Wizardry was the first popular (actually, mega-popular) CRPG, though as with many CRPGs from the time it’s much forgotten about now, even if its legacy is truly gigantic. It is indeed fortunate that Digital Eclipse has released that modern remake of Wizardry I, Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, which is a lot more than you can say about Ultima, Phantasy, Might & Magic or a bunch of other games.

Nerdly Pleasures has posted a detailed history of the original games and their microcomputer ports, breaking down versions, features and bugs. It reminds of a number of interesting things, like that the original Apple II Wizardry would write to the Scenario Disk if you defeated a certain encounter, and thus make it permanently impossible to encounter it again on later playthroughs. Or that character growth was badly broken in the original PC version, with stats going down when they should have gone up. Or that the Commodore 64 version came out so late that it not only includes support for the C128’s extra memory, but even Commodore’s bankswitching RAM expansion modules.

I have come to realize that I much prefer the gameplay in these early CRPGs to those of more recent takes like Skyrim. The simulationist depth of those founding games has largely been replaced with gamish fluff, and in place of the imagination that the first CRPGs asked players to bring to the experience, everything has been made literal, explicitly rendered on your screen just as you’re supposed to perceive it. I know this comes across as nostalgia talking, but I don’t think it necessarily is. There’s a whole approach to making RPGs that has been lost, and I think we’re all poorer for it.

rodneylives