Plus, AD&D had all the other games beat in terms of bragging rights.
Who else but an AD&D player could boast, "I got a +6 holy vorpal defender frost-brand flame-tongue sunblade luck blade longsword of wounding, sharpness, dancing, disruption, final word, slaying everything, thunderbolts, throwing, speed, quickness, all dragon slayer, life stealing, and nine lives stealing, with intelligence 17, speech and telepathy, ten non-alignment languages, eight extraordinary powers, eight special purposes, and all the artifact abilities in the Book of Artifacts supplement!"