Game-Series that revolutionized RPGs?

[Breetai]

I would say that Phantasy Star had a bunch of elements that no other game had done before upon release, but I am hesitant to say that it "revolutionized" RPGs, because very few people actually owned the Master System necessary to play it.

The Master System was very popular outside of the US. If Wikipedia is accurate, then it sold 13 million units worldwide.

It sold like crap in the US and Japan, but seemed to sell where most everywhere else.

It seems to be a little known fact in American, but the Master System actually did pretty well in Canada. A bit strange, when Canadian trends seem to mirror American trends very closely. In most retro game shops I've been in in Canada, there are a decent number of SMS games. Maybe about 1/3rd or 1/4 that of NES carts, but still a decent amount. Back in the day, most rental shops had both NES and SMS games. NES, SMS, Genesis, SNES, Sega CD and 3DO were all represented in the rental shop in my neighbourhood as late as 1993. They even rented Japanese imports! This is a small Canadian town in the middle of nowhere.

For the recent poster who said Fallout... I don't know if it really revolutionized anything, BUT it is definitely one of my favourite all-time RPGs. More specifically, Fallout 2. It's practically the same game anyway.

[nightrnr]

Thanks everyone for your recommendations... tried the Apple II version of Ultima for a bit, went through a town and a dungeon, and it unfortunately seems like I'm already too spoiled to really enjoy the game. It was mostly the sense of not easily knowing what options you have as well as the keyboard commands... I do appreciate the game mechanics and the ideas that it introduces though; it was very helpful to my understanding of RPGs overall to play it.

The next thing I'll try is Dragon Warrior; hopefully for the whole thing this time. Would you all say the grinding in this is really as grating as it's often to led to believe? If so I might just go with the Super Famicom remake and not worry about being "historically authentic".

Sorry if I'm necro-bumping.
I've been really interested in the Ultima series as of late (due largely to the recently completed Hardcoregaming101 article).
I've decided that now is actually an awesome time to get into the earlier games, as a lot of them have been given updates to make them more enjoyable (adding music and/or slight graphic enhancements). Screw the "original experience", I like using more recent comforts (although, I do understand the value and interests of historical accuracy).

As far as memorizing keyboard commands and other info goes, I think running the game windowed with a text/pdf/etc. open in another window. That way you have all your info out and ready to switch to at any moment.
At least until you get used to everything.
But most (or at least I) would not recommend the early Ultima games to just anyone. It's pretty hardcore. I'd actually pass up the 1st 2 games here (although, starting a game and playing just a few hours can be fun anyways).
But what do I know? It's not like I've played through them yet, I just like learning ABOUT them.

Finally,
dogman91 (if you still remember or ever check this topic)
Did you ever get through Dragon Warrior... or any of it's sequels?
The 1st game is quite repetitive. But I've always like the monster designs, so grinding was enjoyable for me (especially searching for Goldmen).
And I've got to say this: we had it much better than Japan did regarding game saves (I can't imagine having to put up with those long passwords for the 1st 2 games).

[Hatta]

Ultima 1 holds up pretty well actually. It's a well done little game, simplistic of course, but that goes with the territory. There's a world to explore, monsters to fight, and a little bit of thinking involved. Not much, but it's well balanced. It's not a long game either so it's worth checking out.