4 ms·

Very sad, Wizardry is probably the most influent RPG ever made, alongside Ultima.

flyinghamster 2y ago
It also had an antecedent; Wizardry was very much like a single-player version of Avatar, an early multiplayer dungeon game that ran on the University of Illinois PLATO system. The cube-like "rooms," displays, and game mechanics were very similar. I don't recall the controls being the same, though, and Avatar was written in PLATO's native TUTOR language, while Wizardry was UCSD Pascal.
- danschuller 2y ago
  > There was a game on the PLATO network (circa '79 or '80) called "Oubliette" that nearly caused me to flunk out of law school. [...] Wizardry was in many ways our attempt to see if we could write a single-player game as cool as the PLATO dungeon games and cram it into a tiny machine like the Apple II. https://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23752&cid=2567054 https://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23752&cid=2567054 Oubliette (https://howtomakeanrpg.com/r/l/g/oubliette.html https://howtomakeanrpg.com/r/l/g/oubliette.html) was a precursor to Avatar, so it goes a little further back than even that!
  - djur 2y ago
    The CRPG Addict blog has done a great job reviewing the PLATO games from a seasoned player's perspective, and he touches on some of the inspiration for Wizardry. Oubliette: https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/10/game-12-oubliette-1977.html https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/10/game-12-oubliette-19... Avatar: https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/11/game-124-avatar-1979.html https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/11/game-124-avatar-1979...
kleiba 2y ago
Final Fantasy?
- prepend 2y ago
  Final Fantasy is awesome but it’s 2-3 generations after wizardry and ultima.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
  D&D
- louhike 2y ago
  Dragon Quest (which came before Final Fantasy and inspired it) took inspiration from Wizardry. Most RPG from the 80s were inspired by Wizardry. It had huge influences.
  - entropicdrifter 2y ago
    JRPGs especially! Wizardry as a series remained popular in Japan well after its popularity faded in the west. You can see games taking the general first-person dungeon crawling style straight from Wizardry in some late-90s JRPGs like the King's Field series. I think the Wizardry series itself is still going in Japan, as well.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- peterevans 2y ago
  The original magic system from Final Fantasy 1 (you can only cast N spells per magic level, maximum of 9) is a copy of the system from Wizardry. The only difference you have to type the spell name to cast it in Wizardry, and you get a menu in Final Fantasy.
  - djur 2y ago
    The FF1 spell list is more directly derived from D&D, though. It even has the Power Words. The sense I've gotten from reading about the development of FF is that the dev team had varied experience with existing RPGs, so the game ended up as a mixture of derivative and original ideas. (The face-to-face side view in combat was apparently inspired by football!)
JieJie 2y ago
Loved Wizardry. Before Wizardry, there was Akalabeth. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom

It also had an antecedent; Wizardry was very much like a single-player version of Avatar, an early multiplayer dungeon game that ran on the University of Illinois PLATO system. The cube-like "rooms," displays, and game mechanics were very similar. I don't recall the controls being the same, though, and Avatar was written in PLATO's native TUTOR language, while Wizardry was UCSD Pascal.

danschuller 2y ago
> There was a game on the PLATO network (circa '79 or '80) called "Oubliette" that nearly caused me to flunk out of law school. [...] Wizardry was in many ways our attempt to see if we could write a single-player game as cool as the PLATO dungeon games and cram it into a tiny machine like the Apple II. https://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23752&cid=2567054 https://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23752&cid=2567054 Oubliette (https://howtomakeanrpg.com/r/l/g/oubliette.html https://howtomakeanrpg.com/r/l/g/oubliette.html) was a precursor to Avatar, so it goes a little further back than even that!
- djur 2y ago
  The CRPG Addict blog has done a great job reviewing the PLATO games from a seasoned player's perspective, and he touches on some of the inspiration for Wizardry. Oubliette: https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/10/game-12-oubliette-1977.html https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/10/game-12-oubliette-19... Avatar: https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/11/game-124-avatar-1979.html https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/11/game-124-avatar-1979...

kleiba 2y ago

Final Fantasy?

prepend 2y ago
Final Fantasy is awesome but it’s 2-3 generations after wizardry and ultima.
__MatrixMan__ 2y ago
D&D
louhike 2y ago
Dragon Quest (which came before Final Fantasy and inspired it) took inspiration from Wizardry. Most RPG from the 80s were inspired by Wizardry. It had huge influences.
- entropicdrifter 2y ago
  JRPGs especially! Wizardry as a series remained popular in Japan well after its popularity faded in the west. You can see games taking the general first-person dungeon crawling style straight from Wizardry in some late-90s JRPGs like the King's Field series. I think the Wizardry series itself is still going in Japan, as well.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
peterevans 2y ago
The original magic system from Final Fantasy 1 (you can only cast N spells per magic level, maximum of 9) is a copy of the system from Wizardry. The only difference you have to type the spell name to cast it in Wizardry, and you get a menu in Final Fantasy.
- djur 2y ago
  The FF1 spell list is more directly derived from D&D, though. It even has the Power Words. The sense I've gotten from reading about the development of FF is that the dev team had varied experience with existing RPGs, so the game ended up as a mixture of derivative and original ideas. (The face-to-face side view in combat was apparently inspired by football!)

JieJie 2y ago

Loved Wizardry. Before Wizardry, there was Akalabeth. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom