The CRPG Book Project - Expanded Edition

by Felipe Pepe

The CRPG Book Project is a collaborative, non-profit effort to create a free and easily available ebook on the history of Computer Role-Playing Games.

The goal is to gather all the knowledge currently spread across countless websites, books, forums and minds in a single, accessible and visually pleasing tome.

The completed ebook was first released as a free PDF in 2018, getting over 160,000 downloads. A deal was then made with Bitmap Books, which published a limited hardcover version of the book in 2019. All of the author’s profits (£20.992 as of January 2022) were donated to Vocação, a Brazilian NGO that helps kids and teenagers from poor areas to get a better education and find employment.

In 2022, a new expanded edition was released, now with 160 extra pages, addressing issues with the previous release and expanding it to include games that were never released in English, as well as MMOs, MUDs, RPG Maker titles and more.

This expanded edition is freely available for download at the project's website.

Genres: Nonfiction, Games, Video Games, Gaming, History, Reference, Game Design

680 pages, ebook

First published February 5, 2018

Reviews

[Kalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indispensable. Let my notes convince you.

I've boldfaced (and will keep boldfacing) the games and mods I recommend strongly.

~ Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Countless companies also followed Activision, becoming third-party developers and publishing their own games. Most were of terrible quality or cheap copies of popular titles. Atari themselves also had poor standards, with failures like its crude port of Pac-Man and the infamous E.T. game.
Still, profit was at a record high and companies & retailers kept betting on ever-increasing sales for the holidays of 1982. However, customers got so burnt out that they stopped buying. Left with massive dead stocks and no way to recover their investments, the US market crashed in 1983.
What was a 3 billion dollar business in 1982 barely made 100 million in 1985. Video games went from prized products directly to bargain bins, and the US console industry was for all purposes dead.

Very much the same thing happened to Bulgarian gamebooks in 1998. Oversaturating the market with new titles of questionable quality (at the average rate of one per week) coincided with the general financial crisis of 1997, print runs dropped tenfold, and the gamebook genre virtually vanished for more than ten years. Of course, the arrival of CRPG to Bulgaria also contributed.

~ Stuart Smith's The Return of Heracles sounds like an impressive specimen from the early era of CRPG:

There is a relatively shocking degree of non-linearity in the game, as you can choose everything from which Greek hero to play (Perseus, Hippolyta, Jason, Acchiles, Odysseus, etc), how many characters you’ll control (anywhere from one to all 19 of them) and whether you’ll spend your time trying to avoid combat or killing every character you meet.
Some combat is unavoidable, as the purpose of the game – completing the Twelve Labors of Heracles – does necessitate fights such as the traditional slaying of the Hydra and the Nemean Lion. But you are free to try to duck and weave your way around the vast majority of characters, and there are even wholly optional areas in the game.
The learning aspect should definitely be emphasized; charming vignettes explain various myths and historical information, and characters come to life even with the hardware limitations of the time.

~ As I browsed playthroughs of games mentioned in the book, I came across The CRPG Addict, Chester Bolingbroke's blog.

Now I wonder if there's much point in continuing with the book.

(Well, there certainly is for the titles that were released in the 90s and later. At least until Bolingbroke catches up with them.)

~ Escape from Hell sounds like a game that would have gone a long way--and long before Dante's Inferno or Devil May Cry (the originals).

Incidentally, while looking for representations of Hell in games, I stumbled on Fear Effect , which looks surprisingly mature ... and I don't mean the nudity. ;) I was impressed by both the writing and the variety of game mechanics.

~ It's a day off today, so I'm reading through Chester Bolingbroke's entries on Fate: Gates of Dawn.

Yes, all of them.

~ Based on the following paragraph (but more on an excited comment I read on Bolingbroke's blog), I should find a playthrough of The Summoning:

But where The Summoning shines is in its story. On your way through the dungeon, you’ll meet many characters and learn a lot about both your enemies and your benefactors, as well as the world in general. The game features not one, but two shocking twists –that is, in the best-case scenario.

(In a large anthology like this one, few writers are stellar enough to capture the brilliance of a game in a handful of sentences. But it's a great starting point for sure.)

Addendum: I tried The Summoning but didn't like the writing.

~ Check Ultima VII, Betrayal at Krondor and Superhero League of Hoboken's writing.

Addendum: Of all three, only Superhero League of Hoboken appealed to me, with its wacky superheroes and wackier quests. A nice deconstruction of the genre.

