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The 13 best electronic versions of Dungeons & Dragons
The world of Dungeons & Dragons needs no introduction. Recently, however, the D&D community suffered the loss of one close and dear as the game's co-founder Gary Gygax passed away after battling for some years with heart ailments. But his legacy lives on: What started as a tabletop fantasy role-playing game in the '70s quickly branched out into books, video and arcade games, movies and more. Although PC gamers may think of the tricked-out Forgotten Realms games when they hear D&D, the game has actually went digital decades ago, and has gone deeper and deeper into the tech world ever since.
From the game's first forays into what passed for "computer" gaming 30 years ago to its presence in Second Life, we've mapped out a timeline of the game's evolution from a tabletop classic to an electronic franchise. Click Continue to explore how D&D went digital.
1974: dndBefore personal computers were commonplace, there was dnd, which hit at a time when dungeon-crawling games were in their infancy and only passed around in die-hard geek circles. The simple-yet-solid concepts of advancement and treasure looting laid out in the original tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons helped dnd catch on where other dungeon sims fell short. It was written in TUTOR code for the PLATO systems by Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood at Southern Illinois University, and enjoyed several modifications all the way until 1985.
1980: Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game
Before turning Dungeons & Dragons into a handheld (see below), Mattel first transmuted it into a simple electronic board game: there's a dungeon, and it has a dragon in it. The "computer" places 50 walls randomly across the board, and then two players can compete head to head as they try to and hinder each another's advances, searching for the treasure from room to room. Just hope you don't chance upon the dragon — it'll take your warrior apart in only three blows. Unlike in regular D&D, death is not the end for a lone warrior, but your opponent will score precious time to find those gold pieces.
1981: Mattel's Dungeons and Dragons
Back in the day, portable games didn't have cartridges — they came as a standalone package like this Mattel unit here. Featuring a state-of-the-art LCD screen and powered by two watch batteries, Mattel's Dungeons and Dragons was all action and didn't fool around. As stated on the unit's box, the object of the game is: "Slay the evil dragon as quickly as you can!"
While Atari 2600 users had to make do with the awesomely popular, D&D-like game Adventure, Intellivision owners got a more official version in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It may be surprising to see such young kids playing the game in the above video, but bear in mind this was a year before Tom Hanks flipped out in the movie Mazes and Monsters and made D&D players look like hallucinating suicidal Satanists. Originally being worked on under the title of "Adventure" until Gygax's company, TSR, licensed the game, AD&D was the first Intellivision cartridge to use more than 4,000 bytes of ROM, and featured randomly generated mazes stuffed with monsters, which players searched for new weapons and items as they worked toward the goal of the game: recovering the two pieces of the Crown of Kings. Despite how simple it was, AD&D was a taste of early action adventure gaming. It later became known as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Cloudy Mountain to differentiate it from the next game on our list.
1983: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin
Despite being completed, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin was never released for the Atari 2600. A bit like when your Dungeon Master whisks away loot that's too good for your party at the last second, a horde of sneaky halflings must have nabbed the master copy of AD&D:ToT before it could be mass produced. Or Mattel Electronics went belly up in 1984 a month before the game's release — either way. A version did arrive later on the Intellivision, called Tower of Doom. Tower of Doom showcased the ambitious features at play in Treasure of Tarmin, such as having 10 different adventures to pick from and multiples way to kill monsters.
1987: Dungeons & Dragons Pinball
The iconic image of a warrior staving off a dragon lit up the gloomy dungeons of the arcade with Dungeons & Dragons Pinball by Bally, a maker of pinball, gaming and slot machines. The game cost a quarter to play (this was before the dollar sign became a standard fixture in the arcade, mind), and the unit is adorned with everything from magic saves to dungeon level ratings, with score markers trailing up along the dragon's furious plume of fire. Back in the day, pinball machines were fashioned after anything popular — from movies, games or even just a general theme — and you knew you'd made it when your creation became a pinball machine.
