Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games download for PC and Mac
Pool of Radiance is a computer RPG created by Strategic Simulations Inc and released initially for Commodore 64 and Apple II in 1988.
| Year | 1989 |
| Genre | Role Playing |
| Rating |  82/100 based on 9 Editorial reviews. Add your vote |
| Publisher | Strategic Simulations Inc |
| Developer | Ubi Soft |
| OS supported | Win7 64 bit, Win8 64bit, Windows 10, MacOS 10.6+ |
| Updated | 10 June 2022 |
Pool of Radiance is a computer RPG created by Strategic Simulations Inc and released initially for Commodore 64 and Apple II in 1988.
It is the first official adaptation of the rules of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, specifically AD&D 2nd edition. The game was ported to many other platforms, including DOS, Macintosh, and NES.
The Amiga version, released in 1990, wasn't developed internally at SSI. Ubi Soft took care of the conversion.
Pool of Radiance was a complex project that cost more than 1 year of development. The rules of D&D, including combat, statistics, classes, rolls of dice, were faithfully recreated. The Forgotten Realms setting, with its monsters, cities, and gods were added to the game. Even the graphics were taken from the official manuals. TRS artists and authors collaborated with SSI to create the game.
The game engine created by SSI, called "Gold Box", would be used for many other games, including the 3 additional titles of the Pool of Radiance series, the Neverwinter Nights trilogy (not to be confused with the Bioware one), the Dragonlance trilogy and the 2 games of Buck Rogers. That's why there is not much difference in terms of gameplay between the 8-bit and 16-bit versions. But Ubi Soft did a great job in porting the game to the Amiga, improving the graphics and the music.
Pool of Radiance is simply a masterpiece and one of the most important computer games ever released. If you love RPGs, especially the ones that allow you to spend time creating your party, leveling up the characters, selecting the spells, and more, this game is a must.
Review by: Manu
Published: 12 October 2019 9:04 am
Download for PC 
Amiga version 1.2 - Language: English - Size: 7.72 Mb
Download for Mac Amiga version 1.2 - Language: English - Size: 9.28 Mb
Download for PC/Mac Amiga version - Language: English - Size: 20.63 Mb
Including code wheels + Adventurers Journals + reference cards
Price: $9.99
UPDATED : It works well in general, but I had one minor issue (which was my error).
My "sprites" (character icons in combat) did not show any weapon or shield. Later, I realized I simple had not seen the Parts option left of Color 1, Color 2, etc.
Addendum - Debugging :
I had one failure, where the emulator was declaring a bad workbench. I simply downloaded the original files and copied over the save data (fsuae/Hard Drives/data/[everything there]).
About paths :
I was supposed to use the default save path (that is you do not enter any path: leave path empty and hit Enter), but I had accidentally started using path a instead (not to be confused with save slot a). Though that did not seem to be an issue, I preferred to be on the safe side: I moved all the files marked as "a..." to the proper save folder (Hard Drives/data/save). Of course, you must first remove all files from that folder to avoid conflicts (they are the pregenerated characters with a default save) and remove the path letter that is prefixed to all those files (for example, instead of aCHRDATA1.itm in should be CHRDATA1.itm save in the /save folder).
Buy this game