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Pool of Radiance

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original 1988 Gold Box game. For the 2001 sequel using 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, see Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor.

Pool of Radiance
Pool of Radiance cover
Developers
Strategic Simulations Inc.
Mac OS (Classic) Level Systems
Publishers
Retail Strategic Simulations Inc.
Digital, GOG.com GOG.com
Digital, Steam SNEG
Engines
Gold Box
Release dates
DOS August 1988
Mac OS (Classic) 1989
Windows (DOSBox) August 20, 2015[1]
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) August 20, 2015[1]
Linux (DOSBox) August 20, 2015[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Turn-based
Perspectives First-person
Genres RPG
Themes Fantasy
Series Pool of Radiance, Gold Box
Pool of Radiance on HowLongToBeat
Pool of Radiance guide on StrategyWiki
Pool of Radiance on MobyGames
Pool of Radiance on Wikipedia
Pool of Radiance
Subseries of Gold Box
Pool of Radiance 1988
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor 2001

Pool of Radiance is a singleplayer first-person RPG game in the Pool of Radiance and Gold Box series.

The game upports 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
Steam Community Discussions for game series

Availability

The retail version requires the Translation Wheel to answer copy protection questions. The GOG.com version will accept any answer.[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]
  1. 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.
  2. 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]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit POOL.CFG.
  3. 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.)
The Steam edition comes with a revised version of it.[5]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\POOL.CFG
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVE\
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
The default save folder can be changed by editing POOL.CFG.[6]
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.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
320x200 only.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
True for Mac OS, false for DOS.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

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.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes CGA, EGA, Tandy

System requirements

DOS
Minimum
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM) 384 KB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) CGA, EGA, Tandy


Notes

  1. 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