Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Goblin looks a bit uh....

Kobolds

Trampier's goblin and Sutherland's kobold from the AD&D Monster Manual in 1977. The Japanese made the kobold more obviously dog-like wth hair rather than a scaly-appearing hide. However, they rather butchered the goblin.

 

[AdamReith]

Got into KOTC 1 a bit and I realised that I was using the keyboard a lot. Why not give Gold Box another shot, I thought.

Well, I am having fun in Pool of Radiance. I still can't entirely fathom why there's nothing that does this better, other than interesting niche hits like KOTC. All I want is a bog standard D&D archetypical party and some ruins to plunder with interesting turn based combat. i.e. hand crafted locales, encounters and rewards; no proc gen garbage.

I was two years old when these games were made, it's mind blowing to consider that this stuff might have legitimately been the high point of the CRPG hobby.

As I get used to the keyboard controls I am starting to wonder if it really is that much more awkward than an IE game. Even if it does of course lack the beautiful painted landscapes and such. Is is possible the Gold Box, FRUA etc. just works well enough that it's not really worth updating? It's also interesting that it seems that the more underlying game systems depart from Gygaxian D&D the more dissatisfying the gameplay becomes. Mages should fire their spells and then go hide in bush, Thieves should be useless in combat with the possibility of the backstab merely being the pretext to their reckless engagement at the chagrin of the rest of their party.

It definitely is a pain to learn but it's actually, I hate to say it, quite a slick interface once you get the keyboard controls down. Recommend anyone interested in it take the plunge, even if they grew up on IE games.

 

[octavius]

As I get used to the keyboard controls I am starting to wonder if it really is that much more awkward than an IE game. Even if it does of course lack the beautiful painted landscapes and such. Is is possible the Gold Box, FRUA etc. just works well enough that it's not really worth updating?

Yes. The IE games have much more options, moddability and better AI.
As good as the GB games were they're really bare bones, especially the spells selection. You hardly need anything else than Stinking Clouds and Fireballs.

 

[JarlFrank]

KotC2 is the game that surpassed Gold Box.

Hopefully there will be user modules.

 

[AdamReith]

As I get used to the keyboard controls I am starting to wonder if it really is that much more awkward than an IE game. Even if it does of course lack the beautiful painted landscapes and such. Is is possible the Gold Box, FRUA etc. just works well enough that it's not really worth updating?

Yes. The IE games have much more options, moddability and better AI.
As good as the GB games were they're really bare bones, especially the spells selection. You hardly need anything else than Stinking Clouds and Fireballs.

This is true but I do think becoming an RTS meant IE didn't obsolete the GB style games as they might have done.

I am definitely excited about the possibility of KOTC2 reinvigorating this genre. IE is and was great but intricate encounter design becomes kind of impossible when the player can just back out of every room and kite the strongest enemy around.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I generally see the Sharp X1, 68000, pc-88, and pc-98 all relatively close. If you notice the music in the pc98 version is very similar to the NES music. Why on earth there is music is beyond me. Seems the japanese games like having a lot of music and it is usually terrible. Now, the Ultima 1-3 compilation for FM-Towns had excellent music. ON THE CD ONLY. IN game it was shit and annoying. I did like the sound effects though. They rocked. I would have disabled the music if I could.

Change 68000 with FM-7 and I think you have it right. The X68000 has a more Amiga-style color palette whereas everything else is sort of hi-res VGA, that is, 16 colors, but high screen resolution.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I wonder if there are english versions or a toggle for the japanese goldbox games?

 

[rezaf]

I wonder if there are english versions or a toggle for the japanese goldbox games?

I didn't find one, but I finished the PC98 Pool of Radiance regardless. If you played the game before, most commands and stuff are roughly in the same spot, my main issue was identifying spells and items. Even if you run the word through google translate it's sometimes hard to tell.

I was surprised to find that there are actually some gameplay differences, mostly in monster composition during encounters.
But other than that, it was the same game allright.

