Geek in Review: Electronic Fantasy Games

Thanks to the battle for Middle Ear, I didn't finish my Geek in Review this week until 11:57 this morning, three minutes before it was scheduled to go live. Awesome.

The Battle for Middle Ear sort of dovetails with the theme of this week's Geek in Review, though, which is all about the marriage of fantasy gaming and electronic gaming, when both of those things surged in popularity in the early eighties:

Most of these games were variations on the basic dungeon-crawling theme, but they were just perfect in an age where imagination was still required to transform the monster that chased you around Atari’s Adventure from a duck into a dragon, and the animated Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit was scary and magnificent. This was a perfect blending of the two things my friends and I loved more than anything else in the world: cool electronic gadgets and the fantasy world we were just discovering.

Today, I look back at a couple of my favorites . . .

There's this theory that once a species develops the ability to change and control its environment, it stops evolving. I wonder if there's something similar with electronic games? Once manufacturers didn't need to innovate to earn our money, and could just develop for Gameboy or something similar, all the individuality and difference between games like Tomy Pac-Man and Coleco Pac-Man simply disappeared. I guess we would have all wanted Arcade Pac-Man, anyway, if it was available back then, so the point is kind of moot, but from a broader point of view, I'd rather have lots of unique and innovative games and designs than a bunch of things which are all slightly derivative of each other.

I was lucky to grow up during a time when there was so much competition for our allowance, and designers were working so hard to keep our attention. There were always crappy knock-offs, to be sure, but there were a lot of gems hidden in there, too.

Did you have a favorite classic electronic fantasy game that I missed? Gals Panic does not count.

Comments

[DJC]

Great nostalgia there but I gotta ask: do you do your own taglines?

Wil Wheaton's aim is true. Love it!

[angie k]

Good article. I didn't get to play handhelds or computer/console games until the 90s so I can only smile faintly at the retro nostalgia of Dark Tower (Looks rad. Must play flash game sometime.) and the like.

"This game included really cool lead miniatures, just like the ones the big kids used when they played with paper and dice and listened to Black Sabbath."

That made me laugh out loud. :) I'm going to use that next time I tell my boyfriend about the perfect D&D gaming situation: "I want to game at a card table in the wood panelled basement of my parent's home while Bakshi's Wizards plays on the VCR in the entertainment center next to the Atari and NES. Oh yes, while Black Sabbath plays on the record player." :)

[PJB]

"There's this theory that once a species develops the ability to change and control its environment, it stops evolving. I wonder if there's something similar with electronic games? Once manufacturers didn't need to innovate to earn our money"
That is very very true, i'm aspireing to be a games designer (let's just say i watched too many holodeck scenes) and I couldn't agree more.

[CNHarvey]

Dark Tower...thanks for today's kick of nostalgia. As a 10-year-old girl, i remember fighting so hard to get that game - my parents were convinced it would be the gateway drug into cigarettes, black eyeliner and crushing social alienation and insisted on balancing it out with lots and lots of skirts that Christmas. Am pretty sure it's still shoved under a bed in my old room somewhere...

[Kyle Johnson]

Dungeons and Dragons Electronic Board Game

and as mentioned by angie k:

Dark Tower

I loved them both so much I kept them safe from harm all these years. A few months ago I begged my wife to play. She wasn't crazy about it, but in the end, she had a blast. Yea! to vintage 80's Fantasy games that get your wife to say, "Go, go, go. I just heard the Dragon wake up"

k

[Rafting Bear]

Dude, welcome me to your site. I just found it. Read your Hooters' story. I never thought you weren't working, but it's nice to know what you HAVE been (and are) doing. It's that weird thing about TV characters/actors: You were effectively a visitor in my home each week for years, then daily. So I FEEL like I know you, even though I don't and you have no clue who I am.

Anyway, I'll be checking your blog every now and then and welcome you to do the same (http://blog.paulcilwa.com). I'm also active in progressive causes, so we have that much in common.

