Are you guys aware of the Gold Box Companion? If not, you should check it out. It's a small program that hacks into the Dosbox-Game and it adds things like automapping, quick heal, quick spell memorizing or fast journal-entry access options etc. It also works for all parts of the brilliant gold box series. I am really looking forward to your Lets-Talk abouts of the series because currently i am playing the Krynn-Series again for my own. But if you do, do me the favour and turn down the volume of the game because the noises are quite irritating over your voices. Good job guys. Greetings from germany
For what it's worth, I found it easier to look the journals up in a PDF than in the companion, and while the idea of the "re-memorize my spells" action feels appealing, the removal of the rest time didn't feel right to me. If it works for you, though, BY ALL MEANS! Loved the rest of the functionality though.
Some of this I learned through brute forcing my way through on my initial playthrough along with speed reading the manual - but your points of advice about the mechanics really opened my eyes on certain things. Thank you so much for this video.
Glad your timing is so good! This has been on my list of "we need to do these" since we started the show. There's so many good games we want to get to, coupled with plenty of requests. That doesn't mean don't request, duplicates get bumped up.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Finally finished the video, lol. Slowly watching it over several days while I work. I had a few comments on your commentary. ^_^ re: "Vancian" spellcasting models. The idea is that 'memorizing' magic-user spells isn't just a matter of learning the words, finger-wiggles, and herb pouches needed, but that the magic-user is forming a magical energy construct in their mind which is later released by the proper verbal, somatic, and material components. That's how they justified needing to be freshly rested, and then the additional time for preparation. I dunno if you've read the Chronicles of Amber (10 books) by Roger Zelazny (if not, I recommend them) but the protagonist of the latter 5 books describes 'hanging' his spells which sounds very similar and helped me picture it in AD&D. Clerics (and the other divine casters) had to appeal to their deity for their spells, which required a similar amount of rest and a period of prayer/meditation. re: your dead party member, I don't think either of you verbalized the connection, but it's worth noting for those unfamiliar with early AD&D that they died *because* of the level drain. IIRC, they could not even have been able to be raised (if that's a thing in this game - I can't recall). Level drain and aging attacks are a very rough mechanic, and almost always led to me reloading. All of the undead have really dangerous abilities, and I feared them. This has me wishing I still had my old C64, and I even looked them up on EBay, lol. I might have to make do with emulators. I think the C64 version not only had music, but it had better sound overall and possibly even better graphics? I think it had slightly richer capabilities than the same generation DOS PCs. Also, did the city not have a bank? Again, it's been too long.
@@Baarogue Thank you on the Vancian correction. I was thinking of Discworld and the spell in Rincewind's head. I love that concept. As for the official rules, I still have problems even with the Vancian explanation. Why does magic missile and light take up the same kind of thing, but not fireball? I get it's now part of the system forever, and I like the thought of prepping spells, but it's a strained mechanic in my mind. I also like how Magic Points let the players do things like over and under power spells with the risks that entails. Vice is a solid emulator, and if I didn't know we were going to play through all of these, I would have gone with that. But Pools of Darkness is only on PC, so I'd have to start new, or convert, or something at that time. I might do the Krynn games on C64, since they all came out for that. We didn't really spell out the death mechanics on that one. Missed opportunity on our part. I also got done and immediately wished we'd talked through each of the stats and why they were important and what they did. There's always 10 things we wish we'd mentioned. But that's a great point. I'll put it in our notes for the main discussion. Keep an eye on craigslist for Commodores has been my experience. They show up sometimes at steal of a price. I'm still looking for a C64c because that was my first, but I'm glad I have one for when the emulator just doesn't feel right. I think it's funny how in my early 20s I was so over them, and now I wish I still had all my stuff from before. No bank! I had to look again because I thought I might have missed it, but no... no bank.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit re: Vancian, Rincewind's spell is a great example! I love how wizard spells in Discworld are alive, and generally am a big fan of Pratchett's descriptive powers. I had a sad moment after his death, when I was browsing a B&N and realized I would never find another new release on his shelves. I'm not sure what you mean by magic missile and light take up the same "thing" but not fireball. Do you mean spell slots, like you can't cram a fireball into a 1st level slot? If that's it, the way I always understood it was that magic-users learned the capacity to hold multiple spell "constructs" at once as they grew in power, and eventually were able to begin holding larger, more powerful constructs with 2nd, 3rd, etc. level spells. Aside from being a different school, I'd refer to Burning Hands as a good example of Fireball's mechanic at 1st level spell power. It loses the ranged trait, much of its area, and a lot of its damage. But Vancian mechanics don't click for everyone, especially now that we've had exposure to so many other philosophies and mechanics in games. I welcomed the freedom that came with 3rd edition's spell point system, as well as classes who had access to spontaneous casting. That's a good point about Pools of Darkness being DOS only. I guess if I replay these, that's where I'll play it too. Thanks for the tip about watching Craigslist. Maybe I'll set up a Google alert on it. ^_^ I *think* I also played the Dragonlance goldboxes? Now I want to revisit them too. That world was interesting, though I didn't take to it as much as I did Forgotten Realms. I found too many players in my circles wanted to play kender, a race I found irritating because everyone exaggerated their kleptomania. (edit: I hate how RU-vid always double-spaces when I single space)
@@Baarogue Right, so if we're saying that we're conjuring the spells into our head to be released on command, and we can only hold so many, I find it curious that light and magic missile and sleep and read magic all take up the same effort/space/energy but Blink, Fly and Fireball all take up a different size of energy. And all exactly the same size between them. The first being exactly 1 spell unit of volume, and the others 3, but I can't not memorize 3 level 1s and get a level 3 or vice versa. Eventually the logic breaks down somewhere in the system. I think Unearthed Acrana in 1st Ed had a spell point system for use. I'll have to double check. I'd have just banned Kenders. Or killed them. Tannis warned Tass, "Ask yourself if this is conductive to a long life. " If they're not asking that, they better have a lot of character sheets. That said, I really liked the Krynn series of Gold Box Games. It felt a bit fan service at times, but still fun to go through.
1st Edition kicks ass. I switched from 3rd to 1st and me and my group are loving it. We tweak it a bit (like that percentile STR thing) but for the most prt we love it so much more.
It's not D&D if you don't tweak it. I feel like all D&D versions have something that makes you go "Oh that's cool", but 1st edition was really a magical era in both balance, tone and rules.
37:30 Yes, that is true, I know for a fact. I used the c64 glitch where you get a level 1 player hit by a Spectre in the library, when it drains below level 1 and wraps up to level 200 or 300. I had a party of these super characters, and when I started a new game, the slums encounters were huge. If you are just talking about starting characters with all 18s in their attributes, my dad played around with this and he did notice a difference in difficulty, although I don't know my self, I always jacked them up too
That's funny. I started playing Pool of Radiance a while ago. But I need to set some time whenever I want to play it since this isn't the kind of game you play after an hard day at work. Not to mention that I've decided to keep a journal in-character (and it means, rewriting by hand all the journal entries. I may be a bit insane). And the Gold Box Companion is almost necessary to play nowadays. Not only the automap is better and the level up interface is more reliable, but it also allows you to bypass the level caps (which made the non-human races practically useless in later games). Well, I now have to settle an hour and an half to properly listen to this. And I'll probably comment after listening to this video.
Thanks for listening! Yeah, this isn't like Ultima III, Bard's Tale or Wizardry. There's enough clues, story and direction here without an in game journal that it's easy to forget what you were trying to do. It's the reason I said in the episode "If you ever feel like you need to start over, just remove your characters from the party, reboot, and add them in fresh." It's kinda cheating, but it'll help blow through the starting areas a LOT faster, and you won't feel like you're grinding through the first part again, and can unlock the story faster. I think that's awesome you do your stuff in character. Do you ever post it anywhere?
