On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 10:10:41 -0500, David Boyes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> http://armchairarcade.com/neo/node/1081 >> >> Surely, RPGs existed on our beloved mainframes before or around this >time >> didn't they? It pre-dates me, but I've seen discussion about it here. >> Maybe the author needs a little history lesson??? :-) > >*little*? Great steaming hunks of history lesson, methinks. > >I'm sure that Adam will chime in -- this is his specialty area -- but >I'd argue that both SpaceWar and Star Trek are RPGs and predate anything >in this article. Ditto for ADVENT (in fact ADVENT.SAV on my TOPS-10 >system is dated 1970, which seems wrong, but could be valid. I'm not >sure I ever updated that system to be Y2K-safe, so it could be off. My >ITS system won't boot at the moment, so can't check there). > >The discussion of the microcomputer games is fairly competent, though. >Even if he is likely to be eaten by a grue. > >-- db I'll chime in as a wargamer since 1970. My first introduction to computers was in college in 1977 where I used a UNIVAC system. For my Intro to Computer Science course project I coded a CRPG based on the pape r and pencil and paper game "Tunnels and Trolls" by Flying Buffalo. I immaginatively called my game "Mazes and Monsters". <g> I still have the BASIC source for it. It was shortly after this that I was introducted to the aforementiond ADVENTURE which ran on the UNIVAC, and as you point out predates my exposure to it. I still have my ADVENTURE map. To me, one of the main differentiators between an RPG and "first-person fiction" is whether the player's character has varying or static abilitie s from game to game. On this score, ADVENTURE is not an RPG it is merely a game. Similarly, games like Myst are not an RPG, to me, as they are just graphical variations of ADVENTURE. Other people may not make this same distinction and discussing what is or is not an RPG is "a maze of twisty little passages, all alike". Brian Nielsen
