With They Create Worlds having tackled the early influence of D&D on video games, what better time than to air out some thoughts on the first CRPGs?
The information on the internet is extremely confused but I think we can get quite close to answering this difficult question. #videogamehistory #rpg
So is that it? Is The Dungeon the first CRPG?
Not so fast.
pedit5 designer Rusty Rutherford has stated that he decided to make a D&D game after one was already being worked on for the system that was not completed.
He called this game “DND” but it cannot be The Game of Dungeons that exists on PLATO now. Those creators were inspired by The Dungeon and recent document finds definitively date that game to 1976.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131027034539/http://www.rpgfanatic.net/advanced_game_wiki_database.html?p=news&nrid=5049&game=dnd
What was this game then? Well, it may have inspired another PLATO RPG
Moria is perhaps the most important of the PLATO RPGs.
It was one of the first MMOs, allowing people to group in parties to take down monsters.
It showed the dungeon in first-person 3D, taking the innovation of PLATO flight games into the turn-based world.
Its offspring inspired Wizardry.
The authors of Moria were particularly inspired by Orthanc, one of The Dungeon derivatives.
Originally the game was 2D like Orthanc, but eventually took on its important 3D perspective.
While it’s logical they may have come to this on their own, there may have been another influence.
At Iowa State University, the Moria authors programmed alongside two other of the most important PLATO authors: Gary Fritz and John Daleske.
Daleske most prominently created the pioneering online classic Empire - I did a video covering it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKeoiT9Z7yc
Daleske worked on a number of other PLATO games, but the most enigmatic by far is the one he co-authored with Fritz: Dungeon.
With a version date on the very well done title screen, this game has fascinated people for years - but it’s never been playable on cyber1.
The only thing Daleske ever said about the game was that it was, “Predecessor to Moria.”
In 2021, CRPGAddict commentor “half” extracted the completed images from the game’s files. While this doesn’t prove much, it gives very strong evidence that this game begot both Moria and The Dungeon.
The door graphic and signs particularly look like they are meant for a first-person perspective - much like Moria.
The main warrior character in the bottom left and the room overview in the bottom right look quite a bit like The Dungeon.
Dungeon may have been the wellspring of all PLATO RPGs.
To recap:
Dungeon begins development in 1975.
The Dungeon (pedit5) is created ahead of Dungeon and is playable by August 1975.
pedit5 is deleted after early October 1975 - Orthanc, dnd, and m199h come online in late 1975 or 1976.
Moria inspired by Dungeon and Orthanc, probably playable in 1976.