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Let's Play: Pool of Radiance - the good one (NSF Scrollwheels)
RiemannLives
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Long ago, Strategic Simulations Inc - a well established game developer with a history of excellent wargames - won a fierce battle for the Dungeons and Dragons licence. The first game they developed using the licence launched their "Gold Box" series of games. Although not top of the line - it was a contemporary of Ultima 5 and Might and Magic 2 - it's graphics were considered pretty good in 1988, the game had a very impressive scope and of course it made good use of the D&D licence. It sold very well indeed and is still very playable for a game of its time (though only if you have a numpad!).
The game is set in the Moonsea region of Forgotten Realms which was a brand spanking new campaign setting at the time (having just been released the year before in 1987) and uses the AD&D 1st edition rules (2nd ed would be released the following year).
Good Old Games recently added several of the early SSI D&D games to their catalog and so I thought I'd play through this one again.
The graphics for the game are using the basic EGA mode of 320 x 200 with the standard 16 color palette. A lossless PNG screenshot of the game usually runs around 4-6KB. As such, I am going to spam the hell out of screenshots in this thread. In terms of filesize it shouldn't be a problem but expect lots of scrolling!
Games of this era still had to ship on media with extremely limited storage capacity. There was usually not room on the disk for a lot of text and so the game shipped with two manuals: one full of how to play (and interpret the rather arcane AD&D rules) and another full of plot background and journal entries. At various points in the game it would tell the player to read a given entry. The GoG version also comes with the Cluebook (originally sold separately) that has maps of each area as well as more information about what the spells and such in the game actually do.
and so, Let's Play some Pool of Radiance!
this game actually looks pretty good for a pre-VGA game
and the entire production team fits on a single 320x200 screen
and here is cutting edge DRM from the late 1980s.
The game shipped with a decoder wheel which is used a couple times in the game to "translate" either elvish or dwarven runes (it's just a 1:1 substitution cypher for english not a different language). It was also used as DRM in that you had to use the wheel to look up a word on game startup.
Here is the party I created. Pool of Radiance didn't yet implement all of the AD&D classes (no Paladin, Druid, Assassin, Bard, Illusionist or Ranger). I set the stats of these characters such that I could swap out the first two with a Paladin and Ranger if I continue on to Curse of the Azure Bonds.
Note that I made extensive use of the "Modify" option in the main menu to set up their stats. Anyone claiming they didn't do so in a Gold Box game is lying to you. By default they use the old "3d6 for each stat, in order, no swapsies" method for stat generation. If you stick with that on average you have to roll up 36 complete characters to get a single stat of 18 (and of course you have no control of which stat that 18 is in). The odds of rolling a character that qualifies to be a Paladin are literally a thousand to one against (even worse for a monk or bard). Although those classes aren't included in Pool of Radiance even in this game you only have a bit better than 50/50 odds of qualifying to be a basic Fighter. This game, unlike some of the later Gold Box series, is brutally hard at the start even if you have great stats.
This incredibly fortunate group has recently arrived in the ruins of the once great city of Phlan. A small community hangs on near the docks and is looking to reclaim the rest of the city. A kindly city clerk meets them at the pier and offers a tour of the inhabited portion of Plan.
Attacked by tweeeeeeees!
RiemannLives on
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A quick about-face leads back to the City Hall.
Where we meet another attempt to shave a few bytes off the file size. The proclamations referred to here are in the Adventurers Journal and read thusly (text stolen from the Gold Box Wiki cause hell if I want to type all that in):
hmm, most of those are way above our pay grade at the moment. Let's see if the clerk inside has anything else going on.
ok, that first one seems more doable: Go west, kill things. A fine band of murder-hobos are at your service good lady.
Let's see what's available...
Oh Gygax you silly man. So many weapons. So little reason to use nearly all of them.
We've just enough money to load up each character with a missile weapon, melee weapon and (if needed) a shield. Armor will have to wait.
Ok, so on to the ruins!
Only to face a stark reminder that Pool of Radiance is a harsh Dungeon Master. The reason you have to manually pick up your change is that the game rigidly enforces limits on how much weight you can carry. And that includes coins. Late in the game we'll be leaving thousands of copper and silver coins behind as they are just too damn heavy to haul back to town.
But in the meantime we leave the shop with exactly 3 platinum and 3 gold pieces.
the layout of this part of the ruins is burned into my brainmeats so getting lost isn't an issue
but a short ways in...
The goblins are easily dispatched, the Sleep spell is pretty much a weapon of mass destruction against low level creatures, but it is a hint of the hordes that lie ahead.
Poking around the northeast ruins we run afoul of some orcs badly in need of a facial scrub.
and some more goblins
South of the goblins something odd turns up. A locked door that looks intact.
We left off having just met a pink wizard named Ohlo in the ruins west of New Phlan. We continued to explore the ruins and do battle with the hordes of orcs, goblins and kobolbs that infested them.
A meager living was scraped out by selling piles of gently-used leather goods to one of the shopkeeps back in town. He's not the most crafty of negotiators because at one point:
A full grand for a set of 2nd-hand goblin wear! Something was amiss.
It seems the old man was running an identify-my-item scam. I'm not shelling out two hundo to identify some goblin's posing-pouch.
