The most popular class-based games

Dungeon Crawl (also known as Linley's Dungeon Crawl from the name of the original programmer: Linley Henzell) is a classic roguelike: an RPG with permadeath, procedural generation and high replayability. Dungeon Crawl was released on 1997 but it's not maintained anymore. The spiritual successr of Crawl is DCCS (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup).

Secret of the Silver Blades is a fantasy RPG set in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons universe, developed and released by SSI Strategic Simulations Inc. in 1990 for DOS, Macintosh, Amiga and Commodore 64 systems. Secret of the Silver Blades is part of the Pool of Radiance series and uses the same "GoldBox" engine with isometric turn-based combat ...

The Magic Candle: Volume 1 is the first chapter of a series of fantasy old school RPGs. The Magic Candle was developed and released by Mindcraft Software in 1989 for DOS but was also published for Apple II and Commodore 64. The whole Magic Candle series is very similar to some of the early Ultima games in every aspect: turn-based combat, top-down v...

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress is a first-person grid-based RPG developed by Silmarils and released in 1992 for DOS, Amiga and Atari ST. Ishar: Legend of the Fortress is the second game, part of the Ishar game series (the first being Crystals of Arborea). Ishar is a classic RPG like Wizardry or Might & Magic and it plays the same way, but the en...

Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is a CRPG developed by SSI Strategic Simulations Inc. and released in 1992 for DOS only. Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is the sequel to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday and it's based on a campaign setting created by TSR in the late 80s. The game uses the Gold Box engine, common to much of the RPGs developed by SSI.

The Aethra Chronicles is not a well know fantasy RPG, but it deserves some praise. It was developed by only one person (Micheal Lawrence) and, as the title implies, was intended to be the first volume of a saga. Unfortunately, volume two and three were never made. For a shareware game, Aethra was pretty solid and is still loved by the ones who play...

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is a party-based real-time with pause CRPG set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe that shares the same gameplay as the sequel: the much acclaimed Baldur's Gate. Shadows of Amn was developed by BioWare and released by Black Isle Studios in 2000 for PC (Windows) and Mac.

Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire is a the second chapter in the Sierra beloved Quest for Glory series. Trial by Fire is an adventure game with RPG elements (at the very start the player must choose a class from the three available: fighter, wizard, thief) set in a fantasy setting inspired by Middle East lore. It was developed ad released by Sierra ...

Quest for glory 3: Wages of War is the third game in the Quest for Glory series. It's an adventure game at heart but, in the tradition of the Quest for Glory games, involves combat and classes like an RPG. Quest for Glory III was designed by Corey Cole and Lori Ann Cole, developed and released by Sierra On-Line in 1992 only for DOS.

Bloodwych is an abandoned RPG set in the fantasy world of Trazere. Two players can play at the same time in split screen mode, a feature that was unusual at the time, especially for an RPG. Bloodwych was released in 1989 by Image Works for DOS, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, ZX Spectrum.

Pools of Darkness is a computer role-playing game (CRPG) developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). It is the fourth entry in the "Gold Box" series of Dungeons & Dragons games, which are based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) ruleset. The game was released in 1991 for MS-DOS and later ported to other platform...

Ishar 2: Messengers of Doom is a role-playing video game developed and published by Silmarils, released in 1993. It is the sequel to Crystals of Arborea and the second installment in the Ishar series. Set in the fantasy world of Kendoria, the game follows the adventures of a group of adventurers as they journey across the land to defeat the evil so...