If you thought your shelf was complete, you haven’t seen the absolute unit that is The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games. While most gaming books feel like a quick cash-in, this project—led by Felipe Pepe—is a massive, 700-page love letter to every stat-check and dungeon crawl ever conceived. It started as a grassroots, non-profit volunteer effort and somehow evolved into the most polished, high-production physical archive in the gaming world. Opening it up feels less like reading a book and more like discovering a legendary artifact in a hidden chest.
A Visual Feast for the Spreadsheet-Obsessed
The first thing that hits you about this book is the Bitmap Books signature style. We aren’t talking about blurry, stretched-out JPEGs here; we’re talking about over 2,000 high-resolution screenshots that make even the most ancient 1970s mainframe games look like art. Because it’s printed with lithographic ink on heavy paper, the colors pop in a way that’ll make you nostalgic for CRT monitors you never even owned. It’s organized chronologically, so you can literally flip through the decades and watch as simple ASCII characters slowly transform into the complex 3D worlds of today.
Lore Written by the NPCs Who Were There
What makes this more than just a gallery is the voice of the community. With over 150 contributors, the writing is a wild mix of perspectives. You get deep-dive reviews from fans who have spent thirty years mastering a single game, sitting right alongside essays from industry icons like Tim Cain and Chris Avellone. It covers more than 450 games, including weird fan translations and obscure titles from the East European and Asian scenes that most Western gamers didn’t even know existed. It’s like having a Strategy Guide for the entire history of the genre, complete with tips on how to actually run these ancient programs on a modern PC.
The Ultimate Character Build for Your Coffee Table
While it’s a bit of a workout to actually hold—it’s a heavy, thread-sewn beast—it is the ultimate conversation starter. One of the coolest parts is that the editor’s profits go straight to Vocação, a charity helping kids in Brazil, so buying it feels like a high-reputation quest with a moral reward. It doesn’t just focus on the masterpieces; it gives the broken, weird, and experimental games their fair shake too. If you call yourself a fan of isometric RPGs, first-person crawlers, or narrative-heavy sims, you basically owe it to your inner nerd to clear some space on your desk for this thing.
Finding this book can sometimes be as tricky as navigating a level-99 dungeon because it sells out constantly. Because it’s a high-end specialty item, you usually have to go straight to the source or hunt down a reputable reseller.
Here is where you can track down a copy of The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games (Expanded Edition):
Bitmap Books (Official): Buy from Bitmap Books
Forbidden Planet: Check Availability
- A great option for UK and international buyers. They often carry stock even when the main publisher is waiting on a reprint.
PixelCrib (Australia/Oceania): Check Availability
- The go-to spot if you’re in the southern hemisphere and want to avoid massive shipping fees from the UK.
AbeBooks: Search New & Used
- Good for finding copies from independent bookstores globally, especially if the main edition is out of print.
The CRPG Book Project (WordPress): Official Project Site
- Because the editor, Felipe Pepe, wanted this to be a resource for everyone, you can actually download the entire book for free as a PDF from his blog. It lacks the premium feel of the physical lithographic print, but it’s perfect if you want to “try before you buy.”
Make sure you are looking for the Expanded Edition. The original edition is much shorter and doesn’t include the extra 150+ pages of modern and obscure RPG history.
