Should anyone be good at modding games, this one needs 2 mods.
An in game quest journal and a corrupted character avatar fixer. The later can be avoided by going to an earlier save, unless you hire a new female or alchmist avatar.from an inn after starting a new game. Then you are stuck.

I can't mod but only wish for it :(

Simple solution for a quest journal:

Buy yourself a notepad and write down the various quests you're given. That's what I used to do when I played the game back when it was somewhat new.

I think everyone did......

The gog download actually includes a quest listing utility (or you can download it from darklands.net).

It needs a bit of setting up because the save games aren't easily found. The easiest way to do it if you don't know too much about doxbox is:

1) Copy 'dosboxDarklands.conf' in the darklands folder. Rename it something you can remember.
2) Edit the new file and scroll to the bottom, then replace DARKLAND.EXE with DKQUE.EXE and delete the last two lines (cls and exit).
3) Copy the Darklands desktop or start menu shortcut. Rename it to something you can remember.
4) Right click the new shortcut and choose properties.
5) In the 'Target' box, replace dosboxDarklands.conf with the name of the new conf file you made in step 1.
6) Remove everything after the .conf (-noconsole -c "exit").

This new shortcut will run the quest lister on your most recent save game. It gives all the info you could need about who set the quest, what you have to do and where you have to go to do it and then to turn it in, and even includes things like time limits.

Edit: Misread the dosbox config - the emulated drive line is actually commented out.

"corrupted character avatar fixer"
A color and graphic changing tool would be nice, or perhaps even the info for how to do it in a hex editor. Would allow more colors than the game's color selection does, since the game itself seems to support more.

Why can't the monk have blond hair or the alchemist wear a black hood, game? Why must I remake my party if I start a new one and realize I hate a color I chose? This would have benefits beyond fixing the color glitch.

My experience with that program is that it occasionaly removes quest locations, making it impossible to complete. Unless it has been fixed, have not touched it in over 10 years, Just a bunch notebooks titles darklands quest laying around heh.

Making the saves directory read-only when using it should prevent that. Of course that is a hassle, but allows it to be used as a fallback.

If anyone discovers anything about Darklands' save (or other file) format, please post it. Someone else might be willing to write a program to take advantage of it eventually. Any program made might become unusable in 5-10 years, but hacking/modding info never expires.

Well, I know that the Darklands Character Editor uses the save file to edit how much money you have and all that but that's all I know. Sorry if that isn't too useful.

Anyone tried hex editing the save file to see if there's anything in hex related to hair color or something?

You can chose from different hair colors at character creation so that should be stored somewhere in the save games files. If it's stored somewhere then you should be able to edit it. It's "just" a matter of finding out which bits/bytes control hair color.

Exactly what I was thinking. Too bad there's no way to get a hex editor to tell you "THESE BITS DO THIS!" but such is life, I suppose.

Perhaps the original developers can be convinced to release the source code. That would help a great deal. The developers behind Jagged Alliance already released their source code in the past so there is a precedent. (Although that is from a different company.)

The only problem with that is trying to find the original devs and source code. Some of the devs might be either dead or quite old and the source code? That's another can of worms. This game wasn't all that popular and, just like the devs, is quite old.

Would be nice to get the source code since that would breathe some new life into this game and bring it to players who might be put off by the graphics or controls.

I love the game, but I do have a few gripes:

1. SLOW movement speed, especially when traversing a dungeon and having to backtrack.

2. Most of the equipment is worthless, everyone must upgrade to the best stuff to be useful.

3. Unintuitive interface... well at least when compared to modern games.

"1. SLOW movement" The slow speed is imo well suited for battle. Out of battle I agree with you, it is senseless when there is no enemies around and makes exploring dungeons much more sluggish than it should be.

"2. Most of the equipment is worthless, everyone must upgrade to the best stuff to be useful."
I strongly disagree. 15q studded leather and scale taken from enemies is far from ideal but does well while wondering the map and even fighting robber knights. Darklands is rather unusual in how unimportant high quality gear is. It doesn't get much better than the standard 25q, with pawnshop 17q being one point of damage different.
Many weapons are not worth using, but there are still enough good ones for some interesting choices and none have every advantage. The great hammer, for example, is the only melee weapon to completely outclass plate yet is otherwise mediocre for a two-hander. Darklands is more balanced than many others I've played and didn't even try to be. Many weapons are intentionally inferior because it is realistic, most notably pikes and field axes.

"3. Unintuitive interface... well at least when compared to modern games."
The most recent game I've played is The Witcher 2. TW2's title, save, and inventory menus are so outclassed by Darklands that I'd say TW2's interface is vastly inferior overall. Darklands's interface is definitely rough around the edges and Minecraft's blows it out of the water, but it could be so much worse even for a modern game.

Also, it would be nice if when you entered a town, instead of browsing over dull lines of text about where you should go, perhaps there should be a nice, accurately represented map of the town with buildings you can mouse over, highlight and interact with.