Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Cartridge

The first official D&D-licensed game to appear on a console and the third made by Mattel overall, with the first two being an electronic board game and a handheld LCD game.  Some sources I've seen (including Wikipedia) also give it the subtitle "Cloudy Mountain", though as far as I can tell this was never included on any actual printings of the game.  As one would expect of an early '80s game console it's not too much to look at and the core gameplay is rather basic arcadey fare.  AD&DC has a fair degree of depth and complexity for its time, however - there are algorithms in play to randomly generate dungeons and the world map, so the experience is a bit different each time you play it.  Several monsters hinder you in the dungeons, each with a distinct audio cue and taking varying numbers of arrows to kill - a lowly rat, bat or spider takes only a single arrow, while tougher monsters like demons and dragons can take two or three (and one, the slime blob, cannot be killed at all).  Your arrows can also ricochet off walls to damage enemies around corners, which comes in handy for dealing with the faster, deadlier critters that can quickly overtake you, though they can also harm you if you don't aim carefully.  In fact, it's often a good idea to take blind shots into rooms or around corners if you hear a dangerous enemy's audio cue, so this can be considered a crude stealth mechanic.  Other twists include having to find keys to open gates, axes to chop down trees, boats to cross rivers, and your ultimate goal once you reach Cloudy Mountain is to find two halves of a crown, each guarded by a winged dragon, which wins the game.  There are also four difficulty settings, though the only major difference between them is that you find fewer arrows in quivers and monsters move slightly faster with each step up.  A simple, but nevertheless fun game that should provide a few minutes of entertainment to die-hard D&D fans and/or retro game enthusiasts.

Developer: Mattel Electronics
Publisher: Mattel Electronics
Released: 1982
Platforms: Intellivision

Telengard

One of the very first professionally-published RPGs, though it's not really spoken of much these days. Like many very early computer RPGs Telengard is a game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, even to the point of having many suspiciously similar monsters, terms and the same six core statistics for your character.  It's also among the earliest to use comparatively large and detailed character "sprites" constructed of ASCII characters.  The gameplay is quite primitive, that said - while there is a large and vast dungeon, there is no win condition and no set goal outside of powering up your character.  Every step you take (or indeed, don't take - if you pass a turn the same rolls happen) also has a chance to generate treasure or pit you against a monster; sometimes several levels above yourself.  It's actually very common to start the game, get into a fight with a level 3-4 monster on your first step into the dungeon and immediately die.  Death is also permanent (there is a quicksave, but it deletes as soon as you reload it) and while there is gold and treasure to find, there are no shops; however, escaping the dungeon and returning to the inn converts them to experience points.  If you're a genre history buff this one's worth a quick look, but those looking for something with more solid goal-driven design or a captivating story to follow should probably skip aheadto Ultima IV, or even go back to 1980 and play some Rogue.

Developer: Daniel Lawrence
Publisher: Avalon Hill
Released: 1982
Platforms: Apple II, TRS-80, Atari 8-Bit, PET, Commodore 64, CP/M, MS-DOS

Wizardry I, II, III

The Wizardry franchise is one that needs no introduction to any serious RPG fan; one of the first major D&D-inspired franchises on home computer platforms, it was among the earliest to have a party-based format and color graphics and even implemented some relatively unique features like Prestige classes (only accessible once certain stat thresholds are reached).   In fact, it was so influential that it inspired the likes of other legendary titles like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, and even continues to get spinoff titles to this day in Japan, very few of which have been localized.  However, the first three games do suffer from a bit of poor planning- the original releases of 2 and 3 can only be played with a party created and imported from the previous game, resulting in each game selling less copies than the previous.  It's also just a punishing game in general - there is a lot of grinding required to make headway through the dungeon, and suffering a party wipe at any time means you have to make a whole new party of adventurers and go down there to retrieve them, resulting in even more grinding.  And if you accidentally teleport into a wall or out of a map boundary, welp, that party's gone for good.  It may be rather primitive by modern standards, unreasonably difficult in many ways and have an unwieldy interface even on its newer ports (for the NES and numerous other platforms), but the original Wizardry trilogy is a piece of history that's at least worth a look for anyone developing interest in the genre.

Developer: Sir-Tech
Publisher: Sir-Tech
Released: 1981, 1982, 1983
Platforms: Apple II, PC Booter, MS-DOS Mac, FM-7, PC-98, PC-88, Sharp X1, Commodore 64, MSX2, NES, Turbografx-CD, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, Wonderswan Color

Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress

 Ultima's second entry takes the weirdness of the first even further, largely taking place on an Earth overrun by evil monsters and letting the player travel between several time periods, each with their own world map layout and secrets to find.  Once one finds a spaceship, they can even explore nine other planets within the solar system (the tenth being "Planet X"), each of which has some unique and strange sights of their own.  However, nearly all of this side content - and indeed, every dungeon in the game - is completely optional, with only a small handful of areas actually being required to visit for game completion.  Much of the game's focus is on bare grinding - defeating particular types of enemies to earn experience, which in turn causes stronger enemies to spawn.  Defeating certain types will drop items, allowing the player to breach new boundaries (for example, one requires a Blue Tassel to sail a pirate ship, which requires defeating pirates in battle.  Pirates and ships only begin to spawn at level 5 or higher).  One must also grind a lot of cash to purchase equipment, items and food, as well as visit the Hotel California and pay money to raise their stats - randomly, I should note.  This, paired with the minimal plot, makes this feel much closer to a utilitarian monster bash-fest than any other Ultima game in the series.  It's still worth a look for the creativity of its setting and design, but owing to its primitive gameplay it's not an Ultima game I revisit very often.

Developer: Richard Garriott
Publisher: Sierra On-Line, Origin Systems
Released: 1982
Platforms: Apple II, Atari 800, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, FM Towns, Macintosh, MSX2, NEC PC-9801, FM-7