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The Gold Box games, I'm not crazy!
Hypatia
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Registered User regular
Tycho wrote:His late arrival does mean that he's missed out on the classic Gold Box interpretations of Dragonlance, which stirred the hearts of young men to valor.
And my boyfriend was of the opinion that I was mad and had made the whole thing up. Someone else played them! I'm not alone!
Did anyone else play these? Does anyone know of a way to play them on today's machines (me being technically inept) so I could load one up for old times sake?
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Edit: Main site appears to be down, but you can download a stable version from SourceForge.net.
But they are real games, played by real people. I think the most important part of this thread is assuring one another that, no, these games are not just a series of fanciful hallucinations!
After that, I had to have them. All of them. The SSI Gold Box games - they were mine. With all of their code wheel checking, journal entry reading goodness. Of course, that took me on to the Dragonlance books, and from there - let's just say I'm glad I never made it to Drizzt. The games though, were classic, and after hitting up that YouTube link with the Champions of Krynn video, I expect I will be compelled beyond the ability to resist to dig some of these up online this weekend and revel in the nostalgia. While my freshly obtained Storm of Zehir sits off to the side waiting to be opened and played. Sigh.
Since I played it later, Pool of Radiance was never really enjoyable for me. It may have been the first, but I think every other Gold Box game was better.
Such good games
If I remember correctly, the Pools of Darkness final fight kicked my ass more than any other Gold Box fight.
Yeah, the original Gold Box trilogy (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and the other one I can't remember) were released on the C=64 as was the olympic games-style D&D game whose name I couldn't remember off the top of my head but Wikipedia tells me it was Hillsfar.
And it's funny that somebody would be all "you're making it up!" because the Gold Box games are pretty much legendary among old-school CRPG fans. In those days, you had Bard's Tale, Wizardry, Might & Magic, and Gold Box and you were pretty much set for life. (Although I was a Wasteland kid myself. Desert Rangers 4eva!)
Edit: Also, there was a side-scrolling Dragonlance action game that was also released for the C=64 and all the other 80s platforms. Don't remember what it was called though.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Hell, I've never even played a Gold Box game but this forum has informed me of their legendariness (yes I made that word up).
I remember seeing those in my Commodore magazines but I never played them.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
The 'gold box' games were good.. but Eye of the Beholder was something special, second only to Dungeon Master.
Yeah, those ones were awesome. The way the skills you chose came into play during the game was pretty good for a game of it's time and the storylines were actually pretty good. I remember the first one actually came with a book based on the game - Coundown to Doomsday I think it was called. The ship to ship battles were also awesome.
Anyone else have Forgotten Realms : Unlimited Adventures? Motherfucking goldbox game creator! That thing was stupid awesome, and obscenely intuitive to use from what I remember.
Also there was a Spelljammer gold box game one of my friends had, with realtime pseudo 3d ship to ship combat. That was weird, although it was Spelljammer so that was to be expected.
I loved the gold box games... LOVED THEM.
I love the Dark Sun games as well. I still have my original copies of both of those. I also have another SSI collection with all of the other classics.
I got my first gold box game, Pool of Radiance, way before I ever played D&D, and it was my first D&D CRPG. I pretty much had no idea what I was doing, character-wise. I remember always min'ing my dex because it lowered my AC. Higher is always better, right?
I suspect you are thinking of Heroes of the Lance, the only game to also get a NES port.
The Gold Box games were made by the same company, SSI, but were entirely different (and much more popular)
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The Buck Rogers games were fantastic. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Eye of the Beholder trilogy but for pure, unfettered dungeon-crawling joy it doesn't get a lot better than Dungeon Hack.
You guys should all go play Dungeon Hack right now. You know you want to.
The Gold Box games were way ahead of their time. Before them, SSI mainly made war games. That experience was reflected in the combat, which was more like a modern day tactical SRPG than the menu-driven battles in The Bard's Tale, Wizardry, and Might and Magic games of the time. Movement and positioning mattered. Properly aiming a Fireball or bouncing a Lightning Bolt off a wall was so satisfying.
Edit: The Buck Rogers games were good too. I think those games were pretty unique in the way handled defense and armor. Certain armors were more effective against beam weapons and weak to projectiles, etc. There were also smoke grenades you could throw for cover that would give a bonus to defense rolls.
Anyone remember what happened when you fired a lightning bolt in the water tiles? :rotate:
Beholders were so scary in those games. Crossing your fingers when one attacked because each eyestalk got an attack roll. Watching your fighter make several saving throws then get charmed and kill your mage.
Watched him play Azure Bonds, and then I played Secret of the Silver Blades myself -- which was actually kind of my favorite. I really liked the power level, high enough to be hitting big stuff. I still remember the end fight of Silver Blades. That thing was brutal.
And in more than one D&D game, when I couldn't figure out what an NPC was supposed to say, I would just declare, "You record it in your journal as entry 27!"
Pfft. Pussy. Some of the Draconians turned into fireballs when you killed them in the Dragonlance games, which meant every fight with them was a giant fireworks display eventually, and god help you once you made it to Dark Queen and there was the breed that turned into METEOR SWARMS.
One did not come with the decoder wheel.
I played it a couple time by guessing.
At least the draconians were badasses. Dying to friendly fire because of a 3hp monster is the height of hubris. May a night of Silver Blades ended with me thinking "I'll just kill these all at once!" and reaping a whirlwind of destruction. Eventually I learned to stock up on darts and not tempt fate.
Pool of Radiance definitely had a decoder wheel rather than the journal look-ups. At least 1 or 2 others did as well.
Hunh. My bad!
After the tenth fight against 20 of them at once, the badassery factor is somewhat gone.
Well Pool of Radiance had journal entries too, but they weren't used for copy protection. A bartender would give you journal entries for rumors. Come to think of it, PoR might be one of the first games to let you fight in a bar brawl. I have such fond memories of that game.
There were some quest specific things recorded in your journal, too, so you really needed it to progress in the game.
I liked how each one died differently depending on which good dragon they were a corruption of. The weakest ones ticked me off the most though since they were always turning to stone when they died and you had a huge chance of losing your weapon and never getting it back.
The second Krynn game (Death Knights of Krynn) was my favorite one - it had the best story of the three I believe. Full of tons of different undead enemies and of course Lord Soth.
Yes, PoR absolutely did use a journal in much the same way the other Gold Box games did during the actual gameplay. But for the copy-protection, it was an old-school code wheel.
Either way, PoR, and the other Gold Box games, were absolute goodness. If I weren't on yet another return to X-Com kick, I would work on playing them this weekend. As it is, no way I'll make it out of January without at least some time spent getting PoR or CoK going on this machine. Heck, I'll probably go stop by my parents' place and find the old original boxes and journals and wheels before I do so, just because it would be a blast to go through that stuff again.