As for there being no heir to the throne for this type of game, ToEE could have been so much more. It was a nice romp to begin with, but having half a dozen games like that and then a construction set / full moddability ... alas, it was not to be.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I didn't find one, but I finished the PC98 Pool of Radiance regardless. If you played the game before, most commands and stuff are roughly in the same spot, my main issue was identifying spells and items. Even if you run the word through google translate it's sometimes hard to tell.

Protip, sound out any words in Katakana. Usually they're English words turned into moonrunes.

I was surprised to find that there are actually some gameplay differences, mostly in monster composition during encounters.
But other than that, it was the same game allright.

IIRC, most Japanese ports, at least in the '80s, were made from scratch. Sometimes in tandem with the original versions, sometimes after the fact and just using whatever assets they were allowed to use. (This is probably why the monsters were taken from the Monster Manuals, they wanted their hi-res shit)

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Well, monster composition and loot variance would be interesting.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Got into KOTC 1 a bit and I realised that I was using the keyboard a lot. Why not give Gold Box another shot, I thought.

Well, I am having fun in Pool of Radiance. I still can't entirely fathom why there's nothing that does this better, other than interesting niche hits like KOTC. All I want is a bog standard D&D archetypical party and some ruins to plunder with interesting turn based combat. i.e. hand crafted locales, encounters and rewards; no proc gen garbage.

I was two years old when these games were made, it's mind blowing to consider that this stuff might have legitimately been the high point of the CRPG hobby.

As I get used to the keyboard controls I am starting to wonder if it really is that much more awkward than an IE game. Even if it does of course lack the beautiful painted landscapes and such. Is is possible the Gold Box, FRUA etc. just works well enough that it's not really worth updating? It's also interesting that it seems that the more underlying game systems depart from Gygaxian D&D the more dissatisfying the gameplay becomes. Mages should fire their spells and then go hide in bush, Thieves should be useless in combat with the possibility of the backstab merely being the pretext to their reckless engagement at the chagrin of the rest of their party.

It definitely is a pain to learn but it's actually, I hate to say it, quite a slick interface once you get the keyboard controls down. Recommend anyone interested in it take the plunge, even if they grew up on IE games.

I wish I had not already played the games numerous times....but yeah..agree w/ everything...its annoying that many modern game designers feel like thieves need to be constant damage dealing/duel wielding death machines and magic users have to be laser gun pew pew shooters...because god forbid somebody not have an awesome button to smash every turn of combat or they are 'useless'..

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I wish I had not already played the games numerous times....but yeah..agree w/ everything...its annoying that many modern game designers feel like thieves need to be constant damage dealing/duel wielding death machines and magic users have to be laser gun pew pew shooters...because god forbid somebody not have an awesome button to smash very turn of combat or they are 'useless'..

I find no soul in the new D&D game, no archetypes, just seek and destroy play and too much of the comic book superhero in characters.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Later POD and DQOK my mages did feel like missile barrage factories.

Spoiler

.... and I enjoyed it immensely!

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Later POD and DQOK my mages did feel like missile barrage factories.

Spoiler

.... and I enjoyed it immensely!

yeah well they have earned it by that point, I think many games nowadays have 1st level magicians having constant 'free' magic missile type attack from level 1, or something similar but just thematically altered if magician is specialized in ice magic, or poison or whatever

 

[madrigal]

Which orc is the best?
DISCUSS!

 

[JamesDixon]

Got into KOTC 1 a bit and I realised that I was using the keyboard a lot. Why not give Gold Box another shot, I thought.

Well, I am having fun in Pool of Radiance. I still can't entirely fathom why there's nothing that does this better, other than interesting niche hits like KOTC. All I want is a bog standard D&D archetypical party and some ruins to plunder with interesting turn based combat. i.e. hand crafted locales, encounters and rewards; no proc gen garbage.

