Role-Playing Games have permeated popular culture since they hit the big time in the early 1970's. Computer Role-Playing Games have been around almost as long and in Bitmap Book's exemplary tome, The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games, you will journey through the rich history of the genre from it's earliest days in the mid-1970's to the cut-off point of this book, 2015. Within the 528 pages of this hefty and well made volume, you will find out just how much there is to cover. That much is evident by the message from the editor at the very beginning. Felipe Pepe has corralled 119 volunteers over a four year period to bring this examination to life and that, more than anything else, is a testament to the effort taken in chronicling the topic.
The introduction details the editor's journey with RPG's and why he wanted to complete this volume, followed by a brief explanation of the project (non-profit where all author earnings are sent to Vocacao, a Brazilian non-governmental organisation helping children and teenagers from poor areas gain education and employment) and a dedication/special thanks piece.
The list of contributors follows next, a brief bio and the initials used to identify them within each game review. The articles and guides section gives us, well, articles and guides (It's early in the morning and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet). There are some notes on how to use the book (it can be read linearly but some might not wish to to that), an FAQ on formats, manuals and the like, "What is an Old-School RPG", in which the contributor ponders the question yet doesn't really answer it, though still making several points very well. There is then a guide to ports (not the nautical kind) where several games have their various versions compared. Given the breadth of systems available back in the 1980's and 90's (and changing PC standards), these differences can be quite extreme for what should ostensibly be the same game. "Unplayable" is a wonderful piece about how modern-day players can approach older games from the point of view of teaching. This highlights the truth behind "the past is foreign country, they do things differently there" in that the methods of treating players and even the very play style of older titles will put modern-day gamers off due to changes in approach and expectations. A good example for me would be playing Goldeneye 007 on original N64 hardware compared to the XBLA re-master - the N64 controller was a good match for the title back in the late 90's but cannot hold a stick (it's a better analogy than candle, trust me) to twin analogue stick controls of the 21st century (see, told you). The original control set up is clunky and just not that nice to play (even though it was back then because we knew little better) as the twin stick approach has become the standard and twenty plus years of muscle memory tells its own tale.
Cartography is a lost skill but an essential one for a lot of older CRPG's. It is something well covered by Scorpia in her article. I mean, imagine asking a younger gamer today to have a pencil, sheets of graph paper and an eraser to hand when playing a game, rather than just pressing a button and displaying a map??? The penultimate article is entitled "From Prussia with love - the origin of RPG's" and I can see what the author did there, detailing the beginnings of wargaming with Kriegsspiel. It's a short history, one page on wargaming, a second on the creation of fantasy games in the 1970's with Chainmail and then Dungeons and Dragons, where the focus was on individual players rather than units.
Finally, we have PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations - yes, a typically 1960's title for a computer system), which was a mainframe system using terminals for user access that saw some of the earliest CRPG's ever created played by people around the world. This was an eye-opener for me as whilst I had seen reference to PLATO in previous books/articles, I'd never seen so much about the system in one place. This article does mention a book detailing PLATO and that's now on my Kindle.
The core of the book then, are the reviews sections, each neatly divided into five year blocks, 1975-79, 1980-84 and so on until the final block, 2010 to 2014, that actually continues into 2015. You rebellious scamps! Each period gets a brief introduction, notable trends are listed as well as a timeline of major tech/gaming events. The reviews that follow are either one or two pages in length where each title is discussed with regards to playing style, presentation and... foibles. Yep, some of the design choices in these games come across as just plain nasty to the player (I would say unfriendly but insta-death just for the sake of it is just nasty. But since that's how they roll (see what I did there..., forewarned is forearmed. Four armed would make that a Girallon - that one is for all you Forgotten Realms fans out there...). Some include developer quotes, little factoids and box outs detailing mods and patches that add or improve content to existing games. You also get screenshots and tips on playing the titles on modern day PC's. Each review is well written and it helps that there were so many contributors as the different writing styles and approaches make each entry feel fresh and unique. It also helps that each writer is passionate about the game they are covering, whether the game be good or bad. You may disagree with the points of view but it has to be said that each review more than makes its point and they really combine to make this book the reference on CRPG's par excellence. One thing to note: the book's title has Computer in it. This means that unless your favourite console RPG got a PC port, it ain't appearing in here.
The back end of the book has two final sections. "Further Adventures" covers the rise of Japanese RPG's (don't worry, Bitmap have a book covering solely that topic out now, though they are waiting for re-stock at present), fan translations of titles that never officially made it to the west, and a look at titles that were never released. "Lists and Further Reading" gives you a series of "Best of" lists from various sources dating from 2014 to 2017, editors picks for 35 iconic games and 35 hidden gems, and then a further reading list for books and websites where you can learn more about CRPG's. I own a few of those books already but I know a couple more will be going on the Wishlist as well.
The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games is another brilliant Bitmap Books publication and one that any fan of role-playing games should have on their bookshelves. The physical quality of the book is more than matched by the content and maybe, just maybe, reading this will tempt you to go back and try some classic (and not so classic) CRPG's.
You can find out more about this title on Bitmap Books' website here.
No comments:
Post a Comment