Dungeons & Dragons Games Vol. 24: Gold Box - Gateway to the Savage Frontier (MS-DOS) - Part 1

Developer:

Beyond Software

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Release Date:

1991

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Systems:

DOS, Amiga, C64

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm back to Dungeons & Dragons with Gateway to the Savage Frontier!

The opening titles call it a "Forgotten Realms Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Volume I", and I remember seeing that on a bunch of earlier titles as well. Though Pool of Radiance called itself a 'Fantasy Role-Playing Epic Vol. I' and Eye of the Beyonder was a 'Fantasy Role-Playing Saga Vol. 1' so they're a little different. And Champions of Krynn wasn't even set in the Forgotten Realms!

This is yet another Gold Box RPG, the 7th or 8th of them so far, but this time Strategic Simulations Inc. handed the reins over to Don Daglow's Beyond Software. Daglow was already a veteran RPG game designer at this point, having created one of the first RPGs ever made, Dungeon, in 1975 for PDP-10 mainframes. He also invented the concept of having a circle under the selected player in sports games, apparently.

You could argue that 1991 was the wrong time to start a whole new RPG saga with the ageing Gold Box engine, especially as there were two other D&D series still going and the games were already getting accused of being archaic. I think SSI may have actually agreed the engine was out of date, as they had new engines on the way for the Dark Sun and Ravenloft games. Fans just had to hang in there for a couple more years.

The Gold Box engine had gotten a bit of an update at least, with Buck Rogers XXVc: Countdown to Doomsday introducing 256-colour VGA graphics. This is the first D&D RPG to make use of the upgrade, plus it introduces Sound Blaster support for proper sound effects! I'm not getting my hopes up for a soundtrack though.

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The game was in the D&D bundle I bought on Steam, so I get to use this nice launcher again, with all the manuals included, along with... passwords? Man, I hope the copy protection isn't going to be annoying again.

Oh, despite what the list on the left claims I haven't skipped Pools of Darkness. It was actually released after Gateway to the Savage Frontier, but they've listed it higher in the launcher because it belongs with those other games in the Pool of Radiance saga. Gateway is the first of its own saga, which means no importing characters from other games... well, not officially at least.

That picture in the background is the box art and it looks a lot better here than it does on the title screen. It's a painting by Clyde Caldwell originally used for a game supplement called "The Book of Marvelous Magic" back in 1984. Someday we'll get some original art for a D&D RPG cover, but not today.

Speaking of title screens, a while back I promised to show all the Commodore 64 titles, so here they are. In all their sparkly glory.

I don't know why the C64 titles are so consistent in style while the other ports were just doing their own thing, all I know is that it's a shame they never got to complete the set. Gateway to the Savage Frontier was the last Gold Box game to get a C64 port, so there's no matching titles for Pools of Darkness, Matrix Cubed, Treasures of the Savage Frontier or Dark Queen of Krynn. Man, C64 owners didn't get to complete a single D&D series, not even the Silver Box games.

It's not that SSI bailed on the system before its time, the last major release by any US developer was apparently Ultima VI the same year. The NES hung in there a little longer as the last of the 8-bit systems, but after DragonStrike in 1992, 8-bit D&D ports were done.

Sometimes with these games I'll leave the demo sequence at the start playing. Not intentionally, I just don't always hit the 'new game' option in time and once they've started it's hard to make them stop.

Apparently the heroes get to fight a giant squid underwater in this one! Though you can't believe everything you see here, as these characters all have proper hand-drawn battle sprites and I'm pretty sure my heroes will not. They'll have the same damn sprites they always have.

The games can prove me wrong and give the battle icon editor an upgrade any time they feel like!

MAKING THE TEAM

Character generation seems the same as ever. I've got to build a team of six characters by choosing their race, sex, class and alignment, and then setting their ability scores. Also it wants me to give them each a name, which is always frustrating.

It has the typical set of six AD&D races and the typical six classes, plus you can make some combination classes if you play a demi-human. Shang Tsung here is an elf, so he can be a fighter/magic-user and split his experience between the two. Demi-humans have a level cap, but this is a low level game so I'm sure it won't matter... for now.

