POLL: Favorite Gold-Box Game?

[ProphetSword]

Pretty simple question.  Of all the Gold-Box style games (not counting UA), which one is your favorite?

My vote goes to "Pools of Darkness," just because there was so much you could do and it was pretty open as far as what order you did them in.

[hans]

CAB & DKK ran neck & neck for me.  I kept switching my vote, before posting.  Finally, I decided to go with DKK only because of the tragic story of Sir Karl & what's-her-name the dragon.

[ProphetSword]

CAB & DKK ran neck & neck for me.  I kept switching my vote, before posting.  Finally, I decided to go with DKK only because of the tragic story of Sir Karl & what's-her-name the dragon.

Her name was Maya.

[Merle]

Strange as it may sound, the only Gold Box game I ever played was Countdown to Doomsday.  Although I played a lot of pen'n'paper role-playing games, the only computer role-playing game I played before buying Unlimited Adventures was Dungeon Master on the Atari ST.

[Olivier Leroux]

Although I played a lot of pen'n'paper role-playing games, the only computer role-playing game I played before buying Unlimited Adventures was Dungeon Master on the Atari ST.

You're all going to frown upon me now but when I overheard a classmate talking about Unlimited Adventures back in the days at first I thought it was a level editor for Eye of the Beholder. 

Actually I've never played any of the goldbox games (apart from Ray's conversions of PoR & CotAB). Can I still be part of the community, please? 

[DesertScrb]

I had to vote for Pool of Radiance, although Champions of Krynn was a close second. 

On a related note, I have never played Champions of Krynn Dark Queen of Krynn or either of the Buck Rogers games.

Perhaps that should be a separate poll: What Gold Box games have you never played?

[AmigaDave]

I also waffled back and forth with my vote between POR and POD, but POD won out in the end.  The special challenge quest at the end was very difficult, but I managed to make my way through it.  I also liked the DQK and it's entire series.  Although I bought one of the two Buck Rogers Gold Box games, I never took the time to play it all the way through.

POR has my sentimental vote, as it was my first ever experience with ANYTHING that was D&D related.  My younger brother (7 years my junior) used to spend many nights up until the wee hours of the morning playing the pen & paper D&D games with his friends and I could not understand what he was doing.  After playing POR I was hooked on the Gold Box style of games and bought all that I could find for my Amiga computer.  I did not find out about UA (as it was never ported to the Amiga) until many years later and have regretted that I missed out on the UA community's glory days. 

I am hoping that this increased interest over the last few weeks will turn into a real revival and I will be here to participate in a second coming of the glory days that will have many new UA mods that rival or surpass those done in the past.

[ProphetSword]

"The Glory Days," as you call them, weren't unlike this revival we're seeing on the forum.  But, there's a few advantages to being involved now versus then:

* Many of the great designs available today hadn't been written yet.
* Many of the hacks and tricks we take for granted hadn't been developed.
* Series of modules, like "The Realm" weren't even being attempted.
* Sci-fi UA?  Super-hero UA?  Oriental Adventures UA?  Such things weren't possible.

Those days weren't nearly as "glorious" as you might think.

[LurchBrick]

I go with Champions of Krynn. I managed to get a special compilation pack that contained all the Dragonlance games in one box. That was my first introduction to D&D and it was money well spent.

[AmigaDave]

"The Glory Days," as you call them, weren't unlike this revival we're seeing on the forum.  But, there's a few advantages to being involved now versus then:

* Many of the great designs available today hadn't been written yet.
* Many of the hacks and tricks we take for granted hadn't been developed.
* Series of modules, like "The Realm" weren't even being attempted.
* Sci-fi UA?  Super-hero UA?  Oriental Adventures UA?  Such things weren't possible.

Those days weren't nearly as "glorious" as you might think.

Well I can't argue with anything you have written above, but the one big advantage to being involved from way back during those earlier "glory days" would be that I might actually know something about writing UA mods and I could contribute more to this revival of the UA community.  Also I could have conversed with more of the people who were doing the actual hacking of UA to create more possibilities in how it is played today.

Perhaps UA's best days are still ahead of us.  That is how I will believe and participate in this forum, with optimism for the future.

[ProphetSword]

Well I can't argue with anything you have written above, but the one big advantage to being involved from way back during those earlier "glory days" would be that I might actually know something about writing UA mods and I could contribute more to this revival of the UA community.  Also I could have conversed with more of the people who were doing the actual hacking of UA to create more possibilities in how it is played today.