~ The entry on Fallout 2 reminded me that I've never given the game a proper chance. So I went to Youtube and found ... this.

Grunk!

(But seriously: would anyone write this sort of brilliant imbecility ever again?)

~

Is uncontrollable babbling a viable combat option? Can a planetary object be a viable party member? Is male exotic dancing a reliable way to earn money in RPGs? How come one of the best Japanese RPGs was developed in the west? Play Anachronox and all of the above will be answered.

Well ... let's check it out. ;)

... Oh yes. The camerawork is amazing, and the slang is worthy of note-taking.

Now let's get back to drubbing those squabs and deadbeats. :D

... OMG. One of your party members can literally be an entire planet ....

~ Try the following Neverwinter Nights mods: Daniel Muth's Aribeth's Redemption, for the romance, and Baldecaran's Cave of Songs, Honor among Thieves and The Prophet Trilogy, for the writing.
Also:
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, with a generic character vs. a Malkavian, for the craziness;
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky + Second Chapter, for the NPCs' conversations and arcs.
- Knights of the Old Republic 2, for Kreia:

Indisputably, KotoR 2’s greatest achievement is the character of Kreia and her unique perspective on the Star Wars universe. A former Jedi, now acting as the protagonist’s mentor, she shares very original and interesting opinions on nature of the Force, alongside with a questionable, but well intentioned morality.
For her, not only the concept of “the will of the Force” negates any notion of personal choice, but “the balance of the Force” makes the everlasting Light Side versus Dark Side conflict completely meaningless and unwinnable. Even the greatest good, achieved by greatest sacrifices will go to waste because eventually a greater evil will have to emerge so the balance may be preserved. Any goodness done would go away, but it’s side effects, deaths and suffering will stay, so the final score would always be negative.
Therefore, the Force influence on all living things is negative, and the “good versus evil” battle brings only destruction on an immense scale. Kreia expresses a mix of Nietzschean/Spencerian morality, has strong opinions on everything and loves manipulating people to do her biding.

Addendum: I couldn't find a playthrough of NWN: Aribeth's Redemption, and I wasn't impressed by Cave of Songs (the minuscule font of the conversations was a serious aggravation, quickly sapping my desire to explore further). KOTOR 2 was also underwhelming, especially since it was written by Chris Avellone. (The more time passes, the less I believe Avellone can repeat the pinnacle of Planescape: Torment. Such things are perhaps meant as a one-time gift, like "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" and Roger Zelazny. Yet hope springs eternal ....)

The two parts of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky do have their funny, heartwarming or cathartic moments. Overall, however, there's too much story for those moments to really shine.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is indeed superbly written, not just for the alliterative madness of Malkavians but for rather unexpected examples of conflict transformation such as this one.

~ Danny Ledonne's Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is a really daring experiment, which raises a lot of pertinent questions. I don't like the writing enough to call it a successful experiment, but I applaud the effort. (The encounters with the various characters in hell were pretty funny too. ;)

~ The following paragraph persuaded me to try Way of the Samurai 4, even more than the widely branching narrative and the multiple unlockable events:

What can also be a bit too much is the tone of the game. Previous games in the series always had some humor and over the top characters, but here it often approaches extreme levels of wackiness, with a Lolita-like ambassador, a knight named Megamelons, a trio of sadistic sisters who love torture and a silly “night encounter” mini-game where you must sneak into your lover’s bed at night.

Whaddaya mean, "a bit too much"? This is the Japanese! :D

Addendum: Actually, it isn't the over-the-top humor but the humanism and desire for mutual understanding that makes the game such a rare delight. At least in what is known as the true ending.

~ Oh the Japanese:

Neptunia is set in the world of Gamindustri, where four nations--Lowee, Lastation, Leanbox and Planeptune--are locked in an eternal conflict called the Console War. The first three nations clearly represent the Wii, Playstation and Xbox consoles, while the last one is a reference to the SEGA Neptune, a canceled console from the 90s.

There's also an anime adaptation. Hmmm.

Addendum: The game does have its meta giggles, such as this gig about being *censored* and fan service. But they don't seem to be frequent enough to justify reading through the whole thing.

[Michelle Morrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This massive book is a labor of love for the fans of computer RPGs (Role Playing Games) with listings, history, backstories, and reviews of almost every single RPG out there, from the glorified DOS days of the late 70s, the pixelated innocence of the 90s, to the massive blockbusters of today.