Unfortunately Shang Tsung won't be joining my party, because when I tried to add him Sonic the Hedgehog freaked out. Sonic's a paladin and he refuses to be in the same party as an evil character, so I guess I'll have to add Gordon Freeman in his place.

Well, the icon editor hasn't changed, at least not in the DOS game. It still has the same awkward interface and the same basic two-frame character sprite from 1988.

Plus I still hate cycling through colours for every single part. Twice, because of the two shades. It wouldn't be so bad if the characters ever ended up looking good afterwards! Though I suppose my Mario turned out alright. Better than my Sonic the Hedgehog, that's for sure.

That's supposed to be a flail that Mario's holding, not a fishing rod. He can't equip bladed weapons because I made him the party's cleric. He was the obvious choice for the healer because he's the only medical doctor on the team.

Alright here's what I've come up with. They're not the most min/maxed heroes I've ever rolled with, but I think I've got all the bases covered.

I haven't bothered worrying about the 1st Edition AD&D strength cap on female fighters this time, I'm sure Lara will be fine. In fact I have a feeling she'll be more effective than my thief Guybrush, though as a dwarf fighter he gets a higher max constitution and more HP per level up... if the dice are on my side.

I've made two magic-users for double the spells. Freeman will be a level behind because he's multiclassing, but he can cast magic in heavy armour, plus he's got an elven resistance to sleep and charm. Meanwhile Morrigan's XP is all going into magic-user levels, meaning more spells and more chance of punching through enemy spell resistance.

It may seem like I know what I'm doing, but it's just that I've been through the routine a few times now.

THE NIGHT BEFORE

The game begins with the heroes in a tavern, bragging about how well their last job went. I'm actually kind of reluctant to take over playing as them, as they seem to be doing fine without me.

Wait, hang on, it says "Lara tells everyone"... it used my character's name! I'm not sure the games have ever had my characters play a role in the story before now. Those aren't my characters in the picture by the way... unless they are.

I'm liking these new VGA graphics, even if the colours are a bit... EGA.

It's like the art was drawn for EGA graphics cards first, with the limited palette meaning they had to use dark blue for the background, magenta for the cape and bright green for the jewellery.

Then they redrew it in 32 colours for the Amiga version, using more realistic skin tones but leaving the magenta and green alone.

Then they reused the Amiga art for the VGA version, without upgrading it to make use of its 256 simultaneous colours. Basically this looks like an Amiga game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But the next day the heroes awake to despair, as their merry-making at the tavern made one too many friends in a town famous for the dexterity of its thieves. Basically someone swiped all their stuff, read journal entry #5 for further information.

The Steam version of the game runs in DOSBox with the Gold Box Companion tool attached to the window, which is handy here as it means I can check what entry #5 says without having to look through the Adventurer's Journal PDF.

It says... someone slipped something into their food while they were bragging about all their gold. I've changed my mind, I think these guys need my help after all. Especially now that they need to find another job.

The first thing I'm going to do is open up the camp screen and rest to memorise some spells. Don't ask me why they're sitting around a fire next to a tree when we're staying at an inn.

Characters can only cast spells they've memorised in advance, so I need to make sure I'm loaded up with a few casts of 'sleep', 'cure light wounds', and 'detect magic' before I head out. Town guards don't appreciate it when I try to rest in the middle of the street.

THE TOWN OF YARTAR

Alright, now I'm outside next to rows of identical doors. The game's 3D flick-screen graphics engine is too basic for things like visible signs, but I do get some text on screen when I walk up to a door that tells me what's inside.

The amazing thing about this is that I don't have to press <ENTER> to make the text go away before I can carry on walking! I got so damn sick of Pool of Radiance making me stop every time I walked past the town hall on the way to the shop. It was as bad or worse in Secrets of the Silver Blades, as its town was set up so that I had to stop in front of the shop signs on the way to anywhere and that got old really fast.

We're starting in a town called Yartar this time, which is somewhere I've never heard of. It didn't take me long to find a weapon shop though.

