SSI AD&D games..any good?

[Argus]

There are a few of these classics on eBay right now.  Anyone played them before?  Recommend any particular one?

[dreadwin]

I have most of them on my Amiga, and I throroughly enjoyed them.

Champions of Krynn / Death Knights of Krynn / Dark Queen of Krynn is a great trilogy, and Pool of Radiance / Curse of the Azure Bonds / Secret of the Silver Blades / Pools of Darkness is even more fun.

The graphics are from VGA/EGA ports of the PC versions, but the games themselves are excellent, real classics.

[MikesterBrau]

   The music on those game is really exceptionally good and they are all very well done.  Sure the graphics are dated but the D&D gold box games still rate as some of my favorites.     Actually this is a good reminder to update my games page.     The first one Pool of Radiance should have gotten at least an honorable mention on my page and is a great place to start.

http://www.geocities.com/jmikesterbrau/gaming.html

[Amiduffer]

Well, not all of them were good, I played a good number of them, and one in particular sucked, but I can't remember the name. The feature was when you ran across a critter and the screen would move to a a side view of your character and the monster and there could only be one onscreen at a time. I dumped that game quick.  :-P

The rest were cool though. :-D

[dreadwin]

@MikesterBrau:

Love that icon of Bard's Tale.  Bard's Tale I on the Amiga 1000 is what convinced me to get an Amiga in the first place.

[amigadave]

Argus wrote:
There are a few of these classics on eBay right now.  Anyone played them before?  Recommend any particular one?

The Forgotten Realms - Gold Box games were some of my favorite Amiga games.  I just wish the last one which was not really a game but a game design program had been ported to the Amiga.  It was called Unlimited Adventures and it allows the user to create their own Gold Box games.  Pool of Radiance was a great starting point.  There are even groups still active that code their own modules using FRUA (Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures) and there is a clone that have been developed for Windows that uses more modern screen resolutions, but I have not successfully installed and played it yet.  I thin it is called UAF (Unlimited Adventures Forever).  Buy one or two and check them out for yourself.  Most people either love or hate them.  They are not Doom, if that is what you like forget them.

[CatHerder]

I too bought every single SSI game there ever was in the 80's :-)

All but one AD&D title was no good, it's name evades me. (I also thought the SSI strategy war games were exceptional and was never disappointed). SSI game quality improved year after year too, amazing considering the Amiga basically stayed the same (other than growing to 2MB CHIP RAM). An amazing game that I never hear anyone talk about was Questron (and Questron II), many many days of youth lost on those too. :lol:

I think if a person "collected" all the SSI games (and there were dozens and dozens) you'd have some of the finest Amiga games (heck even "all time computer games") to not only posess but to play and enjoy even today.

[Oliver]

Had many hours of fun with those games as a youngster.  Damn good for the time.  Used to play them with some RPG buddies, when no one could be bothered GM'ing.  Each kid would design and control a character.  Hmmm, nostalgia, yum.

However, I think the graphics may be a little disappointing now, unless you're really into the retro look.  Could still be quite playable though.

[save2600]

Nothing like resurrecting an old thread!  :laughing:

Was trying to find a list of all the SSI AD&D games made for the Amiga and not having good luck. There's a french site which is trying to list ALL games for the Amiga, but sadly, they didn't preface the titles with AD&D.

Anyone have a quick and handy list by chance?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I loved those games, this is from memory. If I was at home I could dig out one of the old SSI catalogs that had all of them listed, but this will have to do for now.
 
Pool of Radiance
Hillsfar
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Secret of the Silver Blades
Pool of Darkness
 
Champions of Krynn
Death Knights of Krynn
something-or-other else of Krynn?
 
Dragonlance (I & II, maybe?)
 
Eye of the Beholder I & II (III never ported to the Amiga)
 
DragonStrike (dragon combat flight simulator)
 
The Buck Rogers games used the same engine, as well. Not sure if you count those?

[save2600]

Nice list, thanks Mike! Here's what I've got CIB so far in my collection:

AD&D Champions of Krynn
AD&D Curse of the Azur Bonds
AD&D Death Knights of Krynn
AD&D Dragons of Flame (disk w/ manual) - need the box
AD&D Dragonstrike (disk w/ manual) - need the box
AD&D Eye of the Beholder
AD&D Eye of the Beholder II
AD&D Gateway of the Savage Frontier
AD&D Hilsfar
AD&D Pool of Radiance
AD&D Secret of the Silver Blades
AD&D Shadow Sorcerer
AD&D The Dark Queen of Krynn

...don't want to completely trust the catalogs since not sure what might have leaked out late. And no, not talking about anything other than AD&D games - though Buck Rogers is very cool (have that also) as well as Phantasie, Questron, Demon's Winter, etc. BTW: Was there no Phantasie II for the Amiga?

Okay, so looks like I'm missing these at least:

Dragonlance
Forgotten Realms - these are AD&D, correct?
Heroes of the Lance
Pools of Darkness
Treasures of the Savage Frontier

-edit- thanks commodorejohn & minuous

[commodorejohn]

Yep, those are AD&D.

[Minuous]

>one in particular sucked, but I can't remember the name. The feature was when you ran across a critter and the screen would move to a a side view of your character and the monster and there could only be one onscreen at a time.

That would be either Heroes of the Lance or Dragons of Flame.

>BTW: Was there no Phantasie II for the Amiga?

No. Hopefully the ST version will get ported in the near future...

>Okay, so looks like I'm missing these at least:

And Heroes of the Lance.

[Methuselas]

The Forgotten Realms - Gold Box games were some of my favorite Amiga games.  I just wish the last one which was not really a game but a game design program had been ported to the Amiga.  It was called Unlimited Adventures and it allows the user to create their own Gold Box games.  Pool of Radiance was a great starting point.  There are even groups still active that code their own modules using FRUA (Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures) and there is a clone that have been developed for Windows that uses more modern screen resolutions, but I have not successfully installed and played it yet.  I thin it is called UAF (Unlimited Adventures Forever).  Buy one or two and check them out for yourself.  Most people either love or hate them.  They are not Doom, if that is what you like forget them.

Dave, it's called Dungeon Craft now. It's pretty sweet. I remember using it a while ago. Would be nice if we could get someone like Nova to port it. Some of the graphics are dated looking, but wouldn't take much to update them.

http://uaf.sourceforge.net/

[lost_loven]

Just started up dragons strike again! One of my favs.. hero's of the lance to easy and can beat with in 2 hrs.. short game. Be nice if there was a remake of dragon strike Loved the idea of riding on a dragon and dueling it out in the sky.

lost