Not old enough to have played those at release but if it serves I purpose I would do it if I play them now. It makes sense rather than trying to keep everything in your head or alt-tab to periodically check guides or walkthroughs.

A luxury notebook would be to have a tablet and draw maps and scrible down everything there, very convenient. :)

I scribble down all of my various computer gaming notes on regular computer paper and then stick it underneath my keyboard. (I occasionally use index cards for more important stuff that I actually want to remember forever, like hex offsets and the like.) I've never really felt the need to do that with most RPGs, though. The only things I really write down are the Modron Maze layouts in PS:T. It's much more often puzzle solutions or things like charts of which moves work against which enemies in the PoP games.

I wonder if anyone ever made a "note-taking app for games"? I suppose it wouldn't have to be for games necessarily... but I'm thinking of a standalone program that would organize your notes like the Journals in today's games. So maybe each note would be a collapsible item where you could only see the subject, like "talked to Foozle" and you could expand it to see what you talked about, or hide it.

I've toyed with the idea of using a generic database program with a simple template, but perhaps too much trouble. That's what I loved about Tornado Notes... you hit "n" for a new note, and then just typed in a little window looking like a post-it note.

I know that Tornado Notes was originally a DOS program, but it turned into "Info Select" a few years later and they had a Windows version. But it just wasn't the same. It looked clunky and didn't have the super-efficient feel of TN. I guess I'm still looking for something as "ninja" as TN was back in the day...

I never really took notes back in the day - I just cried when I was lost!

Well i remember making extensive and complicated notes to 100% complete the original Witcher game. I would handwrite different lists for Main Quests, Side quests, romance options etc. to make sure im 100% done with each chapter before moving on to the next.

Right now I don't make any notes or use any programs but this post made me want to try again, maybe I give evernote a shot.

The only time I'm taking notes now is if I'm getting buzzed and I want to make sure I don't get distracted. And then I just write something down on a piece of paper. Actually, that's what I did in the old days, too.

I took RPG notes? On a serious note, I never did because I always felt games should provide the means to do it and if they didn't then it was a failure on the games part.

I had notebook, but the notes I made were pretty random and specific, I never tried to map Ultima worlds or some such. Simply notes, when I had run into some problem I couldnt solve at once.

Despite the fact that it's one of the best game ever made...

Morrowind had a terrible journal/quest log system, I remember during my first playthroughs I had a real journal where I had to write down everything due to the fact that the journal was so bad

Thank god mods fixed that...