I was two years old when these games were made, it's mind blowing to consider that this stuff might have legitimately been the high point of the CRPG hobby.

As I get used to the keyboard controls I am starting to wonder if it really is that much more awkward than an IE game. Even if it does of course lack the beautiful painted landscapes and such. Is is possible the Gold Box, FRUA etc. just works well enough that it's not really worth updating? It's also interesting that it seems that the more underlying game systems depart from Gygaxian D&D the more dissatisfying the gameplay becomes. Mages should fire their spells and then go hide in bush, Thieves should be useless in combat with the possibility of the backstab merely being the pretext to their reckless engagement at the chagrin of the rest of their party.

It definitely is a pain to learn but it's actually, I hate to say it, quite a slick interface once you get the keyboard controls down. Recommend anyone interested in it take the plunge, even if they grew up on IE games.

I'm with you on this. I'm doing a Pool of Radiance playthrough now and I'm using the hacked Paladin and Ranger in my party. My current party is 1 8th level Paladin, 2 8th level Rangers, 1 9th level Thief, 1 6th level cleric, and 1 6th level Magic User. They've got good gear and I'm up the lizardmen, evil wizard that's poisoning the river, and buccaneers, so that's about 2/3rds of the way through.

I was torn about playing the original game or the FRUA version of PoR/Curse. I think I'll play both in FRUA once I go through all four games of the original series.

I'm actually looking forward to playing Gateway and Treasure since I've never played them before.

 

[octavius]

Which orc is the best?
DISCUSS!

Looks ready for umpiring a game of women's baseball.

 

[madrigal]

Looks ready for umpiring a game of women's baseball.

I thought he was getting ready to go on a journey with Dorothy to find a heart.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Which orc is the best?
DISCUSS!

Looks ready for umpiring a game of women's baseball.

 

[Marchand]

Hello my fellow Goldbox connoisseurs. The following link shows the video from the final assembly of the red dragon, to be seen below. Unfortunately I was not able to embed it as media, I guess because it does not work with youtube shorts. It's done in portrait mode, for it was intended for Instagram.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vYy6wsxitIM

It's a speciman from Champions of Krynn in the Amiga version.

The artwork is made from squares of colored felt, each one 15 mm x 15 mm x 3 mm in size.

For anyone interested, I am planning to do some more. I already have a gallery of potential artworks. The images are generated, though.

Here is the Link:
https://www.pixelartbilder.com/gallery/

Any ideas for further motifs are welcome.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Spoiler

Shakem baby... let's see you dance.

GGS's waifu...

hmmm agent Scully in cosplay.
So.... where is the GB nude mods?

 

[dumbuglyorc]

Oh, my! This is me!

What a pity, what a crying shame, that this isn't available as an avatar.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Sometimes I was annoyed ONLY POR had char portraits. You could boot up BTCS and mod that for your warrior or w/e.

speaking of pics. Does anyone know how many animation frames are in these older games? I've always wanted a complete database of the BT, MM, Wiz, GB, and various ones like wasteland etc. are there dat rippers to gif format out there for the dos version and others. I'm telling ya, various platforms don't get the gallery archive attention they deserve..

THEY DESERVE IT DAMNIT!!!


Maybe I should try to make a gallery website since some databases are missing a lot (or just submit to spriters db). I'll dig around my old shit and maybe use my blog that has more cobwebs than a neglected spider waifu.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The artwork is made from squares of colored felt, each one 15 mm x 15 mm x 3 mm in size.

For anyone interested, I am planning to do some more. I already have a gallery of potential artworks. The images are generated, though.

Here is the Link:
https://www.pixelartbilder.com/gallery/

These are really cool and an interesting idea. Nice, man.

 

[Butter]

Does anyone have the exact release order of the GB games? I'm trying to track when specific interface and graphical changes were introduced, and Wikipedia/MobyGames only list the year for most entries. In particular, I want to see whether Gateway or Death Knights released first.