"'Ultima IV' is the game that all modern (role-playing games) flow from, but it's also kind of the impossible platonic ideal of a (computer role-playing game), " said retro-gamer Ben Lesnick, 31, of Washington.

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He established his first studio Adventures Unlimited Software, Inc. in 1983, where he acted as the lead designer and programmer of several fantasy role-playing computer games.

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With the advent of computer games, the way people look at role-playing games is different than it was in 1980.

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Lewis, a longtime player of videogames and Dungeons and Dragons, the forerunner paper-and-pen role-playing game, graduated with a degree in computer systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1993.

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It is a hand-held version of the more elaborate role-playing games that keep youngsters glued to TV and computer monitors.

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