Dark Sun pc game series

[Daehawk]

Does anyone remember these gems? Im wondering if they are playable now and if so how fun they are. I think GoG has one but would need to check. Otherwise I dont know a way to make them run. I own them somewhere but never played anything but the first ones demo. I really liked it as I recall but never got around to the full games. Overhead RPG is my favorite type so thinking about them now days.

Did anyone like them? Would they hold up today? Would they even run????
Would I be better off just getting something like Tyranny?

[Max Peck]

GOG sells the pair of them as a bundle. I haven't played either of them any time in this millenium, but the GOG user reviews are all good, with nothing lower than 4/5.

[killbot737]

I had to have played them back in the day when I ran out of Gold Box games. I don't remember disliking them, but I am a big fan of the Dark Sun setting. I think I also played one of the Al Qadim DnD games and didn't like it nearly as much.

Daehawk you might dig them. DS characters start out OP and only get more redonk as you level up. GoG has them, you just missed a sale. GoG has regular DnD game sales though, I'm positive they'll be discounted again sooner than later.

[Max Peck]

Yeah, rumour has it that the Steam summer sale will be starting on 22 Jun. GOG usually runs their big sales about a week ahead of the Steam sales, so you should be able to score a discount in about a month.

[NickAragua]

If you've played them before, they're as good as they were when they were released. Meaning, fundamentally strong gameplay and storyline, but enough bugs to fill a Thri-Kreen hive. My favorite one was where some guy asked me to clear out a bunch of fire elementals, so I go all the way across the map from him and kill the elementals. As soon as I kill the last elemental, he starts a popup dialog from across the map every time my character takes a step. Only way to stop it was to kill him. Took like ten minutes to get back to his position though, since, after cancelling out of his previous dialog, my characters would get to walk for about half a second before he started his BS up again.

But yeah, basically, in that game, you just load up your guys with two swords each and go to town, you barely even have to use magic. Well, maybe between fights to heal up, but you can always run back to a rest spot instead.

[Daehawk]

Well ok then Ill add them to my wish list and keep my eye out for the summer sale. I thought the setting would be fun and the overhead view is my favorite. I dont understand why I never got them or played them.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I had Shattered Lands but I don't remember much about it. I have some vague recollection of getting my ass kicked as a gladiator in an arena (and fighting some insect monsters?), but other that I could tell you nothing about that game.

[Kelan]

I had both when they were released, but Wake of the Ravager was the one I actually finished. I really enjoyed that one back then and still remember the last areas and final battle to this day. As Nick mentioned, I have fond memories of loading up guys with dual magic swords and going to town.

I am not sure how well it would hold up today, but I should give it a shot. I was replaying some gold box games just last year and would be curious how these hold up compared to them.

[Max Peck]

For those with a penchant for nostalgia, you can read Scorpia's review of the first Dark Sun in issue 113 (Dec 1993) of Computer Gaming World, starting on page 124.

[MonkeyFinger]

Scorpia!

[Jag]

Loved Dark Sun, but I don't see it holding up well today. I tried nostalgia gaming with the Baldur's Gate remasters and I couldn't even get through that classic.

These days games like Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin feed my isometric RPG habit.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

For those with a penchant for nostalgia, you can read Scorpia's review of the first Dark Sun in issue 113 (Dec 1993) of Computer Gaming World, starting on page 124.

I loved that magazine. Just seeing that cover brought back a flood of memories.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Also, the review of Dark Sun lists the price as $79.99! I don't remember games ever being that expensive.

[Smoove_B]

I have all the AD&D Darksun PnP materials. At the time, it was quite a departure from the "high fantasy" world of of Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms. The Darksun setting is actually rather interesting and their take on how magic works was (at the time) quite different. I vaguely remember playing the first Dark Sun PC game and I think I still have the giant box and floppies somewhere in my magic closet of nostalgia. No idea how it would hold up in 2017 but I'm guessing it won't feel as novel or ground breaking as they might have been in the early 1990s.

[Redfive]

For those with a penchant for nostalgia, you can read Scorpia's review of the first Dark Sun in issue 113 (Dec 1993) of Computer Gaming World, starting on page 124.

I loved that magazine. Just seeing that cover brought back a flood of memories.

I had that issue too!

[Jag]

For those with a penchant for nostalgia, you can read Scorpia's review of the first Dark Sun in issue 113 (Dec 1993) of Computer Gaming World, starting on page 124.

I loved that magazine. Just seeing that cover brought back a flood of memories.

I had that issue too, but now I do have to laugh at the lack of armor for the girl. I never would have even thought about it back then, so...progress?

[Daehawk]

Have or had it too. Was my favorite magazine of them all. And loved Scorpia.

