Lets talk about Pool of Radiance. Do you like tactical combat in RPGs? Do you like having paths of character advancement that aren't combat? Well near as I can tell, Pool of Radiance was a great originator of those mechanics.
Dungeons & Dragons came out and the world got RPG fever. In the video gaming space, you saw countless games emulating, approximating or just inspired by D&D's rules and fantasy setting. But it wasn't until 1988 that an official Dungeons & Dragons video game was released, and that game was Pool of Radiance.
To give you an idea of the world this game was released into, you have to understand it's contemporaries. Ultima V, Might and Magic II, Wizardry V, Wasteland and Bard's Tale III were all released in 1988. And across the pond, Final Fantasy II was also released. Overwhelmingly, these games had combat which involved turn based systems very similar to the style Final Fantasy used all the way through it's 6th entry. Also, they used combat as the primary means of character progression.
But Pool of Radiance was different. If you've played any of the Infinity Engine games like Baldur's Gate, or even more modern games like Pillars of Eternity, you're just playing the most recent iteration of the mechanics laid down in Pool of Radiance. It, and all the sequels that collectively make up the Gold Box series, made tactical combat in RPGs a thing. But despite the combat being more than just a picture of the enemy and picking actions, combat was not the primary means of character advancement.
I've been playing a lot of Pool of Radiance lately, and one of the things that really shocks me is how little you are rewarded for combat. I might get 100 xp and a pittance of loot. Most of the enemies don't drop any sort of currency. And I need thousands of XP to level, and each level costs 1000 gold at the trainers! Where you get most of the xp and gold to progress is hidden treasures and questing. Finding a hidden cache in the ruins of Old Phlan can net you hundreds of XP and thousands of gold! Clearing out a dungeon and handing in the quest is worth over 1000 xp and a sizeable reward as well. You can miss out on combat xp in this game and still be successful. Does that sound familiar at all?
The game was technically impressive for it's time as well. Previews of the game in Computer Gaming World boasted an incredible variety of dungeon and monster graphics, many of which were animated. It was on an order of magnitude more diverse than other games of the time, according to the preview. It also boasted larger view and battle screens than contemporary games, and extremely customizable character portraits and icons. However, when it came time to actually review the game, none of it's technical achievements were mentioned much except for character customization. Perhaps like most games, it's features that were bragged about during development were old news when it finally came out. Or maybe it was just a technical detail that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, like the much touted Megatexturing in Rage.
What Pool of Radiance was heavily praised for was it's believable and well fleshed out world. You aren't saving the world, you are just trying to reclaim the fallen city of Phlan from the forces of evil that have resided there for a long time. So the story does a better job of staying believable. There are numerous little role playing flairs added to the town as well. Thing like bar brawls, duels, and breaking into the shops at night. They brought over more from the tabletop than just the ruleset.
That's not to say Pool of Radiance didn't suffer criticism when it came out either. Despite my appreciation for the combat, one of the reviewers for CGW, since there were two, complained that combat took forever to resolve. Over an hour for a single battle sometimes. I can attest to this just last night actually. She also complained that the game appeared sexist since female characters start with a strength penalty which was part of the D&D ruleset, but didn't get the charisma boost that was also part of the ruleset. Lastly she complained that the game was just a terrible representation of tabletop role playing. A criticism which I think holds up against many, if not all, computerized RPGs to this day.
If you're curious about trying Pool of Radiance yourself, it's easy to find on abandonware sites. It's easiest to run it in dosbox, and the frontend Dosbox Game Launcher is amazing, as it will search for the metadata related to the game you are trying to run, and suggest dosbox configurations based on the year the game was released. I've had great luck using the IBM Clone 1990 profile. Lastly, you will need replacement documents, including a code wheel to get passed the copywright protection. But I can't recommend this piece of history enough.
Also, some sources:
List of contemporary RPGs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_role-playing_video_games:_1988_to_1989
The review: http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1988&pub=2&id=54
The preview: http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1988&pub=2&id=49
I ALMOST FORGOT! If you'd like to see this on GOG so you can feel good about having compensated somebody for it, you can vote for it here:
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/pool_of_radiance_1
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[–] vaporwaif 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
This sounds awesome and I plan to download it pretty much immediately. I have played a lot of very bad D&D based games optimistically and it sounds like I should have been looking for this one all along. You should fully crosspost this to v/Abandonware! (Forever shameless but also genuinely relevant!) I love everything about how you've posted and described this and if you're interested I will give you mod power over that scrappy little sub-verse because I think maybe you share the vision of what a bad-ass Abandonware community could be and deserves.
[–] Namrok [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Thanks! I appreciate the offer for modship, but I try to avoid responsibility :P I'm more of a content person.
[–] vaporwaif 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Fair! Well, your content is genuinely excellent so you should feel great about that!
