What Exile/Avernum you begin with ?

[jemadux]

just wondering ... for me was Avernum 2 (2001) version , i love that version ... but now I am playing with Avernum2 CS
 

yes was demo that time

Edited June 4, 2018 by jemadux

[Rhinestone Jedi]

My first was Exile 3: Ruined World, back in the 90s.  

[Randomizer]

Exile 3 because it was the only Demo that installed properly on my computer. I bought the other Exile games a few months later after playing the Demo several times.

[Edgwyn]

Exile 1 or 2 on a shareware CD, stepped away for a while, BoA, stepped away for a while, the re-makes

[Alorael at Large]

Exile 1, but the first game I registered and finished was Exile III. 

 

—Alorael, who still remembers the excitement over the first time he saw character sprites that could face in two different directions. And his pride in anticipating that Exile III would include some kind of weapon-swing animation.

[Asciiman]

Avernum: Escape From the Pit.

 

I am definitely a new player here compared to almost all others. I find it kind of amazing because I was hip deep in RPG's back when the first Exile came out, and yet somehow I entirely missed these. It wasn't until Escape From the Pit was on a STEAM sale in 2012 that I even found it. Friends that never played anything from Spiderweb Software, but still thought they knew something about it, told me that I needed to play at least one of these games to have any 'Indy RPG cred'. 

 

Either way, I loved it. Finished all three Avadon's and Crystal Souls too. I have a backlog to clear out but Ruined World is in there soon enough, and at this point, I'll play anything that Jeff Vogel makes. 

Edited June 4, 2018 by Asciiman
missed a word

[jemadux]

sometime when i have time i will try exile ...

[GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman]

I never had much access to a computer as a kid, I would only get to use my grandma's computer every other weekend. I had a shareware disc that had all of the exiles and Jazz Jack rabbit 2 (as well as many less memorable titles). I played a crapload of Blades of Exile's vale of dying things campaign, I would often get lost and restart my play-through if I was away from the game for more than two weeks, so vale of dying things was the only one had a chance to complete. I did dabble in the others after beating the vale but I never got far. Around 2005 I got my own computer and went to Jeff's site and was a bit annoyed that all of his games were still full price. I could buy the full version of Avernum 3, or I could buy warcraft 3 for the same price... I bought warcraft 3. At some point I gave Avernum 1 a shot and didn't like how isometric it was, I did however show it to a friend who ended up buying Geneforge 3.

It wasn't until Avernum: Escape from the Pit came out on steam that I delved back into Spiderweb games. I just kinda bought them all on a steam sale and have been doing like one or two of his games each year. after finishing A:EftP I went back and finished Blades of Exile for old times sake. Now I'm in a place where I can't decide which generation of Jeff's games I like most, they all have ups and downs, (I mean they definitely have improved, but I have more nitpicks with newer titles).

[Bender89]

Exile 2 with the early graphic's.

[Lowly Exile]

Exile III: Ruined World dominated my middle school non-social life. I played the heck out of the demo before I begged my parents to buy the games. I even spent a summer art class drawing the entire demo map area with all the towns and dungeons from memory.

[Thaluikhain]

E3, got the demo from a CD that came with a gaming magazine, was popular at my high school.

 

Never actually played any Avernum games all the way through.

[Arch-Mage Solberg]

The first game from Spiderweb Software I played was the demo to Exile 2: Crystal Souls I found on a Galaxy of Games CD in the summer of 1997. Three days later, I found Exile 1: Escape from the Pit on another disk. 4 months later I was able to come up with the money to register both games.

Post #725

[Bender89]

I had that same galaxy of games cd! It had the critical mass demo and elvis in space too. Good times.

[Rhinestone Jedi]

The CD I had was a 2-CD package called "Over 1000 Games - Complete Encyclopedia of Games by Microforum," - the cover was black with a couple gold colored spaceships.  Besides Exile 3, I used to play WinWar2, Age of Sail, DX Ball, Crime Fighter, Bad Toys 3D, Cheese in Space, Hugo House of Horrors, Modor 2, Pandemonium, Warheads...

 

Good times.  

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I like Cheese In Space, and the Hugo trilogy was great too. At the time I wasn't smart enough to beat the first game though, and I don't think I remember the second one.

 

"How much is that doggy in the window?!?!!!!!"

[Chessrook44]

Now what I would find interesting would be to see how this compares to people's favorite trilogy of them all.  Do they prefer Exile?  Avernum?  The second trilogy?  The remakes?  Which one did they start with?

 

I personally think it would probably end up with people's favorites being the first one they tried, but still.

[Rhinestone Jedi]

Nostalgia is a powerful thing.  Even though sentimentally I prefer the Exile trilogy,  the recent Avernum EFTP, Avernum 2 CS, and Avernum 3 RW, are much better to play.  My opinion only, of course.

[Chopkinsca]

Avernum here. I only just bought the series from gog near the start of the year (a damn good deal). At that time, I didn't even know that the original Avernum games were remakes. A shame the Exile games take a little bit of effort to get running on modern machines. I like to play older games so I can understand the legacy they represent. I can at least try Blades of Exile at some point.

[Lowly Exile]

Nostalgia is the biggest factor for me. The original Exile trilogy wins for me, but I do enjoy the original Avernum version a great deal. (Plus, it does run easier.) I really, REALLY wanted to like the Avernum remakes, but something about the Geneforge-esque designs bother the heck out of me and I don't know what it is. Exile III was my first game played, so it's the favorite of the trilogy and I about cried when I found myself not enjoying the Avernum III: Ruined World demo. Also, the demo cutting out before I could see the surface sealed it's fate into my Recycle Bin.