[killbot737]

Take heed! I spotted this tidbit in a non-Kasey guide:

9.) Make sure you have plenty of space left on the hard drive when you
install the game. The reason for this is the save games can get as big as 1.4 - 1.6
MEGS on the hard drive. (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NEW TO THE COMPUTER LINGO,
A "MEG" OR "MEGABYTE" REPRESENTS 1,000,000 BYTES.)

PS Just FYI my first HD was a 20MB MFM drive. Which was different from RLL.

[Daehawk]

In 1994 when it came out my hard drive was 210 megs. After dos and windows and such I had about 100 megs and then games took up the rest. I was having to delete stuff to install other stuff.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I had a 40 Meg HD at that time, but we used a program ("double RAM"? "RAM Expand"?, can't remember the name) that DOUBLED your RAM! I have no idea what that program actually did, but I'm pretty sure it couldn't actually increase the amount of RAM in your computer...

[Daehawk]

I remember one called Ram Doubler I think.

[Max Peck]

I remember one called Ram Doubler I think.

Seems legit. Per Wikipedia:

RAM Doubler: The first product to combine compression with virtual memory. A top selling Mac utility for many years which eventually was made obsolete as Apple improved their own virtual memory. There was also a RAM Doubler for Windows 3.1 which increased system resources — using a compression technique — therefore allowing more applications to run. RAM Doubler was something of a case study for porting Macintosh products to the PowerPC processor, as CEO Roy McDonald presented a paper detailing the company's porting efforts at the Sumeria Technology and Issues Conference on June 30, 1994

[NickAragua]

No matter how much virtual memory you have, you're still limited by that 640k.

[Redfive]

[NickAragua]

The worst was when the game required sound and/or mouse drivers.

[Daehawk]

Used to load stuff high and always had about 618 free.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, that's about as high as you can go.

Anyway, back on topic, if you do wind up grabbing either of those games, make sure to (during the character creation step) modify the characters' stats to max. It's a wonderful holdover from the gold box games, where they (for some reason) included the ability to modify stats "so that you can recreate your favorite characters in-game", to paraphrase one of the game manuals. If by "favorite characters" they meant hulked out supermen with maximum ability scores and hit points then yes, that's an accurate way to put it.

[coopasonic]

I mean how could that NOT be your favorite character?

[Zarathud]

The days when role play meant spending hours rolling up characters to get the right stat arrays. Roll 4d6, swap two stats. I think we rolled batches of 10.

[Daehawk]

God I remember spending HOURS on Icewind Dale rolling the dice to get those perfect scores for certain stats.

[NickAragua]

Damn kids these days with their point buys.

[Enigma]

For those with a penchant for nostalgia, you can read Scorpia's review of the first Dark Sun in issue 113 (Dec 1993) of Computer Gaming World, starting on page 124.

Wow, thanks for linking that magazine....what a walk down memory lane. So much nostalgia!!! The other thing that struck me was how THICK that mag was. It had a ton of content!!

[baelthazar]

For those with a penchant for nostalgia, you can read Scorpia's review of the first Dark Sun in issue 113 (Dec 1993) of Computer Gaming World, starting on page 124.

I loved that magazine. Just seeing that cover brought back a flood of memories.

I had that issue too!

My parents are moving and I was cleaning out the basement of some of my old stuff and I just found issues from around that time. I saved a particularly funny one from 1999 or so that had the "Dream Machine PC" specs - it sported a blisteringly fast 256mb Graphics card and cost around $1600 (in 1999 money, which would be like $2500).

I sort of remember these games costing around $60. The MSRP was $79.99, but EB and Babbages would have them on "permanent discount" for around $59.99. I remember the day I saved enough money to buy both Ravenloft 2: The Stone Prophet and another game (the names escapes me, possibly War Wind) at the same time. I thought I was Daddie Warbucks or something.

I liked the Dark Sun idea, but found the game world so weird that I do not thing I got very far in the game. At the same time, SSI released Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse and, since it was a shameless Zelda clone, I preferred it. The year 1994 was also the year of Menzoberranzan, Dark Legions, and Ravenloft 1 - not to mention that 1993 they released Unlimited Adventures, and I spent a LOT of my time making Gold Box style games with that (I was 15 in 1994). Most of my game library was composed of SSI products, and when I look at their game list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S ... ions_games) I can say "I owned that" to most everything except the war games. I even owned Thunderscape, which was super weird.

[Jaymon]

Dark Sun introduced the HalfDwarf, called Mul which has not been repeated again. They were just too awesome.

[Daehawk]

I have Thunderscape too. Not a bad game. Never got all that far though.