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit I sadly don't post it (or at least not yet) mainly because my party is based on characters of my favorite animated series (I love role-playing as them in most RPGs (new and old) when I have to create a party). What's good in Pool of Radiance is that you can go back to the town hall to hear about your mission again as many times as you want so it's half-way there. But at the start of the game, there's SOOO many missions available that you kinda need to write them down in order to keep track of them. I don't know who gets the rights of the SSI D&D games, but I'm kinda wishing for a Bard's Tale-style remaster, especially if they add more portrait options.
@@POLE7645 My understanding is the rights ended up in some smaller 3rd party's hands for the game, but the D&D rights obviously still reside with WotC. So GoG managed to work something out between them. It gives me hope that we'll see a Questron return someday! That said, yes... these need a Bard's Tale reboot treatment.
Several major revelations even to experienced players: 1) The importance of resting in a facing the wall in a one-square room and 2) the character you have highlighted when you're walking around actually matters.
Guys I really appreciate this and the later review video.. I am challenging myself to learn this game with goal to complete my first old RPG. I am playing on Amiga 500. There is so much information I have had to watch several times. There are so many small things that are impactful to think about. Hard to keep them all in memory.. I have managed a feeble attempt (took me forever).. I have currently cleared the slum area, Kuto Well (defeating Norris the Gray), went back to Philan to collect my reword. Slums Rope guild unable to beat those Trolls so ignorning it for now. Dont know what step to take next.. Recommendation welcome :).. My characters are Lvl2... Haha anyway I ramble but thought you would like feedback...
Hey, sorry for the delay, just saw this comment come through my alerts. It's a lot, but part of the fun of playing these is just learning a bit as you go. You don't need to be perfect, just patient and willing to reload a bit while you figure it out. The upshot is if you keep going through the series even when they add little things, each game gets easier and more familiar. As for what next, I usually do the Keep after the well, then the auction (west of the well) then back to Sokol keep. After this point, just bop around mapping, and exploring and if somewhere feels to rough, double back and explore somewhere else for a while. The map is going to feel like it's spreading out, and you've probably passed a few fights and challenges that needed you to be tougher than you were when you found them. Let us know how it's going! Level 3 is close I"m sure, and that's a huge bump hitting 2nd level spells and a 'safe-ish' amount of HP.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Really appreciate the comments back Chris!. I think this is the most challenging game I have ever placed serious effort on. Gonna take me forever I think but gonna stick with it before I move on to anything else. You hit nail on head with "learning a little as you".. The other day I thought was most successful day and didnt have any battles or find treasure. I just figured out a few things in the shop. Appraising Gems for example so I could sell and take $ to level up. I also finally did a Detect Magic and found I had several magic items on each character so I made those ready. Question: After I re-loaded game yesterday the magic items no longer had a * next to them? They still magic and why not identified still? Few of my characters are level 3 now and a few still on 2. Basically my fighters are 3. And yeah I can start to see a little tad bit of wiggle room n HP Now before I read your direction above I trecked to Mendor Library. Met a dragon creature. Beat it pretty easy but right away he made one of my best guys stone! Dont have enough 2k to cure at temple so I reset.. Maybe I should stay out of library yet? Reset good option there? Probably the biggest thing I have yet to learn (besides better battle tactics) is way to approach when character dies etc. Ok VERY long winded here sorry. Thanks for comment and doing these videos. I have watched several times and actually took notes (In Amiga Word Perfect)...
A couple things about the different versions of the game. The C64 version did have intro music, but the PC version never did. They didn't have sound card support for the first game. I know the later versions did. Even if it was just Intro music. I've played pretty much the C64 version and the PC a ton. The first time I played the game was on a C64 and remember letting the intro run and restarting it again just to hear the music. So much memories.
Cool. I thought I saw a DOS video with music, but wasn’t sure if they edited it in or not. These are all so great. I’m really looking forward to the whole series.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit I think that the PC version does have music, but only with Tandy sound enabled (version 1.3 has Tandy support). Sadly, I never managed to get the Tandy support working with my copy.
