About the Project

The CRPG Book Project is a collaborative, non-profit effort to create a free & easily available ebook on the history of Computer Role-Playing Games.

DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION HERE (v4.0, OCTOBER 2023)

Our goal is to gather all the knowledge currently spread across countless websites, books, videos, podcasts, forums and minds in a single, accessible and visually pleasing tome. We share the Internet Archive’s belief that “access drives preservation”, so we want to demystify gaming history, offering a reliable and attractive resource for people seeking information – or just a fun game to play.

For any enquiries, feel free to contact our editor, Felipe Pepe, via Twitter or email.

Screenshot Gallery

The book contains 2,215 images. Creating it required playing hundreds of RPGs and screenshoting some of their most iconic scenes. These images were collected into a Google Drive folder, that anyone can explore, download and use. It contains over 20,000 .PNG screenshots of over 750 RPGs, either taken by the contributors or kindy shared by The CRPG Addict.

History

The project began in 2014 after the RPG Codex published a Top 70 PC RPGs list, featuring small fan reviews on each game. The reception was overwhelming, leading to the idea of expanding the list into a book, covering the entire CRPG history.

The completed ebook was first released as a PDF in 2018, getting over 100,000 downloads. A deal was then made with Bitmap Books, which published a limited hardcover version of the book in 2019. All the author’s profits (£34,387 as of January 2024) were donated to Vocação, a Brazilian NGO that helps kids and teenagers from poor areas get better education and find employment.

In 2022, a new Expanded Edition was released, now with 164 extra pages, addressing issues with the previous release and expanding it to include games never released in English. This Expanded Edition was then published by Bitmap Books in August 2023.

Features

  • The expanded edition contains 684 pages, covering over 400 games from 1975 to 2019.
  • Several articles on the history of the genre and some particular scenes, such as French, Korean and Chinese RPGs, MMORPGs, BBS games, browser games, RPG Maker games and fan-translations. 
  • Developer quotes, mod suggestions, trivia and tips on how to run games on modern hardware.
  • Over 2,000 game screenshots, plus a cover art gallery.
  • Written by 167 volunteers – fans, AAA developers, indies, journalists, modders and industry personalities such as Ian Frazier, Scorpia, Ferhegón, Richard Cobbett, Mandalore, Brian ‘Psychochild’ Green, Durante, George Weidman (SuperBunnyHop), Chris Avellone and Tim Cain, among others.
  • Entirely non-profit, with another volunteer group currently making a Chinese translation.

Selected media articles

Preview images

29 thoughts on “About the Project”

  1. “– Recruiting extraordinary gentlemen”
    Bad phrasing. Include women too.

    Btw, noticed the 200-page sample misspelled “John Romero” as “Jon Romero” at one point.

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  12. Even though I like the “Non-Profit” sentiment I’d love to have a hardback copy of this. I’ll probably going to print it through one of the online retailers who specialise on that.

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    • You should wait for the project to be finished, we’ll crowdfund a hardcover edition. 😉
      Also, the preview is in low resolution, printing it would be weird. :/

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      • I intended to wait for the final version before printing but I’ll gladly support a Kickstarter instead!

        CRPG’s are an important part of my life and I cherish the many, many memories your book evokes.

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  18. “Hello,

    Have you seen my email? Can you let me know if you’re interested?

    I recently came across your websitecrpgbook.wordpress.com and was hoping to collaborate with your blog/website. We are excited to work with you.

    I am particularly fascinated to make contributions to a guest posting on your web page. In case you are interested, kindly let me know how much you will charge to post a guest article with links leading to the sports betting site.

    If you are not tolerating connections to the betting sites, we may be still interested, please mention a rate for regular sites too.

    In case you have more websites to provide, please send a sites list along with prices.

    Allow me to know the way it sounds

    With Regards

    “

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    • also Knightmare for the AMIGA, there two games with that name, one of them is a hardcode dungeoncrawler with a 4 player party that can have goblins and ghouls in the party.

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  23. Primeiramente meus parabéns Pepe, descobri seu excelente trabalho e de toda equipe ao procurar sobre posts do RPG Draken Sang para minha campanha RPG e conheci o projeto, como mestre de rpg de mesa eu simplesmente surtei cara surreal, isso abre um leque enorme para inspiração e conhecer outros rpgs que até então não sabia da existência, gostaria de perguntar se futuramente teria uma tradução para o BR dele visto que a edição ta em Inglês ou se teria algo que pudesse ajudar sou Programador e trabalho com desenvolvimento de aplicações ficaria feliz em ajudar no que necessario para ajudar crescer ainda mais.

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