Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games

by Matt Barton (Author)

40 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1568814117

ISBN-10: 1568814119

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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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Editorial Reviews

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" 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!” -February 2008
""Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing games is an incredible tour-de-force of a recreational industry."" -The Midwest Book Review, April 2008
""In a Gamasutra holiday bonus feature extracted from his new 'Dungeons & Desktops' book, author Matt Barton looks at 'The Silver Age' of role-playing games, from Richard Garriott's Ultima I through Sir-Tech's Wizardry and beyond."" -www.gamasutra.com, May 2008
""...this is not a casual book - it's a very serious treatment of the genre ... Barton writes very well, as his language is neither pretentious nor dim-witted. He clearly loves his subject and does an excellent job of sharing his enthusiasm and insights with his readers. A real pleasure to read. "" -www.amazon.com - by Michael E. Strupp, May 2008
role-playing games have moved the traditional board game to the desktop, and includes a cast of popular games: while many books cover rules and playing, few provide the essential overall history of the genre's development and evolutionary process. DUNGEONS AND DESKTOPS: THE HISTORY OF COMPUTER ROLE-PLAYING GAMES surveys not only game development and milestones, but issues affecting the industry and playing computer role-playing games. From how players create and interact with characters to the ethics of good and evil in gameplaying, DUNGEONS AND DESKTOPS is an outstanding choice for any high school to college-level collection catering to computer gaming fans."" -California Bookwatch, August 2008
""This . . . is not a programming manual, although the content is just as useful to the budding games programmer. . . . Dungeons & Desktops is a good reference and insight into the thoughts and implementations―both successful and not so successful―of some of the biggest and most resilient game designers, creators and publishers."" -The Game Creators Newsletter , September 2008
Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games chronicles the rise and fall of the Computer RPG industry, from Akalabeth to Zelda and everything in between. While the bulk of the book is devoted to the genre's 'Golden Age' in the late '80s and early '90s, author Matt Barton explores the entire history of CRPGs, from their origins in the mid '70s to the very recent past. While not entirely comprehensive, the book covers not only the major players and award-winners, but also dozens of obscure 'also-ran' as well as notable games in related genres. ... [T]he book is well worth picking up if you're a fan of CRPGs or fantasy games in general. -Michael Fiegel, Slashdot, July 2008
Listen to an interview with Matt Barton on a Phoenix radio show about games. -ChatterBox Video Game Radio, September 2008
""Without doubt, gamers will appreciate the game comparisons and the enormous detail Barton offers (especially if they are familiar with the games in question), as well as the quotations from famous (worshipped?) game designers. 'Older' gamers―those in their thirties―will hugely enjoy the nostalgic trip on which Dungeons & Desktops takes them .... Scholars and gamers alike, who might be interested in reviewing/analysing/playing earlier games, especially for the first time, will find the book an absolutely invaluable resource for sorting through what would be most productive and/or enjoyable. Hardcore CRPGers, of course, will love the book through and through. ... [Barton's] love of games and gaming is made apparent throughout the text, a quality of his writing much appreciated, at least by this reader. His credibility as a gamer is, ultimately, unquestionable."" -Matthew S. S. Johnson, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds , December 2008"

About the Author

Professor Matt Barton is a professor of English at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he specializes in writing and new media. He is a co-founder of the award-winning website Armchair Arcade and the author of scholarly and popular articles on games and writing.

Shane Stacks produces a weekly series of YouTube videos with Matt Barton which focus on classic games and vintage hardware.

Product details

Paperback: 456 pages
Publisher: A K Peters/CRC Press (February 22, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1568814119
ISBN-13: 978-1568814117
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: 40 customer ratings
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #868,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #637 in Computer Graphics
- #2541 in Fantasy Gaming
- #573 in Game Programming

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Customer reviews

5 star		63%
4 star		20%
3 star		11%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Batman666CT

The one that started it all ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2019

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If you are familiar with Dr. Barton's written output (and importantly, his youtube show "Matt Chat"), then you know about this book ... it is the one that got the ball rolling for Matt and introduced the world to his mastery of knowledge of CRPG history, his witty sense of humor, and his palpable love for gaming. This book was, at the time, the best overview of the history of the genre, and while it has since been updated (see D&D 2E) it remains a solid and entertaining tome that should impress any fan of computer roleplaying games. Yes, there are typos and some rough spots, but there is 110% effort and love here and to me, that's what counts more.