@@POLE7645 I'm running it through DOSBox and Tandy sound, but not hearing anything Entirely possible I have something set wrong though. It's not a huge deal, but I do miss it on start up.
Oh god 🤣 I sat playing something and listend to this.. got more and more annoyed with that "audio glitch" that kept coming up.. until I found out that it was the game making that noise when you are moving around 😂
---This is me writing about my experience with this game and others like it and it is very long and it has many rabbit holes that I kept jumping into so be warned that reading this is going to hurt!--- Seeing this makes me fully regret selling off my Rubber Maid bin full of ALL the Gold Box games but Dark Queen, Hillsfar, and Pools of Darkness. Gotta come clean that I have beaten this game, however, I beat it on Nintendo. In any event, the Nintendo version has a map screen! (Also, no code wheel and no Adventure journal... Even though the Adventure Journal was kind of a big part of what made Gold Box games what they were and are! P.S. If anyone reading this has an original copy of Waste Land, read the first page on the adventure journal or whatever it's called in that game. It's a lady undressing and just before it gets steamy she breaks the 4th wall calls you out for reading the adventure journal out of turn and says that she wished she was in Bard's Tale game) I still liked the Kryn games more than this even if it's raw Forgotten Reals from back in the day but I LOVE Dragon Lance! Okay, true speak and question... Was it Heroes of the Lance that was kind of like an action game? That game can suck my big toe! It's not a good game, and I hated it and it put a blemish on my love of Dragon Lance games but Japan kind of liked it a lot so the East may meet the West but Japan loves crappy games like that. (No, screw that game on so many levels I hate it so much!) This is a good video of you guys talking about AD&D and I really do think maybe the simplest game in the Gold Box series was for me at least but maybe I'm right... Anyway Champions of Krynn was super simple and Secrets of the Silver Blades was the most difficult for me. The Buck Rodgers game, Countdown to Doomsday was a very fun Gold Box game because it has heat guns and sci-fi stuff. But yeah, I said it before but my first time with Gold Box games was Pool of Radiance for my C64 and it had NO adventure journal even though it did have the Code wheel... I had a few games for my C64 that lacked Journals in fact, most of them were missing both or one. My first copy of Waste Land was a pirated version on my C64, and this was at a time before I knew what it was to pirate a game but... WasteLand had NOTHING, though the graphics were fun, the gameplay was right up my ally with the way the battles played when I was 10 or 11 because I was a lonely strange child. I never made it that far in WasteLand mostly I got as far as I could and that was the Train Tracks (Whatever the place was called) a place with fat guys in black leather jackets the killed my really fast and really good. I was a weepy kid so while I could deal with being killed by... I want to say bikers or Bears with a leather fetish (Not that I would have had a clue but it seemed like a good joke, and it was a good joke! I got murdered by some leather-clad bears.) and Zombie, ghoul things and Dogs, I want to say dogs and they did just as well as the bears when it came to killing me BUT when I fell down the well and no one could get back out it made me so upset that I stopped playing that game for a long little bit. Dude, I was killed by animals and fetish fiends, only the part where I fell down the well and had to wait to die really upset me. That was not what this was about anyway, it was about Pool of Radiance like what you guys are playing (But for the PC) that game was super fun and I enjoyed it just because the battle system hooked me and the swords and magic but especially the monsters! Good lord just thinking about the first time I played that game gives me the Warm fuzzies. Okay, I'm not trying to comment on a game you should play, I just want to say this and ask. Anyone play Legacy of the Ancients? For what I gather that was like Questron 3 and I've never played part 2 something something legend of Black silver? Dunno, never played it but it's for the C64 and I've yet to emulate it even. I should try that game but you know what other game I've never played and have no intention? Fountain of Dreams but all I know of it is it was like a successor to Wasteland and I guess it sucked pretty bad and I was thinking I could at least give it a shot but the game was well before my time. Most of the games I love were before my time but all that said, I don't know if I could even give that game a fair shake... At least I can be honest, I think. Slowly going off point in a fast way as I do, only Legacy of the ancients was fun as hell (Still is!) This was FAR too long, and it went off the rails pretty fast and pretty hard but if you read this far, I just waisted like what, 5 or 6 minutes of your life and you will never get it back and I'm sorry but when I start to type I can't stop... So here we are! I also abused the Ellipsis to the point of it losing all meaning!
