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Matt Barton

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

by Matt Barton (Author)

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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.

ISBN-10

1568814119
ISBN-13

978-1568814117
Publisher

A K Peters/CRC Press
Publication date

February 22, 2008
Language

English
Dimensions

6 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
Print length

456 pages
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Matt Barton
29
Paperback
24 offers from $44.66

Editorial Reviews

Review

" 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

Publisher ‏ : ‎ A K Peters/CRC Press (February 22, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 456 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1568814119
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568814117
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,737,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,816 in Game Programming
- #4,967 in Video & Computer Games
- #5,596 in Fantasy Gaming

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Matt Barton

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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. He also produces a weekly series of YouTube videos called "Matt Chat," which focus on classic games and vintage hardware.

Matt is a laidback and easy-going guy with a keen interest in computers, videogames, and gadgets. A native of Louisiana, Matt loves spicy food, Belgian ales, and exotic hot sauce. He lives in St. Cloud with his wife Elizabeth.

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3 star		9%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Stu George

Very good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 19, 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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S

Superbly detailed, smoothly written masterwork on CRPGs

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 26, 2011

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Speaking as a long-time (a REALLY long time) programmer and avid video gamer, I am finding this book an amazing read. I _lived_ through the prehistoric era of video game development, when text-based stuff like the original Zork was still being written. Yet Matt Barton has methodically researched and uncovered games and individuals that even _I_ hadn't heard of.

Mr. Barton brings the same thorough analysis and critical eye to essentially all the Role-Playing games made since then. His analysis and review of the varying features which comprised each of the CRPG's is unparalleled. This volume is, quite simply, an absolute MUST HAVE reference for anyone who considers themself to be a CRPG fan. His writing style is smooth, very engaging, and you will find yourself eagerly reading the various 'behind the scene' tidbits he has been able to tease out of the dust-bin of history.

I also recommend this book for any programmer seriously considering a job in the game-industry. Even if you aren't particularly enamored of role-playing games, rest assured that you will benefit greatly from this amazing book.

You will find no greater reference on all of the classic companies, individuals, games, and gaming-style experiments. You will also find out who got bought/sold to whom, where the different trends in gaming have come from, and how all these influences came together at different times in our gaming culture. To forge something new, something truly innovative, you must understand and respect what has come before you--even if you didn't particularly _like_ a given genre or game series. You must also know what worked, what didn't, WHY things happened as they did, WHAT compromises were made, and so on. Even knowing WHEN a specific game or game-style happened is important. Tomorrow's next "BIG THING" may be a throwback to something tried a two-decades ago--recognizing a coming repeat in popular culture could mean you develop the next "Final Fantasy" or "Minecraft" or "Angry Birds" or "Command and Conquer" or "Doom". This book might very well help you do that.

3 people found this helpful

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Thomas

this is THE history book for computer RPGs!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2021

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Amazing. The author covers everything from the early 1970s games all the way up to the advent of MMORPGs (know that he later revised/updated this 2008 version, but here, I'm reviewing the original.) Non-computer influences (such as the D&D game) are discussed and tied into the descriptions of the games. He covered everything - from the early ones I didn't know about, to my own gaming experience in the 1980s and early 1990s, and beyond. I would call this book a complete reference manual for all such games - whether the pre-personal computer ones such as rogue, to the Commodore 64 and PC eras, the NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, XBOX, online gaming, and beyond...it's all here. And the writing style is witty and entertaining. Overall, this was an outstanding book...one of those "if you want to know anything within a particular topic, it's the master reference" types.

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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.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 12, 2017

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An enjoyable trip down memory lane.

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.

One person found this helpful

Alessandro Mazza

Buono, ma non ottimo

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on November 8, 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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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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