"Pool of Radiance. Curse of the Azure Bonds. For some - mere titles of obsolete games. For others, sacred words, hallowed words, words never spoken without that tell-tale sigh of longing brought by years of insatiable, incurable nostalgia."

Matt Barton, Dungeons & Desktops







v2.65   11-Jun-2021


What's new

GOG setup tutorial


 




15-Apr-2022


Tips & Troubleshooting

Extras
Mail feedback to
joonas@zorbus.net



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Introduction - A battle begins...

SSI's AD&D "Gold Box" games were released in 1988-1992 and set in the fantasy worlds of Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance. They were among the best of turn-based CRPGs, and are still being played today.

Gold Box Companion is a tool for all the Gold Box games, Unlimited Adventures, and the two SSI's Buck Rogers games. It offers automapping, easy-to-use journal entries, and helps with some of the interface issues to make playing a little less tedious.

Buy the games from Steam or GOG




Features

Note: The default Steam version of GBC is missing some of the features, but you can download an updated version from above. For the external tools like the Save Game Editor, you need to download the regular version.

  • HUD above DOSBox window with hit points, character icons, XP meters, and effects. Shows good effects in green, bad in red. Also shows if a character is level drained.
  • Fix-command for Pool of Radiance. Works with the other games as well. Instantly heals the characters. Optionally also fixes level drained characters. Can not be used while in combat.
  • Temporarily change demihuman race to human to avoid experience level limits.
  • Optional level up without visiting training halls and without race-/game-related level limits.
  • Store the list of memorized spells and restore the spells with a single click. Can not be used while in combat.
  • Automap with party location. Notes can be added to the map.
  • World map view. Shows party location in some games.
  • Combat view. Shows character / monster locations. Shows if character/monster is held or helpless.
  • Journal entries.
  • Optional auto-identify of items.
  • Optional auto-ammo increases the amount of arrows / bolts / darts to a wanted level.
  • Autodisable quickfight after combat. Some of the older games didn't disable quickfight between fights so you could enter a dangerous fight with quickfight on.
  • Character editor. Reads/modifies memory so it's instant compared to save file editors. Can not be used while in combat.
  • Teleporting. You can teleport to a chosen location on the map. You can also teleport on the world map in some of the games.
  • Save Game Editor. You can edit party composition (swap members in / out), edit inventories and effects.
  • Some modding tools for changing the font and editing game data.
  • Lists saved games chronologically with a description of the location (map name).
  • Able to backup to latest save game with a description.
  • Playing paladin or ranger in Pool of Radiance. Can be exported to Curse of the Azure Bonds. Steam-users see here.
  • Very experimental monk class for Pool of Radiance. Can be exported to Curse of the Azure Bonds.


         

What's new

v2.65  (15-Apr-2022)

v2.65  (11-Apr-2022)
  • Updated Steam-versions are available here. You can now unlock docking of the HUD window. Audio version also available.
  • Added a 430 megabyte collection of music files: gbc_music_2.zip. Download and extract to GBC folder.

v2.65  (05-Apr-2022)

v2.65  (11-Jun-2021)
  • Better handling of party composition changes. Adding or removing characters or NPCs should no longer cause an error during gameplay. GBC now also updates its HUD when a member is added or removed, or when the order of party members has changed. This hopefully fixed some related glitches when using GBC with The Dark Queen of Krynn: the HUD wasn't updated properly when certain NPCs left the party, combat map monsters seemed to be invisible or on your side, etc.
  • New tool, ECL-monitor, which can live monitor the current ECL script and flags when a game is running. More info here.

Requirements

  • Windows XP or newer. This might help if you use Linux (it's in german, Google translated).
  • DOSBox DOS-emulator to run old software on modern computers. If you use the Steam- or GOG-versions, you don't need to install DOSBox.
  • Any fantasy-themed Gold Box game, Unlimited Adventures (with or without UAShell), Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday or Matrix Cubed. Buy the games from Steam or GOG.