Trying to trim it down. :) Yeah, it was Heroes of the Lance. And yeah, that was awful. I liked the Krynn Series, but I also liked Dragonlance more than the Realms, and thought each game improved on the last. I can't wait to have Matt play Legacy of the Ancients. It's fantastic. It's the from the same guys that did Questron, and it shows, but with more polish. I had a ton of fun with that game. I never did get to Legend of Blacksilver, but I want too. Never stop Galloe. Love seeing your stream of consciousness posts! Mostly, we're just glad you're having fun with us.
That Wasteland thing is hilarious. I'm super excited about Legacy of the Ancients. It's one of those games I've always heard about but didn't play. I'm a huge Questron fan (I did play the hell out of 1 and 2) so the thought of a 3rd one is really appealing. There's some good recommendations in that post, I'm checking out a video on fountain of dreams right now, looks weird. I like weird.
Oh, generally speaking Matt that game had some really bad reviews from back in the day and that's why it's not truly accepted as Wasteland 2. (I think Brain Fargo was upset by it) I still remember Karatika so I know you guys can play through trash but if Fountain of Dreams was as bad as the reviews said... it's going to be a lot longer than Karatika. Thing is I myself have never played it but I know what the box art looks like from when I saw it on home of the underdogs and they gave it a bad review too. Not lying, if you guys do decide to play a real lemon, I'm excited to see it... If it happens.
@@galloe8933 I"m genuinely interested, and might give it a look before we decide if Matt needs to deal with it. The Gameplay looks good, so I'd be interested in why it's viewed as bad.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit That's kind of my morbid curiosity about it too. It looks to play in the way of all classic EA Crpgs did... But that's just it for me, it "looks" but I've no clue how it plays. Old Crpgs being my thing I simply looked up RPGs on Home of the Underdogs saw Fountain of Dreams was interested by it then noticed that it was labeled as a "real dog" or whatever HOU uses to describe bad games AND I still would have played it (20-something years ago and just a little bit before Ever-Crack hooked me... Playing a big part in my lull in the classics for a bit) This was my first time on HOU and it was like a candy store were all the candy was/is free so after seeing it was at a bad rating I just moved on to another isle in the "candy store". I've got a lot of stories about what HOE did for me by showing me games that I had not heard of had not played or thought they were not for PC. That's all the story on that as to not write a freaking book again in the comments! That's why I knew of the game but also why I never played it. I was young at the time so I ended up putting a lot of time in RoboTech cresent Hawk and Dink Small wood because it was like free Diablo. I'm gabbing like I guess I do but just to translate what I said (In my own erratic language it would seem) if you and Matt give it a spin I would be very interested... I like some bad games a lot but I feel I waited too long in my life to really enjoy that game and I may never ever play it, though I would love to hear its run down for the perspective of you and Matt. Drink the poison for me, for all of your viewers and let us know if you two think it tastes good... Would not be something I would say but if I did, right?
I went with two dwarven fighters, a married male/female couple; a halfling fighter-thief; two half-elf cleric-magic users, brother and sister; and a half-elf magic user-thief. It was a bit rough out of the gate, but now that everyone has gained a few levels the party is doin pretty well. Lots of sleep spells.
Gygax's biases (humans, fighters) I think come from him loving Swords and Sorcery lit, and wanting to have a game full of pulp like that. It's funny how the game design as published, there's a lot more support for heroic fantasy than pulp. Or at least heroic fantasy characters are sort of stronger mechanically.
