Go on, try to tell me this doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies.
I saw this pic on an article at Joystiq mentioning NATAS (which I guess is not just Satan backwards?) giving an award to the original Neverwinter Nights CRPG, an MMO that ran on AOL from 1991 to 1997– making it the first graphical MMO.
While I didn’t play this NWN, the screenshot instantly triggered memories of the feel of the Gold Box games. More than the characters, gear, spells, or equipment, I could still sense what it was like to move a character through the square spaces, to line up a 2×2 stinking cloud or 3×3 fireball, to aim a lightning bolt, or even just to move to an adjacent tile and attack. The graphics, as primitive as they were, still did an excellent job of instantly communicating all the important gameplay data, and delivering clear feedback.
I have no illusions about going back and playing Pool of Radiance, which even for the time had some horrendous flaws. This screenshot is a reminder, though, that as we add more detail and fidelity to our simulations and graphics, it becomes that much harder to communicate that core gameplay signal through all the noise.