Summing Up the Silver Age

Although there were certainly some ambitious and exemplary games produced between 1980 and 1983, everyone knew the best was yet to come as computer hardware advanced and programmers continued to refine their skills. On the other hand, we can also say that, by 1983, almost all of the conventions we'll see in later CRPGs had been established or at least demonstrated.

From this point forward, we will be able to describe most CRPGs as combinations of elements from Silver Age games. What is The Pool of Radiance but Tunnels of Doom meets Wizardry? What is Diablo but Telengard with better audiovisuals? How far have we really come from pedit5, dnd, and Moria? It's impossible to truly appreciate or understand these later games without at least some knowledge of the groundbreaking CRPGs that came before them.

Nevertheless, there's a reason I chose to call this period the Silver and not the Golden Age of CRPGs. After all, some of the games we've discussed in this chapter (particularly Ultima III) remain fan favorites and, at least in fans' opinions, have never been surpassed or even equaled.

While I certainly agree that these games were innovative and even formative, I still view them more as prototypes: experimental CRPGs designed at a time when developers were still struggling to find their way. The genre simply needed time to mature.

Hopefully, you'll agree when we begin our discussion of classics like Phantasie, The Bard's Tale, Might and Magic, Dungeon Master, and Wasteland, as well as SSI's celebrated "Gold Box" and "Black Box" games. What we'll see happening between 1985 and 1993 is an explosion of innovation and diversity, with hundreds of titles and a great deal of experimentation.

Although many of the triumphs will be in the realm of graphics and sound, others have more to do with the art of storytelling, world building, and character development. We'll also see developers struggling to stay ahead of the latest advances in hardware, for we'll soon see how graphical considerations rise in prominence and, at least for some gamers, eventually trump all else.

[Want more? Check out the original series of pieces Barton wrote for Gamasutra in 2007, which can be found here: The Early Years, The Golden Age, and The Platinum and Modern Ages.]