Category: CRPGAddict

The aptly-named “Orz” do indeed make me want to kneel down and bang my head against the floor.           If I do end up running out of time and having to start over with Star Control II, at least I’ll get to revise my decision to name my new alliance […]

Congratulations! Here’s a near-unreadable screen!              Ultizurk II: The Shadow Master United States Independently developed and published Released in 1992 for DOS Date Started: 26 March 2019 Date Finished: 7 April 2019 Total Hours: 16 Difficulty: Moderate (3/5)Final Rating: (to come later)Ranking at time of posting: (to come later) Summary: […]

As an expansion of Hellfire Warrior, the game has no main title screen.            The Keys of Acheron United States Automated Simulations, Inc. (developer and publisher) Released in 1981 for Apple II and TRS-80, 1982 for Atari 800 Date Started: 5 April 2019 Date Ended: 5 April 2019 Total Hours: […]

The Prydwen butts up against the literal edge of the universe.            I started this session wondering what would happen if I flew to one of the “borders” of the galaxy. Would it wrap around? Or would I fall of the edge of the universe? To check it out, I […]

          Ultizurk II: The Shadow Master United States Independently developed and published Released in 1992 for DOS Date Started: 26 March 2019 “This is the one–this is the one I’ll be remembered for,” Ed Wood says, completely unironically, as he revels in the cheesy opening monologue at the premier of […]

Exactly two mineral deposits with Class 7 tectonics?! Hell, yeah, Planet IV!           This was a fun session. My first priority was to upgrade my ship, so I decided to start close to home and mine the rest of the planets in the Sol system. This led to a couple […]

Hey, it was a bare-bones era.        Nemesis United States SuperSoft (developer and publisher) Released in 1981 for CP/M Date Started: 24 March 2019 Date Ended: 24 March 2019 Total Hours: 4Difficulty: Moderate (3/5)Final Rating: (to come later)Ranking at time of posting: (to come later) In 1977, the innovative first-person […]

The game manual featured some fairly modest hand-drawn art.             The Seventh Link Canada Oblique Triad (developer and publisher) Released 1989 for Tandy Color Computer 3Date Started: 16 December 2018 Date Ended: 16 March 2019 Total Hours: 22 Difficulty: Medium-Hard (3.5/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at Time of […]

Let’s not judge this one by its title screen . . .                 Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters United States Toys for Bob (developer); Accolade (publisher) Released in 1992 for DOS, 1994 for the 3DO console; later fan ports to other platforms Date Started: 23 Mach 2019 When I […]

              Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers United States Interplay (developer and publisher) Released in 1992 for DOS, 1993 for FM Towns and PC-98 Date Started: 5 February 2019 Date Ended: 15 March 2019 Total Hours: 18 Difficulty: Easy (2/5)Final Rating: (to come later)Ranking at time of […]

Want to bet?             It’s probably good for my version of the Fellowship that the story ended here, more warped and twisted from Tolkien’s tale than you might imagine a computer game based on this material would allow. At the end, we’ll have to have a little thought experiment about […]

Character selection occurs right on the main title screen.          Xoru United States Castle Technologies (developer and publisher) Several versions released between 1987 and 1989 for DOS Date Started: 13 June 2018 Date Ended: 5 March 2019 Total Hours: 7 Difficulty: Easy-Moderate (2/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at […]

The Ringbearer hasn’t left the same perilous countryside since the game began.          Lord of the Rings, Vol. II simply doesn’t work. I’m sorry to have reached that conclusion. I had enjoyed the first game well enough and had been looking forward to the sequel, even though I knew there […]

The land of Elira, as provided recently by the author.            In appearance and mechanics, The Seventh Link owes so much to Ultima III and IV that it takes a while for the divergences in its approach to sink in. When the game began, I felt that I was in […]

Well, that’s helpful.              We haven’t had many games that support multiple parties adventuring at the same time, and each has handled the notion a slightly different way, depending on the reasons for the separation. For instance, some games support multiple players operating simultaneously, either cooperatively or competitively, such as […]

The party continues to explore The Seventh Link‘s large world.               This entry posits a thesis that I’ve never explicitly articulated before and probably haven’t spent enough time thinking about its flaws. I thus particularly invite you to join me in the comments and add or modify the thesis’s tenets. […]

The title shows that, just as with The Game of Dungeons, “DND” was just a file name, not the game name.          If you haven’t had a chance to check out the “Data Driven Gamer,” it’s worth a visit. The author, Ahab, is still building his readership base, much like […]

Vol. II lazily re-uses a lot of the artwork from Vol. I, including the title screen.           Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers United States Interplay (developer and publisher) Released in 1992 for DOS, 1993 for FM Towns and PC-98 Date Started: 5 February 2019 I remember […]

            “The CRPG Addict” is about to enter its tenth year. Clearly, it’s here to stay. In some ways, it has become as much of an addiction for me as the games themselves. Unfortunately, it is long past time to consider how I can better justify the amount of time […]