# SSI Gold Box RPGs - Any way to play today? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 5, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074 "2012-12-05T15:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/1 "2012-12-05T15:38:59Z")
Short of building a 286 with 3.5" floppy is there anyway to obtain and play these games on a modern PC? I have fond memories of being surrounding by - literally - the entire screen of pixelated mobs and loved the squad/party based combat. Legal only of course, I have no idea if these late 80s early 90s gems are freeware now or not or if someone like Good Old Games is planning a digital version. I would imagine you could put the entire series of games in a 10MB download šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/2 "2012-12-05T15:56:52Z")
Iā€™ve no idea where to obtain them today but I remember trying to play them years ago on a K6-2 processor (133MHz?) Unless I used an application to throttle the game to 1%, the game was unplayable. Enemy movement happened in a blink and tapping a movement key would shoot your character in that direction and use up all of their points. I guess what Iā€™m saying is not to bother trying to get them unless theyā€™ve been optimized for a modern system. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/3 "2012-12-05T16:00:35Z")
Iā€™m not aware of them being sold online - the last gasp of the Gold Box was Unlimited Adventures, which you could probably run in a DOS-Box emulator. Still would need the floppy drive to get a legal copyā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/4 "2012-12-05T16:02:14Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Iā€™ve no idea where to obtain them today but I remember trying to play them years ago on a K6-2 processor (133MHz?) > > Unless I used an application to throttle the game to 1%, the game was unplayable. Enemy movement happened in a blink and tapping a movement key would shoot your character in that direction and use up all of their points. > > I guess what Iā€™m saying is not to bother trying to get them unless theyā€™ve been optimized for a modern system. I assumed as much ā˜¹ Bummer I need an old school party based RPG fix. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/5 "2012-12-05T16:13:38Z")
Looks like (according to Wikiā€™s page on ā€˜Gold Boxā€™) a DOS/WIN collection was released in 2001 - thatā€™d be your best bet for getting them on CD-ROM though youā€™d still need to DOSBox to emulate an appropriate environment. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/6 "2012-12-05T16:16:15Z")
> [@chargerrich](#): > > I assumed as much ā˜¹ > > Bummer I need an old school party based RPG fix. They just released an updated version of the original Baldurā€™s Gate. Not quite as oldschool as youā€™re looking for, but still fairly old school. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/7 "2012-12-05T16:19:07Z")
Iā€™ve been wondering whether digital re-vamping and distribution would have changed the position relatively tolerated abandonware sites like Home of the Underdogs found themselves in. In any case, several of the Gold Box games can be found relatively cheaply in the [Forgotten Realms Silver Archives](http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Realms-Archives-Silver-Edition-Pc/dp/B00001QEP7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354724022&sr=8-1&keywords=forgotten+realms+silver), and I didnā€™t have too much trouble getting them to run in DosBox a couple of years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/8 "2012-12-05T16:25:37Z")
Heh, thereā€™s a review from 2000 on that page saying you needed to use MoSlow to play them. Sounds familiar! Cool find though to be able to get them through legitimate retail. ---
**Author:** ![Sofis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Sofis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofis)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/9 "2012-12-05T16:34:59Z")
Oh man, moslo? I havenā€™t heard about that program in years. šŸ™‚ I played through all of them this year (well, I didnā€™t finish Pools of Darkness yet). They all run fine on DOSBox, though you might have to do some manual editing of config files in order to transfer characters between games. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/10 "2012-12-05T16:45:42Z")
Iā€™ve run other late-80ā€™s games in DosBox without too much trouble. Itā€™s usually a lot of trial and error getting DosBox slowed down to the right speed-- it would be nice if there were just presets for older systems. One thing thatā€™s sort of counter intuitive is that (at least in my experience) getting really old games to run smoothly on DosBox requires a much beefier computer than just running a 486 or Pentium era title. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/11 "2012-12-05T16:51:50Z")
> [@chargerrich](#): > > Bummer I need an old school party based RPG fix. If weā€™re talking \*really \*old school look up _Legend of Grimrock_, a recent tribute to the Gold Box/Eye of the Beholder/early Might&Magic era. They have a Letā€™s Play of it going [over at Something Awful](http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3514637) if you want to get an idea of how the game plays, what it looks like and such. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/12 "2012-12-05T17:02:04Z")
If youā€™re talking _really_ old school, you get the original Bardā€™s Tale trilogy included with the [2005 version](http://store.steampowered.com/app/41900/) now. I didnā€™t mention it earlier since it lacks the combat mechanics of the SSI Gold Box games. I guess (from what everyone else said), the games work fine in DosBox. Back when I played them, it was directly through the command line prompt in the Win98 DOS shell. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/13 "2012-12-05T17:10:09Z")
Iā€™ve played some of them with a c64 emulator, but the legality of that is questionable. ---
**Author:** ![Shooby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Shooby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shooby)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/14 "2012-12-06T17:40:25Z")
Might they count as abandonware if thereā€™s no legal way to get them now? ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/15 "2012-12-06T19:26:12Z")
> [@Shooby](#): > > Might they count as abandonware if thereā€™s no legal way to get them now? I would be DEEPLY shocked if you canā€™t find them for download somewhere on the internet with a little bit of diligent searching. And yes, theyā€™re pretty much the textbook case of ā€œabandonwareā€ (a term with no legal significance, mind you. No one is REQUIRED to sell you their stuff.) All that said, there has to be a better way to get a party based RPG fix than to play one of thoseā€¦ahem, games of dubious merit. I remain to this day, astonished by the following they seem to have, considering that I was EXACTLY their target market back in the day and I didnā€™t even like them THEN. x.x Sadly though, most of the suggestions I would make involve either console titles or further dubious legality. Or both. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/16 "2012-12-06T20:35:31Z")
Look at [abandonia.com](http://abandonia.com) to find the games. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/17 "2012-12-13T09:15:50Z")
You can buy most of them on [GOG.com](http://GOG.com) They are also selling the aformentioned Legend of Grimrock for $7.50 right now. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ssi-gold-box-rpgs-any-way-to-play-today/643074/18 "2012-12-13T15:21:32Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > You can buy most of them on [GOG.com](http://GOG.com) Not sure why you are saying this, becauseā€¦no, you canā€™t. The only vaguely D&D related games that I can find on GOG are Icewind Dale (1 and 2) and Neverwinter Nights, neither of which are ā€œgold boxā€ games, though Icewind Dale MIGHT meet the demand for a party-based tactical RPG thing.