Actually, there's a ton of information about writing modules to be found in the UANLs.  Aside from that, all you can do is start writing them.  It isn't that tough (it really isn't).  The hard part is finishing your work.

So, if you want to contribute to the revival, start writing.  That's all it takes.

[Nol Drek]

I vote for Curse of the Azure Bonds for nostalgic reasons. It is the first Gold Box game I ever played. My initial response to CAB was:

1) Unlike Heroes of the Lance, the side-scrolling Silver Box game, it doesn't suck.

2) It is a lot like Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom, except the walls are filled in with colorful patterns instead of just being outlined.

3) It is even more like Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World, except each dungeon does not reload with creatures every time you exit and come back in.

I enjoyed the fact that the Azure Bonds can be removed by killing Mogion, Dracandros, and Dexam the Beholder in any order you prefer. I replayed the game at least 3 times, fighting each of the 3 main villains in a different order each time. This gave the design a sense of freedom and non-linearity. I also enjoyed all of the side areas that served no purpose. The battle against the Mulmaster Beholder Corps is truly epic. The designers get extra points for making the hardest battle in the game completely optional and not connected to any so-called "story line".

[hans]

I vote for Curse of the Azure Bonds for nostalgic reasons. It is the first Gold Box game I ever played...The designers get extra points for making the hardest battle in the game completely optional and not connected to any so-called "story line".

 

I loved that fight!  I looked forward to it every time I replayed CAB, which was lots.  Another great fight was with the black dragons on Dracandros' tower.  Again, it was a very, very tough fight that you could easily avoid.  Few other Goldbox games (or UA mods) used that ploy to provide chances for extra fun and challenge.

CAB was also my first Goldbox game.  I wonder if nostalgia makes us connect to our first in some special, mystical, goodvibes kinda way.  I wrestled with either choosing CAB or DKK.  Finally I chose DKK because of the gut-wrenching end to the Sir Karl -- Maya subplot. 

Both CAB & DKK share a sense of extra intrique and suspense over many of the other games.  They were both more emotionally charged than average, CAB because of the curse on the party, DKK because of the encroaching, even apocalyptic, darkness (a bit like Night of the Living Dead, sometimes).  They sustained their tension well, right to their climaxes. 

COK's climax failed to match the darker edge of much of its early parts.  Too much Kender action. 

DQK, likewise, let its story tension grow slack in important places. 

POR did quite well, and probably would've been my third pick.  Its structure was excellent, but lacked the driving plot dynamic of CAB or DKK. 

SSB seemed too confined for me. 

POD proved that bigger is not better.  The story didn't hold together as well as the earlier ones, and the threat was too big and externalized. 

The Savage Frontier games had workable but average plots for the genre.   

I liked the Buck Rogers games a lot.  I wonder if anyone is going to pick one of them.  There was room for improvement overall, but many of the episodes within their storylines were extremely well done.  It would've been great to see a Buck Rogers construction kit. 

[Merle]

I liked the Buck Rogers games a lot.  I wonder if anyone is going to pick one of them.  There was room for improvement overall, but many of the episodes within their storylines were extremely well done.  It would've been great to see a Buck Rogers construction kit.

I guess since Countdown to Doomsday is the only Gold Box game I've played so far (not counting FRUA, naturally) then I'd have to pick that one as my favorite.

[AmigaDave]

Well I can't argue with anything you have written above, but the one big advantage to being involved from way back during those earlier "glory days" would be that I might actually know something about writing UA mods and I could contribute more to this revival of the UA community.  Also I could have conversed with more of the people who were doing the actual hacking of UA to create more possibilities in how it is played today.

Actually, there's a ton of information about writing modules to be found in the UANLs.  Aside from that, all you can do is start writing them.  It isn't that tough (it really isn't).  The hard part is finishing your work.

So, if you want to contribute to the revival, start writing.  That's all it takes.

Yes, I know that the actual "Starting" to anything is the hardest part (specially when I have so many other things that need to be done), but I will work myself up to beginning "soon".

Would it be a huge, or difficult task to extract some, or most of the information about writing modules from the UANL's and place it in some kind of logical order here on the forums, similar to how all the reviews have been copied and placed here in one convenient place for everyone to search through?  I don't want to over commit myself to anything and thereby disappoint the membership here if I am slow in completing such a task, but I would be willing to help in the searching through old UANL's to copy and paste portions of the text to a place here created to hold it.  That would be one good way for me to look for and read such information while I was helping complete such a task.