Reading Dragonlance novels to the twins has brought me back on a wave of nostalgia to the old SSI D&D Gold Box games I played in my youth.
Pool of Radiance was my first introduction to role playing games ever. I nearly finished it after playing it for hours but the final boss was too much for me. I then played the sequels of Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, and the one in the same engine based in the Dragonlance realm, Champions of Krynn.
I couple years back I tried to go back to Pool of Radiance but the old mechanics of healing turned my off pretty quick (how many times to I have to case Cure Light Wounds and then memorize it again!??!?) but that was addressed nicely in later versions so I visited Good Old Games and plopped down some cash for the Krynn series of games. I booted up the Champions of Krynn with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.
I'm having fun playing the old game in DOSBox and alt tabbing to the journal and manual. Leveling up my 16 bit characters and finding new magical weapons.Sure the graphics are nothing great and the gameplay can be frustrating at times (how many clerics and mages do they have?!?!) but I'm in a groove and having fun (hint, save often).
Will I go into the next one in the series when I finish Champions of Krynn? I don't know, probably not, but we'll see.
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Wow! Pools was the very first computer RPG I played. I wasted many hours at night during my Senior year of high school playing. I actually managed to finish it, which felt awesome. However, I wound up finishing the series out of order, doing Silver Blades before finally finding/completing Azure Bonds. I'm so stuck on that series, I use Azure to this day in my gaming (including Eve-O). Thanks for bringing back some great memories!
ReplyDeletep.s. I played Pools on C-64 (so old school)
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