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General discussionRelease: Forgotten Realms: The Archives(703 posts)(703 posts)
(703 posts)
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Posted August 21, 2015
We're casting True Resurrection on Eye of the Beholder and twelve more D&D GoldBox classics.

You are sitting in a tavern. The mighty Wizards of the Coast bestow upon you their greatest treasures: Forgotten Realms: The Archives - long lost relics of an RPG renaissance that changed the face of gaming forever. Today, one of the forgotten grails of gaming history is within your grasp, should you travel to a magical, DRM-free realm known as GOG.com

Eye of the Beholder, Pool of Radiance, Menzoberranzan - the list of groundbreaking RPG classics goes on. We set out on the quest for Forgotten Realms: The Archives a long time ago, and though it was a perilous journey - after years of searching, huge help from our friends at Hasbro and Wizards of The Coast, as well as months of technical work - we get to be freaking excited to sit here and say:
Forgotten Realms: The Archives are available now, DRM-free on GOG.com





The Archives are a set of thirteen D&D GoldBox classics packaged across three collections:
--<span class="bold">Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection One</span> features Eye of the Beholder I, II, and III. It's the three and only, the gold-standard in classic RPG dungeon crawling.

--<span class="bold">Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection Two</span> features more gameplay hours and secrets than we could ever count - with Pool of Radiance, Hillsfar, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Pools of Darkness, Secret of the Silver Blades, Treasures of the Savage Frontier, and D&D: Unlimited Adventures.

--<span class="bold">Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection Three</span> features near-infinite replay value and and an important chunk of RPG history with Dungeon Hack and Menzoberranzan.





We are now home to precisely 20 years of digital D&D RPG history - from Pool of Radiance (1988) to Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (2008). You can also complete your personal collection with all the remaining D&D titles on sale at up to 80% off in our early D&amp;D Weekend Promo! Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights - they're all here, so head straight to the promo page, or read more about it.






Stream watch:

We'll be featuring lots of D&D classics at Twitch.tv/GOGcom - follow us to not miss 'em or read on for the full Dungeon-and-Dragon-filled schedule below!

THURSDAY, August 20th:
2pm GMT / 4pm CEST / 10am EDT / 7am PDT: Pool of Radiance with Classicor
4pm GMT / 6pm CEST / 12pm EDT / 9am PDT: Eye of the Beholder II with MegapiemanPHD
6pm GMT / 8pm CEST / 2pm EDT / 11am PDT: Eye of the Beholder with Outstar
10pm GMT / 12am CEST / 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT: Menzoberranzan with Classicor

FRIDAY, August 21st:
6pm GMT / 8pm CEST / 2pm EDT / 11am PDT: Curse of the Azure Bonds with Piranjade

SUNDAY, August 23rd:
10pm GMT / 12am CEST / 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT: Dungeon Hack with Classicor
Posted August 20, 2015
Finally!

I managed to track down used CDs of Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager, but I've had a helluva time finding copies of some of these that were acceptably priced after shipping and any $20 customs fees sites like eBay wanted to slap on top.
Posted August 20, 2015
This was a pleasant surprise, keep up the good work GOG!
Posted August 20, 2015
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Shadowflight: I dont have any knowledge of these games but I am intrigued with the second collection because of the Pool of Radience, (I played Myth Drannor and enjoyed it) Do these games have anything to offer a modern gamer or is it more of a nostalgia fest (not offence intended) for fans?

Serous question.
Someone will probably provide all the PRO's very soon, so let me give you my opinion on the CON's, why a modern gamer may find them dated:

- the graphics: all games run in low resolutions (320*200 or 640*480?), most of them in EGA, with a limited number of colors, and while the later games partially offer some fine pixel art, the earlier ones like Pool of Radiance are very crudely drawn for the most part (example)
- the controls: the earlier games don't have mouse support, you have to press keys or use numpad to scroll or click through menus
- the text restrictions: due to the limited memory at the time, the games had to outsource most of the story-telling text to the manual; you will constantly read something like "Suddenly there's a commotion ahead of you. You record the event as entry #12 in your journal.", and then you'll have to look up that entry in your game manual to learn the story.

