Dungeons & Dragons. Gold Box Classics review+

The guys from SNEG continue to reprint fiercely. I was pleased with Blade of Darkness, and I got acquainted with Siege of Avalon. But this time they are scraped something very cool, in one place, if not all, then a very solid part of it is the classic Dungeons & Dragons. Moreover, these are not just games, but a real collection with excellent manuals, tips, descriptions for each game.

Historical certificate

The topic was so interested in what I got acquainted with the information on the Internet about the history of the issue. This is a very notorious fiction of which, for example, you can find out what was the first graphic mmorpg.

Gold Box – the name https://slotsshine.uk/ of a series of computer role -playing games created by SSI in 1987-1993. She won a license for playing games based on the ADVANCED Dungeons & Dragones board role -playing systems created by TSR, Inc. These games are created on the same engine, which later became known as “Gold Box Engine”. This name arose because most games of the series were sold in gold boxes.

In 1987, SSI President Joel Billings received a license to develop games based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Ad & D) from TSR. This was the result of a major deal, for the sake of winning the competition for this franchise, Billings had to almost lay his company. The development of the Gold Box engine and the games themselves was carried out by SSI employees Chuck Crogehel and George McDonald. The following versions were developed by Victor Penman and Ken Humpfris.
The first game of the series was Pool of Radance, released in 1988. Then followed by Curse of the Azure Bonds (1989), Secret of the Silver Blades (1990) and Pools of Darkness (1991). These games formed one ongoing story, which begins in the once glorious city of the flange and later embracing the entire region of the lunar sea, as well as four external planes. A series of novels of the same name released by TSR and copied the storyline of games was a bestseller. The first four games were created by the SSI company itself and were the best sold in the series. Their success caused the rapid growth of the company.

Early games of the series were published on Apple IIE, Apple Macintosh, Commodore 64, Amiga and IBM PC. Subsequent games of the series were already produced only for Macintosh, Amiga and PC.When the SSI began work on the Dark Sun engine in 1990, the development of the Savage Frontier series was in the hands of StormFront Studios. The scene of the first Gold Box of the game StormFront, Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991), was the city of Neverwinter, geographically far from the scene of previous games. This game became the fourth in the Gold Box series, which reached position No. 1 in the sales lists.All online role-playing games of the 1980s were text MUD’y. They described the actions in the style of games such as Rogue or Adventure Authority Bill Crouter. StormFront employee Don Daglou has been developing games for AOL for several years, his experience, coupled with the new SSI, TSR, American On-Line and StormFront alliance, led to Neverwinter Nights. This was the first graphic mmorpg. It was possible to play it through the AOL network from 1991 to 1997. NWN was a multi -user implementation of the Gold Box engine and remained the most popular game on AOL for more than five years. Later she gave way to hits such as Ultima Online (1997) and Everquest (1999).The Dark Sun engine was supposed to replace the aging Gold Box. The first game on the new engine was Dark Sun: Shatted Lands, released in 1992. Unfortunately, the new engine was still quite raw, and by the time the game was released, it contained many more bugs. The situation did not improve the release of the second game – Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager released in 1994. Sales of games on the Gold Box engine, after a long six -year success, began to fall. Games on the new engine were not sold as good as expected. SSI began to endure losses and, finally, were bought by Mindscape in 1994.In 1993, a special editor called Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures was released, abbreviated as Frua. He allowed players to create their own adventures using the Gold Box version. Around this editor, an active community rallied, which even developed hacks that allowed to improve graphics and add the engine of capabilities. Nevertheless, interest in the series gradually faded away, especially after the release of such modern computer role -playing games as Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

The structure of reprint

All games and materials for them are collected in the most convenient launcher. Here you can configure launch parameters, familiarize yourself with detailed manuals and tips.

It was very pleased that good work was done to optimize the image, you can run in permissions up to 2560 x 1440. In the end, you can expand in full screen.

In total, in several collections and separately, twenty-two games are presented. Briefly consider them all.

Dungeons & Dragons – Stronghold: Kingdom Simulator. Simal of the owner of the castle with strategy elements. We build our estate and expand it. It is launched in the launcher with everyone, but the collection is not included in the Stimov collection.