There is a whole cast of writers for this, so you do get a wide variety of writing styles, and as such the quality varies (according to reader preferences, I have no doubt). I really enjoyed travelling through the history, seeing which games succeeded, which failed, which spawned massive legacies and which faded away, and which changed the entire fabric of the genre (love ya, Bioware!). But mostly I just appreciated immersing myself in a universe of my favorite games with other fans who love them too.

I didn't read every one of the 526 pages in this book, disclaimer. I read every entry for games I've played (way more than I realized) and all the ones I knew of or wanted to play or even just tickled a memory. So yeah, hundreds and hundreds of games. Dang, I may have an RPG problem!

It's available for free HERE, as of February 2018.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

The CRPG book is a tome that collects hundreds of RPGs from 1975 to 2015 and effectively forms the history of that entire genre. I can say that I was thrilled to go through it because the presentation was brilliant and it was quite interesting to see where the genre came from. Once the book got closer to the late 90s my curiosity got a boost by large bouts of nostalgia because nearly every game I had enjoyed as a kid was represented there. I definitely loved the game selection and the amount of them was staggering. Every game had a page or two dedicated to it and it was filled with high-quality screenshots, basic information, and a pretty sizeable piece of writing that usually commented on the significance of the game. One of my favourite things I saw there was that they always brought out the best mods for older games and I thought it was a wonderful initiative that helped the modding community.

While I was pretty positive on the entire bind-up in general there is one single thing I would like to comment on. Technically the pieces that were written under every game classify as reviews. My problem with that was that the author did not keep to a single reviewer and it was really apparent that some of these people approached games very differently. This created a bit of an uneven experience for the reader and I believe I would have enjoyed the book slightly more if the texts had been written in a more see-through way (You could really tell when one of the reviewers had been annoyed with a game)

Nevertheless, this was a minor annoyance compared to the overall journey and I can definitely recommend this to any video game enthusiast.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a review of this and Goodreads ate it, so I'm grumpy now and will probably keep this short. I didn't read every page of this book, but I'm going to review it anyway because it's not really that kind of book. It's more of a coffee table book that you flip through during a commercial break or when bored.

This is an overview of the entire history of computer role playing games that goes through a truly astonishing number of games from Beneath Apple Manor to Pillars of Eternity. It's written by fans and insiders of RPGS, including people such as Chris Avellone and Tim Cain. Unfortunately it doesn't have an index for authors so if you want to find one particular writer's articles you have to flip through the book page by page.

The articles cover the game's place in history, its strengths and weaknesses, and whether it's worth seeking out now. It also includes write-ups of notable DLC's and expansions, and a feature of some of the more notable mods.

Overall, it's a delightful and nostalgic look back at a genre of video games that have been important to me for the vast majority of my life.

[Javier Alemán · Rating 3 out of 5]

The CRPG Book Project es un libro gratuito hecho por fans, coordinado por el brasileño Felipe Pepe, que nació motivado por el éxito de su lista de 70 mejores juegos de rol en RPG Codex. Una labor de cuatro años y un porrón de voluntarios, entre los que se han colado destacados periodistas de videojuegos (la mítica Scorpia o desarrolladores (hay algún texto por ahí de Tim Cain o Chris Avellone). Un testimonio de lo que ha sido el género desde su nacimiento hasta la actualidad.

El libro comienza fuerte, con una serie de pequeños ensayos más o menos acertados, que se preguntan lo que es un RPG clásico (sorpresa, no hay ningún indicador), del choque cultural de las nuevas generaciones acercándose a clásicos como Ultima IV o que hablan de la época en la que tenías que hacerte los mapas en papel con la nostalgia justa en vez de lloriqueando por haberlo perdido. Hay también una entrada fantástica sobre el origen prusiano de los wargames y un compendio de juegos hechos en PLATO (una suerte ordenador primigenio interconectado en universidades) con masivos online de rol en 1975 que te deja un poco patidifuso. Digamos que es una de las partes más interesantes del libro y que se hubieran agradecido más reportajes de este tipo, aunque la verdadera naturaleza del proyecto fuera la de hacer un compendio.

