As a kid in the 80s-90s I was into all the NES and SNES games. Mario, the Final Fantasy series, zelda, etc. I did learn to read and form basic sentences playing the old school King's Quest and Space Quest games on our PC. I still remember the day I went to the library and saw somebody playing Civilization, and was like "Can you copy that for me?"
I actually didn't play many video games from the mid 90s till around 2000. I got into D&D and as I got older, White wolf games. Table top always offered way more options and weirdness. Hell I actually played in a huge White Wolf LARP weekly for a couple of years in the late 90s.
As I got more into computers in the late 90s early 2000s, I started playing video games again. It was the original Deus Ex that really opened up my eyes that video games were a fantastic story telling platform that could be on par with film, books and TV.
I still remember when Neverwinter Nights came out back in the day. This probably speaks volumes about how young I was then, but I remember going through a bottle of rum and strawberry soda and smoking an entire pack of cigarettes during my first binge session.
Early on I did more shooters, quake and unreal, but got burnt out on them and need a good story with it to play one these days. Fallout and the Deus Ex series are an example of shooters I still love. I've generally gravitated toward the CRPGs, though. I did play the hell out of Jedi Knight 2 and Jedi Academy, though.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: This was my first video game experience, and I still have a softspot for the franchise to this day.
Starcraft: This was both my first computer game, and my first RTS. A genre that I am still terrible with to this day. Actually, I don't even like the genre, the setting and characters of Starcraft just really drew me in.
Baldur's Gate: My first RPG, I don't think I need to explain this one.
Pokemon: Oh the all consuming mons genre.
Final Fantasy VII: Yup, the super overhyped one was my intro to the series. (Still a good contender for the best one)
Undertale: This game resonated with me on an emotional level more than any other game has. A game like this only comes around once in a very long time.
I've played MANY MANY MANY games over the years. These are just the ones that were the most influential for me. A little bit of all my gaming choices can be almost directly linked to these six games.
Ok so, I actually think about this alot. I'd like to preface this by saying that I WISH my timeline had been more like yours, but I never actually played all these great RPGs when they came out, only in the last 5-10 years.
My timeline was a mixture of what games were available on Macintosh computers (which is what my dad bought us) and my Super Nintendo (and a Game Boy). Things started out basically at the dawn of the CD-ROM era:
Cosmic Osmo and the World's Beyond the Mackerel: This isn't really a game but more of a point and click playground for children. It is actually on Steam, believe it or not. I'm fairly sure it was obscure even in it's time, but it is where the people who made "Myst" cut their teeth. It's impossible to really explain the appeal unless you were ten years old around the time it came out, and if you missed it then, I doubt it would be understandable now.
Lucas Arts Graphical Adventures: Specifically, the first two Monkey Island games, and the two Indiana Jones adventures made with the SCUMM engine. "Fate of Atlantis" was about 1000x better than "Kingdom of Crystal Skull" ended up being. "Last Crusade" was incredibly difficult and you could actually find yourself stuck in you saved at the wrong spot in the Austrian castle. The first two Monkey Island games need no explanation for whoever played them.
Marathon 1 & 2, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom: Crazy now to think that the folks at Bungie, now the behemoths behind Halo and Destiny, originally started by making a series of Macintosh-only FPS games that combined Doom with Alien (all 3 are now available for free on PC since the source code was released, though playing them now, the controls are way too wild). Wolfenstein 3D came out on Mac years after it was originally on DOS and looked infinitely better graphically. Doom is self-explanatory. It remains the single most important video game ever made, and one of the best. I doubt I'll ever forget the fight at the end of Act 2 against the seemingly invincible Cyber Demon.
Warcraft Battle Chest: Getting this was when I first realized my niche was fantasy over everything else. This included the original "Orcs vs. Humans" and "Tides of Darkness". The games didn't mean nearly as much to me as the manuals did though. I had to go visit my cousins for a week hours after I received the box set, so I was limited to simply reading the manuals for 7 days before I ever popped the CDs in. I actually did beat Warcraft 2's final mission without cheating back then, but I defy you to find anyone who legitimately beat either campaign in the "Beyond the Dark Portal" expansion. Mostly, I was always coming up with scenarios to make this fantasy world larger with the map editor, none of which I ever even started to make. I always secretly wanted Azeroth to be a big, open-world I could participate in, and my wish would come true 100% in the form of "World of Warcraft" years later, though I never played it at launch (which is just as well since it would have consumed my life at the time). I am eagerly awaiting the implementation of the official classic servers from Blizzard.
I could go on about the Super Nintendo, and how and why it's the greatest console of all-time, but I've done so in other posts. I'll leave this one to just computer games. Of course, I do also have the memory everyone does about confronting The Butcher for the first time in Diablo, but games on the Macintosh of the RPG variety were few and far between. I distinctly remember reading the advertisements in my dad's Macintosh magazines. Honestly, the only thing I can remember seeing back then was "Stonekeep", and I certainly never owned that title back then. The truly great fantasy adventures from this time period (namely, the Baldur's Gate series and Might and Magic VI) never made it to the Mac back in the day, meaning they were completely off my radar. Coming from a Mac (which Windows ripped off wholesale), even attempting to deal with DOS was like going back in time 10 years.
Not sure if true. What's this “hockey“ supposed to be anyway?
The next poster would enjoy playing an RPG with clean shaved, perfumed and tea drinking dwarves, coffee addicted tourist liches, pacifist zombies, bear-riding communist elves, insane pixies who plan to overthrow all other races and macho wizards which cast their spells through their biceps with the power of PROOOTTEEEIIINN.
