Interesting! I was a very active PC gamer and fantasy CRPG addict at this time. I was picking up everything from story-driven epics like Planescape: Torment, to cheesy hack-and-slash classics like Might and Magic VI to half-baked hybrids like Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance. And I definitely played the Descent shareware. But I have no recollection of ever seeing or hearing about Descent to Undermountain. Must have been quite the turkey.
Wow, it's wild to see this mentioned; I don't think I've ever known anyone else who played it. I sank way more time into that game than it deserved, blasting armies with the bugged Turn Undead spell that would incinerate everyone. Its campy voice acting has wormed its way into my brain so much that I still randomly say things like "tremble ... before the presence of TAO-QUAZAR!" I never figured out what law holdings do, though.
I pretty much had to get it because I owned the Birthright Campaign Setting box set and loved the setting concepts and art style. Of course Birthright was one of those "never should have been published" product line flops that helped generate TSR's downfall per the previous entry in this series! It all connects. :-)
Gorgon's Alliance was also the game that made it sink in for me that the 'real' Sierra / Sierra On-Line of my childhood was dead.
The last decade of TSR produced an incredible flowering of creativity: Birthright, Time of the Dragon (Taladas), Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Al-Qadim, Hollow Word, Planescape, Spelljammer. Too bad they were losing money hand over fist while doing it.
Yeah. I'm still impressed they managed to push out so many lines.
Out of all these, Ravenloft and Planescape are two of my favorites. I haven't explored Dark Sun yet but I like the idea of a post apocalyptic low magic world.
