Chris Nitz, Associate Writer

One of the Great Developers of Yesteryear: Black Isle

There are so many awesome developers that come to mind when taking a stroll down the gaming memory lane. One of the developers that sticks out the most is Black Isle Studios. You remember these folks? They were a division of Interplay. Black Isle contributed a lot to the collections of RPG gamers back in the late 90's and early 2000's. Don't confuse them with BioWare though as they were separate development houses.

Black Isle Studios was established in 1998. The fame was short lived as Black Isle would close after five short years. Five years would yield Fallout 1 and 2, Icewind Dale 1 and 2, Planescape Torment and the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance series. Yes, this reads like the PC RPG gamers bible for that period of time. They made great games.

Black Isle Studios took the AD&D formula and turned it into something that was easy to grasp and easy to pick up. Most games hide the AD&D backbone. Sure, there was a bit of number crunching in character creation. After the character was created, the dice rolling and chance would be hidden in fast scrolling combat text. Stats on equipment even got an easy-to-comprehend interface. Some people might not have even realized they were playing by the 2.5 ruleset.

Some of the most memorable stories came from the games that Black Isle worked on. How many gamers remember sitting around playing through Planescape Torment? Most still regard this as one of the best RPG's to grace the computer.

Black Isle Studios is now long gone, but it's legacy runs deep today. Have you played Fallout 3? You owe some thanks to Black Isle for making the first two in the series. The Baldur's Gate franchise also saw some help from Black Isle. Even Dragon Age: Origins owes a bit of thanks to the talented folks from Black Isle. They might have been small, but their contributions to gaming are still being enjoyed today. Black Isle, we miss you.