20 Responses to “[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Times of Lore”

1. arlandi Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 1:03 pm

   that’s easy.
   Ultima series in PC.

2. Benj Edwards Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 1:27 pm

   Ultima Series? That’s cheating. 🙂 Which game in the series was your favorite?

3. Geoff V. Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 1:40 pm

   Hero’s Quest/Quest for Glory series. It struck the right balance of humor and great gameplay.

4. Benj Edwards Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 1:41 pm

   Again with the series. Was there one in particular that was your favorite, Geoff?

5. SirPaul Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 4:22 pm

   That’s a tough question… I’d have to go with Might and Magic 3. Although much of the series was good, that one was the one I played the most, and the one that I have the most memories of.

6. arlandi Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 4:36 pm

   @Benj: Ultima 7 – Both the Black Gate and Serpent Isle. The game worlds and interactivity of items in them are just awesome. Haven’t found any game since that can rival them

7. Andrew Fisher Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 5:24 pm

   I could infuriate Benj further by citing the Bard’s Tale series (3 is the one I spent longest on, although playing the original game from tape on the C64 was a chore in terms of loading times) and the SSI AD&D games in the gold boxes (again picking an individual title it would be Curse of the Azure Bonds)…

   …but I’m going to pick Wasteland, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi RPG built on the Bard’s Tale framework. Because without it there would be no Fallout.

8. DPenn Says:
   August 30th, 2010 at 8:51 pm

   I’ve got to go with Deus Ex. It’s a well I still return to now and again 10 years later, despite the absurd conspiracy storyline, just acceptable 3D graphics and crazy-ass voice acting.

9. JackSoar Says:
   August 31st, 2010 at 1:49 am

   That is… really tough. There are no shortage of titles from which to choose, and it’s also hard because modern CRPGs just have so much going for them in terms of how vast and complex a gameworld and its denizens can be, yet they owe so much to earlier games. At the same time, the best of the old-school (here defined as late 70s to late 90s) CRPGs are often much better and more open-ended than some of today’s titles.

   To only pick one favorite, I will have to go with the one that I spent the most time on (at least insofar as I can remember) both in-game and modding: Morrowind. Yet I’ve also spent a lot of time with KOTOR and Oblivion, two runner-up choices. Still I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the older games I love, like Wizardry VII or Ultima IV, or any of the excellent D&D games. See? Just impossible to avoid mentioning several titles.

   Incidentally, I’ve never played Times of Lore, but I recall seeing the NES version listed in the old price list papers they used to have at FuncoLand, and as a kid, the title always stuck out to me for some reason. Never purchased it, though. Still had no shortage of RPGs for that system either.

10. Thomas Says:
    August 31st, 2010 at 3:38 am

    I certainly had a lot of fun for a while with Times of Lore, though I don’t remember ever getting anywhere in the game.

    I’m not sure/can’t decide which is the best game but I can tell you which games I’ve had the most fun/spent the most time with:

    They are Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Neverwinter nights (Bioware) and Morrowind. If I had to pick only one it’s probably Morrowind. I ‘ve kept an installation of it on every computer I’ve owned ever since the game was released. That’s 8 years now!

    Close but not close enough are Eye of the beholder series, Oblivion, Fallout series, Deus Ex and Arcanum.

    As you can see I’m not a big fan of pre-90’s rpg’s since they often lack alot of balance.

11. Geoff V. Says:
    August 31st, 2010 at 8:02 am

    Hero’s Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero. An RPG that didn’t feel like “work.”

12. The Doctor Says:
    August 31st, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    Neuromancer by Interplay. I first played and beat it on the C-64, then years later on the PC. Every couple of years I still load it up in an emulator, forget everything I knew about it, grab a fresh pad of paper, and rediscover the game.

    That game got me into the band DEVO, too – the first of their albums I’d ever listened to was Total DEVO, from which the game’s theme song was taken.

13. SQLGuru Says:
    August 31st, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    Some of my favorites:

    Baulder’s Gate – this one was awesome because it was the first one that “felt” right. It came on *5* CDs.

    Origin’s Knights of Legend – I played this one a LOT. I still have the floppies. Still waiting for the expansion packs. This had lots to do, so much that I don’t think I ever saw all of it (and I’m an “explorer” gamer type — I like to *see* everything in a game). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Legend

    Diablo – I’ve played the first one to completion and would like to play 2 (with more stuff) and three when it comes out. It’s still on my list of games to play (even after all of these years).

    KOTOR – Fun on the console. Finished it but need to go back and play it “the other way”.

    But, my all-time favorite. A game I always have installed SOMEWHERE. A game I will always play. (insert drum-roll here) NETHACK. I’ve played Rogue and Hack and Angband and…. But I’ll always have Nethack installed somewhere because it’s the one I “grew up with”. Luckily, it supports a wide variety of platforms, so keeping it running is very easy.

14. Brian Says:
    August 31st, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Hm, Swordthrust for the Apple II series, probably. Also, as others have mention, Hero’s Quest I (aka Quest for Glory) on PC. I guess these are both more role assumption games, as the player characters and plot are fixed, but that’s the way most CRPGs go to some degree anyway.

15. Donn Says:
    August 31st, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    All good selections. I’ve said it here in comments before, and I’ll say it again, my choice is my favorite computer game of any sort of all time: Ultima V.

    I fell in love with Ultima watching my friend play IV on his Commodore 64 – never mind that I wouldn’t get that enchanting music on my PC, just some feeble beeps and boops. But in the Christmas of ’88, there was Ultima V under the tree, and it’s never left my floppy case or hard drive since, even now that I have to run it in DosBox. One of these days I’ll have to see if I can play it on my iPad in DosPad.

    Ultima V has great combat, exploration, and character options – there are so many ways to play – but above all it has a terrific story. Only years later I would discover how heavily Garriott borrowed from Tolkien, but still he wove a great tale that I enjoy replaying to this day.

16. Eric Says:
    August 31st, 2010 at 3:45 pm

    Might and Magic Clouds of Xeen was my favorite. I have great memories of my dad, brother and I all playing the game on our own and talking together about the loot we found or the dungeon we successfully raided. Good times.

17. BDD Says:
    September 1st, 2010 at 10:23 am

    Now- Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

    Then- Zork

18. Garrett Meiers Says:
    September 1st, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    I would have to say that Wizardry I on the Apple // platform will always have a special place in my memory. 🙂

19. Benj Edwards Says:
    September 2nd, 2010 at 10:03 pm

    These are all great picks. You guys are making me want to play all of them. My favorite PC RPG is probably Ultima VI. Ultima VII is great too.

20. Anonymous Says:
    April 24th, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    Treasure of Tarmin on Mattel Intellivision. Then few years later Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back on Atari ST…

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