The Highest-Selling CRPG of the 1980s
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 2019
In a post to The Digital Antiquarian, editor Jimmy Maher corrects his previous assertion that SSI's Pool of Radiance was the highest-selling CRPG of the 1980s at 264,536 confirmed copies by reporting that Electronic Arts' Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard's Tale is actually the top breadwinner with 407,000 confirmed copies, as reported in the March 1991 issue of Questbusters. Furthermore, he alerts us to the availability of a DOSBox-friendly CRPG mapping application called Grid Cartographer that I think some of you will inevitably be picking up (with a Black Friday discount at the moment, to boot):
Some time ago, I credited SSI’s Pool of Radiance, which I know sold precisely 264,536 copies thanks to internal sales figures found in the SSI archive at the Strong Museum of Play, as the best-selling single CRPG of the 1980s. Well, I recently found — in the March 1991 issue of Questbusters of all places — some official Electronic Arts figures for the first Bard’s Tale game: a very impressive 407,000 copies sold. This of course means that it easily eclipses Pool of Radiance for the title of best-selling (Western) CRPG of the 1980s. I’ve changed my articles dealing with Pool of Radiance and the Bard’s Tale series to reflect this, as credit is certainly owed where it’s due.
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As long as we’re on the subject of CRPGs, I’d like to pass along a recommendation for a tool that I’ve really come to love. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past searching for an alternative to graph paper and a pencil when it comes to mapping old-school dungeons. Everything I came across was either too sketchy or way too over-the-top, designed for making elaborate decorative maps for tabletop RPGs rather than mapping as you go from a computer game. But at last some months ago I found just what I was looking for: Grid Cartographer by David Walters. It’s not often I see such a polished and usable application in such a niche area as this. You do have to pay for the full version, but I’ve found it to be well worth it. I have no affiliation with David and have never even corresponded with him; I’m just a happy customer passing along a recommendation. I’ve long since come to suspect that many of you love old-school CRPGs much more than I do (it tends to be a genre, as many of you know, that tries my patience pretty quickly these days). You will doubtless be able to get even more use out of Grid Cartographer than I have.
