Game News SSI Dungeons & Dragons RPGs released on Steam

[Infinitron]

Tags: Champions of Krynn; Curse of the Azure Bonds; Dark Sun: Shattered Lands; Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager; Death Knights of Krynn; DreamForge Intertainment; Dungeon Hack; Eye of the Beholder; Eye of the Beholder 2: The Legend of Darkmoon; Eye of the Beholder 3: Assault on Myth Drannor; Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures; Gateway to the Savage Frontier; Hillsfar; Menzoberranzan; Pool of Radiance; Pools of Darkness; Ravenloft: Stone Prophet; Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession; Secret of the Silver Blades; SNEG; Stormfront Studios; Strategic Simulations, Inc.; The Dark Queen of Krynn; Treasures of the Savage Frontier; Westwood Studios

Previously available only on GOG, SSI's catalog of Dungeons & Dragons RPGs can now be acquired on Steam as well thanks to SNEG, a new retro publisher founded by former GOG executives. That includes all of the D&D-based Gold Box games, the Dark Sun series, Westwood's Eye of the Beholder trilogy, DreamForge's Ravenloft games and others. As a bonus, this release also includes the fan-created Gold Box Companion and All-Seeing Eye automapping tools, as well as a special launcher for managing imported parties in the Gold Box games. Pretty cool. Here's the description of the new Gold Box Classics bundle on Steam, which includes most of these games:

Fondly known as the “Gold Box Classic,” these classic Dungeons & Dragons video games bring to life many of D&D’s most iconic monsters, heroes, and villains.

The Forgotten Realms world of Dungeons & Dragons has been home to many a hero and imagination since its publication, producing adventures and stories to be retold and enjoyed for years to come.

The Forgotten Realms Archives: Collection One allows you to journey through one such set of adventures: The Eye of the Beholder trilogy, a set of first-person, real-time role-playing games.

The Forgotten Realm Archives: Collection Two brings a healthy mix of “Gold Box” and nostalgia goodness to your PC, along with a combination of adventure builders, turn-based and real-time role-playing gameplay. Composed of RPG classics that premiered the Forgotten Realms to video gamers, The Forgotten Realm Archives: Collection Two contains the following titles: Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Hillsfar, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Treasures of the Savage Frontier, and Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures.

The Forgotten Realms Archives: Collection Three marks the conclusion of the Archives compilation and a change in development from Strategic Simulations Inc. to Dreamforge Intertainment. As SSI’s swan song to the Forgotten Realms universe, these titles celebrate the elements of the AD&D video games that you know and love—vast dungeons and beautiful locations to explore, a wide variety of monsters to slay, quests to complete, adventurers to assemble and worlds to be saved. All this is in Dungeon Hack and Menzoberranzan.

Ravenloft series allows you to step into a world of gothic and Egyptian horror and adventure, set in the campaign setting of Ravenloft. This pack of entrancing horrors includes Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession and its sequel, Ravenloft: Stone Prophet.

Krynn series returns you to the first fantasy role-playing epic set in the legendary Dragonlance game world of Krynn. This immortal pack includes Champions of Krynn, Death Knights of Krynn and The Dark Queen of Krynn.

Dark Sun series unleashes your imagination into a vast, savage world, sun-scorched and wind-scraped. This series contains the radiant classics, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager.​

Not included in the Gold Box Classics bundle are Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse and D&D Stronghold: Kingdom Simulator (which I believe was just called Stronghold back in the day). All of these titles are available on Steam for $6 to $10 each, with a 15% launch discount until next week.

 

[calgary.alberta]

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.”

 

[oldmanpaco]

But did they add chivos? I luv me some chivos.

 

[Kruno]

I am reading Steam comments.

Some of these classics are 30+ years old
Lots of classics here, I played some of them on the commodore 64 back in the 80's/90's.

Pricey for such old games especially when there a modern alternatives.

 

[Cael]

Why the hell would we want to buy something from Steam when we should already have these classics? Waste of money and supporting a bunch of cunts.

 

[MicoSelva]

Any info on whether the GOG relase were/will be updated to parity with Steam?

 

[AdolfSatan]

Aren't these abandonware? And GoldBox Companion is free, so… Why the hell should anyone pay to a guy that simply repackaged free stuff and slapped a price on it?

EDIT welp, myabandonware is down to properly check, will update later

 

[elverkongen]

Aren't these abandonware? And GoldBox Companion is free, so… Why the hell should anyone pay to a guy that simply repackaged free stuff and slapped a price on it?

