. Never really got into it.

ggroy · January 25, 2011, 08:32:10 PM

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435223I sorta get what you're saying. The bug comes and goes. I bought a copy of Avernum VI a little while back, played it intensely for about a week, then lost intererest.

At least your interest lasted about a week.

My interest didn't even last a few hours, for each of these four games.

Insufficient Metal · January 25, 2011, 08:33:16 PM

:cool:

ggroy · January 25, 2011, 08:34:55 PM

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435231

:cool:

Dungeon! boardgame was cool.

I played it again a few months ago, after not playing for a looooong time.

Insufficient Metal · January 25, 2011, 08:36:07 PM

Quote from: ggroy;435232Dungeon! boardgame was cool.

I played it again a few months ago.

Played the holy hell out of it when I was a kid. I still have a copy somewhere, I think.

I'm more into Runebound these days.

Hm. Not meaning to threadjack here, the comment about the D&D video boardgame just reminded me.

ggroy · January 25, 2011, 08:39:42 PM

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435233Played the holy hell out of it when I was a kid.

Same here.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435233I still have a copy somewhere, I think.

I found my old copy awhile ago, when I was last at my parents' house.

Peregrin · January 25, 2011, 08:43:13 PM

NWN is one of my favorite games ever, if not for the lackluster campaign, then for the toolbox nature. It IS the 3e PHB, MM, and DMG in digital format, because the toolset is extremely intuitive and easy to use, the ability to run live games with the DM client, and the ability to download user-created modules. It's a toolbox as much as it is a game, and the closest analogue to tabletop PC gaming has.

Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale are stronger single-player games, though.

Diablo II is mindless fun, but repetitive. Pool of Radiance is a turd-sandwich, and generally loathed as one of the worst D&D CRPGs ever.

ggroy · January 25, 2011, 08:46:01 PM

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435226Pool of Radiance is pretty damn old isn't it?

1988.

My friend also gave me a cd-rom pack, which had something like twelve Forgotten Realms pc games from the late 1980's and early-mid 1990's. It was called "The Forgotten Realms Archives".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Realms_Archives

But I wasn't able to run any of these old games on my computer.

(Will probably have to run a virtual machine to get any of these games to run).