I think that sounds about right. The video I watched was one of the designers arguing with him about magic missile, and having to say "They get to do 1d6 damage a day... give them that at least". I have mixed feelings about it. I think there is something romantic to having the wizards be less powerful, and more support with spells like light and shield, but I also think blasting guys with rooms full of fireballs is awesome.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Mages with mostly subtle powers can make a neat world. That would be fun to play. Sometimes. Sword and Sorcery wizards were mighty but invariably not the heroes. They played with powers that ate their bodies and souls and were exclusively enemies or at best temporary allies. I'm curious about what video you're referencing. I always felt the "low level mages are crazy weak" argument was a bit overstated. First level mages can throw their darts, or slings, or use flaming oil, or do creative things in a fight. Sure, they're not scary, but you can contribute just fine in an old school campaign. Sure, they contribute less mechanically in damage accomplished per round, but it's about collaborating. I think a moderately more "balanced" game is sometimes what I want, but not always. I think the larger criticism I'd have of ancient D&D is that it's designed to play for well over a year to get some real character development. These days I feel like players should see story progression much faster than that affords. ------------- Trivia! Lower armor class == better comes from ships. Because D&D rules were influenced by some naval wargame predecessors.
@@jsrodman I feel like it's a bit overstated, but also not. The game had some role-play aspects for sure, but it also was about going out and getting in fights. 0D&D had no offensive spells at first level for mages and on top of that they could only use a dagger. Darts, slings, etc were not options. So in a game that had a LOT of fights, they had nothing they could fight with. Granted, you'll also notice in that book, none of the weapons are stated out because they all do 1d6, but still. So, it's gotten better over the years. But initially, no... it was pretty rough.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit But if you played in a Gygax or Arneson game, it was a lot about fictional positioning, being careful, and planning for the worst etc. Yes, when conflicts began dice would roll, but usually it was about arranging for it to be impossible to lose by being careful. As *published*, and played by the general public, I think this didn't really come through. It wasn't effectively communicated in the text. But even then, no one had much they did that was special at level 1.
@@jsrodman Positioning mattered, sure, but you're still standing up next to a monster or armed opponent in your robes with nothing other than a sharp knife. There's only so far tactics will take you without the tools to do the job. So, as a magic user, your contributions compared to the guy in plate with a shield and sword were minimal. And while fighters didn't have a 'special', there were only 3 classes. Cleric, Magic-User and Fighting Men. The ability to use any weapon or armor was special compared to the other two. Even in the gold box games, the reason you're resting after nearly every battle is because the mages blew their sleep spells, and while useful, means the party now sits around for 4 hours hoping they don't get another encounter before gandalf there gets his nap time.
This is still the best pre-1998 D&D based video game ever made _imo._ Even replaying it after Baldur's Gate 1 released, using MOSLO to slow the game by 900% (or 90%, but you had to enter 900% as the value for...idk, reasons) and it was still too fast to read damage and hits/misses/effects in combat. Oh, and the game does not scale based on level or stats. 100% Nonsense. If you look at the code there are literal D&D random encounters for each area, a counter for the number you can get which starts ticking down after you kill/finish the last prepared encounter. You would be amazed at the tables and how much they look like they were plopped right out of the DMG or Player's handbook. As for a party, I went with two fighters, a cleric, a Fighter/Magic/User Half-Elf, a Elven Ranger/Cleric if memory serves because I wanted to double up on "Hold Person" since it can target 3 higher level enemies and a Mage. My thief died *A LOT* too, but he always got his sleep or fireball off. I believe he was stuck at 6/6/7 level-wise. Maybe 6/6/8 bc Thieves needed so little experience compared to the rest of the classes. The unfortunate part was both of my mixed classes had to be changed in Secret of the Silver Blades bc of the AD&D racial level caps. I just edited their class with a hex editor so it was no big deal. No idea why I didn't just remove the level cap, but I was in 7th grade so I had to be walked through what I was doing by a friend. Guess we never thought about taking the cap off like an adult would do.
the Lost Sectors 1 second ago I have, I don't think Matt has. That's a fantastic series. Thank you for requesting it so I can make it more of a priority!
