I still remember how much fun I had playing those games with my brother when we were kids. He is Mr. Strategy, and is very good at all things video game combat, whereas I always enjoyed exploring, and solving puzzles. Since the old RPGs contained elements of both, we would team up to play those games. While I happily made huge, intricate, taped together graph paper maps, keeping track of quest objectives, items and "clues" and advised him where to navigate, he happily slashed and hacked everything that was in the way and figured out all the boss fights. We took turns in just general running around and monster bashing. Then they came out with strategy guides and professionally created game map printouts. I have used them when I played video games solo as an adult, and it is fun, but it will never have quite the same quality as lying in the floor on a throw pillow swiped from the couch, pencil in hand, marking down the game world a graph paper square at a time (dreading that a power flicker would wipe out our progress before the next save opportunity), with my brother clicking away with the game controller next to me, and now and then insisting that the computer cheats.
-Skylark
