Ultimate RPG Archives - PC Games

The entire Bard's Tale epic is here, although gameplay for all the titles in this series is a little simplistic and won't appeal to the majority of modern gamers. Dragon Wars is another game that falls into this category, but surprisingly the equally old-school Wasteland was incredibly fun to play. Set in a postapocalyptic America, Wasteland eschews swords and shields in favor of assault rifles and body armor and is an exciting change of pace from the standard dungeon crawl. The game was a bestseller on the Commodore 64 computer and inspired the modern hit RPG Fallout.

Stonekeep, one of the more modern games in the bundle, has decent graphics but is thin on gameplay. The best games are the two Ultima Underworld titles and the Might & Magic: World of Xeen compilation. The former thrusts players into an interactive underground world full of crafty traps and compelling encounters with other characters. Despite the dated graphics, we were sucked into the story immediately and couldn't stop playing. World of Xeen cast a similar spell of addiction on us, causing many a sleepless night and many a missed deadline until our massively powerful characters entered the final showdown. In all, Ultimate RPG Archives proves that when it comes to role-playing games, it's what's on the inside that counts. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros: Many of these games are true classics Comes with printed documentation for each game Cons: Novices will have a hard time getting many of these games to run properly The older games in the collection have extremely poor graphics

Amazon.com Product Description
The Bard's Tale Trilogy and Construction Set. You are challenged to assemble a band of inexperienced adventurers and lead them into an environment that is overrun with evil minions. It is up to you to build your party's strength, for they will need to push farther into the clutches of evil to complete their quests. Included for the first time in one compilation is the entire Bard's Tale series on CD-ROM--The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown, The Bard's Tale 2: Destiny Knight, The Bard's Tale 3: The Thief of Fate, and The Bard's Tale Construction Set. Might and Magic: World of Xeen. Included are two complete games--Clouds of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen. This special version allows your characters to travel from one game to the other and also includes new digitized speech. Stonekeep. Step into the mystery of Stonekeep and begin a quest through dark corridors; treacherous sewers; and subterranean realms of fairies, magic, and the living dead. You'll discover a world where darkness reigns and where you become part of a detailed story line that unfolds at your command. Ultima Underworld: 1 and 2. In this first continuous-movement, first-person 3-D dungeon action fantasies in the Ultima series, you'll walk, run, swim, and jump through miles of sheer terror, casting spells, vanquishing foes, and solving puzzles as you race through the magical Ultima setting known as Britannia. Included are Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and Ultima Underworld 2: The Labyrinth of Worlds. Dragon Wars. Dragon Wars are the most destructive forces in the world, and are threatening to destroy the paradise of Dilmun. Magic is your only salvation. But magic is illegal and you are already imprisoned. Wasteland. It's 2087, World War III has come and gone, leaving the world a veritable Wasteland. As a Desert Ranger, you've vowed to help rebuild humanity... but first you have to survive. Surprising subplots twist and turn toward a final conflict with mankind's greatest threat in this futuristic multicharacter RPG. Wizardry: Gold. D.W. Bradley's award-winning and critically acclaimed classic epic, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, is now totally re-engineered and includes full speech; new cinematic sequences; new sound and music; and an entire suite of add-ons, tools, and utilities.