I'm surprised by the idea of a single dosbox image for many games. i make dosbox.conf for each program, and assumed most others did too. I suppose you could do that and STILL have a shared drive, but that would probably drive me batty. Re the GOG codewheel, it has at least one error, where two symbols are mapped to the same letter. In case of confusion, check the PDF on archive.org.
I occasionally need/want a second dosBox config, but mostly my generic flavor works for things. Even then, I usually just have batch files in a directory that mount CD's and launch a game when it needs special attention. That said, I still just keep all my dos games in the same directory to help me sort them from the other stack of everything I play.
I'm using separate individual Conf files too, but mostly because of the new way of Dosbox doing things, now they put the Conf file in your Users directory, meaning that you can't have multiple copies of dosbox anymore, since one will overwrite the other, so F annoying. Totally unnecessary.
Ya just gotta accept the fact that these toons are just for PoR, and roll new ones for Silver Blades... maybe have a token human fighter to import to the next one. Fighter thieves on your front line, to exploit facing for backstabs... fighter magic users in the back, to take advantage of fighter thaco on the ranged attacks, a cleric magic user.
I JUST bought The Games this last week. YOUR channel popped up on the high end. You are now followed by me. Thanks. Also .. FAAAK! Thanks for the detect magic tip. I was just selling everything straight off. It's amazing how detailed these games are. SAY! I have found two "cleric scrolls" but don't know what they are. I've had my clerics cast detect magic and read magic, but still nothing. Any tips?
Yes, if you create a bunch of characters with 18 stats, the encounters will be harder. If you create six characters party with 18 stats, the first fight will be with dozens of enemies instead of a average number of enemies with you make a party of four with normal stats.
14:30 I believe you can move up/down in menus with home/end. Doesn't solve moving on diagonals, but at least those keys are adjacent on tenkeyless, unlike using 1 and 7 on the top row.
I ended up writing a .bat file with a menu that launches the games from the AD&D: Collector's Edition CD by typing a number. Created a config file for each game that mounts everything needed. I put them in what I've been able to find was the chronological order of the games. Let me know if you're interested in any of the bat/config files.
To repeat what I said in the Cannonball Blitz comments, I heartily recommend downloading a copy of OSRIC for reference on the rules in case of confusion. www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/ I've been surprised and delighted by Gold Box Companion. It really takes the pain out of party planning for the series, if you are that kind of person. (I am.) For just pool of radiance, any party will probably work. You can multiclass to top level, or play a ranger in pool of radiance, or have a max level elven mage (sort of), or have an 18/00 strength female human warrior. IIRC, women can be 18/70, which is pretty good really by the base game. But it's worse for other .. races? species? And yes, I'd rather have the stats be gender neutral. ---- If you're min maxing, you MIGHT want to have your fighters lawful good. Alignment is really not in the game, but some items are restricted to some alignments. ---- Re all-18 characters, the game behaves fairly strangely around stats. The closer you have to perfect stats, the larger the number of enemies you have to wade through in a variety of situations (mostly random encounters). So all-18s mostly makes the game a lot more tedious. If you want to munchkin it up, I'd suggest having a bunch of unimportant stats lower. --- Re town layout, it's in the manual! (or the journal). --- For no great reason, a multiclass thief can't use thief abilities when wearing non-thief armor. But you certainly CAN wear platemail in between thiefing. --- Magic items always sell for unusual values. Swords will sell for 1g or so, but a magic one will be more like 1000g, so just say "no don't sell it" if you haven't figured out what it is. Who knows how those merchants know? Of course that doesn't save you from not picking up the items in the first place. There's another tip. In first edition AD&D, magic items are worth experience points just for collecting them. So if you find a random shield and the game says "you get 300xp", you can be sure it's magic. (Doesn't help much when you get a mix of items and gems. Or when you get magic