Introduction to Gold box games

Two SSI games I would recommend for all Baldur's Gate and Fallout fans are:

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager

If Wasteland is the father of the Fallout games then Dark Sun: Shattered Lands is their mother.

Dark Sun series: the only ones that came close to getting psionics done correctly, imo. Well worth playing for sure, and those Krynn games might be the sheer hardest in just how difficult they are to defeat.

The Ravenloft games I wouldn't call gold box games, as I think they came a year or three after the gold box era ended. They are still well worth playing though, as are the Eye of the Beholder games. Also, don't overlook the Buck Rogers games, well worth delving into if science fiction is your bag.

Originally Posted by vanedor
I wonder, are these games still playable? Which one would be the best and/or easiest to discover the genre? Is it still possible to buy them somewhere?

Thanks!

I think the only way to go is get them all on Amiga emulator and also download the Clue Book for ready made maps.

Amiga was well ahead of PC in those days and features graphics effects that PC doesn't, like actual explosions for the Fireballs where PC had nothing.

I'd suggest starting with the first game in a trilogy so you can import your party to the next game.

Aren't they on GoG? I know some of the ones mentioned are. I've great memories of some of these games but the graphics are just too poor now.

They certainly are available via great old games, and work just fine. That's the iterations I've played most recently, and you get tons of extras with each package as well. They're often on sale, and each set you purchase is likely to give you weeks if not months of sheer entertainment value.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Dark Sun series: the only ones that came close to getting psionics done correctly, imo.

Were there any other games with usable psionics? Gold Box didn't have them. Baldurs Gate series didn't. Even Planescape: Torment didn't even try.

I still don't understand the psionics rules. If I recall correctly, the 2nd Edition AD&D Psionsic rules were kind of a mess.

Originally Posted by kborom
Aren't they on GoG? I know some of the ones mentioned are. I've great memories of some of these games but the graphics are just too poor now.

They are but as part of collections:

The Forgotten Realms ones here

Dragonlance Krynn

Dark Sun (Not part of the "Gold Box" series, but great games and I think they've aged very well).

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Dark Sun series: the only ones that came close to getting psionics done correctly, imo. Well worth playing for sure, and those Krynn games might be the sheer hardest in just how difficult they are to defeat.

The Ravenloft games I wouldn't call gold box games, as I think they came a year or three after the gold box era ended. They are still well worth playing though, as are the Eye of the Beholder games. Also, don't overlook the Buck Rogers games, well worth delving into if science fiction is your bag.

Just wish the Dark Sun series was not so buggy. I've started it several times and hit showstopping bugs every time.

The Gold-Box games will forever rank as my favorite games of all time. They did such a great job of replicating the AD&D experience and are a great example of how you can tell a story without needing to use a million words.

I wish more people appreciated them these days.

There are a few modern successors, though. “Temple of Elemental Evil,” “Knights of the Chalice,” and even “Pathfinder: Kingmaker” (in turn-based mode). They all feel like a modern take on the Gold-Box formula.

Yup, couldn't have said it better myself. Often imitated, never duplicated. And usually the imitations were shabby, at best. We shall not see their like again, sadly. Games today may, in some ways, look and feel shinier, but are they actually better?