@Runeks You no longer need to follow the steps I outlined earlier; I've updated the mod to support Dragonspear UI++
@chimaera Yep, Icewind Dale 2.5 is supported! (not 1.4, because this mod requires the 2.0 UI overhaul in order to function)
Version Extended v2.2:
This version includes a lot of the internal changes necessary in order to make this mod compatible with nearly all the large UI overhauls. There are now around ~13 different installation configurations that can be run - I tried to test them all, but some bugs might have slipped through. If you see anything out of the ordinary, don't hesitate to report it!
P.S. Always choose "1] Patch" when prompted! The override option is meant more for debugging than for actual use, though it is OK to use if you are only installing on top of a vanilla game.
Changelog: - Standardized GUI elements - Now compatible with 9 different UI bases: Baldur's Gate II Vanilla Baldur's Gate + SoD Vanilla Dragonspear UI++ Enhanced Edition Trilogy (BG2 Skin) Enhanced Edition Trilogy (SoD Skin) Icewind Dale Vanilla Lefreut's enhanced UI (BG2 Skin) Lefreut's enhanced UI for IWDEE Lefreut's enhanced UI (SoD Skin)
Ok guys, so unless Beamdog figures out a way to stop the crashes, this is a more-or-less permanent workaround for this issue (as long as you have a 64 bit Linux OS):
The problem appears to be the 32 bit executable on Linux. If you trick Steam into launching the 64 bit version instead, the crashes stop, at least on my machine.
1. If you updated from a previous version, uninstall and reinstall the game through Steam. 2. Right click the game in your library, go to properties -> local files -> browse local files. 3. Find the file called "IcewindDale" and rename it to "IcewindDale32". 4. Find the file called "IcewindDale64" and rename it to "IcewindDale". 5. Now you can launch the 64 bit version through Steam.
If, for whatever reason, you need to reverse the process, just change the names back OR delete the two files and verify integrity of game cache through Steam.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 157 - update 1 2 Rae (lawful evil female half-elf dragon disciple 7, Gate70) Needle (chaotic good male half elf fighter 6 / mage 5)
Another couple of mini sessions are done, no notes again and a handful of screenshots to go on.
Silke is an easy blind target, but Needle is almost caught out when Rae sends Garrick hostile.
We went to pick on Sil and her friends, then headed into and out of a flesh golem cave at pace. Maybe we'll come back when we're better equipped to pick on them.
Instead we go in search of basilisks. All goes well, but Kirian and her crew get as good a chance as it gets to kill Rae when she walks into stinking clouds instead of casting a spell. Only one enemy is on his feet for a few seconds, but the cloud does it's job and Needle gets to finish all four enemies off.
With that area clear we head out to Durlags Tower.
A quick tour of the roof, and we leave with a magical tome and a chunk of xp.
The second mini session has us hunting down ankhegs. Rae failed to get the first one to sleep but the rest all succumbed and she kept some Melf's Minute Meteor's in reserve together with Magic Missiles. No need though, Needle chipping and chopping the hapless monsters apart.
We reached Ulgoth's Beard and realised our reputation was mid-league so set about getting ourselves known. Needle had a fit of hysterics as Rae made a start by telling Mr Colquetle his family deserved to die and dropped reputation by 1. He suggested we sort out half-ogres for Bjornin and Rae agreed - but ended up near Captain Brage. We returned him to Nashkel after taking care of the Doomsayer.
The Trio worked through the City, picking up all the equipment they wanted, before heading for the Iron Throne. Hunter used a scroll of magic protection to tank there, while the others picked enemies off round the edges - resulting in a comfortable enough victory.
Returning to Candlekeep, giant strength potions were used to loot the tombs. Hunter did manage to trip the lightning trap there (during a session in which he seemed to be regularly holding a sword up to the sky and saying he didn't believe in gods), but not much damage was done.
Prat hit Hunter twice with lightning bolts to do rather more damage, but not enough to prove fatal.
Back in Baldur's Gate, Slythe was just shot from distance with a dispelling arrow as we had no interest in Krystin's equipment.
At the palace we agreed that we'd just try and kill the dopplegangers quickly, rather than aim to dispel them. Faced with 3 potion-enhanced fighters, the dopplegangers were still able to kill Liia pretty smartly, but didn't last long enough to do much damage to Belt.
Going through the maze, Hunter once more felt a little tickle from a lightning trap on the way to the Undercity. The party there were hit with some detonation arrows, though did manage to give a reasonable account of themselves.
Keen to push up towards a final BG1 level, Hunter decided to take advantage of the scroll of undead protection used in the maze to kill some more skeleton warriors. The first of those duly fell, but the second started fighting back despite the scroll still being active. That led to Hunter and Biff both being badly injured before Peer finished the skeletons off - thanks to them being unable to see through his scroll protection.
Inside the temple Peer shot Sarevok from distance with a dispelling arrow before sneaking back towards him to encourage him to make his opening talk. If things had gone well that would have meant Semaj teleporting out on this own before Sarevok was tackled. However, Peer hadn't used a scroll of magic protection or potion of magic shielding (or indeed put his ring of free action on) and got stuck as a web triggered. Though in the shadows he would soon have appeared for Sarevok to jump on, so Biff moved closer to the dais around the right hand side of the web/stinking cloud area to distract Sarevok. Getting that close to the dais though resulted in Angelo and Tazok also becoming active and Angelo spotted Peer - fortunately though Peer broke free of the web and was able to retreat before Angelo got to him. Biff took quite a bit of damage in keeping Sarevok and Tazok occupied while Hunter and Peer finished off Semaj and Angelo. It didn't take long after that to shoot down Tazok before Sarevok became the final one to fall.
There was just time in the session to get the characters imported into BG2 and find themselves in a sticky dungeon situation.
