Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A phenomenal, first-class job. Dungeons and Desktops is so insightful and thorough, it is a must-read for all RPG fans, and every RPG designer. Don't miss it! --Scorpia

Product Description

Computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a special genre of computer games that bring the tabletop role-playing experience of games such as Dungeons & Dragons to the computer screen. This genre includes classics such as Ultima and The Bard's Tale as well as more modern games such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars.

Written in an engaging style for both the computer game enthusiast and the more casual computer game player, this book explores the history of the genre by telling the stories of the developers, games, and gamers who created it.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 451 pages
• Publisher: A K Peters Ltd (March 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568814119
• ISBN-13: 978-1568814117
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #105,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Leonard Maltin for CRPGs, July 18, 2008

By	Rob Use "Rob" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

I would hesitate to call this book a history of CRPGs - a chronology would be more appropriate. Barton is comprehensive - every major CRPG from the inception of the computer is covered, but as another reviewer pointed out it is more of a collection of review summaries - I would liken it to Maltin's capsule reviews of films.

The organization into the different ages is intriguing, and aside from the nostalgic look at games I had forgotten about, it the best part of the book. The author does not do enough to flesh out the trends, technologies, people and other aspects that may have gone in to the different ages. They are all covered piecemeal with the review capsules, and this hurts the coherence.

The jumping from capsule review summaries to personal opinion is a bit awkward as well. I would have liked to have read more of the author's opinions - they were the on the whole more interesting than the reviews themselves.

The decision to include a bit on console RPGs without deviating from the spirit of the book was a good one.

All that said, for those of us who lived through the entire period and remember seeking out judgment day, getting eaten by a grue, or fighting vorpal bunnies it is a trip down memory lane and a nice reference volume, just not the most coherent read-through.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, March 18, 2008

By	Sazan Aisu "3x3eyes" (London (UK) + Melbourne (Aus)) - See all my reviews

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Wow! What a comprehensive book. The book consists of several sections covering the history of computer RPGs. It starts with the origins, and goes into the bronze age, silver age, early golden age, golden age and onward into the platinum age and the modern era.

The Dark Age concerns itself with the pre home computer works on university mainframes, progresses into the Bronze Age with titles like Apshai and Akalbeth. The Silver Age brings us Wizardry and the early Ultima's I to III. and so on.

The book gives reviews of hundreds of games across many platforms. Often accompanying with a screenshot. This is one of the books weaker moments. The screenshots (apart from a couple of colour slides in the middle) are black and.. black. They are very very dark, often to the point of useless. Some are not too bad to look at and you can make them out.

The book does have a comprehensive index at the back, letting you quickly look up your favourite titles.

On first getting the book, I scanned my favourites and they were all there. Some of the more obscure titles like Legends on the TI99 were not present.

Gamasutra featured several articles by the author, which gives you an insight into the books contents, of which they are greatly expanded opon.

Most games get several paragraphs but I would have liked to see a little more critical thought in the reviews, but understanding that early games often had the 'Kill the big Foozle' plot, makes things hard to expand opon after the first time.

More notable games get much bigger coverage, like the classic SSI Gold Box games (Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds, Champions of Krynn etc).

The book ends with discussion on recent titles like Dungeons and Dragons Online, Guild Wars and its ilk.

You can tell the author has quite a love for the genre, and if you grew up in the 80's or 90's, this book is just filled with info that provokes nostalgic memories.

If you bought a lot of computer magazines, you may feel a bit cheated, just remember the book is a collection of reviews. Probably the most complete and comprehensive you'll ever find.

Fans of CRPG's really should buy this book. (Hey, just like the gold box games, we even have Clyde Caldwell cover art, pretty cool stuff)

The reason for not giving 5 stars, is down to the dark screen captures. Everything else in the book is top notch.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible tour-de-force of a recreational industry., April 4, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing games is an incredible tour-de-force of a recreational industry. Chapters cover early tabletop wargames such as "Chainmail" and its precursors, to the pencil-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons game, to the very first computer role-playing games programmed into university mainframe computers (and often deleted by administrators, making many of the first RPGs forever lost to history!). The saga continues with early classics like Wizardry, The Bard's Tale, Ultima, and Pool of Radiance; the rise of casual-friendly action RPGs like Diablo; and the success of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) such as the wildly popular World of Warcraft. Console RPGs are also mentioned briefly, most notably trailblazer console RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. What sets Dungeons & Desktops apart is its in-depth discussion of literally dozens of early CRPGs, many more that even the most avid gamer has likely ever heard of. From two paragraphs to several pages are devoted to each CRPG title, giving a crystal clear picture of what playing the game was like (including its highlights, flaws, and bugs), its commercial success (or failure), and sometimes notes as to what its development team may be doing today. Black-and-white computer screenshots and a handful of color plates illustrate this "must-have" history and resource for CRPG aficionados everywhere. "My advice to anyone who really wants to learn the history of CRPGs is to start with the newer classics and gradually work backwards. It's still relatively easy, for instance, to find copies of Baldur's Gate or [Might & Magic VI: The] Mandate of Heaven and get them running on a modern PC... I would recommend skipping the early Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 games though - these can be excruciatingly difficult to get running even for emulation experts. If you a little further back, though, to the DOS era, things get much easier thanks to DOSBox." Highly recommended.