Back in the ruins we reached a large open space towards the west edge of the area that used to be a marketplace.
A clue! Treasure awaits to the north. But along the way a boarded-up old shop seemed worth investigating. And once inside...
Ominous indeed. But murder-hobos heed not such warnings. After that many monsters were slain and the secret chamber in the northwest corner was looted. One notable encounter came a few days later when we broke into an orc lair.
The fight went poorly. Several orc gaurds we left standing. Everyone was dead except for the magic user who was out of spells. She finished off one of the wounded orcs with a thrown dart and that seemed to be just too much for the rest as they all immediately surrendered.
Since only surviving characters get a share of XP including for any treasure found (remember in old school AD&D you got 1 xp for every gold piece worth of loot and this usually far exceeded any xp from actually killing monsters), Shiev got enough out of that fight to end up a full level ahead of everyone else. Though that did lead to something of a financial crisis as one of the other things about old school AD&D is it cost a lot to level up (a full grand!)
After a few more trips to the ruins and back...
the entire area was cleared of monsters except for one remaining group in the Old Rope Guild. Along the way we picked up that potion for the Pink Wizard Ohlo.
The final battle in the Old Rope Guild was with a couple ogres and a foe we had not met before: Trolls. They regenerate damage every round, hit extremely hard and will actually get back up at full HP a few rounds after being struck down if you don't end the fight before then. Or, as it turns out, if one of your character happens to be standing on the square where they died.
It took a couple tries but eventually the battle was won. Mostly by remembering where each troll fell and making sure a character stayed sitting on them for the rest of the fight. The city clerk was well pleased.
Podal Plaza lies some distance beyond the slums past an area known as Kuto's Well. The ruins around the well were a bit different from the crowded and twisting slums. It was mostly one large open area around the well in the middle with a few small buildings around the edges. There were only two significant encounters in the area. First off, right near the entrance from the slums we ran afoul of some lizard men.
Behind them was a locked door that we forced open to reveal another strange fortune teller.
If videogames have taught me anything it's that there is always something to be found at the bottom of wells. And that wisdom did not steer me wrong.
Down below was the entrance to what appeared to be a kobolb lair. But we soon ran into the man in charge.
In his pocket was a note referenced in the game journal. Back in town the clerk was again pleased with these developments.
There was also a new proclamation outside the city hall:
Podal Plaza was going to have to wait. Sokal Keep had to be cleared out.
The outer courtyard of the ruined keep was overgrown with tall grass. In one corner we found an important clue:
Aha! A chance to use our super secret decoder wheel at last! The elvish runes read
LUX
SHESTNI
SAMOSUD
The meaning of which was not obvious at the time.
Beyond the broken gates was an inner courtyard crawling with armed skeletons and zombies.
Searching through the outbuildings around the courtyard we ran afoul of giant scorpions,
strangely aggressive frogs
and a ghost!
It did not attack immediately and instead waited for us to say a password. We took a chance on the first of the three strange words from the note in the courtyard "LUX" which seemed to work. The shade told us something of what cursed Sokal Keep.
They also showed us a hidden cache of gems and a book: In the eastern outbuildings we discovered a secret passage behind a magical illusion. There was an impressive stash of treasure to be had including magical weapons and armor. We brought these back to town to be appraised and to heal up before tackling the central chapel. Upon returning to Sokal Keep we found that the chapel was held by a large force of orcs and hobgoblins. But as we were well rested and armed they were soon dispatched. In front of the altar was the ghost of the last priest, Ferran Martinez. He was eager for news of the present state of Phlan and in turn had some interesting hints about the Pool which drives our enemies.
Back in town the clerk had more than just a reward for clearing Sokal Keep
It seems we are moving up in the world.
I'm calling it now. That guy is evil. Don't know how. But no character with that stache could be anything else.
So it seems there is a choice of where to go next: into Mendor's Library in hopes of learning more of the Pool of Radiance or continue on to Podal Plaza and perhaps on to the Textile House beyond.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
But I'm not seeing it on Gog anymore? Is it gone, or am I just bad at navigating their site?
@EmperorSeth
https://www.gog.com/game/forgotten_realms_the_archives_collection_two
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
But damn, I forgot how bad the UI was on this one. I wasn't expecting mouse support or anything, but selecting things with the arrow keys doesn't even work. Also, I'm royally getting my ass kicked by goblins at this point. I also forgot how your hired help NPCs turn and run at the slightest hint of a threat.
Yeah, the UI for the game assumes you don't have a mouse but do have a full size keyboard with numpad. The GoG version has a PDF of the Quick Reference Card that came with the game and that comes in handy. The Home and End keys (7 and 1 on a numpad) are what move up and down in lists and PgUp and PgDown (9 and 3 on a numpad) move up and down in lists a page at a time. It actually works well if you have a numpad. All of the controls are there.
edit: I do find the game plays better when I speed up DOSBOX a little more than the default Good Old Games setup. CTRL+F12 to increase the speed of the emulated CPU. I find 8000 cycles works well for Pool of Radiance.
I see options for CGA (4 color: white, black, cyan and pink), EGA (what I'm using) and Tandy (pretty much the same as EGA)