When I was a teenager, around 14, i was shopping at the store with my grandparents. They told me that I could have any game that I wanted from the store, and seeing as my N64 was broken, that meant a computer game. I'm shopping around and notice two games, Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. I bought Icewind Dale that day (although I went back the next month and got Baldur's Gate), and tore into the box the second I got in the car. I must have read the manual cover to cover twice on the ride home.

Upon starting the game I was a little overwhelmed, but thanks to the handy game manual I was able to put together a cast of characters that I still remember today (this one 12 years ago). Christophe the fighter, Marik the Paladin, Raix the elven thief, Sarah the talented cleric, and Orilan the mage. Unfortunately Orilan died early in my journey, and due to my inexperience with the game, and apparently a lack of information retention while reading the manual, I didn't realize he could be resurrected at the temple. So now my party was four. Somehow I managed to cautiously make my way through the game with those four, losing Marik along the way as well. So somehow the 14 year old kid managed to beat the game with no experience and a complete lack of understanding regarding the use of magic.

I tried to do the same thing last month, take a party and never use temple resurrection in the early game. Needless to say, it was a bit of a failure and more of a grind than I remember as a kid.

All that being said, I definitely owe my grandma a huge hug for buying me a game that day, and for my brother for breaking our N64, or I may never have discovered the wonder of the Infinity Engine games.

Also, it should be mentioned that I had never heard of the AD&D games before that day, and just managed to stumble onto a couple of the most respected titles in CRPG history. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Great story!

I had a similar story with BG. I grew up in the 80's and the Ultima series is what really got me into computer games. In '98, I was just starting grad school, and working full time, and I really needed an outlet to loose myself in and forget all that stress. It had been several years since Ultima VIII , though it had never grabbed me, and I was eagerly anticipating Ultima IX.

Alas, Ultima IX was still not going to be released for another year. I'd tried Ultima Online, but couldn't compete after the first month it launched. What to do? I remember after work going over to CompUSA and just browsing the game isle. At first, I couldn't find anything that piqued my interest, but then I saw Baldur's Gate. Picking it up, and looking at the screenshots, I thought 'This kind of looks like Ultima VII' (Which was my favorite game up to that point).

I'd never played D&D before. None of my friends growing up played the table top games and I didn't have enough money to buy both the Ultima series games and the Goldbox games. I figured 'What the heck, I'll buy it and maybe it will tie me over until Ultima IX finally gets here.' Little did I realize that I would fall absolutely in love with the game, while Ultima IX was beyond a disappointment. I bought IWD and BG2 as soon as they came out as well (though due to school I had to wait a bit to play them).

Ultima will always hold a place in my heart for the great childhood memories, but BG and BG2 have easily become my two favorite games. Just got lucky that I needed something to 'tide me over'

My entire history of Icewind Dale and other similar titles can basically be summed up thusly;
"Oh cool, GoG has a sale on with D&D titles. Better buy a lot of them!"