Tras eso se vienen las cuatrocientas reseñas de RPGs para ordenador que son el grueso del contenido, una absoluta barbaridad. El único requisito es que los juegos salieran en ordenador y fueron editadas en Occidente. Vienen agrupadas por lustros, desde finales de los años 70 hasta 2014, porque en algún momento había que cerrar todo esto. Cada lustro tiene su introducción histórica con el estado de la industria del videojuego, lanzamientos destacados, tecnología, curiosidades… Provee un poco de contexto para los juegos que luego vamos a encontrar y nos hace entender cosas como la limitación de memoria de los primeros títulos, el avance que fue el CD-ROM…

Las reseñas en general funcionan bien, aunque tienen sus altibajos y ahí se nota el amateurismo de algunos de los autores. Las hay tremendamente informativas y bien construídas, hablando de los orígenes del rol, de cómo afecta que los videojuegos se basaran tanto en Dungeons & Dragons, de la innovación que supuso alguna de las mecánicas del juego en concreto… pero luego también hay un buen puñado que son básicamente entradas hablando de que tal o cual títulos gustó mucho al autor en su infancia y que por eso es bueno.

Es flipante ver que si uno sigue el hilo histórico que nos plantea fueron muy pocos juegos (con honrosísimas excepciones) los que trataron de salirse del molde del dungeon crawler o del blobber y cómo fueron necesarias décadas para liberarse de los dragones y las mazmorras. Aún así en las excepciones encontramos ya de todo: sistemas sin clase de personaje, sistemas sin experiencia, juegos con ciclos noche-día, ambientaciones de ciencia ficción, intentos de meter historia… Simplemente, no eran lo común.

Esa sección finaliza con Pillars of Eternity, para dar un poco de contenido adicional con una serie de capitulillos sobre juegos japoneses, juegos traducidos por fans y juegos que nunca serán (un tema que a mí me apasiona). Está claro que esto de las listas nunca contenta a nadie, pero me sorprende la permisividad en las primeras décadas, donde te cuelan videojuegos que directamente son malos o no funcionaban, pero que en las últimas no salgan títulos como Expeditions: Conquistador, Inquisitor, Dead State, Crypt of the Necrodancer… por no hablar de innumerables indies. Hay un cierto tufillo a cerrado en muchas de las reseñas, a jugador muy clásico que quiere una serie de cosas y que no ha sabido encajar el cambio que ha habido en el mundo del videojuego en los últimos años. Imagino que tampoco ayuda que apenas hubiera mujeres en el proyecto.

Porque al final, muchas de las reseñas cuando quieren recalcar algo de un juego clásico se centran en su fantástico sistema de loot, lo fiel que es a las reglas de D&D (o lo bien que añade clases de personaje y grupos de aventureros), los hechizos, los combates… ¿Ven un patrón ahí? Y sin embargo, si uno se va a la lista que dio origen a todo esto, el ganador es Planescape: Torment, que es fantástico en todo salvo en sus combates.

1. Planescape: Torment
2. Fallout
3. Fallout 2
4. Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn
5. Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
6. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
7. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
8. Fallout: New Vegas
9. Gothic 2
10. Wizardry 8
11. Deus Ex
12. Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer
13. Jagged Alliance 2
14. Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition
15. Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant
16. Betrayal at Krondor
17. Baldur’s Gate
18. Darklands
19. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II-The Sith Lords
20. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

De hecho, miren la lista y traten de contar cuántos dungeon crawlers y blobbers hay ahí. Porque, curiosamente, el patrón de videojuegos se mueve hacia otro lado: títulos memorables por su historia, por las diferencias que introducen, por salirse de los sistemas habituales…

Así que por un lado celebramos lo distinto, lo narrativo y lo original, pero por el otro ponemos el baremo en la nostalgia y no le perdonamos a los videojuegos más modernos que ya no sean como antes.

En definitiva, The CRPG Book Project es una obra fantástica, llena de cariño y de recuerdos, que cuando más brilla es cuando intenta no caer en el clásico “antes todo era mejor”. Como recopilatorio y compendio histórico funciona de maravilla salvo cuando entra en la última década, donde más se le ven las costuras y se echan en falta juegos que arriesguen e innoven. Al fin y al cabo, es hijo de la comunidad de la que es hijo. Si se hubiera atrevido a tener el mismo cariño por lo nuevo que por lo viejo, ya sería perfecto.

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would have been nice if the 175 contributors (exact number, not hyperbole) could have agreed on even a vague definition of "CRPG" beforehand. Why is Beneath Apple Manor (a rogue-like, but Rogue itself is also included—and Nethack) the first CRPG listed, and not Colossal Cave Adventure? What makes Zeliard a CRPG, but not, say, Abe's Oddyssey? If you're going to include Jagged Alliance 2, why not X-COM? I can sort of see why Princess Maker II is on the list, but why is Alter Ego (the 1986 one) here? Or Cultist Simulator? Or Darkest Dungeon? Or Dwarf Fortress?
There are no serious omissions, anyway—at 397 entries there had better not be. Surprisingly little RPG Maker slop, as well: just "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" (yes, really), which I'm sure editor Felipe Pepe included because he's delusional about its societal relevance and not because he's an edgy sack of shit himself. (Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden is included, but that's actually GameMaker slop.)