Oh that's weird, Death Knights of Krynn showed me how much money I had left on the shop screen, but it's missing from this. 

It doesn't say, but I'm assuming these prices are in gold. The heroes had 35 platinum hidden under each of their pillows, so that's about 175 gold each - enough to buy pretty much everything I'll need for both melee and ranged combat. I'm still annoyed that the little sprites don't change to match what I've got equipped though.

Now I just need to remember what characters can equip what gear. I probably won't be needing a 'voulge', whatever that is. Or all that other stuff on the previous pages I just skipped right past.

My pure magic-user will be stuck using rubbish throwing darts and a dagger, while my amazing fighter/magic-user can use anything a fighter can. Unfortunately my fighter/thief will be limited to wearing light leather armour if he wants to be able to creep behind people for a sneaky backstab.

After gearing up I took my team to the tavern, mostly because it was next door and I'm visiting everywhere. In Pool of Radiance visiting a tavern gave me tavern tales, an option to gamble, and a chance of being pickpocketed. Here I have two options: fight or leave. 

It doesn't tell me who I'm fighting or why, there's no explanation for this whatsoever, but hey at least I know where to go if I want to have a fight. I didn't want to drink purple ale from a fancy horn anyway.

Now I need to go find someone to hire us. It's a clear goal, but I would've preferred more direction as 'wander aimlessly' doesn't feel like a real plan.

I carried on through the streets, automatically filling in the squares on my map, until I was interrupted by this scripted encounter. Finally, an opportunity for my heroes to live out their dreams of being Batman and saving a dude from thugs!

Though Batman probably wouldn't have to haul their shields and armour off to the pawn shop afterwards. He's got a butler for that. Plus he's actually got money.

Anyway my guys all started off around level 2-ish, they're veteran warriors who just finished escorting a caravan, so they can totally handle this. And even if they can't, I saved the game a few moments ago, so it's fine.

Huh is one of my characters glitching out? He looks like one of the high-detail sprites from the demo cutscene. Oh wait, that's actually Krevish, the dude I'm saving from the bandits. He's working with my team and he's obeying my commands.

The biggest difference from the earlier games that I'm noticing is that the Sound Blaster sound effects are more goofy, sounding like they're from... I dunno, The Incredible Machine or something. It kind of suits it though.

Alright, it turns out that it's the same turn-based tactical game as all the other Gold Box titles.

Each character gets their turn individually, in which they can change their gear, move a number of tiles and then attack. It's weird going back to level 1 magic again after all the sequels I've been playing, but I think I remember some basic tactics.

Basically, if I hit an enemy with 'sleep', they stop hitting me and my next hit will kill them. It's only unfair if I ever meet someone who uses it on me first.

Alright, I think I'm done here. How about that Krevish, was that a good enough rescue for you?

Wow, the dude just went and took a share of the money we claimed from the battle and hid it! And he's still hanging around in the character list.

Well if he wants to consider himself part of the team that's fine with me. I've got no problem having seven units to command, I don't think this has a 'party strength' system which invites more enemies over to compensate. Though it does mean I'll have to pay for his level up when his name turns purple. Like Mario's just did.

Okay game I give in, show me what journal entry #21 is.

Words!

Basically Krevish knows some guys who hire adventurers, which is exactly what we were looking for! So that's convenient.

More words!

If you ever wondered what this site would look like if I started reviewing fantasy novels, now you know.

To summarise: Krevish led us to his buddy, who turned out to be an angry man in a secret room. A room so secret that it has a secret knock.

Wait, I think I missed a bit. I accidentally skipped some dialogue, and it seems like it was the part that tells me my mission.

I feel like I saw the words 'journal entry' flash on screen for a moment, but that doesn't help me if I don't know what number to look up. It's not like a modern RPG journal, I can't use it to check what my quest is.

Fortunately I'm pretty sure that if I leave the Yartar map and head to Nesme I'll be able to find the plot by just checking behind all the doors. Failing that, the Cluebook has a bit of a walkthrough in it, written as a story of the heroes' adventures.

