The Greatest PC Games of All Time: The ’80s, Part One

The editors at GameSpy have conjured up an interesting feature that profiles ten of “the greatest PC games” from the 1980s, including Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and Pool of Radiance.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was a revelation at the time of its release. The first game to really bring Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG gameplay to a computer, Wizardry let players create parties of RPG/fantasy archetypes and venture into a 10-level underground labyrinth of monsters and treasure, rendered with first-person wireframe graphics. Wizardry was not a forgiving game, but careful gameplay — and if all else failed, exploiting notorious bugs — would let your party thrive and grow stronger.

Wizardry proved a phenomenal hit and appeared on numerous platforms. Over the years many different “scenarios” followed, and games like 1985’s The Bard’s Tale and 1986’s Might & Magic cribbed heavily from the Wizardry playbook. Wizardry itself continued to evolve, ultimately ending with the fantasy-steeped sci-fi trilogy of 1990’s Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge, 1992’s Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant, and 2001’s Wizardry VIII. I’d call that a good way to go out, but even today new Wizardry spinoff games are being made in Japan. As long as there are dark labyrinths to explore, there’ll be players ready to conquer them.

Great times, indeed.

I’ll update this newsbit again on Friday, once they’ve revealed all twenty games.