1988: Dungeons and Dragons: Pool of Radiance
The Pool of Radiance series set the stage for Dungeons & Dragons to make a major splash in the video game world. Using the Gold Box engine, it was set in the Forgotten Realms setting of D&D and debuted on Commodore 64 systems. It was so well liked that it was soon ported to the NES in '92. Still, it was only a taste of things to come. Players were limited to only a few of the classes that the D&D world offered and couldn't advance very far in level.
1996: Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara, the sequel to the not-as-great Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, is a game that gets the adventurous feel of D&D right despite not solidly incorporating many of the rules. Made by Capcom, this arcade game feels more like the company's Final Fight or King of the Dragons rather than an emulation of a proper paper-and-pencil session. But Shadow Over Mystara does get the hack and slash part right (even the cleric forgoes healing to beat down foes with a truncheon), gives players a shop between levels to spend their loot, and was one of the earliest D&D games to incorporate cooperative play, allowing four players to have a go at it at once.
1998: Baldur's Gate
For some, Baldur's Gate is as good as it gets when it comes to D&D video games. Developed by Bioware and published by the much loved, much missed Black Isle Studios, Baldur's Gate offers players an epic plot spanning dozens and dozens of hours of gameplay. The rules of D&D are more faithfully followed than ever before, and players are faced with important decisions right at the start of the game: Just who are they? Players aren't forced to pick from templates or premade characters, and instead pick out their desired gender, class and attributes, able to create any kind of adventurer they can imagine. Baldur's Gate nailed the customization of the paper-and-pencil experience, and the high fantasy storytelling skilled dungeon masters sought to achieve during sessions.
2002: Neverwinter Nights
Another Bioware D&D title, Neverwinter Nights turned the dungeon crawler into a breathtaking 3D world with the same sprawling epic plot of Baldur's Gate. Again the rules of the pen-and-paper incarnation of D&D were upheld, and again players were able to craft who they wanted to be, this time with enhanced options for appearance thanks to the game's more advanced graphics. The Neverwinter Nights series spawned a whole slew of expansion packs and a sequel, and fan-written modules for the game have not only expanded the scope of Neverwinter, but saw some of the modules' creators picked up by Bioware.
2004: Tabletop Projection fan setup
While not an official extension of Dungeons & Dragons, the Tabletop Projection project is hands-down the coolest way to enjoy the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game. A few fans who love the game (too much? Never!) decided to affix a projector to the ceiling over a table and link it to a laptop loaded with high resolution dungeon maps. The dungeon master then uses the laptop as his base of operations. Using Photoshop, he obscures the the map with a layer of darkness, which he erases to uncover tiles, and employs additional layers to show traps and magical effects. It's a very snazzy way to play a vintage game, and we love it.
2006: Bringing D&D to Second Life
An integral part of the D&D experience whether it is played on a tabletop, out of a book or simulatd by a computer is the dice rolling. Knowing this, a few Second Life players decided to make the game good for something and cooked up some scripted dice. While virtual dice rolling is something all D&D computer games pretty much account for these days, the benefit of playing some "tabletop" Dungeons & Dragons in Second Life is that players are still treated to a Dungeon Master-run game, and they can use their custom avatars to act out whatever that avatar's character is doing — as long as the player can script it. Thus the insular social dynamic of tabletop D&D is upheld in one of the most complimentary ways — in a digitally hermetic room on the Internet.
2006: Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
Developed by Turbine, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach is where the D&D universe is currently at in the digital world, and it uses the latest set of rules and takes place in the Eberron campaign setting. Whereas Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights dump players into a world all alone, with parties of characters to control, DDO instead lets players explore D&D in a massively multiplayer game where they can party up and take down everything from giants to beholders. A problem does tend to arise, however — no one ever wants to play as the cleric. Unlike the paper-and-pencil game, you can't strong arm one of your friends into the role, either. No sir, if you want heals, you'll have to learn how to make nice with other people, and it's that social element that's probably keeping DDO from being as big as a success as its offline cousins.
And beyond!
Well, that's it for this stroll along the D&D annals of digital history. But don't drive out of here with nothing - why not take a set of these $10 fuzzy D20s with you? Who knows, maybe having 20-sided dice with you at all times will see some kind of rogue D&D street culture crop up. You'll also be able to pass every cool save against the loser who dares roll around with just a set of six-siders. Sure, those are useful. For working out the damage for a short sword.