EDIT welp, myabandonware is down to properly check, will update later

Unfortunately, when a game ends up going for sale in GOG or Steam, myabandonware.com replaces the "Download" button with a "Buy Game" button

 

[dacencora]

Spoiler

eXoDOS is a better package for practically every DOS game, SSI Gold Box games included

 

[PorkaMorka]

Do these have any features to make them better than the GOG editions?

 

[Poseidon00]

If the Dark Sun one comes with auto character transfer (it won't) then it would be an auto buy for me. For the life of me I can't get that shit to work anymore and i'm tired of trying to find recent guides for a decades old game.

 

[KafkaBot]

Here I was hoping this package would include the Buck Rogers and Spelljammer games, which are missing from GOG.

As it stands, there is no reason to get this.

 

[elverkongen]

Here I was hoping this package would include the Buck Rogers and Spelljammer games, which are missing from GOG.

As it stands, there is no reason to get this.

Get it before it's too late: https://www.myabandonware.com/search/q/buck+rogers
Spelljammer is gone, appears the rights to the IP have been bought.

 

[dacencora]

As if myabandonware is the only place to find these things. It’s not even the best place, tbh.

 

[luj1]

Dark Sun is among the best CRPGs of all time

 

[mediocrepoet]

Here I was hoping this package would include the Buck Rogers and Spelljammer games, which are missing from GOG.

As it stands, there is no reason to get this.

Get it before it's too late: https://www.myabandonware.com/search/q/buck+rogers
Spelljammer is gone, appears the rights to the IP have been bought.

Too late.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

As if myabandonware is the only place to find these things. It’s not even the best place, tbh.

Looks like they scrubbed all those DLs. People gotta stop posting links unless pm's.

 

[dacencora]

If only someone somewhere had invented a serverless peer-to-peer file sharing technology!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

So what's the reason someone should give their money to a faceless publisher known only as SNEG(no other info available) with presumably no relation to the developer of these games that were made 35 years ago?

 

[EvilWolf]

So what's the reason someone should give their money to a faceless publisher known only as SNEG(no other info available) with presumably no relation to the developer of these games that were made 35 years ago?

Because someone decided to IP troll and nostalgia bait (read as: extort) gamers into buying a 35 year old game, and shore up all the usual docks on the high seas so their goonsquad can sit there for months harvesting IPs and pursuing legal action against every normie who doesn't know which VPNs to use. All the while shouting "Piracy is bad, m'kay!" from the rafters.

 

[Infinitron]

So what's the reason someone should give their money to a faceless publisher known only as SNEG(no other info available) with presumably no relation to the developer of these games that were made 35 years ago?

Info available: https://bleedingcool.com/games/sneg-director-chats-dungeons-dragons-gold-box-classic-set/

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

There's always someone with a file. I found at least 3 sites just doing a casual. Mybandonware is jjst the lazy site along with abandonia. Home of the underdogs has long long ago died an old age but i recall thrm dialup days and the growing software.

old dogs die.

Old games old bugs. Even the patches won't help sone of them like Spelljammer.
Watch some playthroughs of some of these esp the Non-goldbox Krynn games. Lord oh fucking nightmares.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

So what's the reason someone should give their money to a faceless publisher known only as SNEG(no other info available) with presumably no relation to the developer of these games that were made 35 years ago?

Info available: https://bleedingcool.com/games/sneg-director-chats-dungeons-dragons-gold-box-classic-set/

ah yes, just who I wanted to give my money for goldbox games to
a member of the board of cdprojekt

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

SNEG... what a name. Bunch of sneggers!

 

[AdolfSatan]

So what's the reason someone should give their money to a faceless publisher known only as SNEG(no other info available) with presumably no relation to the developer of these games that were made 35 years ago?

Info available: https://bleedingcool.com/games/sneg-director-chats-dungeons-dragons-gold-box-classic-set/

That's the main idea behind SNEG. If we try to simplify it, we can say that we want to ensure all great gaming mechanics, games themselves, and the IPs that we loved 20+ years ago are readily available to anyone.

But they were archived and available to everyone before greedy cunts began buying the IPs. I don't think these fellas deserve anyone's money.
If anyone can't find them, do not contact me requesting download links, as that would be most improper and illegal, and we don't want to disturb the good conscience of these honest investors.