My Hx with RPGs (part 1)

My Hx of RPGs (part 1)

So I have a history with RPGs that goes all the way back to the 80s. Now I've missed a lot of the games that were crucial to the overall development of RPGs in general, so this defiantly isn't a history of RPGs, but rather "my history" with RPGs, which is of course much more interesting. Well, maybe not, but you're here.

I've been obsessed with the concept of a role-playing for a very long time that naturally lead me eventually to World of Warcraft.

Of course the first RPG that many of us played was the original Zelda on the old school Nintendo system. I think my dad had this game, I'm not sure. I remember my friends in my neighborhood were so good at it, they knew how to get through every castle and where all of the hearts were. I liked this game, but wasn't addicted. Now the 2nd Zelda game I was more into, Zelda 2 - Adventures of Link. Consequently about 3-4 years ago I almost beat this game at my in-laws house during our Christmas vacation from college. It was fun to play on the old school Nintendo system again.


I don't think this next game counts as an RPG, but I loved Karatica. This was one of the first martial arts games that I can remember, and you had a health bar, you got to kick/hit high, medium, or low – lots of options. I use to play this game on our old school apple computer. We never figured out how to get pass the dropping gate, always killed us, we were so close to saving the princess.

Okay, I got introduced the King's Quest games. Do you remember these games?? You basically had a screen shot that you could move around picking up certain items, talking to certain people in order to solve riddles and save the girl and such. These games weren't so action packed, and the fighting sucked, but you weren't stuck on one level Super Mario Brothers and you could go any where you want (at least the parts that you've opened up). I think they even eventually made a version that was in a 3D world like Azeroth, but apparently it wasn't as popular because you probably never heard about it either.

Now in jr high I played some games that were definitely headed more towards WoW. And this was where I started to get into the table top games a little bit. We were really into Dungeons and Dragons, Robotech, and Dragonlance role playing games. I loved the fantasy world and all the potential these games possessed. However, I usually ended up spending more time creating a character and coming up with the story behind him (I always like the hybrid classes like a rogue mages or your half-elves). Anyway, I loved creating characters, but when it came to actual game play it didn't go too far. I think we didn't have any really good DMs or something. I still get the urge from time to time as I drive by a gaming store to buy the latest AD&D (advanced Dungeon & Dragons) book and start to make a new character. I also get the urge whenever I listen to The Smiths or Nine Inch Nails (the music I listen to at the time). But who has the time for that anyway. Not me, I barely keep up with WoW. But at the time, table top games continued to increase my love for RPGs.

More to come tomorrow... hopefully.