However you decide to honor the game, be sure to keep your clerics happy, give your spell casters plenty of rest and wear some iron undies around those xill.
Have a treasured D&D memory? Crazy enough to enjoy playing as a cleric? Sound off in the comments below.
EXTRA HIT POINTS: As a few knights and handmaidens in the commenting fray have pointed out, this list could have easily included Curse of the Azure Bonds, Dark Sun Online, Planescape: Torment, and Atari's D&D Tactics for the PSP. Keep those suggestions coming!
By Anonymous Gamer at 11:13 AM ON 03/18/08
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was very enjoyable and came about around the time of Neverwiter Nights. The story was quite huge (perhaps too large) and was a bit buggy. But an epic dungeon crawl.
Temple of Elemental Evil was extremely authentic and stuck to the AD&D ruleset. Really a great game for AD&D players. I only wish there was more content.
By privatehand at 12:37 PM ON 03/18/08
How could you leave off Milton Bradley's Dark Tower?
By ANONYMOUS GAMER #2 at 12:37 PM ON 03/18/08
D&D Online has more problems than just finding a good cleric. One reason it's failing is because there are no wide open spaces to explore. Try to imagine a tiny little marketplace where every doorway leading out of it...goes to a scripted dungeon. WTF. Another reason is because it doesn't have the customization options that other MMO games do. Only 1 slot for armor? Come on!
By SkidmarkStu at 1:29 PM ON 03/18/08
You left out Advanced D&D: Dark Sun Online
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AD%26D%27s_Dark_Sun_Online)
I played this one for a couple of years online. Very much fun indeed.
It bridged the gap between the first NWN (on AOL, which you also left out), UO and Everquest.
By DNA at 1:41 PM ON 03/18/08
I like D&D Tactics for PSP. Although it crashes sometimes. :-(
By Ikcor at 1:46 PM ON 03/18/08
By Han Solo at 1:51 PM ON 03/18/08
NO MENTION of the ROUGE Games? Moria, Rogue, NetHack etc?
LAMEO!!
By Impaqt at 1:54 PM ON 03/18/08
Wizardry wasnt a DnD Licensed Game.
AS for the comments from Annonomous Gamer, you need to give the game antoehr shot. There are Indeed Vast explorer areas now. The game has expanded quite a bit since then. The game is hardly "Failing"
By Billy K at 1:58 PM ON 03/18/08
How could you forget Wizardry? It was pure Dungeons & Dragons, and AFAIK the first home computer version.
By jarjarwang at 1:59 PM ON 03/18/08
I also would have put something like Nethack on there...
By fcw3 at 2:01 PM ON 03/18/08
I'm not sure where you got your info concerning AD&D:Treasures of Tarmin for the Intellivision.
I have AD&D:Treasures of Tarmin for both the Intellivision and Mattel's red-headed stepchild, the Aquarius Computer.
By dbett at 2:21 PM ON 03/18/08
ANONYMOUS GAMER:
Not sure when you last played the game, but there are now a number of "wide open outdoor areas" - and soon to be a wide open underground area as well.
And at least since they consolidated servers many months back, groups are easy to find. Even with clerics.
By ddade at 2:30 PM ON 03/18/08
A list of this type cannot have any credibility at all without reference to Planescape: Torment
By Azalus at 2:32 PM ON 03/18/08
What?! No Planescape Torment!
By Avrus at 2:34 PM ON 03/18/08
Um hello -- Curse of the Azure bonds anyone? Apparently the entire gold box series was missed.
By Novakog at 2:36 PM ON 03/18/08
Yeah, no Planescape Torment?
By Strimen at 2:36 PM ON 03/18/08
Don't forget that awesome game by silicon knights and SSI called Fantasy Empires. That was one of my favorite PC games for many years. I also second the comment about this list not being complete without including Planescape: Torment. Another one of my favorites.
By Strimen at 2:39 PM ON 03/18/08
Haha, I thought the url slot on this comment board was for supporting links, not tieing a link to my screen name. Whoops.