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Stu George

Very good

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2008

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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.

12 people found this helpful

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Daniel T. Hayes

5 star subject matter with 2 star proofreading/grammar

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2010

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If you are reading these reviews, you are no doubt in your late twenties or above. You enjoyed games like Ultima IV, Pool of Radiance, and Baldur's Gate. If you are looking for a trip down memory lane regarding these and other titles of the same genre, then this is the book for you. Its extensive coverage is impressive, and the author's opinions are sometimes poignant and other times as humorous as some of the games being discussed.
However, I gave it a three star rating because there were far too many spelling AND grammar errors to justify the $30+ price tag. From start to finish there were obvious sentence structure mistakes, awkward word choices, and many numerical and spelling typos.
I got the feeling that this book could have been written and edited by anyone with a high school diploma. Although it must have taken quite a while to gather and organize the quotes, establish a timeline, and decide which screenshots to include(which are in grey scale, making their usefulness as illustrative aids questionable) necessary for the scope of this book, extensive research is not the most important part of a work like this. A compelling history book is written by presenting the data in a dynamic and hopefully innovative way, and all this author did was fill the book with a boat-load of data in chronological order. The few insightful passages were overshadowed by the excessive use of quotes taken from critical reviews within back issues of computer gaming magazines like Computer Gaming World, hinting at a writer too insecure to let his own words stand alone.
This book is a sluggish read, even if, like myself, you've played most of the games contained within.

10 people found this helpful

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Michael E. Strupp

A Night (or Two) At The Museum ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2008

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"Dungeons and Desktops" is a very comprehensive review of the history of computerized role-playing computer games. It's as if Matt Barton had built a museum for these games and is giving you a personal tour of each and every game, from the earliest text-based games to the latest massive-multi-user graphical adventures. It's amazing how many games he covers (one wonders how he found the time to write the book if he actually played each game - as it appears). At points, his attention to detail may seem a bit wearing but that's only because I'm not as much of a fanatic as Barton is.

Readers should be warned that this is not a casual book - it's a very serious treatment of the genre and would make an excellent addition to any game-developer's curriculum, especially those interested in creating high fantasy and role playing games. Also, Barton writes very well, as his language is neither pretentious nor dim-witted. He clearly loves his subject and does an excellent job of sharing his enthusiasm and insights with his readers. A real pleasure to read.

7 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A book for any game lover

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2009

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I read this book more for nostalgic reasons than for the actual desire to read about these games. The book covered (in small detail) a very important game to me.

That was my intial thoughts on the book. After reading, I would say that the book is very well written and very informative. I especially like the beginning of the book which indicates new features and who was the first to do it. As the book goes on things blur a little too me, as the industry itself just started copying one another.

Great book, and should be read by any who have enjoyed CRPGs.

4 people found this helpful

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Mr. P. Theophilus

Exactly what you want

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2012

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If you are interested in the history of CRPGs (primarily PC and western-style CRPGs - there is a section on JRPGS too but it's one one section out of quite a long book) then it is hard to imagine anyone ever writing a better book than this. It is fascinating to see how a style of entertainment has grown and even though most games don't get a LOT of attention, it is lovely to see that all of them have at least something interesting said about them.

Obviously not all CRPGs are covered which is only a shame if you (like me) get a lot of nostalgic pleasure from reading about many games you have played but then find one of your favourites (in my case "Albion") missing. But the range is as comprehensive as could be humanly expected - and you never know, there may be subsequent expanded editions.

Anyway, the above failing isn't worth docking this book a star for - in all respects it is a total pleasure to read (or just skim through to find titles you love) and deserves to be much better known.

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2017

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An enjoyable trip down memory lane.