[Khoth]

I started off with the demo of Exile I.  I didn't actually like it all that much and preferred Realmz. But somehow I came back to Exile, and played the demos of I-III.

 

Blades of Exile was the first one I actually bought, and it was very much worth the money.

[Slawbug]

2 hours ago, Khoth said:

I started off with the demo of Exile I.  I didn't actually like it all that much and preferred Realmz.

 

That was my experience too, originally.  Not a hard experience to have I think (especially if you were only playing Exile because it was included, unadvertised, in the Realmz download).  I did come around by E2 and bought both games at that point.

[Caligula]

Exile 1 Demo back in 1995. Had to wait for a long time until poor student without credit card - me got money and credit card to buy it. Not sure exactly how it happened, it's so old now - either I sent $$ in cash by mail to Jeff at some point, or that was my very first credit card online-purchase. Took me so long that I probably bought the whole trilogy at once - in which case I got the codes by e-mail. Later, bought BOE and still have the CD.

[Alorael at Large]

When I first tried to register the check was returned. I spent years thinking Jeff must have moved or changed P.O. boxes early on, but actually, on reflection, I probably just addressed the envelope wrong.

 

—Alorael, who could go back to a copy of original E1 to find out. He kind of likes keeping the mystery around. It’s ego-sparing.

[Longtooth]

Avernum Escape from the Pit. I got the Geneforge series as part of some bundle, and thought it was great but I needed something more ...traditional. No nostalgia for me! I purchased Avernum EftP and Avadon The Black Fortress around the same time. For whatever reason I played Avernum first, and it really stuck with me. I wanted something more however,  and recently I put in 38 hours into Avadon and decided to buy the rest of the series. After beating the Black Fortress I took a long break. I played all kinds of other RPGs, Dragon Age, Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter, ToMe, Wasteland 2, Fallout, etc. etc. etc.

 

....for whatever reason, Spiderweb makes the perfect games for me. Fights are fun, epic, and don't rely on a gimmicky system that rewards cheesing said system to beat encounters. I feel like my adventurers are beating epic bosses with their own skill. Not a wand of summoning that messes with the enemy AI. (Looking at you BG1. :\ ) Also, they are so dang relaxing! I never played Exile. Bg1,  Daggerfall, and Pools of Radiance where my first RPGs. Avernum especially takes me back to those days. Mass Effect and Dragon Age have cool worlds, and Fallout has epic characters and ideas, but only Avernum appeals to me now that I'm getting to the ripe old age of 30. I love how open it is, I love the writing, and I love the combat.

 

...woops! Started rambling. Gotta get some sleep. Anyway Avernum Escape from the Pit was my first Avernum game and I LOVE it. I played Geneforge so I imagine after I beat the 3 remakes I'll just buy 4-6.

[TriRodent]

E2 way back in the dark ages of the previous century.  No idea what computer I had at the time but that copy & all subsequent SW games have been copied onto the next computer ever since (including of course the backwards purchased E1...).

 

I was even cleaning out some boxes in the basement a few months ago & ran across all the original xerox copied hint books from all the assorted games from way back when.

[Cairo Jim]

I'm pretty sure it was E1, then not long later found E2, both on MacFormats back in the day.

[Muscleguy]

Exile1 on Mac almost certainly from an FTP site for shareware back in the day. I only had net access at work in those days and I would have brought it home on a 1.4Mb 'floppy'. I was hooked pretty quickly, a large fully playable demo and it was only when you tried going south of Formello that the Shareware Demon would bar your way. I still have the hint booklet for it squirrelled away and if I had a machine working to run it I would still play it occasionally. 

 

I'm currently redoing A:EFTP for the nth time and still enjoying it. Found the exit and about to go kill Grah Hoth, just doing everything else and level 3ing all the available spells/prayers. 

[ArctheLad500]

Exile 1, 2, and 3 were on one of those big 100 game demos on a CD they used to sell at bargain shops. I picked 3 first though because the menu for the demo list wouldn't show a screenshot of 1 and 2 so I thought they didn't work but I played them later, they had the old graphics BTW.

[Firecage]

Ah boo, no Blades option?

But anyway, Blades of Avernum holds a special place in my heart. Both me and my friend got it on one of those shareware CDs back in grade 4 or 5, and that is how we discovered it(we could never buy it though. Parents didn't trust online transactions from small sites back then), so we were limited to that Vale scenario.

 

Anyway, every school night we would play it, discovering more and more. During lunch breaks at school we would discuss any secrets or hidden items/weapons we discovered. It was pretty damn fun when once of us discovered a false wall leading to a crypt or spell tome. Man those were fun times...The only thing I miss from the overly complex original Avernum and Blades of Avernum....were the false walls which didn't have buttons, but which you had to repeatedly slam into walls and cast that spell to reveal parts of the map.

Edited March 3, 2019 by lordofdc

[ladyonthemoon]

It was Avernum around 2004 for me. The first real video game I played and made me love video games. I even still like the graphics; I'm currently playing Geneforge and I'm happy to see the familiar objects and icons in it!

 

I love Skyrim for its gorgeous scenery (among other things) but I don't think that the graphics in Avernum suck either.

[Aran]

On 6/3/2018 at 1:46 AM, Rhinestone Jedi said:

My first was Exile 3: Ruined World, back in the 90s.  

 

Same here, though it must have been around 1999-2001 in my case. I must have already known English, but I still remember struggling with some of the words.

[BainIhrno]

Discovered Exile I in 2000, although Exile III was the first one I registered. I don't remember the server I downloaded it from, it was something that came with the old Macs.