Favorite old school RPG's

[dungeonbeard]

Lots of really great games listed here! Here're my two cents:

1) Death Knights of Krynn
2) Eye of the Beholder II
3) Dungeon Master
4) Dragon Strike (more of a flight sim I guess, but it has dragons and items you acquire, so I'm gonna count it ^_^ )

*edit*

5)Wizardry VII Crusaders of the Dark Savant (can't believe I forgot this one!)

[Renevent]

Another vote for Arx Fatalis here - such a wonderful game, although the sword combat was shonky as hell. Magic was really satisfying, though. I think I must completed that game about 3 times.

Xenomorph on the Atari ST. A sci-fi dungeon crawl with primitive first-person shooting thanks to the enemies being able to move *within* each cell of the map (albeit in big jumps). Plus it had some very cool gadgets in it which really added to the atmosphere, like a motion tracker. Delightfully, despite being set hundreds of year in the future, mankind was apparently still using 3.5" floppy disks to store information.

And to choose one that ain't a first-person dungeon crawl: Divine Divinity. Just the most fun I've had in an RPG ever.

Definitely agree the sword combat could have been better...I will say that IMO the melee combat was better than it's other major competitor of the time (Morrowind). While the swing animations were bleh, at least you could hack off limbs and heads and the enemies reacted in a MUCH cooler fashion than in Morrowind.

Anyways loved Divine Divinity too...big fan of "diablo clones" and that was a really cool game. It was like Diablo (combat, control, ect) but in a big open-ish world with a lot more open ended RPG gameplay. Very cool game.

[jimicapone]

Ultima's IV & VII
Bard's Tale 1
Temple of Elemental Evil (LOVED the radial menu!!)

[swierzy]

My favourite is Black Crypt:')

[NewYears1978]

So many good old school games!

I loved all the dungeon crawl (like Grimrock) style games. Lands of Lore, Eye of the Beholder, Anvil of Dawn. FF6 was my favorite console RPG from ages past. Also, semi RPG/strategy, Xcom had to be up there. Also all the Bioware classics, Baldurs Gate, Planescape, etc. Fallout 1,2, definitely.

Hrm...will really have to think back. I really was big into Sierra games early in my gaming career.

Edit:

Almost forgot, Might and Magic 4/5! Loved that series..hated when it hit 6 and things changed. (Wizardy fits in there also)

[Mar-x]

For my 2 cents worth I'd have to say Wizardry 1 is the best of the old school dungeon crawler/Rpg for me.

I played it to death on the apple][e as it was the closest thing to "bards tale" on our school computers. However I have returned to this game again and again. There's an iOS port called "sorcerer" (it's free) that's tiding me over whilst I wait for Grimrock. It was truly difficult.. I never explored every level.. It was always - grind till tough enough to ride the elevator all the way down- raid the 'monster repository' room- pray for good loot - run back to town - repeat..

One of the mechanics that may have been unintentional but worked really well for me was that the magic system was quite original. As your magic users (and cleric types) gained new spells they showed up in your spell book as just obscure spell names ie. MOGREF, HALITO, LAHALITO and the amazing TILTOWAIT.. You just had to cast them and try figure out what it did .. Sometimes it was obvious TILTOWAIT nuked .. But sometimes you just had to keep an eye on stat changes or status bars. Sadly this 'feature' is not in the port.. Actually most versions I've played recently either have the spell translation and you just choose what spell to cast.. In the original you had to type the name of the spell.. If you spelt it wrong.. Misscast.

Ahhh Wizardry

[SecretSantana]

My favorites:
* Wizardry (1, 6, and 7 are my favorites)
* Might & Magic (they're all good through 5, 4+5 was great)
* Bard's Tale (2 is my favorite)
* Wasteland (plus Fallout 1, 2)
* Dragon Wars
* Ultima (4 and 6 are my favorites)
* Lands of Lore

And my absolute favorite:
* A well-made MUD (I like Arctic)

[beowuuf]

Since I'm that beowuuf from the Dungeon Master forums, then I have to say Dungeon Master too I liked EOTB II, though found the D&D rules - especially magic - clashed with making it a computer game.

I also really liked Istar II for the locations and puzzles.

[Torst]

As my avatar imagine i'am a big fan of " Fate - Gates of dawn " and wondering why nobody doesn't knows this rpg or make a statement about this ?

The abillity to control up to 4 party's with up to 7 members was never be reached by any other rpg game.
For further information take a look here : http://dungeony.rpghry.cz/fate/

1: Dungeon Master
2: Fate-Gates of dawn
3: EOB

....

[Isaac]

Lots of really great games listed here! Here're my two cents:
2) Eye of the Beholder II

I always wanted that fireplace.

EOB 2 ranks high for me, but Lands of Lore 1 ranks higher.