Pool of Radiance

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Saxon1974
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Pool of Radiance

Post by Saxon1974 »

I am so bored with the lack of true RPG out there that I went back and started playing the original Pool or Radiance by SSI. I havent played it since It came out, I think I was 14. I remember staying up days straight to play it. I thought maybe it was because I was a kid.

But you know what? If you can deal with the old graphics is still loads of fun, Im having alot of fun with it! I was very disapointed with with Oblivion as an RPG so I decided to play some old school RPG's for a while. I am planning to play the entire gold box series (If i can find enough time).
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Post by Svend Karlson »

My first ever cRPG. I still have a vivid memory of the music.

This game was pretty unforgiving. I remember that some of the first quests involved clearing out the slums & another area infested with undead. My level 2&3 characters were coming up against trolls & vampires which were a match for my entire party. When you did come up against kobalds & goblins, there tended to be a small army of them to fight. Good job I hired a hero from the local training hall, shame that he took so much of the loot.

I've tried playing these games again recently, but I find that it's not just the grapics that are dated.
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

I have to admit, this is one classic RPG that I have very little experience with. I have played it a bit (on a friend's PC a long time ago) but I barely remember it.

Is this considered abandonware? I'd love to grab a copy and play it on DOSBox.
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Post by Svend Karlson »

It's definately available via abandonware sites, but not the biggest & most popular, which indicates that it is shovelware.

If you have not played Pools of Darkness either, then I recommend that to you instead (it's the sequal to Pool of Radiance)
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Post by Rollor »

Pools of Darkness isn't abandonware as far as i know..
Radiance is though and can be found on bhlegend just too name one...


http://www.bhlegend.com/index.php?game=992
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Gallifrey
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Post by Gallifrey »

I'm pretty sure Pool Of Radiance and the other "Gold Box" games are not abandonware. There is a "Forgotten Realms Archives" box set for sale which gather together all those games, published by Interplay.

It includes Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Treasures of the Savage Frontier, Hillsfar, Eye of the Beholder, Eye of the Beholder II, Eye of the Beholder III, Dungeon Hack, Menzoberranzan and Blood and Magic.

Now, that's North America, I don't know what the status is for Europe, but it's available on Amazon UK under the title "Game Fest: 14 Forgotten Realms Classics".
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Post by Rollor »

You probably right. I don't really know anything about that:/..
The link I made is to the c64.. I don't know if it has been released on pc to..
But I think the one at bhlegend is free, they usually don't list copyright'ed material..
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Post by Gallifrey »

The rights for the PC may differ from the rights for the C64. Chances are, if there is a different rights holder, the C64 version would be abandonware.
I was speaking of the version for PC.

I miss my C64 :(
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Post by Saxon1974 »

Yea I bought the Gamefest Forgotten Realms classic set that included all of the forgotten realms gold box games for the PC. However, only drawback is I couldnt get the sound to work at all with those installs. I found a version on a freeware site that the music did work, so I am playing that currently (or at least sound works, not sure if there is supposed to be music is there). These games are a tad tricky to get to work, I had an error or 2 but once I figure them out there are mostly the same.

I actually found it on a french abandonware site listed here. If you can figure out which buttons are the search and download buttons its not too hard to use. There are probably other places to find it as well.

http://www.abandonware-france.org/ltf-jeu.php3?id=57


If you get it and get any errors, let me know and I might be able to help. Note: Dont save your game prior to venturing into the world, or it will screw up your characters.

Im a big fan of having a hard copy of the manuals, these games contains journal entries, that they would refer you to read. Some people didnt like that, but I loved it. It even includes cool little map drawings in the journal entries.

I would also recommend this book, it has all manuals in paper back, you can get it on amazon for around 5$.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BC ... F8&s=books
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Saxon1974
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Post by Saxon1974 »

Only negatives to this game are the battles are quite large and do take quite a bit of time. However, I do find the turn based battles quite fun....

Another gripe is the gold management, its heavy and you cant find enough stuff to buy so your always carry alot of gold.....
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Post by Gallifrey »

I had forgotten about the journal references, yes, those were great! That reminds me of the old copy protections these games had, you were either to look something up in the manual/journal, or use a decoder wheel, or some neat tied-to-the-game thing like that.
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Saxon1974
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Post by Saxon1974 »

Yes, the journal entries were usually tied into the game making it appear as though they are actual documents you find in the game. I enjoy just reading through the manuals........
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Post by Mr. Fed »

The original Pool of Radience was great. That was the first game I played on an IBM, freshman year of college.
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Post by Larec »

Every once in a while, I go back to the goldbox games. Ohhhh, other people laugh at me for it, and some of my friends think I'm certifiably nuts for keeping them on my PC(s), but I know better.

I boguht the interplay archives back in 1997 when it first came out. It had Menzobarranzan, all 3 Beholder games, dungeon hack, hillsfar, PoR, CotAB, SotSB, and PoD...and a few more I forgot.

Though, to be honest, I have every single D&D CRPG ever made installed on this pc. Some from abandonware sites (Like the 3 Dragonlance games) and some from other archive collections I grabbed through the years.

It's funny....Whenever I play online games, and I start talking about "offline" games with whomever I befriend, eventually the subject of "the goldbox games" pops up. I've turned several people on to them. Even (SSI forgive me) sent the games to them over ICQ.
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Larec: You mention the Beholder games. I absolutely love those Eye of the Beholder/Dungeon Master/Bloodwych type games with the "click-step" pseudo-3D first person engine. In fact, deep in the Basilisk Lair we have a pretty cool-looking prototype Eye of the Beholder style engine that we are playing around with for some possible future project.... :wink:
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