items after a hard battle.) ---- With thrown items like darts, you can tell that you've run out if you look at the right hand side and see you don't have a weapon. (Yes, this could be more obvious, like a message or a sound.) With a bow, you get no feedback at all. :-( --- When the game asks if you want to go back and get your money, don't act quickly, because the instinct is "NO DO NOT LEAVE MY MONEY", but no means "Nope, I don't want any of that money!" In other words, "Yes" is cancel. --- LOOK is also useful when you KNOW there is something in that square, and you just are going to search repeatedly until your character-dolls find it. --- Level drain is .. not permanent, but is. An example. Let's say your character advances at xp 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000, and currently has 10000 xp. This means your character is level 5 (advanced four times). if you get a level drained, I forget where your number is set at that time (it might be to 4001). But you're changed to level 4. You can get that level restored (and you get scrolls of that, because it's a very high level spell). Using it makes you level 5 again, but your new XP total will be 8001. Thus you permanently lost 2000xp. For some people this is a good enough reason to just reload on drain. For others they might accept it. (I wouldn't.) --- Bizarrely, in 0e, Basic, AD&D, and 2nd Ed., the Sleep spell has no saving throw. It just works. However, creatures over a certain .. strength it works on fewer, or none. --- In gold box, Stinking Cloud makes an enemy Helpless if they get the Nausea effect, which permits a one-hit kill. However, it wears off very quickly, much faster than Hold Person or Sleep etc.
Also worth giving a link to the companion. gbc.zorbus.net/ I'd never seen it before, and it doesn't jive with my vibe of playing games as close to the original intent as I can get, but it looks fantastic, and Matt might be more than interested in it.
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit I've played them in the original form. And that was great. I feel this was a very welcome addition for replaying. I enjoy mapping in The Bard's Tale, or Wizardry 2. But In gold box, manually mapping felt more like a chore. There's a fair amount of space where not that much happens, and the focus is on the encounters. OH! I should say. Gold Box Companion definitely spoils some secret doors, and *all* destinations on the wilderness map. For any that go this route, I will say it has some bugs. sometimes it loads map notes for the wrong map,and it can lose track of the dosbox window if you minimize the dosbox window, or run a fullscreen app. It's not all smooth.
I have purchase gamefest forgotten realms a long time ago. And started playing. Trying to play this is a nitemare. First you can't just press enter to escape the codewheal. When using the code. The part making a character I get the "insert disk 3" I tried everything from the cfg file. It's just insane. Even when you install a game for the first time. Then try to install another game. You get the uninstall is running in the background. Basically C:\Windows and delete isUinst.exe for able to install the other games. But you need that file. To uninstall the games but shows up can't locate folder. I found out that not changing the install location. You're able to use the uninstall. This is just frustrating.
To the point, increasing the characters stats will lead to more powerful encounters there's a nice video by aulddragon at: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o8u1gZMlrec.html
Of course the C64 version had music! C64s were designed for it whereas PC games of that era didn't have music (other than the bleeps and bloops from the internal speaker... Don't you remember the glorious Starflight theme? You really want to experience that trauma again with Pool?)
We didn't. But one of them was "Go to the training hall, hire an extra NPC, take them into the slums and murder them after the first battle. Enjoy your +1 plate and +1 2handed sword."
@@mattdherrick The other I found was have darts equipped on your fighters before a battle. Before you attack with your long sword, un-equip the darts and equip the sword. You'll get 3 or 4 attacks. I haven't done either of these, though teen aged me wouldn't have been above it. Anyone else have some non-spoiler shadey tips?
@@ChrisFreeman_4Bit Well, you kind of grazed this tip when you talked about removing everyone from the party and starting a new game with them. IIRC, you can create characters, add them to the party, trade their gold to someone else and then boot them, repeat as many times as you like.
