Amber Folio: Pool of Radiance in a browser tab, from your own copy

[BussardRamjet]

Hi all,

I've been building Amber Folio, an open-source emulator made only for the PC the Gold Box games ran on, and a site that runs it in a browser tab: amberfolio.org

It plays Pool of Radiance from start to finish in a desktop browser, and it has been played on an iPhone and an iPad. You bring your own copy from GOG or Steam (Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection Two). Hand over the game folder once and it stays in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, there's no account, and it's free.

The program you bought runs unchanged; the emulator knows exactly which program it is by fingerprint, so its extras can live inside the game rather than beside it. There's an automap in the game's own colours, the Adventurer's Journal on the game's screen in its font, a Fix command on the camp screen, and a CRT filter with the footsteps and fights on the Tandy sound chip. If the old lettering is hard on your eyes, there's a choice of a plainer face for the game's text. None of it changes the story, the rules or the challenge, and each can be switched off.

The rest of the Gold Box family follows one game at a time, after the emulator's 1.0.

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

It's early, and I'm only telling a few places for now. If you have a copy and a spare half hour, I'd like to hear what breaks, what feels wrong, and what you'd want next, here or through "Report a problem" at the bottom of every page.

The emulator's source (AGPL-3.0): github.com/amberfolio/amberfolio

Amber Folio is not affiliated with the rights holders of Pool of Radiance or the Gold Box games.