Downloads

Gold Box Companion
  • gbc.zip ... Latest version to be used with the GOG versions of the games / DOSBox. Also for the Steam games if you need to use the extra utilities like the Save Game Editor.
Add-ons
  • gbc_music.zip ... A collection of music files (40 megabytes) for the audio version of GBC. Download and extract to GBC folder.
  • gbc_music_2.zip ... More music files (430 megabytes) for the audio version of GBC. Download and extract to GBC folder.
Older versions
  • gbc201.zip ... Gold Box Companion v2.01 (2015). Older version that is not so picky about DOSBox version.
Mods Saved games  (You can download and use these even if no plan to use GBC)
  • realms1.zip ... Saves near ending and before key moments for the Realms-games.
  • realms2.zip ... Big package of saves for the Realms-games.
  • krynn1.zip ... Saves near ending for all the Krynn-games.
  • krynn2.zip ... Big package of saves for all the Krynn-games.
  • krynn3.zip ... Another big package of saves for all the Krynn-games.
  • frontier.zip ... Saves near ending for the two Savage Frontier-games.
  • gods.zip ... Hacked saves for Pools of Darkness.
Resources
  • formats.zip ... Descriptions of character save file formats. Lists of all effects and items in the games. Included with GBC.
Other
  • sotsb_cluebook.pdf ... GOG's Secret of the Silver Blades clue book has an error in the mine level 3 map, here's a corrected version.
  • totsf_journal.pdf ... GOG's Treasures of the Savage Frontier adventurer's journal is a bad quality scan, here's a better one.
  • dqkitems.zip ... Some hacked items for The Dark Queen of Krynn, by Redeye.
  • passwords.zip ... Excel-sheet of passwords for the games.
  • goldboxfont.zip ... Gold Box styled font.
  • daxdump.zip ... DAXDump and ECLDump by Simeon Pilgrim. Can be used to decode the run-length encoding of the DAX files.
  • tlbutil2.zip ... TLButil2 by Itamar / Dan Autery. For extracting TLB-files (The Dark Queen of Krynn and FRUA).
  • unp411.zip ... If you want to hack old DOS game executables, you probably need to unpack them first with this utiliity.
  • hackdocs.zip ... File formats of many FRUA related files.

Tutorials



         

Screenshots

Some additional screenshots from modded games here and here. The modding tools are included in the GBC package.


GBC starts with a wizard to search for game/character data in the memory. You select a game, set the game folder, select the save slot then search. Saved games are listed chronologically and the map name is also shown.






HUD with combat icons and effects displayed. The bars are for Hit Points and XP. Map with autoexplore.






World map view in Pool of Radiance.






World map view in Dark Queen of Krynn.






Combat view. Stats and effects can be viewed by targeting a monster with the mouse.






A menu opens by moving the mouse over the HUD.






Level up dialog. Usable anywhere so you don't have to visit training halls. Ignores demihuman/game level limits.






Journal entries can be viewed through the menu.






A quick menu can be opened by pressing Control + the section-key. The key combination can be configured.






Character editor. When in combat, monsters can also be edited. Steam-users see here.






Save game editor. You can backup saves, replace/add characters, and edit inventory/effects. You can even add monsters to your party.






ECL Tool. Browse and edit the bytecode scripts of the games. Here's the famous encounter from Pool of Radiance's slums district.






With the Monster Modder you can browse and edit monsters.






GBC supports Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday and Matrix Cubed.






Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (and UAShell) is also supported.






Pool of Radiance modded with the font from Pools of Darkness. Paladins, rangers, and monks can be played as hacked classes. In the character editor, level 1 fighters can be converted to paladins or rangers, and level 1 thieves to monks. GBC needs to be used for level ups. Imported paladins and rangers can be trained in training halls in Curse, but monks always have to use GBC to level up, and can not be further exported to Secret. Steam-users see here.






         

Monster Manuals

These are complete lists of monsters and their stats in the games, created programmatically from the data files of the games. Some monsters are listed several times because they are different monster records in the data files. There are still unknown flag and effect values. Death Knights of Krynn monsters do not have theirs spells yet listed. These lists are included in the GBC package. Also shows in what area a monster can be encountered in.


Level progression tables

These tables show level progression per class. Experience points needed, hit dice, max hit points, THAC0, spells and thief skills are listed. These lists are included in the GBC package.



   

Links

Buy the games Basic information Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (FRUA) GameBanshee's Walkthroughs & FAQs The-Spoiler's Walkthroughs & FAQs Other Walkthroughs & FAQs GameFAQs Tools Official marketplace forums Forum threads at FRUA & Dungeon Craft Community Other forums Blogs Gold Box related blog posts at The Digital Antiquarian YouTube videos Longplays / Let's plays Speedruns Online Magazine Articles Miscellaneous Other