The list of contributors includes Chris Avellone and Tim Cain but is mostly random video game enthusiasts, so the writing is often physically painful. The first half or so of the book more or less works as a nostalgia piece, but after that it just becomes a list of every game its contributors have ever played regardless of pertinence. I guess it depends on how old you are.

[vonblubba · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book written by CRPG fans, for CRPG fans.
It's probably not the most comprehensive text on the subject ("Dungeons & desktops" comes to mind), but it's definitly the most captivating read.
A nostalgic travel back in time to the afternoons spent behind a C64 playing Ultima V. I couldn't ask for more.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have any interest in the history of computer RPGs, I straight-out cannot think of a better book on the subject. Going from the very beginnings of the genre (the mid-'70s, and the PLATO--a computer I'd never even heard of, prior to reading this), and going all the way to about 2015, this is a comprehensive, almost exhaustive look at how RPGs have evolved, featuring the notable hits, the hidden gems, the flat-out weird titles, and the flops. My Steam wishlist has grown considerably, with titles I may have missed out on forever, if I hadn't given The CRPG Book a read.

Pretty much every page was a joy--from revisiting games I haven't played in probably 30 years, to discovering titles I'd never heard of before. And each entry is accompanied by a nice variety of screenshots, making for a very attractive book. Really, the only thing that marred the experience at all were typos that cropped up every now and then. But those are a minuscule price to pay for the wealth of history on display here.

The CRPG Book is great. I don't know what else to say.

[Χρυσόστομος Τσαπραΐλης · Rating 5 out of 5]

A noble compendium of the Genre, a truly passionate work of love from players and dedicated fans to their own ilk (though the book is of definitive value to an audience interested in the history of CRPGs). Separated in half-decade chapters, it covers computer role-playing games from their nebulous late-60s/early 70s pre-history to the mid-'10s. Each chapter contains a context establishing introduction before presenting a plethora of games from each particular era. 1 to 2 pages are devoted to each title, each text being a presentation of the game interspersed with trivia. Most of the texts feel alive, dripping with passion and longing (even unfulfilled, in the case of games that did not lived up to expectations). Plus, an appendix full of lists. Plus, it is freely distributed.

[Stephan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of the history of PC CRPG's, written from a mostly critical standpoint.
Minor complaint is that I did encounter a fair number of grammar and sentence structure errors.
But that doesn't take away that this is one of a kind in covering the history from the early videogame crpg's all the way to the modern ones, including recommendations on how to get said games working, recommended mods, and sometimes added developer commentary.

[Paweł Kubiak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super ciekawe studium mojego ulubionego gatunku ulubionej rozrywki. Autorzy pracy wykonali tytaniczną pracę opisując gry cRPG wydane w ostatnich 40+ lat.

+ Bardzo dokładna praca (300+ gier);
+ Recenzje gier napisane przez fanów;
+ Dużo szczegółowych porad;
+ Wiele historii o rozwoju komputerów, gamingu, RPGów papierowych i wiele innych.

- Recenzje gier czasami są BARDZO pobieżne;
- I BARDZO subiektywne;
- Brak najbardziej współczesnych pozycji (po 2019 r.)

Mimo wszystko warto, obowiązkowa pozycja dla każdego gamingowego historyka :D

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The CRPG Book is a year-by-year walkthrough of computer roleplaying games (predominantly Western RPGs, rather than those coming out of Japan). It runs the gamut from early titles like Akalabeth, Rogue, and Wizardry, all the way through to 2015's Pillars of Eternity.

There are a couple of things to bear in mind about The CRPG Book. Firstly, it's the printed version of an online project designed to chart the rise, fall, and rise again of the CRPG industry. As such, it brings together a wide range of authors from around the world, each tackling one (or a number) of different games across the years.

The other is that it's designed more as a reference book than as a flowing narrative. The majority of the pages are dedicated to individual reviews of games, which makes it naturally quite a stop-start read. It's definitely one that's better suited to a coffee table than a nightstand - in my experience, at least.