[–] emacspirate 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago (edited ago)
Man I loved Pool of Radiance. It was hard to resist giving your characters dream stats when building a party thou. The combat did take a long time, but I loved that it really was turn based, and no automated things would kick off if you took too long to choose. Characters looked pretty bad, but if you REALLY messed around with the little customization tweaks you could make your little 8 bit guys look kinda neat. I don't have the patience to do this anymore thou. I liked that it was pretty much spot on for the rules integration too. I was quite young when this came out, and it helped me play D&D at a time when I didn't have a group to play with or when my Dad found the rule books he took them away from me. D&D was considered a devils game back then. I'll never forget that.. actually I kind of had until just now. Ah memories. It could be a grindy game if you just went to the slums to level up, but if you took the time to do some of the quests or follow hints the advancement process was pretty satisfying. I enjoyed it pretty much all the way through.
My contrast Ultima's of the time were more interesting in an exploration and NPC interaction adventure with some dungeon delving on the side. You had to do some grinding there for levels thou. But it had some nice turn based things happening with the overhead map.
Might and Magic was another great old school adventure, loved it. Combat was just a pic and text based thing thou, no battlefield.
Wizardry was fun and did a lot of things right too. Oddly enough I never played Bards Tale.
There is a special place in my heard for Ultima, Pool or Radiance, and Might in Magic in my heart. Ultima for virtue and adventure, Might and Magic for glorious exploration and mega charter power, and Pool or Radiance for superb D&D rule intergeneration, and amazing tactical combat.
[–] odinist 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Actually... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons:_Cloudy_Mountain
[–] Namrok [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Fascinating. I was lead to believe Pool of Radiance was the first.
Although on further inspection I can see why. Cloudy Mountain appears to be D&D branded, but not an actual D&D game. From the description, you navigate a maze, have 3 lives, can take 3 hits before you die, and only shoot arrows. I'm not sure it implements any actual D&D mechanics.
[–] odinist ago
Yeah, the InTV was a bit limited, haha. I did so love mine as a kid, though.
[–] RedditCEOEllenPao 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
I've always had a bit of a passing interest in D&D - never really got the social group together, or had the dedication to meet up on specific nights to play with an online group.
Would there be any modern day (or I guess even retro) games that I might enjoy getting into to try the D&D experience? Is this a good starting point for someone with 0 experience with the game?
[–] Namrok [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Personally, my favorite D&D game of all time is Planescape Torment, but it's weird. A more accessible game might be Baldur's Gate, or even Baldur's Gate II. Baldur's Gate II starts you off at a higher level, and one of the hardest parts of D&D games is how lethal even trivial combat situations can be for 1st level characters. These games also benefit from a modern interface, with proper tool tips, mapping, and meaningful information being presented.
I really would not recommend Pool of Radiance for a first time for numerous reasons. The interface is extreme obtuse. You need to reference the manual to see when characters are eligible to level up, what weapons they are allowed to equip, and what equipment even does. There is zero information presented in the game except trial and error. So you might buy plate armor thinking your Magic User can equip it, and nothing in the game will warn you otherwise until you go to equip it.
However, that being said, once you get over the initial hurdle of buying appropriate equipment for your starting characters, the game is amazing.
[–] minenotyours ago (edited ago)
/v/Namrok isn't referencing the table top game. Unless I'm the one that's confused, enter an online search for Pool of Radiance, it's an actual video game.
I first played it on an old Commodore 64 and it was a fantastic experience. If you enjoy it, also checkout Curse of the Azure Bonds as it is very similar. If you prefer sci-fi in a similar vein then I'd recommend Buck Rogers - Countdown to Doomsday.
[–] blueryd3r ago
I've watched GameHorder's lets play of Pool of Radiance and it did peak my interest in the gold box games. But although I'm not a total snob when it comes to old game mechanics (I love the Ultima series after all) the idea of flipping through a PDF document to read all description and story elements is a bit too much for me. If the gold box games come to GoG which I hope they will some day, I'll will give them a shot but until then the work of compiling and hunting down all the extra bits and configuring dosbox is something I don't want to do. Please understand, I'm a very lazy person.
[–] Namrok [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Yeah, that's understandable. I'm luck to have the Forgotten Realms Archives Silver Edition. Came with a fat 300 pg manual, 3 code wheels, and a dozen games from the Gold Box series. I bought it back in the 90's when I was fucking hyped for Baldur's Gate to come out, but had never played a D&D game before. I tried Pool of Radiance then, and I made it up to the "so hard you should come back later" troll encounter in the slums and rage quit.
I'm having a much better time this time around. Although I just ran into the enemies that kill you in one hit with poison, and the enemies which permanently drain XP. And it's bullshit how they implemented those things in this game.