[Mandrake]

In the name of preservation, I'm using this here thread to list all *great* classical RPG's. RPG's to be put in this thread by me or anyone else must follow this criteria:

1. Be available (via a link in this thread) to download
2. Be 10 years or older.
3. Must be (in your opinion) great.

Here are some of my faves over the years:

Ultima 4(PC):
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xu4/ultima4-1.01.zip?download

(NOTE: The below I will add links to when I get home, since I'm behind a firewall here at work that blocks most download sites, like Underdogs, where the downloads would be at):

Wasteland(PC):

Ultima 3(NES):
http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/35344/nes/Ultima-Exodus-U.html

Dragon Warrior 1, 2, 3 & 4(NES):


Final Fantasy 1(NES):
http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/30022/nes/Final-Fantasy-U.html

Final Fantasy 2(4j)(SNES):


Legecy of the Ancients (Commodore 64):


More to come when I remember them/find them online.
_________________
"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com

[tcaudilllg]

Good idea. How many "great" classical RPGs are there, though?

[janus]

BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR is probably my favorite RPG ever, or something close to my favorite. Part of this is because I love the guy's books and the game is the closest thing I've ever found to a fully interactive fantasy novel, but the game is just generally excellent and has very few true flaws. It runs pretty well in DOSBox with some tweaking, and runs decent in NTVDM with VDMSound, too, so there's no excuse not to try it. :)

I think the fact that the author chose to turn the game's plot into a series of three excellent books says something about the quality and depth of the plot. The characters are pretty good, the graphics are decent (With the exception of the character graphics, which are horrible looking digitized motion capture - but I think that bad gimmick can be forgiven, considering the quality of everything else.) The music is pretty decent, though I'm told that the CD-ROM version had excellent orchestral music.

Plus, Sierra released it into the public domain, so it's freeware. :)

[Nephilim]

Well, I was poking around and found the PC versions of some old classics that I enjoyed. Since I never owned a PC or an NES, I think my experience with RPG's is probably pretty different from that of most RPG fans. Not sure if there are good places to get the TRS-80, Apple, and Amiga versions that I remember, so I'm just linking to the PC versions I found.

The thing that strikes me about looking back at the RPG's I enjoyed when I was younger is the fact that what I enjoyed back then is really not what I would enjoy now. I would not have the patience to map three levels of Wizardry dungeons now, but back then, I got a real sense of satisfaction from getting a level mapped.

TRS-80

Temple of Apshai was the only RPG I remember ever seeing for the TRS-80. (The link is to the PC version, which came after the TRS-80 version.) Its main innovation was trying to add more world detail to such a low-res world by referencing room descriptions in a large book that accompanied the software.

Apple //e

Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was the first RPG I played on my brand-new Apple //e, and provided many hours of map making goodness. (The sort of gameplay I wouldn't enjoy nowadays - hmm.) I still enjoy the memory of using "Tiltowait" for the first time.

Of course, the Ultima series (already mentioned) was probably the best all-around RPG experience on the Apple //e - I've logged many hours in the service of Lord British.

Moebius was a fun oriental-themed RPG for the Apple //e, as was DeathLord. The former had an interesting karma meter thing that, much like Ultima IV, would penalize you for acting like an ass. Deathlord was basically Ultima III set in fictional Japan, and was very easy to get killed in.

Wasteland was Fallout before Fallout. Heavily skill-based.

Also, there was an Adventure Construction Kit game that, while somewhat weak, was one of the few commercial games of the time that let you easily make your own games.

Amiga

I'm sure there are links out there to download the Bard's Tale. Bard's Tale was a nice migration from the near-monochrome Wizardry world to the Amiga's more colorful capabilities. Although the Bard's songs got a little repetitive, there was a lot of fun dungeon delving in that game.

Faery Tale Adventure was a stand-out RPG for the Amiga platform. The PC version my buddy had looked like crap, but my Amiga version was downright beautiful. Gave me an appreciation for environment in RPG's, with daytime/nighttime effects and detailed settings. Everything was the same scale - none of this scale-switching a'la the Ultima games - so it was pretty ambitious for the time. It was a little light on combat and character development, so it wasn't for the hard-core RPG fan, but it was a fun diversion.
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[Mandrake]

Heh, thanks for providing the link to Wasteland.

I didn't know there were any RPG's for the TRS-80...the closest I came to it (that I remember) is playing Adventure on a floppy.
_________________
"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com

[Sirocco]

The Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate. I spent an entire summer playing that damn game with all of my friends. We would trade characters so we could level them up. I still remember endlessly casting Mangar's Mallet and Wither Fist on groups of wolves and imps :)

Oh, and don't forget to obey the Brilhasti.

.

[Hajo]

I'd like to propose: Dungeon Master
(Atari ST, but IIRC available for other platforms, too.)