When I started writing Playing for Keeps in Starr’s Fall, I was excited to explore the world of boardgame cafés because I’ve loved going to a few different ones with my children and discovering new games. But what really took me down memory lane was the character of Maggie’s son Ben’s interest in online gaming because, believe it or not, long ago I was once a gamer myself!
Back in the early 1980s, when computer games were just becoming a thing, my dad brought home one of the first adventure role-playing games created, called Zork, although we didn’t know it at the time. It was run on MS-DOS and we just called it ‘Adventure’. Compared to the amazing graphics and storylines of today, this was pretty simple. It started with two stark lines of white text on a black screen: “You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.”
It amazes me now what wondrous possibilities those two lines created in me and my siblings. You could ask to open to mailbox! You could walk west to the house! Admittedly, go in the wrong direction and you got bounced back because the limits of this game were pretty severe, but exploring the house, being able to take objects like a lamp or a knife, discovering the underground chasm, having to fight a troll… it was all wildly exciting. And, even though it was a text-only game, I felt like I could see all of it in my head.
Fast forward a few years, and my older brother, looking for a job after college, and I started playing Beyond Zork together, the fourth game in the series [although again I didn’t realize this because I never knew the first game was called Zork until much later]. We spent many, many hours trying to figure out this game while he was working, and I was slogging through seventh grade. Coming home to play together was the highlight of my day! Getting past the dastardly monkey grinder took many battle attempts, as did navigating a flock of murderous corbies [which are birds I imagine to be like large crows, but as this game required a lot of imagination, who knows!]. Those hours spent with my older brother were wonderful and really bonded us—we still talk about them fondly forty years later!
From there, we moved onto graphic-based games—Ultima and Might and Magic being the two we spent the most time on. Many, many years later, I managed to show my kids a version of Might and Magic and was completely shocked by how pixelated and frankly terrible the graphics were! In my mind, they’d been incredibly vibrant and detailed. To give you an example, here is an image from the original game:
But I suppose that is really the joy of these old games. Unlike today, with the truly extraordinary graphics and the complex storylines, games like Beyond Zork or Might and Magic forced you to use your imagination, which took off in wonderful flights of fancy. My son has shown me today’s games, from Call of Duty to Red Dead Redemption 2, and while I admire the amazing graphics, I can’t help but miss the games of yesteryear. The game I created in Playing For Keeps in Starr’s Fall, RainQuest, is a combination of today’s games and the ones I played as a young teen. Below I’ve ranked my favorite older role-playing games, most of which have been made available to play online for those hankering for a piece of history! Enjoy
Best Role-Playing Games of the 1980s:
1.) The Magic Candle: This game was really fun but a glitch in the programming meant when we finally got the final battle, it quit! Still, worth it up till then.
2.) The Bard’s Tale: This had superior graphics, but it was pretty difficult and we stalled out about a quarter way through, unable to figure out how to go forward.
3.) Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar: This was a huge, epic game, with lots of battles and treasure. We were so excited to get Ultima V afterward but our old computer couldn’t handle the graphics and so we were never able to play it.
4.) Might & Magic Book II: This game was amazing, the first one where you actually had a team of six players to control, plus magic spells and battle fighting, the best of both worlds! One summer my three brothers and I all took turns playing it—we’d set a timer for an hour and give strict instructions about what you could or could not do during your playtime. I have a distinct memory of being told I was not allowed to attack the wyverns.
5.) Beyond Zork: The original game that got me into gaming. Text-based but I can still picture it all perfectly in my head, and when I searched for it online I saw many people have fond memories of it as well. Check it out!