Regards,
Paul

[Sally J]

"This game included really cool lead miniatures, just like the ones the big kids used when they played with paper and dice and listened to Black Sabbath."

OMG, Wil -- you are describing my husband. He graduated from high school in 1982 and was so into D&D that he hand painted his lead miniatures *and* created a wizard costume from scratch for Halloween. I guarantee there was Sabbath playing...on vinyl, natch. Now our four-year old son has fallen in love with the miniatures. Who knows? Maybe I'll get roped in during future family game nights.

The only interactive adventure game I played was Infocom's H2G2 (now available as shareware from DouglasAdams.com). I spent HOURS playing that game. Even though it meant hanging out in my stinky little brother's room where the computer lived.

[tim]

I have never played DarkTower, but I found a really good flash version online you can play:

The Darktower

woot.

[Tina Huggins]

Ultima IV: The Quest of the Avatar is the best fantasy game EVAR! This was more mid-eighties than early eighties, and it was less of a dungeon-crawl and more of a full-fledged RPG (so I don't know if it fits into your concept of "electronic fantasy game"), but it was all things good. It came with a cloth map, a "leather -bound" spellbook and a metal ankh, and the whole goal of the game was to become spiritually enlightened. (What fantasy game, before or since, has had such a noble goal?!)

[Animeraider]

I had that Electronic D&D game! I still have the little dragon figure. Haven't thought about it in maybe 20 years or so.

[A'arab Zaraq]

Oh my god. I had that Dungeons & Dragons battery powered board game. I loved it. I loved it hard core.

Jesus. I wonder if my parents still have that thing stored away in the basement...

[beelkay]

Keeping in mind that I am a very poor gamer, in that I'm not very good at playing games, I DO wish that all video games were slightly derivative of each other. In fact, I'd like them all to be derivative of X-Men Legends and Katamari Damacy. LOL

[Severian]

I'm going to second Ultima IV. I also played Ultima II and III but IV was the shit.

[Severian]

I never played any Live D&D with a board and pieces but I saw an episode of Greatest American Hero where they took it to the streets

[Moop]

Ultima IV? You kids, with your fancy, modern games. When I was younger, I played Ultima II. And get off my lawn.

[Soltan]

Sword of Aragon.

This is still one of the best strategy games ever made. It's also part RPG. Not so much a dungeon crawl game though.

Programmed in QBasic in 1987 it doesn't look like much, but damn me if I don't still play this game over and over again.

It currently exists on SSL's Definitive Wargame Collection (along with Fantasy General, another awesome fantasy strategy game; and the original Warlords).

[penguindevil]

Maze of little twisty passages...

I must give props to the two greatest electronic games! Also the first two that I played: Adventure "the colossal cave" and STARTREK!

How awesome were these? I would play them from about 8 am to 8 pm in the computer room at school and, well, you didn't need a monitor! Thankfully, since I'd never seen a monitor at that point... but I'd certainly seen a lot of rolls of mustard-colored paper go through the trusty teletype.

These are the best and now, nearly thirty years later, I can still find myself interested in them..

[SonWorshipper]

My name is SonWorshipper and I was one of those kids who Just Didn't Get It. All gaming systems belonged to my brother, and I definitely didn't touch the things, and the AppleII games at school didn't interest me one bit. Give me a jump rope and a bike and I was gone 'til dinnertime, and after that, gone til bedtime. Only language arts board games could suffice, mostly because my brother utterly pwnd at monopoly. Therefore, if electronic games are ever rationed, you can have all of mine.

[thecrumb]

Leasure Suit Larry.

Oh wait - you meant FANTASY like dragons and stuff.

Nevermind.

[John Fiala]

Dark Tower! Rocking!

I used to have one of those, and when I dug it out years later, when I was in college, it still worked fine. ^_^

[Lazarus]

Colossal Cave Adventure was probably THE best original game out. Ever. You know this by how many social references there are to Xyzzy.

[Lazarus]

I just realized I also used to play Star Trek (the text game). I wasn't any good at it tho.

[vark]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/06/11