Does anyone know if there exists anywhere a comprehensive list of all first person dungeon crawlers? I've been trying to find one but haven't had any success. I'm not really asking for anyone to make a list here, but I'm hoping maybe someone knows of one that already exists. I'm aware of the ones available on GoG, and some of the more well known ones like the Wizardry series and Eye of the Beholder and such. But, I've been on kind of a kick lately for those types of games and I'd like to find a lot more. Platform doesn't necessarily matter -- I can always use emulation if there are any console games in this genre that are worth checking out. Thanks in advance!

This search on Mobygames narrows it down, slightly.

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I had came across that before but it's far too broad. It's 942 games, many of which were never released in the English language, or are not what I'm looking for (example: Age of Conan is in that list for some reason). Since I don't know what games I'm looking for, I'd have to check every single one of those games to scan for the dungeon crawlers.

If that's what I end up having to do then so be it - better than nothing. But I'm hoping someone here can point me to a list that's a little more specific to dungeon crawlers.

Again, I appreciate the response, though!

Weren't there a bunch of FP Dungeon crawls released on early consols or am I crazy? I could have sworn NES and Genesis had a few.

They did NES had ports of Might and Magic, Wizardry as well as some orginal ones like Swords and serpents and Genesis/Mega drive had Shining in the Darkness

From another site of a person playing through a good many:

Legend of Grimrock
Might and Magic 1-9
Ultima Underworld
Ultima Series
All the old Dungeons and Dragon games - (Ravenloft, Menzoberranzon, Forgotten Realms series, beholder series, Undermountain, god...so many of them)
Lands of Lore SEries
Arx Fatalis
Ishar Series
The Death Gate Cycle - game based on the Margaret Weiss series, first person, more puzzle based
Realms of Arkania
Stonekeep
Anvil of Dawn
Wizardry Series
Hexx
Yendorian Tales 3: Tyrants of Thaine
Elder Scrolls Arena/Daggerfall have plenty of dungeons=)
Krondor Series
Dungeon Master Series
Phantasy Star Series
Shadowgate
Xanth Series
Dungeon Hack
Shadowcaster
Amulets and Armor
Black Crypt
Wizards and Warriors
Albion


That is a small list but the majority of the really good ones are already on GOG or need to be such as Wizardry but alas probably wont.

let me try listing some of the console/handheld ones I can think of (and have patches if they aren't in english), though no guarantee on quality since I haven't played all of these

SNES:
Shin Megami Tensei 1 and 2


PSX:
King's Field 1 and 2
Shadow Tower
Revelations: Persona

PS2:
Eternal Ring
Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land
King's Field The Ancient City
Baroque (ok third person, but I think there's a first person view mode too since it's a remake of a first person game. also is on the wii)

PS3:
Wizardry Labrynth of Lost Souls

PSP:
Class of Heroes 1 and 2
Unchained Blades
Elminage Original
SMT: Persona

ds:
Etrian Odyssey 1-3
The Dark Spire
Orcs and Elves
Fighting Fantasy warlock of firetop mountain
SMT: Strange Journey

3ds:
Etrian Odyssey 4
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Unchained Blades

also Shining in the Darkness, Phantasy Star 1, etc.


and yeah there's quite a bit of console ports of might and magic, wizardry, etc.

Not quite an answer, but look at the CPRG Addict's blog for a LOT of entries. He's not playing exclusively dungeon crawlers, but almost all of them are.

Qwerty: A suggestion.

List all the ones you know, and then us crazies can kibitz with additional ones?

Though I suppose it may be difficult to remember them all..

there was Black Onyx for the Nec PC-88 and MSX in japan, and there is a fan translated version of it(for those intrested) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364J35Sk3zM

Well I did a bit in my initial post. I'm aware of all the ones sold on GOG, as well as the Wizardry series and the Eye of the Beholder games. Aside from that though, I'm not aware of too many. I've been gaming for over 20 years but this is a genre I completely skipped over when many of these games were coming out. But I now have a strong interest in these games so I'd like to try out more of them. Also thanks for pointing me to that blog. Going to check that out a bit more when I get home from family stuff this evening.

And thanks to everyone who's posted some suggestions so far! As far as console only games go, I'm not going to be particularly interested in any of the newest console systems. I don't own any consoles at this point, and anything newer than PS2 isn't something I'm going to be interested in emulating. But the older stuff and handhelds I'll definitely look into.

Here are some that I've enjoyed.

Etrian Odyssey series if you have a DS/3DS. Not sure how emulating those would work with the touch-screen mapping.

Shining in the Darkness (Genesis)
Shining the Holy Ark (Saturn)

Well I actually do have a DS, PSP and GBA hiding somewhere from when I was in the military. They were nice to have for travel. I haven't touched them in years though so I don't know how well the batteries have held up. But in any case I can just search around for the used games since I actually have those systems.

Not too shocking as the heyday of the genre was over 20 years ago in the mid to late 80s.

Basically, Dungeons and Dragons was *a thing* that was very culturally relevant especially among gamers, and Wizardry was the first quality rendition of a similar experience to the computer (Apple 2). It was a fairly simple formula to implement as a program, and hugely popular, and so we got a tonne of similar clones, with slight incremental experimentation over time.

Personally I have a huge bucket of nostalgia for The Bard's Tale (Tales of the Unknown, Volume 1) because I cut my teeth on the Commodore 64 version (in many ways the best version of that game.) However, to really get the full experience you have to avoid hints, struggle to figure stuff out yourself, draw maps (using graph paper or Excel) and pour a lot more time and focus on the game than I think any of us do nowadays. And I can't really claim it's worth it, as it does provide a certain joy playing that way, but not anything spectacular as compared to many similar games.

Probably far more popular in the turn-based style than the first wave of Wizardry clones was SSI's Pool of Radiance and its inheritors. The headline feature was that it used real Dungeons & Dragons rules, but I'm not sure this was really such a good thing. What stood out in play was the sort of open-ended quest, the strong party progression, and most of all the much more involved tactical combat, where positioning and turns mattered greatly.

Much later, I can't say enough good things about Dungeon Master, which is a much more simulationist game. Think through stuff -- if something makes sense it could work, it probably will. This was really the start of a different sub-genre of real-time dungeoning. That later included things like the better known Eye of the Beholder, though I think the original is the best. Mapping is less important here, the dungeons are memorizable (with a struggle) and also smaller per level. I'd say using maps for levelsyou've already visited is more in the spirit of this one. Experimentation, tactics, are key here. But again with games from the 80s, it really demands some weeks of solid focus.


The console crawlers tended to be far less demanding of focus, time and thought, generally speaking. Their audience was different, and the storage for save files was limited. You can see how Phantasy Star 1's initial clone of the Wizardry style of first-person crawl quickly gave way to the top-down approach of Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior -- console players did not want to draw maps! (To be fair, most modern players don't either!)

For SNES, Arcana was a lightweight snack I enjoyed a couple of years ago.
Persona 1 for PSX is quite a bit more meaty in difficulty, dungeon scale, and time cost.