You know what, I don't even care what it says in journal entry #2 right now, I'm busy. I've got this whole town to scout out before I head off to Nesme. Lots of fish markets and boat repair shops so far.

There's also a training hall, but I don't have the 1000 gold to get Mario his power up right now, so he'll just have to wait.

Lara's health is back to full though, because I used the 'Fix' command in camp to have a quick nap. This also had a side effect of giving Morrigan some 'sleep'. In the older games I had to manually select all the spells I'd cast in battle and wanted to re-memorise every time I had a rest, but they've been sneakily adding quality-of-life features to the games as they go.

Aright I'm bored of fish markets. Time to head out into the world!

OUTDOORS IN THE SAVAGE FRONTIER

I suppose it wouldn't be a Gold Box game without an extremely unmarked overworld map. And I think this has to be the tiniest map window yet.

You move on the 2D map like you do in town, by rotating around and then pressing up to move in that direction. I can cross the mountains, but when I try to cross the rivers it tells me that the water is too deep. Not a problem, I'll just follow the river until I find a bridge.

I'm glad I've got Gold Box Companion bolted to the side of DOSBox, giving me directions, as I'd have no clue which way to go to get to Nesme otherwise. Well, unless I checked the Adventurer's Journal like I'm supposed to.

Honestly I can't get too mad about a game coming with a paper map. The problem for me is that my copy came with a PDF of a paper map instead.

The Savage Frontier is located north of Baldur's Gate and south of Icewind Dale. It's also far west of the Moonsea region from the Pool of Radiance games, with the massive Anauroch desert separating them. 

Though weirdly most of the towns in this game aren't actually in the Savage Frontier. Just Nesme, Yartar, Loudwater and Llorkh, at least according to the Forgotten Realms wiki. Everlund, Silverymoon and Sundabar are in the Silver Marches, and Luskan, Port Llast and the infamous city of Neverwinter are over in the North Sword Coast region.

Wait, there's Neverwinter on the left! Maybe I'll just go there instead of Nesme... nah, I'll stick to my quest, for now.

Random wilderness encounter! I'm loving all this actual scenery for a change, it's not just a plain grey floor out here. Well, it is, but there are puddles and logs and stuff too. Trouble is that walking around them all gets old fast.

That's the least of my problems right now though, as the game has me fighting basilisks. If you ever walk around an area in a D&D game, and there are lots of statues of warriors in random places, that's a good sign you need to get the hell out before a basilisk turns you to stone as well. They are way way too dangerous for me to be fighting right now... but I have to give it a shot just in case.

Oh, nope, they're turning my guys into art with one shot from across the other side of the map. All I can really do is quit, reload, and hope the random number generator gives me hobgoblins to fight next time.

Trolls? Oh you are taking the piss now. I'm not doing this fight. Nope. No bloody way.

A group of trolls is the closest thing Pool of Radiance has to a first boss fight, and they kicked my ass so thoroughly that I had to finish off a bunch of other areas before I was strong enough to beat them. They're not just tough, they're immortal, coming back with full health a few turns after you kill them. You have to kill them all simultaneously or remember where their corpse was and step on it to prevent resurrection.

I've heard that a flash of oil might work on them, but I don't know, because I try not to fight them if I can help it! I don't know why the game designers put basilisks and trolls among the first encounters, as that probably put off a lot of new players.

It's actually fine though, I'll just load my save and try again until it gets bored of literally trolling me while I'm trying to enjoy my walk.

EVENTUALLY, IN THE TOWN OF NESME

Alright, I've found Nesme, now I need to go look for the plot.

Though maybe I'll save this until later, because I've written lots of words about this game already and I think we could both use a break. Come back soon for more amazing adventures of Krevish and his gang.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Next time, it's more Gateway to the Savage Frontier. It might even be up now, clicking the picture will take you there if it is.

Thanks for reading this, by the way. Unless all these Gold Box games have put you off and you're not even here, in which case I wish you had been reading this. Please come back!

And please leave a comment if you feel like commenting.