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Alessandro Mazza

Buono, ma non ottimo

Reviewed in Italy on November 7, 2018

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Il libro ha uno stampo molto serio ed accademico e dimostra che l'autore è davvero molto preparato sull'argomento. Tante informazioni e tante analisi, purtroppo andando avanti perde un po' l'entusiasmo iniziale e diventa più un elenco di giochi descritti. Vale comunque la pena leggerlo

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Pbrown

Useful but disappointing

Reviewed in Canada on May 3, 2016

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The book is fairly comprehensive but is uneven in both depth and organization. It's initially broken into eras, roughly covering games as they come out but later on the book focuses on one company's line of products, detailing 3 or 4 games which came out over several years and then will jump to another company whose games might pre-date those of the former. The prevailing sense at the end is that you get eras which are not well-defined and a list of games whose influences are not readily understandable.

The game is also odd in its detail as well. It outlines what it believes a CRPG to be, and focuses on games which it admits are not RPGs (ie Zelda). Other games are glossed over, suggesting an ignorance of the product, such as dismissing Oblivion as an "audiovisual update of Morrowind", failing to mention that combat has changed completely from RNG-based to collision-based. While the similarities between say Fallout 1+2 or the Infinity engine games in both graphics and engine are given a free pass.

These short-comings are products of a larger problem, in that the book is often less a history than a biography, and is coloured by the author's personal experience which in turn seems to influence how much detail or emphasis is placed upon a game. Whereas most historical books would have the author distancing themselves from the material and approaching the game objectively.

Stylistically. The text is often dry and would benefit from a few quotes from game developers (there are many out there). the author tries to interject humour but for me it always fell flat. And beyond being a history, the author also speculates on the future of the CRPG with spectacular inaccuracy.

That said, there is some value in just the list of games on display. The book I feel is best used a reference for people to discover old games and then search out more information for themselves. With the introduction of new digital distribution sites like gog, many of these older games are now available for play.

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mtarzaim

An unique book on a vast subject

Reviewed in France on June 12, 2012

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This book takes the difficult task to follow the history of CRPG (Computer Role Playing Game) from the earliest to the latest (of 2007 :p ).

Some people have criticized the author for doing little more than a collection of game titles with texts you could get from wikipedia.
While it's true that most of the data collected here can be found on the online encyclopedia (like 90% of any book on any subject by the way), the work here goes a lot beyond a "simple" list. The author got really far in his research to unravel what really happened in days and age where a mouse was still a mammal and a computer the size of a building.

It's really interesting to see how RPG predates most genre of video games, even on the technical side (first person perspective, multiplayer, direction, narration, etc. ), and what has defined and redefined a genre through the decades.

The only flaw in this consequent work is the lack of eastern representatives...
Except a few big titles (Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star, Zelda, Final Fantasy), there's little here for the console fan. The author even commits the -blasphemy- to ignore completly the TRPG subgenre. No Warsong, Shining Force or Fire Emblem, despite being direct descendants of Wizard's Crown, and showing JRPG isn't just "about story and direction with real time battles".

We could also argue the whole writing lacks sometimes of epic. Unlike La saga des jeux vidéos or Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, there's little romanticizing. What we get most of time is the hard facts, and some behind-the-scene allusions. Given all the twists, betrayals, rises and falls the CRPG have seen until now, it's a missed opportunity which could have strenghten this work even more.

But most of this is just nitpicking from myself.
We have a solid book on a rather ignored subject, despite its popularity. Most of the author's reflexions are cunning and spot-on. I liked his take on "RolePlay VS RollPlay", and his predictions about how "RPG will make a return after so many action oriented shooters, as the promising Mass Effect game seems to indicate" .
His only mistake was his inability (like many of his time) to realize that MMORPG isn't a genre, but a game: World of Warcraft, stomping any challenger past and future.
In that regard, an epilogue about 2012 would be a nice addition, especially since the success of Skyrim, Deus Ex HR, Dragon Age and Mass Effect. A Diamond Age?

All in one, it's a must read for any CRPG fan, old or young, and for any gamer out there, curious enough about his passion.

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Martin Gruscher

Very lively description of the history of computer RPGs

Reviewed in Germany on July 29, 2013

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Maybe you need to be a little bit nerdy to like this book :)

But anyway its really nicely written and you feel the enthusiasm which the author has for this topic!

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