How much enjoyment you'll get from this is really down to your interest in a comprehensive catalogue of just about every CRPG released (and some that weren't). As someone who grew up with most of these titles, even I was pushed to maintain my interest at points, though that's probably more due to the fact that I read a large chunk of it back-to-back rather than dipping in selectively. That said, it's still an undoubtedly niche read.

The other issue that I struggled with was the communal nature of the writing. Not only does the tone vary considerably across reviews (ranging from the kind of prose you'd expect from a professional journalist through to some people who just sound far too excited about having the chance to talk about their favourite game), the quality differs wildly too. It's rough going in places, and drew a few eyerolls as a result.

That carries across into spelling, grammar, and punctuation as well. I have a 1st edition copy of the book, and I'm sure that changes have been made since, but there are multiple typos, spelling errors, omissions and grammatic oddities that threw me off time and again. Understandable given that this started out as an online project, but nonetheless unforgivable for a printed product.

All in all, this is a good - if not massively entertaining - read. The proofreading problems are offset by the fact that all profits on the physical edition went to charity, and having a detailed guide to the many, many CRPGs from the past 30 or so years is neat enough for me to keep this on my shelf.

[Alexander Lisovsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Очень даже неплохая попытка объять необъятное и составить руководство к гигантскому жанру RPG, который сейчас переживает возрождение, до этого 15 лет был в упадке, а в начале эры компьютерных игр (1980-е) включал в себя вообще все практически выходящие игры (и поэтому к РПГ традиционно причисляют не только зельдоиды, солзы и даже карточные симуляторы подземелий, но и рогалики — однако стратегии идут отдельно, потому что выросли из другой совершенно настольной традиции).

На мой взгляд, классификация достаточно спорная, и она несправедливо исключает многих отцов-основателей ("Варкрафт", "Герои", "Икском"), при этом приплетает за уши то, что вообще к РПГ не имеет никакого отношения (FTL и Sunless Sea, рили?). Впрочем, в своей основной нише авторы достаточно компетентны и подкованы, хоть и к некоторым отзывам у меня всё же были вопросы (в Darkest Dungeon много внимания уделяется сложности, рандому и стрессу, но ни слова не говорится о том, что тебя, игрока, сажают в кресло циничного менеджера, использующего героев как расходный материал — в полной противоположности к обычному герое-ориентированному подходу РПГ).

Больше всего мне здесь понравилась ценная, краткая историческая ретроспектива с ключевыми событиями в каждой пятилетке, а также то, что международный коллектив авторов приоткрыл завесу, о которой не подозревает вообще никто на западе, включая олдов — что старые видеоигры и близко не ограничиваются США и Японией. Практически в каждой стране выходили свои собственные локальные представители — и в Германии, и в Чехии, и в России, и даже в Иране (внезапно). В некоторых странах игр было столько, что существовала целая индустрия (пусть и невидимая снаружи) — например, в Корее и (внезапно, опять же) в Китае. Причём, и в Корее, и в Китае MMORPG на пике были в десятки раз более популярными и массовыми, чем все западные игры вместе взятые (были на западе). В книге это всё хорошо освещается.

В целом я читал, конечно, не все 100500 отзывов, которые и составляют основной объём текста, но было довольно познавательно, рекомендую. Сама книга, кстати, распространяется бесплатно, скачать её можно на сайте проекта.

[Steve Agland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've learnt something new about myself. I'm the sort of person who will read a 500 page book reviewing every major computer role-playing game in (english-speaking) history (and many minor ones), cover to cover. This is available for free online and I started reading out of curiosity, and found it a refreshing alternative to the usual Twitter doomscrollling that I default to when idling on my phone. I've only ever played a handful of these games (and the more accessible ones at that), and will likely only play a few more, but there's something fascinating about a niche creative industry striving and iterating in search of the most immersive fantasy adventure experience. Trying to find the best way to tell an epic story with the reader as the protagonist.

A lot changed between 1980 and 2016 in both the tech and business. Well, that's an understatement. So there's a gradual but fascinatingly substantial evolution in RPGs over that time. That said, they can get a little same-y from time to time and I allowed myself to skip the occasional review that didn't seem to have an interesting hook.

Anyway, the best thing about this book is that it exists. Historical surveys like this take games that seemed weird or banal at the time of release and put them in the perspective of an global artform in rapid, passionate and unpredictable development.

Now I need to peruse the generous Further Reading section at the end and select my next social media diversion.

