GameBanshee Forums

DaveO wrote:I'm a bit surprised that nobody mentioned the earlier M&M titles. IF you're willing to take a step back, I'd highly recommend the Worlds of Xeen game since it's the BEST of the M&M series and has one of the top 10 RPG endings.

There is the Realms of Arkania series for RPGs, and you should be able to still buy all three for $10-15. You may want to give any of the Bard's Tale games a try as well. That should keep you busy for the next 12-18 months.

I second the early M&M titles. Personally my favorite is M&M II, it's just such a great game, even today I love playing it. This being said I dont know if a younger gamer that is not used to the primitive graphics would like it, I was about 14 or 15 when it came out and played it none stop over a summer and still didn't finish it. I loved M&M 1 - The Xeen game, but once M&M VI came out I lost interesting, too much hack and slash and contanst combat for my taste.

The Bard's Tale II is also a favorite of mine, but I don't think it hold up all that well compared to M&MII, so not sure a younger gamer would like it.

As far as Ultima's, unless you really don't care about graphics and only care about gameplay and atmosphere I wouldn't recommend anything earlier than Ultima V, the earlier ones are gonna seem pretty primitive to you most likely. Although my favorite Utlima's are Ultima III, IV and V. The Lazarus remake of Ultima V is superb using the dungeon siege engine.

If you want to play some of the games from about 1988 to 1993 I would recommend using an amiga emulator, it's almost always way better then the DOs\DOXBOX version. Not all the hard to get to work. HEre is a link if your interesting and I would recommend M&M II on the amiga emulator, better music and graphics a bit better.

Go the lemonade link here if intersted.

Lemon Amiga - Games, Download, Emulator, Cheats & Forum

Well, you did want the best game you can find, with a completely original plot. You won't find those in any 3D game I can think of, because PS:T is pretty unique in that respect. But of course, it's up to you.

I dunno, it seems to me that plenty of games (or mods) nowadays start with the "You don't remember a rat's ass about your past and gotta rediscover it via the flashbacks" premise. Just look at the Odyssy preview on that very forum. Sounds just like PS:T only with a cute guy as the lead.

I played some rpgs on my tandy 1000 (early 80's)
so you might have to lower your cpu speed if thats possible (I suck with cpu's)
games are
1 Zork (old and words only)
2 Wishbringer (old and words only)
3 Land of devestation (old and words only)

fable wrote:I plead guilty to mentioning The Magic Candle series. They remain good, but visually very dated: icon-based, no animation, no music, limited (but interesting) dialog. I do recommend them, but only to people who enjoy that kind of thing. They can be downloaded without any legal problems (being abandonware) from Home of the Underdogs.

thanks for that, fable. i've been snowed in a couple days and it has been very helpful. im all strung out on zelda classic at this point.

Heroes of Might and Magic

I think I spent about 1000 hours on Heroes of Might and Magic II. There's another series that's similar by the same manufacturer that I didn't like as much. The wrong one goes up to VIII, or IX. The correct one, Heroes of Might and Magic, had a lame first version, but the second version was fabulous, and it's not so old that it won't run on today's system. Heroes of Might and Magic III or IV, were pretty good, and I don't think they ever came out with Heroes of Might and Magic V. But the second one - II - was as addictive as you can get, and the price-to-time and fun ratio was off the charts. I know they packaged I, II, and III together later (I encourage you to start with II until you're sick of it months later), and I'm assuming they packaged I through IV together as well, so you should be able to track it down on E-bay. I had more fun with that one than I did IceWind Dale, which was the origin for Baldur's Gate, and IceWind Dale was pretty bloody good on its own.

Update: In re Fable's curt retort below, he is correct, I was wrong, and I'm so sorry if I caused any untoward mayhem with by primitive response.

But Heroes of Might and Magic isn't an RPG: it's a turn-based strategy title. This isn't to dis it: it's simply a fact. The other series you're thinking of is Might and Magic, which is considered by some one of the finest RPG series of all time, though the ninth release was done by another team entirely and is quite a bit poorer. -Mind, I'm not suggesting you shouldn't like the HOMM series, which also has quite a few fans (including myself), but the thread starter did request older RPGs to play.