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This page is for the original 1988 Gold Box game. For the 2001 re-imagining using 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, see Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor.
Key points
- Supports the graphics hardware of Tandy computers and the sound hardware of both PCjr and Tandy computers. See Essential Improvements for information about enabling the PCjr/Tandy sound on DOSBox
- The first version of PC release includes the theme music from the original C64 release, when played using PCjr/Tandy sound. Later versions omit this music entirely
General information
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
Availability
- The retail version requires the Translation Wheel to answer copy protection questions. The GOG.com version has the copy protection cracked (anything will be accepted).[2]
Essential improvements
Enable PCjr/Tandy sound on DOSBox
- Most later releases are configured to use PC speaker sound. DOSBox can be set to emulate the additional sound hardware of PCjr/Tandy systems and the game configured to use PCjr/Tandy for sound instead of more primitive PC speaker. In the first version of PC release this also enables the theme music in the introduction and at the beginning of battles
Edit the configuration file of DOSBox and POOL.CFG in the installation folder[citation needed]
|
- Open the configuration file of DOSBox and seek
tandy setting under [speaker] section. This setting is usually tandy=auto . Change the setting to tandy=on and save the changes.
- Open
POOL.CFG in the installation folder. The second line controls sound with P standing for PC speaker. Change this setting to T to enable PCjr/Tandy sound and save the changes.
|
Skip intro videos
Edit POOL.CFG[3]
|
- Go to the installation folder.
- Edit
POOL.CFG .
- Change
F to N and save your changes.
Notes
- The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons splash screen will still be shown.
|
Skip Translation Wheel prompts
Launch with st.exe STING parameter[4]
|
Run the game with st.exe STING
|
PoR Speed Control Utility
- This utility will allow you to control the speed of the game. You will be able to speed up the game from 1 to 10 times, or reset the speed back if necessary.
Gold Box Companion
- Gold Box Companion is a program for Windows that adds various optional features when playing the DOS version in DOSBox (fix command for healing, automap, party HUD, raising level restrictions, character editing, etc.)
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
- It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.
Save game data location
- The default save folder can be changed by editing
POOL.CFG
.[5]
- Saves are
SAVGAMA.DAT
to SAVGAMJ.DAT
.
- Character files are
*.CHA
. Character names must be listed in CHARLIST.TXT
in order to be visible in-game. Character files are only present when that character is not part of a party in a save file.
Video
Input
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
On/off only; toggle with Ctrl+S. |
Surround sound |
|
|
Subtitles |
|
Everything is text-based. |
Closed captions |
|
|
Mute on focus lost |
|
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file. |
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
|
|
|
|
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
DOS video modes |
|
|
System requirements
DOS | Windows | Mac OS (Classic) | macOS (OS X) | Linux |
DOS |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
|
Processor (CPU) |
|
System memory (RAM) |
384 KB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
|
Video card (GPU) |
CGA, EGA, Tandy |
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to
<path-to-game>/cloud_saves/
even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves
folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).
References