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Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

What are your favorite Gold Box games?

  • Pool of Radiance

  • Curse of the Azure Bonds

  • Secret of the Silver Blades

  • Pools of Darkness

  • Champions of Krynn

  • Death Knights of Krynn

  • The Dark Queen of Krynn

  • Gateway to the Savage Frontier

  • Treasures of the Savage Frontier

  • Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday

  • Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed

  • Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (FRUA)


Results are only viewable after voting.

octavius

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Are most of these games available for free? I ask because I've seen people mention they should be available for purchase on GOG.

They are not available on GOG or Steam, but you can find them on various abandonware sites.
 

Cynic

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Bros some chick joined me in Jelek after that scum Skyla tried to ambush me. She got charmed, and held, and killed like a useless moron. She told me some password probably after the fight and then died. Wonder if I missed out on any good shit.
 
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Dunno, I never got the POR fanboyism. It's the only GB game I never finished despite restarting many times across different platforms. It has shittiest graphics and some horrible interface issues the following games have mitigated (like having to reselect the spent spells all over again when you go memorizing, or casting your cures manually at camp without the fire-and-forget "fix" command of the later games). No paladins and rangers either, making the game fairly useless for party transfer. Design-wise, it's a fine game, but hardly superior to others. Nostalgia, I guess, and maybe also the "bawww, AD&D on levels 3+ is unrealishtick!11" butthurt. Me, I'll take POD or TSF over POR any day.

The Pool of Radiance module for FRUA solves all these issues. Only problem is you can't import the party into later games (I don't think). This has probably already been mentioned in this massive thread, but I'll throw it out there anyway.
 

Erebus

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Bros some chick joined me in Jelek after that scum Skyla tried to ambush me. She got charmed, and held, and killed like a useless moron. She told me some password probably after the fight and then died. Wonder if I missed out on any good shit.

Don't worry, there was no way to romance her. :D
 

octavius

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Dunno, I never got the POR fanboyism. It's the only GB game I never finished despite restarting many times across different platforms. It has shittiest graphics and some horrible interface issues the following games have mitigated (like having to reselect the spent spells all over again when you go memorizing, or casting your cures manually at camp without the fire-and-forget "fix" command of the later games). No paladins and rangers either, making the game fairly useless for party transfer. Design-wise, it's a fine game, but hardly superior to others. Nostalgia, I guess, and maybe also the "bawww, AD&D on levels 3+ is unrealishtick!11" butthurt. Me, I'll take POD or TSF over POR any day.

The Pool of Radiance module for FRUA solves all these issues. Only problem is you can't import the party into later games (I don't think). This has probably already been mentioned in this massive thread, but I'll throw it out there anyway.

I prefer just using some multi-classed elves or half-elves in PoR (having several guys being able to cast Sleep is a life saver, especially in the first slum area) and then replace them with a Paladin and a Ranger or two in CoAB.
 

WarHamster

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The Pool of Radiance module for FRUA solves all these issues.
Hey, thanks for the info! I was thinking of replaying PoR, but the hideously rough interface was holding me back. Hadn't thought of checking out FRUA modules for a "remake". FRUA along with the later GB games refined the interface to a much more tolerable level.
 

Darth Roxor

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So... which bawks of gold is best to start with? I haven't played any of them so far, and I feel my kool kred is lacking because of it :M
 

octavius

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So... which bawks of gold is best to start with? I haven't played any of them so far, and I feel my kool kred is lacking because of it :M

Pool of Radiance or Curse of the Azure Bonds. PoR is rather rough around the edges, having to manually select each individual spell to memorize every time you rest.
 

Revenant

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So... which bawks of gold is best to start with? I haven't played any of them so far, and I feel my kool kred is lacking because of it :M

Pool of Radiance or Curse of the Azure Bonds. PoR is rather rough around the edges, having to manually select each individual spell to memorize every time you rest.
If you intend to transport the same party through the Forgotten Realms series, you might as well start from CotAB, since it introduces rangers and paladins to the game. Otherwise, PoR is probably the most representative and rich in spirit GoldBox.
 

