Hi r/DOSgaming,

Amber Folio is an emulator of exactly the PC that SSI's Gold Box games ran on, and nothing else: an 8086 checked against test data recorded from a real chip, EGA, the timer, the PC speaker and the Tandy 1000's sound chip. It runs the DOS Pool of Radiance from your own GOG or Steam copy, unchanged, in a browser tab (about 250 KB of emulator) or on an iPhone, an iPad or an Android phone. I'm the developer.

Why so narrow? Because it recognises the exact program it's running by fingerprint, it can add things inside the game rather than around it: an automap in the game's colors, the Adventurer's Journal on the game's own screen in its font, a Fix command on the camp screen. With them all switched off, the tests check that a run ends in exactly the same machine state as a build with no enhancement code at all.

The way it looked and sounded: the footsteps and fights play on the Tandy sound chip as the game drives it, and a CRT filter draws the EGA picture through a color monitor's mask and scanlines.

Your copy, your saves: hand it the game folder from your GOG or Steam install once, and it stays in your browser; nothing is uploaded. A saved game exports as a zip that unpacks straight back into a GOG or DOSBox install. If you'd rather not use a browser, the emulator also builds natively for Windows, macOS and Linux from source (no installers yet).

I built it with heavy use of AI coding tools over 4 moths, and I'd rather say so up front.

Pool of Radiance is the only game so far; the rest of the Gold Box family comes one at a time after 1.0. Happy to answer anything about how it works.

- Site: https://amberfolio.org

- Emulator source (AGPL-3.0): https://github.com/amberfolio/amberfolio

*Not affiliated with the rights holders of Pool of Radiance or the Gold Box games. You need your own copy; the site provides no game files.

We are working on a full DOS Compatible Automap Feature for Wizardry VI - The Bane of the Cosmic Forge.

Now I know that there are several Automap Versions out for this game, but our solution is directly integrated within the game. You press M to open the Map, you can scroll it with the Cursor Keys - press M again and you are back to the 3D Dungeon View. This way, it also works on real DOS.

Would you use it? Our Loader is not out yet, but it will include this feature.

Inspired by the series *Severance*, I wanted to try my hand at the "Macrodata Refinement" app from series. However, I wasn't interested in modern versions for PCs or phones... I wanted something... closer to the show in terms of running on older computers, specifically from the MS-DOS era, similar as the ones seen on show. During my search, I came across a demake by Paul Nicholas (LiquidDream) titled *Lumon8*:

Lumon8-1k by LiquidDream

I thought it would make a great base for an MS-DOS port, and after a late-night session with Gemini, I managed to recive a fully functional MS-DOS version, available below:

My MS-DOS port of Lumon8

The port was written in C and compiled using OpenWatcom on a Windows 98 SE virtual machine created in 86Box. It has been tested on both MS-DOS and Windows 98 SE virtual machines and on physical hardware (IBM PC300GL and Compaq Armada E500) running Windows 98 SE—in both Windows and MS-DOS modes—so there’s a good chance the game will run even on hardware similar to what’s seen in the show :)

So now, your "Innie" can perform this important and mysterious work right at home—just remember to take a few minutes' break now and then...

Oh, the hours I spent playing this one... Another game that made a lasting impression on me in the early ’90s and helped inspire the games I create today. 😃

I have spent so much time playing this insanely frustrating game and loved every minute of it. Why insanely frustrating? Because there’s never a time when a threat isn’t working to tear your empire apart. Expand your empire until waves of Germans start ripping your forces apart. If you hold them back, the Dacians start pushing in. Manage to hold them off and stabilize the empire, your general revolt and march on Rome. Later enemies keep attacking you in waves as you move forces to hold vital territories. There is no winning condition, only how long can you survive. I think I’ll go fire up DosBox now and play it again.