I’m almost half-way through Dungeons and Desktops, a book on the history of computer role playing games (CRPGs).  I grew up playing Temple of Apshai, the last half of the Ultima series, Bards Tale III, and other games on my Commodore 64 and PCs.  And, I’m a big fan of historical accounts of early computing.  This book sounded right up my alley, but I’m having a hard time slogging through it.

The book’s best feature is that each chapter is broken into sections, each covering a game or series of games.  Some sections are only a paragraph long, some ramble on.  The descriptions of the SSI “gold box” series of licensed D&D games are an example of the latter — I’m guessing the author was a big fan of them back in the day.  It’s a great resource on the games of the past & present, including when they were published and what made them interesting (or not).

Unfortunately, this is also the book’s worst feature, and it makes it a grueling read.  Each chapter consists of a little background on the “age” being discussed (golden, silver, etc.) and then these sections about the games.  I really don’t care about how such-and-such game was ported from the Apple II from the Amiga by JoeBob Softworks, this time the evil wizard is named Beldar, and how its mages throw snowballs instead of fireballs.  There’s no narrative carrying me from game to game; I feel like I’m reading a catalog sometimes.

The long-ish sections about the big games in the genre stand out, and I wish more of the book were like them.  When talking about Ultima, Bard’s Tale, Wizardry, or Magic Candle, the author writes compellingly, and talks about the people and companies behind the games as well.  The author also plugs the fan communities that are still around discussing these games and making remakes, which I think is a great tip-of-the-hat to their hard work.

I’m hoping it doesn’t take me a month to get through the second half. I might need a break before I dive into this one again. But, I determined to finish it.