I know about these games since the mid-90's, but I was never able to really get into them because of the above, and because they are so heavy on combat and light on story-telling and puzzles on top of it. There is an exception to this though, and that's Unlimited Adventures. That one still has low resolution, but mouse support, VGA graphics, more memory for text, and among the community modules you can find great campaigns that are a bit more balanced between combat, story and puzzles, have better graphics and hardly ever refer you to a journal but display all relevant text in-game. It's a bit more complicated to set up under modern Windows so that you can play mods, but once you've managed to do that, this one is worth the asking price of the whole Collection Two on its own, and IMO it has enough to offer to a modern gamer, provided you're fine with reading and turn-based D&D combat.
Post edited August 20, 2015 by Leroux
Posted August 20, 2015
Instabuy for the lot of them. I always said: "These games *need* to be on GOG" and now they finally are.
Thank you!
Posted August 20, 2015
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Crosmando: Hmmm, so "GOG Ltd" is publishing all these, that's good news, at least it means they'll never disappear.
It also means they are GOG exclusive releases :D
Posted August 20, 2015
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groze: So, this was "the big thing" you've been hinting at?! GOG, you seriously have to learn not to hype people's expectations too much like you tend to do, I was left hoping the NOLF games, or something high on the Community Wishlist was going to be released today, not yet another collection of Tolkienesque turn-based dungeon crawlers for "old school people" (i.e. guys who are really bad at anything that involves action and can only excel at these slow things).

More power to those who have been waiting for this, I guess... though we'd all welcome Konami bringing their games here more than this overhyped announcement.
how wude. i'm actually slightly better at 2D shooters and diablo clones than old skool turn-based RPGs, where you have plan out your party to actually beat the game on the easiest setting.... if there is a difficulty setting at all. fuck you, younglings. were you only born after CoD and Battlefield game came out ?!? how many of you have even beaten R-Type 1 ?!?! or any NES platformers at all?

why don't you go back to STEAM? and erm... blow off steam there?
Posted August 20, 2015
I'm a bit ambivalent about this release. On one hand I'm ecstatic because these are awesome games and I loved them back in the day. On the other hand, that was back in the day. They are so old by now that they might be too ancient to enjoy, just because I/we have watched technology evolve way, way beyond these titles.
Oh what the hell...worth a buy and a try!
Thanks GOG.
Posted August 20, 2015
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Leroux: - the text restrictions: due to the limited memory at the time, the games had to outsource most of the story-telling text to the manual; you will constantly read something like "Suddenly there's a commotion ahead of you. You record the event as entry #12 in your journal.", and then you'll have to look up that entry in your game manual to learn the story.
Is this still the case ? I thought gog had corrected this on Wastelands somehow, or was I mistaken ?
Posted August 20, 2015
low rated
Out of curiosity, do any of them accurately implement Vampiric Touch? I know Dungeon Hack does not, as the temporary hit points stack and last forever. (Needless to say, this is game-breakingly powerful.)

The Infinity Engine games don't accurately implement temporary hit points, and the spell is broken (useless) in Temple of Elemental Evil, so I'm wondering if any of these older games did any better here.
Posted August 20, 2015
If this is released now imagine what will Christmas look like. :D
How can they ever top this, I can not wait to see.....
Posted August 20, 2015
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Leroux: - the text restrictions: due to the limited memory at the time, the games had to outsource most of the story-telling text to the manual; you will constantly read something like "Suddenly there's a commotion ahead of you. You record the event as entry #12 in your journal.", and then you'll have to look up that entry in your game manual to learn the story.
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Telika: Is this still the case ? I thought gog had corrected this on Wastelands somehow, or was I mistaken ?
Wastelands 1 was done by InXile as far as getting the journal entries into the game itself :)
Posted August 20, 2015
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Davane: Especially the one that I can't remember the name of, but you start out as gladiators in an arena before breaking free...
That would be Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, the first Dark Sun game :D
Posted August 20, 2015
I know it seems ungrateful, if I ask in the release thread of such a wonderful collection of games for another game (-series)...but:

Could we maybe also get the "Phantasie" series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasie) in the not-so-distant future? Please?

Thank you!
Attachments:
please.jpg (10 Kb)
Posted August 20, 2015
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dav34: (now if only i could get amnesia so i can experience them for the first time-again)
You're in luck! Step over here and I'll use my Claw Hammer Of Forgetting. It has a +5 bonus against Long-Term Memories.
Posted August 20, 2015
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ElTerprise: Which of those three releases would you recommend for someone who haven't played any of those?
Eye of the Beholder. The games are interesting dungen crawlers, their graphics style is kind of timeless (since they were nicely drawn), and you get 3 games for one price :)
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: Forgotten Realms: The Archives(703 posts)(703 posts)
(703 posts)