[Luke John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustive coverage of the CRPG genre exploring the development of styles, mechanics and sub-genres. The earlier sections, dealing with the first of the genre, were those I found to be most interesting, largely because so many of the games were unknown to me. The coverage of the games is often inconsistent, having been the work of many authors, and therefore lacks cohesion/consistency. Most of the time this is fine, however a few reviews break the spell, with a very small minority of writers providing emotive and heavily opinionated pieces that feel more like provocative forum posts (the later Fallout and Elder Scrolls games, for example, get heavily bashed and are presented almost as being some of the worst games ever, rather than the beloved franchise entries they are in reality). This can at times make the book feel like the work of embittered basement dwellers, jealously guarding their patch of pop culture. However as a whole this is a great read, with really well presented art throughout and writing that generally aims to communicate a love for a special interest. At these times the passion is infectious, and whilst I won't be going back to play any of these games , I was almost convinced to do so a few times, almost. Ignoring the occasional toxic nerding in this book, the overall sense of love and passion for the subject makes this a recommended read. Although you probably need more than a passing interest in CRPGs to start with.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's rare that a book can be so exactly what I wanted. It's huge (500+ pages), and each page is large, so the authors can fit several pictures, and even better, quite a bit of text on each page. It's exactly the right ratio of text and image. What it is, essentially, is a set of reviews of these games from earliest beginnings to shortly before present day (2015ish it stops).

What's particularly impressive is that it was written by committee but has a consistent tone throughout. The reviews are clear—they make it evident what was good, bad, or indifferent about all aspects of every game discussed. If there are modifications available that improve gameplay, they discuss them. It's engaging, dense, well-researched (I can't imagine playing that many games, all the way through, so as to capture the right screen shots and review them), even with a handful of colleagues (talk about forming a party to make light work of quests!)

My only quibble is an overuse of terms (e.g. JPRG, eroge, blobber) that a casual reader might not understand. Turns out there's a glossary at the back, but it doesn't cover all terms, and I didn't know about it until it was too late.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[Adam Howells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felipe Pepe is doing the lord’s work for a variety of reasons.

The content here, especially in the expanded edition, forms a hefty (quite literally) tome that starts with the earliest games to resemble what would become the vast CRPG genre: the PLATO RPG. It then runs through over 400 crowd-sourced reviews, starting with 1975’s Beneath Apple Manor and ending with 2019’s Disco Elysium. Pepe caps it with histories of French, Korean, and Chinese RPGs, as well as important fan translations and RPG Maker Games from pre-RPG Maker to the the current version.

It’s exhaustive but never exhausting, and the details are occasionally enough to force an audible, “Wow.” In the section covering Chinese RPGs, you’ll learn about the early bootlegging scene where two college students coded Dragon Quest by hand for MS-DOS, and the accompanying screenshot makes it very clear Pepe tracked this down and played it.

This is a labor of love, offered freely on the project’s website. Do yourself a favor and order it directly from Bitmap Books, though. They ship from the UK, which involves a minimal fee for US shipping. Bitmap then chucks the book through a DHL portal, and it flies alarmingly fast to your door in impressive packaging that ensures this pristine printing arrives perfectly. All of Pepe’s profits go to Vocação. This man is, indeed, the man, and you should give him a follow on Medium for continual deep dives into video game history.

[Nikolis Asimakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal book, a collective project of passion that talks about the history of gaming, focused in one specific genre, CRPGs. Throughout the pages you'll read about many known RPGs and how they shaped the genre to even more not-well known ones that range from good titles, to mere curiosities that a fan of the genre might want to check out. It even goes so far as to have a specific section for notable JRPGs, Fan-translations and even cancelled projects, as well as an extensive "further reading" list.
All in all, this is a phenomenal book (in lack of an alternate description of that magnitude) that you could either read digitally for free or opt to buy the really good quality hardback available, the earnings of which go to charity.

[Jordyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I did contribute some writing to the latest version of this book. That being said, even if that wasn't the case, I'd still give it this same rating. Like with any medium and genre, the history of cRPGs(while most have a much narrower definition, the author of this book has elected to define cRPG as "every roleplaying game that's played on a computer") is a very interesting one. It describes its early years and most recent entries, the good, the bad, and the bad yet interesting. In his overviews, the author once or twice takes a pointless dig at a certain more recently released RPG, but other than that, it's solid all around, and the fact that it organized both players and big industry names together to help write this is easily one of the best parts about it.