Joonas

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Start with Pool of Radiance. If you're annoyed by PoR's interface issues, mainly the lack of a fix-command and the need to manually reselect spells to memorize, you could try Gold Box Companion (utility for the MS-DOS versions, Windows only). You select the spells once, click "Store memorized spells" and then "Restore spells" when needed. Also has a fix-command.

screen1.jpg


http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/gbc/
 

Wyrmlord

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Start with Pool of Radiance. If you're annoyed by PoR's interface issues, mainly the lack of a fix-command and the need to manually reselect spells to memorize, you could try Gold Box Companion (utility for the MS-DOS versions, Windows only). You select the spells once, click "Store memorized spells" and then "Restore spells" when needed. Also has a fix-command.

screen1.jpg


http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/gbc/
Dude...

THANK you very much!

I have been looking for something like this.

I just started a Curse of the Azure Bonds game yesterday, but the tedium of pressing comma and dot, or Home and End really just got to me after half an hour.
 

mondblut

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Whoa. That's an unexpected development. :hero:

Too bad the Amiga version still looks 10x times prettier than the PC one.

Also, do I understand correctly that "fix" in this utility is just a restore health cheat? Because in games, it actually involved autocasting the memorized spells and resting to regain them, rinse and repeat. Which could produce an occasional (and sometimes not so occasional) random encounter during the resting phase.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Whoa. That's an unexpected development. :hero:

Too bad the Amiga version still looks 10x times prettier than the PC one.

Also, do I understand correctly that "fix" in this utility is just a restore health cheat? Because in games, it actually involved autocasting the memorized spells and resting to regain them, rinse and repeat. Which could produce an occasional (and sometimes not so occasional) random encounter during the resting phase.

FIX is not a restore health cheat. It calculates the time your clerics and paladins would spend memorizing and casting the healing spells you need to bring the characters back to health. Wandering monsters may attack during FIX.
 

Cynic

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Yeah fix is pretty awesome. You can definitely get attacked while it happens.

It can be a bit cheap, but you need this shit though, especially early on in the game. Otherwise you'd just get party wiped every 2 encounters. You also must heavily rely on sleep in Throtl, some of the encounters there are quite ridiculous for a level 2 party. Once you've run out of that spell, some of them are pretty tough at that level, it's fine once you get to level 3/4 though.

I've had to take a break for a bit but I'm definitely going to get back into things next week!
 

WarHamster

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I do believe His Mondblutness was referring to the Gold Box Companion above and not the original games. The words "in this utility" surely point that way.

The FIX command is a welcome shortcut in GB games and it, as said above, is not a cheat as it can be interrupted with encounters. However, how the GB Companion does it, I have no idea. It might as well be a cheat in it, in as much as being something that cannot be interrupted nor does take any time.
 

octavius

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Jelek is such a fucking pain in the ass. Too many encounters!

As long as you don't exit and re-enter the city there is a finite amount of them. That applies to most or all areas: a finite amount of random encounters which are reset each time you enter the area.
I think only CoK of the GB games has this system.
 

Cynic

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I had to exit because I can't rest in the goddamn inn, they keep jumping me. I pissed off over to Gargath for now.
 

WarHamster

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I had to exit because I can't rest in the goddamn inn, they keep jumping me.
There is a safe place in Jelek where you can rest, one that you can access with the password you got from the non-romanceable chick (after the fight vs Skyla).

It's in the north-east corner.
 

WarHamster

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So she did on my last playthrough too, but she does give you the password with her last breath after the battle regardless. Can't remember out of hand what the word was, tho'. Check a FAQ if you're interested enough.
 

Cynic

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Yeah I am gonna have to. I hate doing that but I forget shit so much easier these days. I don't even know what's going on any more. Back when I played this the first time I kept a notebook with shit drawn in it, maps etc., too old for that shit now haha
 

octavius

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Yeah I am gonna have to. I hate doing that but I forget shit so much easier these days. I don't even know what's going on any more. Back when I played this the first time I kept a notebook with shit drawn in it, maps etc., too old for that shit now haha

Make screenshots instead: Shift - F5
 

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