I'm going to slog through the ones I can play on C64 first. It's probably the best of the originals for graphics and sound just guessing. I'll report in periodically in this thread, I'm going to start Pool of Radiance this evening.
good luck bro, I've wanted to get into those games too but they just look too complicated. hope you have a good time.
I played through Pool of Radiance a year or so ago via the DOS version. I was floored at how well it held up (other than the controls being, well, 80s CRPG) and how ambitious a lot of it is. For instance, the ability to actually react to various potential combat encounters in other ways, like intimidating them into giving information or using a password to avoid hostilities against random encounters is not something I've seen in a lot of games even today. Probably the most impressive thing to me, though, was that I could navigate without a map by *landmarks*. Phantasy Star has nothing on that.I was slightly disappointed that combat plays out more like B/X than AD&D --- there's no weapon speed factors, Armor vs AC adjustments, or a need to close into combat range (which now seems to be ~3-5 feet instead of 10), for example. They put a lot of effort into adding every weapon in the PHB, but without those factors it's kind of an empty gesture. Still, I had a great time overall.
I've played Pool of Radiance on NES so I can totally be part of this conversation
>>12720402>I could navigate without a map by *landmarks*.I think it depends on the area but overall yes the map design is top tier, you can often actually tell what sort of area you're in just with the layout alone even without props. Not a gold box game but I thought Dragon Wars is another one with really good map design.
>>12720315The Gold Box games are well-remembered for a reason. They were, when they first started, ground-breaking in a number of ways in regards to exploration and immersion. They kind of kept doing the same thing over and over again with each release which, while it's a great formula to reproduce, ends up being just, pretty good instead of maintaining that top-tier edge. They were all good games though. Only bad ones I can think of were Unlimited Adventures and Treasures of the Savage Frontier.The Krynn trilogy is GOATED.
>>12720872Buck Rogers was the only one of these games to ever really get a proper console port
>>12720315I played the hell out of Realmz, a sort-of-clone for the Mac
>>12720315I tried two of them and the controls were cumbersome jank ass trash in both. Couldn't play them.
>>12721310That font is perfect.
>>12721375They're not entirely unreasonable once you get going, just a little clumsy in places. It was still a wild-west era in terms of UI/UX. The game underneath is more than worth the trouble of remembering to hit PgDn.
OP here, I created my party then accidentally fucked up a disk swap and "ran" the character disk instead of mounting it (playing on a C64U) after creating my party, then things got busy and I haven't had time to start the adventure. I have mostly single class characters with one thief/mage for kicks.
>>12720315>Gold Box games.cringe. the box was the best part of some of these games>>12720375not complicated at all, just insanely boring.
OK I'm in the city now, it's looking pretty huge. I went into the dungeon and fought a a battle then left with some gold. It was orcs. I barely made it because I forgot to learn spells.
>>12721375I played the Krynn trilogy as a kid and have tried multiple times to replay them as an adult and have never gotten more than a couple of hours in. UI is unpleasant, uncomfortable. Game feel is poor.Quality games otherwise. I admire people willing to put up with it. Certain elements have pros and cons. The limited animations avoids the bloat and delays plaguing other games, but sometimes the combat feedback is just TOO sparse and difficult to follow.
I've only played the Krynn games and a bit of Treasures. Love these games. First game I played where you could import your old party to the sequel. DKK is probably the best in the series.
I had this thing, games were all pretty good except like 2 of them
>>12726054I'm sorry you got filtered
Damn starting out at level 1 is fucking BRUTAL, one hit and you're quite dead.