By Flick at 2:50 PM ON 03/18/08
I was really surprised not to see any of the "Eye of the Beholder" series on here. It was one of the frontrunners of first person point of view games!
By anon at 2:51 PM ON 03/18/08
What about every MUD ever made? What about Neverwinter Nights 2?
By rick at 3:03 PM ON 03/18/08
I still have pool of radiance for apple II. Even have the circular rune decoder.
So how many more games were there? Not many I suspect (licensed).
By FishingFury at 3:17 PM ON 03/18/08
Darksun (1990) will always be remembered as the best DND game of all time.
By ThrasherGT at 4:52 PM ON 03/18/08
Hey Anonymous Gamer #2: You obviously haven't played DDO for quite a while! The release of Module 6 introduced pseudo-crafting to the game, And I must disagree about "no open areas", as there are at least 5 or 6 Explorer areas in the game at present. Next Mod (Mod 7, due in april or may) Will expand crafting and introduce Monks as a playable class. That and when You add in DDO's combat system (which is second to none), DDO is one of the best MMO's on the Market today.......
By nilus at 5:06 PM ON 03/18/08
FISHINGFURY, Darksun was a good game. But it hardly compares to the classic gold box games(Pool of Radience, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Pool of Darkness), or the Baldur's gate series. Or of course the true greatest D&D game, Planescape Torment.
By Ethsar46 at 5:35 PM ON 03/18/08
No planescape: Torment?
That was the first DND PC game i played and was my favourite easily. BG2 was good too.
NWN was ok but i found 2 to be a let down, and full of bugs and bad CD protection software.
DDO isnt too bad, not the best MMO ive played however. However thats due to the Dev team and nothing to do with D&D in general.
By DDOplayer at 6:13 PM ON 03/18/08
DDO is not a bad game, it just isn't what many MMO players are looking for. For those of us that do play it is an oasis in the desert.
By ForkBender at 6:16 PM ON 03/18/08
What about Oblivion you idiot?
By Allen Kerensky at 9:24 PM ON 03/18/08
I got a big grin seeing Ama Ree's SecondLife D&D session make the list! That was a heck of a lot of fun, and showed a lot of the peril and promise of 3D virtual tabletop gaming. Thanks for the mention! - Allen Kerensky, the guy behind the scarf in the picture.
By Beerduck at 6:32 AM ON 03/19/08
I just have to laugh at some of these comments.
This is about Dungeons & Dragons games!!! The Wizardry series are NOT Dungeons & Dragons games, nor are any ROGUE games out there. And the most hilarious award goes to forkbender, for Oblivion. Seriously??? It seems like people don't even know what DD is.
By wideimacowner at 9:32 AM ON 03/19/08
The Bard's Tale should have been on the list. While not a D&D license, it owed a lot to it, while also breaking new ground. The Amiga version rocked! (If you're old enough to remember the Amiga.)
By Spykiller at 1:25 PM ON 03/19/08
You can't talk about D&D games without including Tunnels of Doom. This was release on the TI994a back in the 80s. The ultimate dungeon crawl - you will pay a small fortune to own a copy on eBay.
By Kurgol at 2:32 PM ON 03/19/08
What about Eye of the Beholder? Awesome AD&D game.
By spidweb at 4:29 PM ON 03/19/08
No Planescape: Torment? No Baldur's Gate 2?
But heck, why include them? They're only two of the finest computer RPGs ever made, by a wide margin.
- Jeff Vogel
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com
By rodney at 7:08 PM ON 03/19/08
By Mike at 11:28 AM ON 03/20/08
I'm a little surprised at the lack of Eye of the Beholder, also. You can make a case against Planescape, Icewind Dale and BG:II as being follow-ons to the Baldur's Gate breakthrough, but it really was EOB that brought in an audience who had no stomach at all for the Gold Box games.
Plus, it had the totally awesome metallic GONGGGGG sound when a character got aced.
By lingster at 3:36 PM ON 03/20/08
You forgot the ORIGINAL MMO, Neverwinter Nights on AOL.... in the same vein as teh gold box games...
Long live the Grey Company!
