Computer Role-Playing Games – Part II: Gold Rush & Beyond

GameSpy has posted a followup to yesterday’s Computer Role-Playing Games article, this one entitled Gold Rush & Beyond, which talks primarily about the success of SSI’s “Gold Box” games and the RPG drought of the 90s. Here’s a snippet:

At roughly the same time that SSI was breaking ground with its powerful licensing partner, Origin Systems was still a contender. Richard Garriott’s Ultima series was reaching its creative apex with its fifth and sixth incarnations, and odd, but satisfying, RPG experiments like the short lived Worlds of Ultima series (Martian Dreams (1991) and Savage Empire (1990) which took the Avatar and put him in Jules Verne inspired locales and time periods) came about. 1992 saw Ultima Underworld hit the scene, a game often cited as the precursor to 3D-shooters like DOOM and Duke Nukem for its 3D perspective.