[Niklas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todella kattava esitys tietokoneroolipelien historiasta. Mukana on paitsi kaupallisia pelejä, myös modeja ja harrasteprojekteja. Kirja on innostava katsaus, jonka arvostelut on kirjoitettu ajatuksella ja kiinnostavia teemoja käsitellen. Tykkäsin myös kirjan taustoittavista artikkeleista, jotka käsittelevät mm. kartoittamista, PLATO-pelejä ja roolipelien historiaa. Kirjaa selatessa kiinnostuu ihan uusista peleistä tai tahtoo palata takaisin jo pelattujen pariin. Se on mielestäni hyvän kokonaiskatsauksen merkki. Ainoa joka puuttuu on mielestäni UnReal World, mutta muuten mukana on käytännössä kaikki mitä pitääkin.

[André Bernhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need some more coffee table books regarding the games industry this is your weapon of choice (but this can also be said about the biggest part of the Bitmap Books portfolio - eternal love).

Actually you can read everything for free as well as the PDF is public but it feels like a nice trip on memory lane to stumble through this nicely printed and coloured collection of CRPGs. Double page for bigger titles - one page for smaller ones. Maybe the reviews are a bit flawed as different writer mostly wrote about their favourites but still it is nice to get some inspiration or meet old friends (like Pool of Radiance - SSI Gold Box Games - also eternal love).

[Rauno Villberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.
I've only played a very small slice of the games mentioned and honestly have no plans or illusions about significantly changing that so this was a great introduction to so many games, whether all-time hits or (most wonderfully) forgotten curios.
The quality of the writing itself varies, due to the large cast of authors - but this also means that if you don't really vibe with one, you'll get something slightly different on the next page. And even though I consider myself fairly critical, I think that the quality here was serviceable at worst and usually on the level of "pretty good". As a whole work though: wonderful.

[Wouter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The single best book on computer role playing games I have ever seen. And one of the most comprehensive, too. It's beautiful, heavy, full of nostalgia and angry rpgcodex reviewers (gotta love those guys). I don't know what else to write, except that maybe it is not for everyone. I for one am
first and foremost a CRPG player, even if I managed to stray off the path with a Nintendo Switch and too little time to revisit all classics. I'm not sure whether it's an enjoyable compendium to youngsters (OK Boomer...)

[Luca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un'opera monumentale ricolma d'amore per i computer RPG, da poco ampliata nella versione PDF fino ad arrivare ad un volume da 680 pagine (la bellissima versione cartacea di Bitmap Books verrà ristampata prossimamente con queste aggiunte).
Sono presenti praticamente tutti i cRPG occidentali dagli albori ad oggi con una scheda dedicata e per quelli più vecchi consigli su come emularlo e suggerimenti su eventuali mod da applicare. La nuova edizione presenta inoltre approfondimenti sui cRPG non in lingua inglese come quelli del lontano oriente o della vicina est europa.
Un vero must have!

[Heider Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, when I say I've read it I'm kinda cheating, cause I've skipped around 30% of the reviews. It's just that there are many rebiews about games that I know too well...

It's amazing what a community can do. There's a lot of typos, and even some wrong information. But it's a massive, impressive book, totally free and full of tips about the best mods or how to run the games. I'd recommend to anyone interested not only in RPGs but games as a media.

[Mirael · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's marvellous, it's free and it is absolutely overwhelming. The only thing I would hold against the authors is that it's clear that they grew up mostly in the 80's and 90's, so there is not much love for newer titles and almost fanatical adoration of "rougelike" games, but it was still extremely informative and inclusive.

[Travis Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

The individual articles are only adequately written, and there are typos galore. But the overall effect and usefulness of this collection were far satisfying than its parts. Hats off to Mr. Pepe for coordinating this effort.
(One note: if you don't already play CRPGs, I can't imagine there would be anything here of interest to you.)

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly comprehensive collection of reviews of CRPGs up to 2015.

Includes some great editorial content too.

It is presented in a very attractive huge hardback binding with a silk style bookmark - a true 'tome of the ages' for forgotten CRPG gems.

Definitely worth the (quite cheap) price of getting a physical copy in my opinion.

[Thomas Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of my favourite books of all time. The amount of info poured into its pages edited into such a concise package is insane to me. This book is an exploration of foreign RPG's along with classics, indies and triple AAA and everything in-between. A book I will be going back too time and time again to find something new. And it will not disappoint.

[Arjen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a perfect book; it contains too much errors for that. It also has a tendency to focus on the gameplay aspects, rather than explaining what the game is about. Regardless, it's a good read to become (more than) familiar with CRPGs.