You should probably check out the beta for Tim Lang's new game, Aeolwyn's Legacy. See the second thread below.

Thanks for the recommendation there. Aeolwyn’s Legacy looks like a very nicely updated MM6 with its own twist, I will have to follow his work more. Project 2137 looks really cool too even if it isn’t the fantasy realm.

I thought Garriott pioneered the first commercial RPG when he wrote "Akalabeth" as a high school programming project in 1977, but it was never released as a commercial game. (Copies are available, but are rare.) The first with graphics other than Basic/ASCII characters and little blobs representing people was by Richard Clardy, in 1978, with "Dungeon Campaign" (Apple only.) According to my source (Shay Addams' "The Official Book of Ultima,) "Wizardry" was designed in 1979, but not published until 1981. I remember it: it was all stick figures and lines representing dungeon mazes--but came with a little tablet of 16 X 16 dots arranged in squares (so that you could connect the dots to form a 15 X 15 matrix--the standard dungeon size in those days, and plot out the dungeon as you went along. In those days, volume 2 was essentially an add-on to the first game, as you could not play game 2 without owning game 1. This was before D. W. Bradley took over as lead designer, changing the entire format and introducing that spaceship. "Temple of Apshai," arguably the first RPG designed in Silicon Valley, was started in 1979. It was the second RPG I ever played, a little gem called "Phantasie" being the first. I don't know when it was published.

Thank you for the recommendations on EOB and LOD too. They look just close enough to MM3-5 to be satisfying. Those shots of the dark forest scenery from "The Legend of Darkmoon" are beautiful, like how I want to imagine any classic RPG. I saw a review of some newer pixel-graphic games and they talked about how graphics like these paint just enough for the player and their imagination paints the rest ... definitely explains why these kinds of games still have a magic that modern 3D games can't always touch.

That is an interesting note on the magical items, and I can see what you mean about how items being in the same spot would hurt replayability. If it's just a generic sword in a chest in a dungeon, that can be boring. The Exile series that I mentioned was great about this -- there were maybe only 15-20 magical weapons throughout the entire game and they were each unique, so finding the "Holy Mace" at the end of a vampire crypt dungeon was really rewarding.

The only unfortunate thing about Wiz8 is the game plays real time until combat, at which point it switches to turn-based. And it does this when the enemy chooses to engage you, sometimes from a considerable distance, not just the battles you want to fight. Which means you fight every. Single. Battle. The game wants you to fight. No punching through easy battles in RT to get on with things, and no running around the map avoiding battles you can't be bothered with. You also can't save during combat, so no saving after every lucky hit you get and reloading if it goes badly. The number of battles in Wiz8 I've played for an entire hour only to restart makes me cry.

With some specific battles placed in specific areas, this also makes it somewhat more linear than MM simply because you can't access certain areas until you're powerful enough.

Had you tried different party make-ups through each of your replays for Wizardry 8? I guess I liked how MM6/7 let you do this and potentially make an all-magic party -- it is probably possible in MM3-5 too, but combat magic seemed more situational in those games, so I still needed my Knights and Archers to do most of the fighting.

A further comment though, the unavoidable combat isn't just annoying for the bosses. You have to be on your game, strategy-wise, or even "simple" battles can go badly if you get lazy. For example, attacks from the side and behind are more dangerous, and the monster AI is clever enough to surround you. This adds immensely to the realism and enjoyment of planning out individual combats - at least for me - but like anything else, after a while it just becomes another tedious part of setting up for every battle. Many times you'll cut a few corners trying to push quickly through yet another battle, not set up certain buffs, they'll get a lucky hit on your mage you didn't bother to protect in the back row, then your healer will go down, then your backup healer can't keep pace and it's reload time *sigh*