By risu23 at 7:52 PM ON 03/20/08
The section on Treasure of Tarmin is incorrect. It WAS released for the Intellivision, and under its original name. I own a copy, and can still play it -- it's my favorite console game of all time.
By gparsons at 4:13 AM ON 03/21/08
I am going to have to say that any list of electronic DnD that excludes Planescape: Torment but includes the infamous computer labyrinth game and the pinball version is laughably off base.
In fact many of these things would be games I would simply call a war game, or a dungeon crawl, or perhaps if one wanted to be eloquent a "Roll" Playing Game. And therefore more of a chainmail game than a DnD game.
I was happy to see the 2nd Life and Projection board made it on here too (though they are more tools to play the game, then games themselves)
No points to anybody who listed Nethack, Oblivion, Rogue, Moria, Wizardry... (their all great games, but not technically DnD)
By Woo at 7:33 AM ON 03/22/08
What about Eye of the Beholder? Skipping a decade of AD&D isn't fair..
By Lulz at 1:59 PM ON 03/22/08
This list is a joke...
By Lluthien at 1:08 AM ON 03/23/08
Everyone always forgets about Slayer for the 3DO system, great 3D 2nd edition game
By Adventure at 11:22 AM ON 03/24/08
The Atari 2600 game Venture (not Adventure) was not based on D&D but a game that preceded it, Colossal Caverns Adventure.
D&D only hit the shelves in 1974 whereas Adventure was made in 1972 and, IMO, this computer game is the first real Role Playing Game.
It had no stats, but had plenty of exploration. Later, Tolkien aspects were added.
By Frost at 1:13 PM ON 03/24/08
NWN on AOL had a huge following. Followed AD&D first edition rules and used the SSI Gold Box game interface. Not to mention massively (up to 500 was massive then) multiplayer. It was a huge cash cow for AOL (pay by the hour, $400/mo bills anyone?) until they went unlimited pricing at killed it in 1997.
You can still play it at ForgottenWorld.
By Drakehash at 1:15 PM ON 03/24/08
Planescape torment????
By used cisco at 6:47 PM ON 03/24/08
This was a great retrospective, thanks, but the examples are not the best electronic versions of D&D. Lots of them were actually quite poor. The title is a bit misleading.
I would mention Temple of Elemental Evil in here somewhere if this were actually a "Best of" and not simply an educational retrospective. Its a few years old but was, to my mind, the best representation of the pen and paper game to be unleashed on the digital world to date.
By jehodgson at 7:15 AM ON 03/25/08
I loved the intellivision version at the time, but why has no-one even mentioned the sega megadrive(genesis in the US?) version of D&D Warriors of the Eternal Sun? I played it for hours back in the early 90s!
By Ebb at 5:35 PM ON 03/26/08
Temple of Elemental Evil and Planescape Torment were left out, it's a shame.
By Shade at 11:21 AM ON 03/27/08
You left out a classic-old-school-game. D&D - Warriors of the Eternal Sun on Sega Genesis.
By Aegis_Runestone at 6:24 PM ON 03/27/08
Uh... Icewind Dale - HoW and Icewind Dale II, and Baldur's Gate II - Throne of Bhaal anyone? Those games were really awesome. I don't see how the pinball machine really counts as a DnD game.
By Delcan at 6:45 PM ON 04/06/08
What can change the nature of a man?
Come on. Torment was the best D&D game ever made. Hands-down. Noone is in second place.
By what_a_joke at 11:01 PM ON 04/10/08
worst list ever
By thibodeauxfly at 7:33 PM ON 04/25/08
How could they overlook Torment?! How could that happen?!
By Anonymous at 10:07 AM ON 03/20/09
cool people
By Jharet at 10:25 AM ON 05/05/09
I just started playing Torment and the roleplaying choices in it are amazing. Even more amazing is the fact that it still works on Vista. Try it.
Dungeons and Dragons Online is the best D&D port of all time. The roleplaying can be minimal - but the characters one can create are endless and the ability to team with others makes the game far more enjoyable than any other D&D game out there.
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Jharet:
I just started playing Torment and the roleplaying choices in it are amazing. Even more amazing is the fact that i...More »