10 Landmark Video Games That Were The First Of Their Kind

3. Ultima I: The First Age Of Darkness

Platform: Apple II Pioneered: Many RPG genre staples There were many role-playing games created before Ultima, generally in the form of text-based games based on the Dungeons & Dragons system. However, it wasn't until Richard Garriott's Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness that anything resembling a modern RPG was released. Ultima was the first commercial RPG to include essential mechanics such as attributes, a choice of races, and hit points. The game also featured a world that would later become typical of the genre. For example, there was an overworld, filled with dungeons, towns and cities, which was traversable in a top down view. The dungeons themselves were explored in first-person. Other features that transitioned into popular tropes included randomly generated enemies, purchasable items and a questing system, were just the icing on the cake for this remarkably influential title.