# The Computer RPG Lineage *From PLATO terminals to Baldur's Gate 3* - Tour: Tour - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/tours/the-crpg-lineage/ > Fourteen stops trace the Western computer RPG from university mainframe dungeons through the Apple II classics, the Gold Box and the Infinity Engine to Larian's 2023 triumph. **Why it matters:** The computer RPG began as an attempt to automate the D&D referee. This tour follows the half-century effort to do that, and the new kinds of games that grew out of it. The first computer role-playing games were made by students who wanted to play [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/) when no Dungeon Master was available. Half a century later, the computer RPG is one of the largest genres in games, and its latest landmark is an official D&D game. This tour follows the road between them. It begins on the [PLATO](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/plato-system/), the University of Illinois network where [pedit5](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pedit5/) and [dnd](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-plato/) appeared within about a year of D&D's release. The same idea emerged independently on Unix terminals as [Rogue](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/rogue/), which gave its name to the [Roguelikes](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/roguelike/). With the Apple II the computer RPG became a commercial product. [Richard Garriott](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/richard-garriott/)'s [Akalabeth: World of Doom](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/akalabeth/) and Sir-Tech's [Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/) established its two great templates, the open world map and the party-based [Dungeon crawl](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/dungeon-crawl/). By 1985 [Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-iv/) had made morality a game mechanic and [The Bard's Tale](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-bards-tale/) had made the dungeon crawl a best-seller. The late 1980s and early 1990s brought official rules and new technology. [Pool of Radiance](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pool-of-radiance/) adapted [AD&D](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/) directly. [Dungeon Master](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dungeon-master/) and [Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-underworld/) made the dungeon real-time and three-dimensional. Then [Diablo](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/diablo/) turned the [Roguelikes](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/roguelike/) into the [Action RPGs & Hack-and-Slash](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/action-rpg/), and [Baldur's Gate](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate/) brought the D&D party game back with a new engine and a strong emphasis on story. [Morrowind](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-elder-scrolls-morrowind/) showed a different future, the huge single-player [Open-World RPGs](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/open-world-rpg/). The tour ends with [Baldur's Gate 3](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate-3/), which draws on almost every stop before it: the D&D rules, the party, the tactical combat, the companions and the freedom of an open world. As you walk, watch how each designer tried to recreate some part of what a good human referee does, and how each ended up inventing something the tabletop never had. ## Stops 1. [pedit5](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pedit5/) — Begin in 1975 on the University of Illinois' PLATO network, where a student hid a one-level dungeon in a spare program slot. Administrators kept deleting it. It is one of the earliest surviving computer role-playing games, made within about a year of D&D's release. 2. [dnd](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-plato/) — Its PLATO rival added a multi-level dungeon and a dragon guarding the Orb at the bottom, arguably the first boss. Gold carried out of the dungeon became hit points and spells for the next trip. The loop of descending, looting and returning stronger is already in place. 3. [Rogue](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/rogue/) — A branch line: around 1980 on Unix terminals, Rogue drew its dungeons in ASCII and generated a new one each game, with one life only. Its descendants, the roguelikes, would reshape the genre decades later. 4. [Akalabeth: World of Doom](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/akalabeth/) — The personal computer arrives. A Texas teenager, Richard Garriott, wrote this Apple II game in 1979–80 and sold it in Ziploc bags. Its wireframe first-person dungeon and overhead world map point straight to Ultima. 5. [Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/) — Sir-Tech's 1981 maze defined the party-based crawl: six characters, ten levels drawn in green lines, and graph paper in the box. It shaped computer RPGs in America and, through players such as Yuji Horii, in Japan. 6. [Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-iv/) — Garriott's 1985 game made ethics the goal: no villain, only eight virtues to live by. It showed the CRPG could ask questions a tabletop referee might ask about who the character is. 7. [The Bard's Tale](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-bards-tale/) — Also 1985: Interplay's colorful Commodore 64 crawl through Skara Brae, by one count the best-selling computer RPG of the decade. Compare its town-and-dungeon structure with Wizardry, two stops back. 8. [Pool of Radiance](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pool-of-radiance/) — In 1988 SSI built the first computer RPG on the full AD&D rules, set in the Forgotten Realms. Its 'Gold Box' engine powered a whole shelf of licensed D&D games and tied the computer RPG closely to the tabletop game. 9. [Dungeon Master](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dungeon-master/) — FTL's 1987 Atari ST game made the dungeon run in real time, with the mouse used to grab objects and runes combined to cast spells. Characters improved by using skills. The first-person crawl had come alive. 10. [Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-underworld/) — In 1992 a small New England studio built a texture-mapped 3D dungeon in which players could look up, jump and swim. It points toward the immersive simulations and first-person open worlds that followed. 11. [Diablo](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/diablo/) — Blizzard North's 1996 game combined a roguelike's random dungeons and loot with real-time clicking, and launched Battle.net for online play. It created the modern action RPG. 12. [Baldur's Gate](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate/) — BioWare's 1998 debut revived the party-based D&D game with real-time-with-pause combat, voiced companions and the Forgotten Realms' Sword Coast. The Infinity Engine it introduced carried a golden age of isometric RPGs. 13. [The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-elder-scrolls-morrowind/) — Bethesda's 2002 island of giant mushrooms and silt striders showed the other road: a handcrafted open world for a single hero, explored in first person, and shipped with its own construction kit for modders. 14. [Baldur's Gate 3](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate-3/) — The line comes full circle. Larian's 2023 game, built on D&D's fifth edition, combines the turn-based tactics of the tabletop with cinematic companions and a vast range of player choices. It won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023. ## Facts - The dragon guarding the Orb in PLATO's dnd is often cited as the first boss in a video game. - Wizardry's villain Werdna and its mad overlord Trebor are the authors' first names, Andrew and Robert, spelled backwards. - SSI sold 264,536 computer copies of Pool of Radiance in North America, its biggest hit to that point. - Diablo was designed as a turn-based game; David Brevik converted it to real time over a single weekend. --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.