It took a lot longer than it should but here it is, the CRPG Book Project 200-page preview:
CRPG Book Preview 2.1
I apologize for delaying it so much. As you read on the last update, I had created a “few 5-year summary” pages to split the reviews and give some context of what was going on around that time. They were mostly finished, but I couldn’t get them to feel satisfactory and keep delaying the preview to re-write them… after a while I got a bit burned down and was going nowhere, so I decided to shelve them for this update (I’ve kept only one, as a prototype). However, that meant I was suddenly 20 pages short, so it took me a while to fill that blank in with more reviews.
Another factor that delayed it was my big mouth. The whole P.T. & Konami deal in the last month led to a lot of debate about gaming history, and I just couldn’t keep my mouth closed, so I went and wrote A LOT about that in a Gamasutra article.
Regardless, this release marks about 50% of the book being done AND released, which feels great. The feedback for the 100-page preview was great, with over 32k downloads and a lot of e-mails, and I hope everyone enjoy & comment on this preview as well. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but it should go smoother from now on.
One thing that we still need a lot of help are reviewers. I’ve updated the games list, so if you see any game there that you would like to write about, please contact me at crpgbook@gmail.com
Thanks for reading and for all the support!
EDIT: I’ve updated the .pdf with a few corrections and added bookmarks to every review.
The CRPG Book Project 
There is a mistake on page 161. The picture signature mentions Diablo II instead of Witcher 2.
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Thanks, I’ll fix it!
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Looks, great, can’t wait to read the new stuff. One note on U4 on p23, it’s also available from GOG for the Mac, and is also a free download for the iPad from the App Store.
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And on p30, the original Amiga edition of Defender of the Crown can still be played today – also as a download for iOS (iPad or iPhone) from the App Store.
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Another comment… page 96 starts “2000-2004 – The Rise of the Modern Gaming Industry”, but there’s no similar title starting off the previous section of games (Beneath Apple Manor to System Shock 2). Also, I assume you just haven’t gotten to it, but why no Ultima VII/VII Part 2? Arguably the best RPG’s of their time. I’d also have included The Faery Tale Adventure on the Amiga – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faery_Tale_Adventure – Unique in it’s time for it’s graphics (Ultima VII-like but 5 years before U7), largest game world of it’s time, and gameplay with the three brothers.
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That 2000-2004 page is a prototype, there will be more of those, but I haven’t finished them yet. And both Ultima VII and Faery Tale Adventure will be in, we just didn’t write the review yet.
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[…] Pepe has released the second alpha version of The CRPG Book, which is now up to over 200 pages in […]
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Typo on Pg 172:
… but [b]we are[/b] also [b]featuring[/b] games from [b]other[/b] countries, such as [b]The[/b] Legend of the Sword and Fairy ([b]Taiwan[/b]), ….
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