Dear Abandonia visitors: Help us keep Abandonia free with a small donation. Abandonia is like an old gaming arcade with only original games. Abandonia helps you have fun four hours and years. If Abandonia is useful to you, please help us forget fundraising and get back to Abandonia.


When Abandonia was founded it was to collect and present all old games where the copyright protection had been abandoned, hence the term ’abandonware’ and the site name Abandonia.com. We are still keeping the site open and free and will appreciate your support to help it stay that way.

‐ Thank you from the Abandonia Team

We are trying to make it easy for people in every country to donate. Please let us know how we could make it easier for you.

Please give whatever you can to help us.

Amount: Currancy:

or
select language!
English
password:
not a member yet? register here! forgot your password? reset here!

Download Pool of Radiance

Pool of Radiance
 
Producer:
Publisher:
Year:
Keywords:
Size:
881 kb
Compability:

 

Buy it




 http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/24513/Abandonia_20.png

Pool of Radiance was not Strategic Simulations Incorporated's (SSI) first foray into computer roleplaying games, but it may have been the company's best remembered one. Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) was looking for a video game producer to bring its famous Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rule system to the ever growing personal computer market, and the staff of both companies found in each other kindred spirits, as they both possessed backgrounds in tabletop wargaming. Pool of Radiance would spawn the Gold Box series of games, whose engine went on to support an amazing total of a dozen SSI games. It would be popular enough to influence a more recent game developed by Ubisoft and given a similar title (though maybe we'd better forget that atrocity).

So yes, the game was successful. But how does it hold up now?

The game perspective is shown through a first person view while exploring, and a top-down look that reveals all combatants during engagements. The game is entirely turn-based, and counters on the display show the current time along with the current map location via X and Y coordinates. As characters explore their area, there are numerous NPCs to meet, shops to visit, and events that will occur. Due to disk space limitations of the time, these discussions and events are normally only a few lines of text, though the text will also tell the player to flip to certain sections of the manual for a more verbose description.

The tactical combat is truly superb and accurately reflects the tabletop rules from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Magic missiles always hit, sleep spells take out the right number of monsters that someone familiar with the rules would expect, clerics heal, thieves backstab, and so on. Casting a fireball spell into the midst of a large group of enemies never got old, no matter how many hit points they had. Warriors are important, and often must be used to form shield walls for spellcasters, or to wade through enemy melee fighters in order to attack the enemy magic-user before he can get a spell off. Archers in melee cannot fire their bows and have to switch to weapons better suited for hand-to-hand fighting. A combatant can guard and get first strike on an incoming enemy. For such an old game, it truly has a complex and fun combat system.

One major criticism is that the technology did limit the usefulness of non-combat actions. Thieves can backstab and pick locks, but otherwise they are nearly useless: magic-users can cast spells that open doors, and strong warriors can bash them down. Traps are not much of a consideration, and the spells of the magic users and clerics are limited almost solely to combat or healing. There are a few story-based choices to be made, but you won't be using smooth talking or stealth to get around most obstacles. But ultimately, that's because this game is about the combat, and in that sense it does its job well.

http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/24513/Abandonia_19.png

The game will ask you at startup for certain codes, which you can answer by consulting the code wheel provided in the extras above.

How to run: 

Run the game with Pool.bat 

 

Part of the Dungeons & Dragons games Series


advertisment

Reviewed by: Deuce Traveler / Screenshots by: Deuce Traveler / Uploaded by: Tomekk / share on facebook
 

User Reviews

If you like this game, you will also like

 
genre:
RPG
theme:
Fantasy, Medieval,
perspective:
 
genre:
RPG
theme:
Fantasy, Medieval,
perspective:
 
genre:
RPG
theme:
Fantasy, Medieval,
perspective:
 
genre:
RPG
theme:
Fantasy, Medieval,
perspective:
Ninja Casino Games


Your Ad Here