D&D History Page #2

This is an article that was on the GameSpot web site

Dungeons & Dragons.
It's a role-playing game that has been around for more than two decades. This year, this game, which was the first commercial role-playing game ever, celebrates its 25th birthday. Created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, it grew from humble roots in Wisconsin and gradually became the most popular and influential role-playing system in the world. Nearly everyone has heard of Dungeons & Dragons, although not always in a good light. In the mid-'80s it was used as a scapegoat for very rare incidents of violence (much like computer games today), and in the mid-90s, it nearly disappeared as TSR, the company Gygax co-founded, went bankrupt before being bought by Wizards of the Coast, creator of Magic the Gathering.

While it has been different things to different people throughout the years, on the computer, Dungeons & Dragons has been a great foundation and a holy grail for game designers and the computer role-playing genre. The setting and atmosphere of Dungeons & Dragons are things that game designers have been trying to emulate for more than a decade. The developers of role-playing games are trying to create fantasies and experiences as compelling as those told by dungeon masters, the game referees of Dungeons & Dragons. Gamers all want an experience on the computer that is as close as possible to the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons experience. Even after eleven years of D&D computer games, the industry still can't completely reproduce that real D&D experience, but that doesn't mean that the D&D license hasn't lent itself to some great computer role-playing games.

While trying to re-create the D&D game has sometimes led to failure, it has also led to some incredible successes. Ever since TSR offered its Advanced Dungeons & Dragons license to SSI in the late '80s, we've been treated to more than twenty AD&D computer role-playing games. These games have created a great role-playing legacy on the computer. Role players all remember such venerable favorites as Pool of Radiance and Eye of the Beholder. In the canon of computer role-playing games, they are almost as important as Ultima and Might and Magic, and based purely on quantity, the AD&D franchise has produced more games than those two series combined.

Now that the AD&D computer role-playing game looks like it will finally make a resurgence, and especially in light of the 25th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game, we thought we would take a look back at the eleven-year legacy of Dungeons & Dragons on the computer. We'll summarize the rise and fall of TSR, its AD&D computer license, and take a look back at every AD&D game ever produced for the computer. Starting next week, we'll add interviews with the Wizards of the Coast on the future of AD&D, as well as interviews with SSI and Interplay. Join us as we reflect on the legacy of AD&D on the computer

What's AD&D?

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is, naturally, the more advanced rules set descended from the original Dungeons & Dragons. D&D was created in 1972 by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. Both were avid board and wargamers who combined their own individual game designs to come up with this game of fantasy adventure. The game was revolutionary back then because it didn't involve a board or minatures. You played as individual heroes who advanced in experience as they surmounted greater challenges and adventures. D&D originally began as a medieval battle game with fantasy elements and a very loose set of rules. It eventually grew into a huge role-playing game that encompassed dozens of rules supplements, tomes of spells and monsters, and millions of fans.

In 1978, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was created. It was different from the original D&D in that it had more structure and more sets of rules. It was AD&D that would eventually be supported by TSR. From the late '70s to the mid-'80s, AD&D grew in popularity and profits. In the mid-'80s, AD&D hit a high water mark with the release of the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon, which served to further popularize the game. However, during these same years, TSR encountered major financial trouble, but it eventually bounced back when in 1988 it unveiled the 2nd Edition rules for AD&D, a revised AD&D system that would streamline and better organize the AD&D rules. That year also saw the release of the very first computer-based role-playing game based in the AD&D universe. It was called Pool of Radiance and would herald a decade of strong AD&D-based computer role-playing games (CRPG). For half a decade, the fortunes of AD&D and AD&D-based RPGs would continue to rise. It was a golden age for AD&D and a golden age for SSI's role-playing games.