The Tandy and PCjr computers' sound chip just does 3 square wave tones at the same time, which is better than the IBM PC's single square wave but more primitive than the C64's SID chip.

Interestingly, the Sega Genesis uses a chip almost identical to the one used in the Tandy/PCjr computers, but is paired with another chip that is somewhat similar to the OPL chips in Adlib/SoundBlaster cards.

My Curse of the Azure Bonds party has removed all but Tyranthraxus' bond now, so I thought I'd look up how to get them transferred into Secret of the Silver Blades when the time comes. Quoting from the SOTSB Rule Book: "SECRET OF THE SILVER BLADES will accept characters which were created
and played in CURSE OF THE AZURE BONDS. To transfer characters, use
the REMOVE CHARACTER FROM PARTY command in the Party Creation Menu to
take characters from their adventuring parties, then use the ADD
CHARACTER TO PARTY command to put them in a SECRET OF THE SILVER
BLADES party."
Sounds like a similar process to what was done to transfer characters from Pool of Radiance to Curse of the Azure Bonds. So if I click and drag the file for each character with a particular file extension (don't recall off the top of my head what the file extension was, but I can look it up) from one game's save folder to the other (like I did the last time), I should be all set! 😀

Well, I've got Secret of the Silver Blades installed (from the Gamefest compilation CD-ROM) onto the hard drive, and I've got the Adlib sound selected (music, at last! 😀 ); however, the "click and drag the .CHA files" from CURSE/SAVE to SECRET/SAVE trick doesn't appear to be working (as it did from POOL/SAVE to CURSE/SAVE). Possibly it's because I did the click & drag process before running Secret of the Silver Blades for the first time, so I wasn't prompted to specify a save path for Curse of the Azure Bonds. I've moved the .CHA files for the characters I want to transfer back to the CURSE/SAVE folder, so I can uninstall and reinstall Secret of the Silver Blades if I need to. Any further suggestions?
2 more tidbits:
1) I found out (the hard way) that I need to "mount c c:\secret", but the start command is actually "blades".
2) I won't be doing much beyond transferring my old characters right away, because I need to buy a new toner cartridge for my printer before I can print out the rule book and Adventurer's Journal. 😅

After you've installed Secret and ran it once to create the saved game directory. Look in your Curse saved game directory and find your character files with the .GUY extension. Drag those into your Secret's save directory, then fire up the game and you should then be able to ADD your old party members into the game. Looks like they changed the transferable party data from .CHA to .GUY extensions, perhaps to avoid confusion or create some hehe.

I tried click&dragging the .GUY files for my Curse characters into the SECRET\SAVE folder, and the character names do display when I fire up the game and click "Add Character to Party" from "Curse" -- but they don't get added to the party when I click each character's name and then click "Select". I tried also click&dragging all 3 files which had been created for each character within Curse, and they still didn't get added to the character party after I tried to select them (and all this was after I'd created a new human PC to replace the elf PC I was leaving behind, added the new PC to a character party, and saved the game; don't want to "begin adventuring" until I get this straightened out). I've moved the Curse character files (all 3 types) back to CURSE\SAVE for now, until I figure out what to do.
Perhaps if I were to create a folder (OLDGAMES or some such) that both games could be in, I could mount that folder within DOSBox, and then use the DOS instructions from the Secret of the Silver Blades Data Card in the Wizardworks "Quick Start Instructions" booklet? (Thank goodness I've saved that!)

Odd, I didn't run into any problems. Not having an adventuring Curse party, I just loaded up the default party, removed all the characters and exited game, copied the six .GUY files into the Secret\Save directory. Then in Secrets, Add some or all of the six characters without problem. You might try un-equipting all the gear on your toons inside Curse, then Removing them and trying with those .GUY files.

If that fails, you could try installing the Wizardworks version of Secrets, setting it up and running it to make the save game dir, and then try with that version. I've never seen the Gamefest version, so don't know anything about it. I looked over the WW quick start booklet, and there's nothing useful in it that would help with this. It's just a very general dos guide, on how to do what you are already doing much easier with a modern OS. That's all I can think of trying at the moment.

Apparently, I've gotten so used to navigating with the arrow keys on the keyboard in Pool and Curse, that I wasn't getting the hang of using the mouse in Secret of the Silver Blades! 😊 I got the .GUY files transferred over just fine this time (I'd already had the characters drop all their gear -- but since that doesn't transfer over to SotSB, it didn't matter). I may try to "unenable" the mouse, though, since I'm used to the numeric keypad/arrow keys as an interface (or at least avoid using the mouse, since that's how I was getting messed up). I'll also want to "tweak" the stats of the one replacement character I created within SotSB via Modify Character. (The ioun stones in Curse messed up some of my character's Strength scores (as in increasing them to unrealistically high levels, and simultaneously decreasing their movement allowances -- something that (according to some of the online walkthroughs) was only supposed to be a problem in IBM v1.0, but was still a problem in the Gamefest CD-ROM's v1.3. I'll want to check to see if the transferred PCs' stats are "weird" or normal now.) Thanks for your patience in helping me troubleshoot, Tempus2!

CatherineMcClarey, what specifically did you need to do that you weren't before to get your characters transferred over? I'm curious but wasn't able to glean it from your post.

Secret of the Silver Blades is the first "Gold Box" game (at least that I've played recently) that offers mouse support, and I hadn't yet gotten accustomed to navigating menus with the mouse within the game. Also, comparing the "quick start" installation cards for that game and Curse of the Azure Bonds, the numeric keypad commands (in particular "menu up" and "menu down") aren't all on the same keys in both games. As much as people may grumble about no mouse support in PoR and CotAB, I had gotten used to "numeric keypad (mostly) + first letter (some menus)", and that was why I was having problems transferring characters, after tempus2 advised me about finding the .GUY files for my old characters -- interface "learning curve" for the human player (me), not anything wrong with the software.
(P.S.: The strength stats for some PCs which had gotten bollixed by the ioun stones in Curse are still bollixed, although they don't seem to have messed up encumbrance again (yet; I'll know for sure once the PCs get into combat). I didn't try modifying the old PCs' stats back to "normal" levels after transfer, since they had already been adventuring in the previous game.)

I've found a within-game fix for the "ioun stones messed up my PCs' stats" bug that crops up within Curse of the Azure Bonds -- although I didn't figure it out until I was already in Secret of the Silver Blades. If you find a Girdle of Giant Strength (there's one near the very end of Curse, somewhere in Myth Drannor, and another one in the Black Circle HQ in Secret of the Silver Blades), give it to a character whose strength score has been messed up by ioun stones. Have that character equip it (his/her Strength score should now be somewhere in the 20s, instead of whatever unrealistic figure it had been), then unequip it (the character's Strength score should now be at its normal, pre-ioun stone level). Repeat this process by trading the girdle to any other PCs with messed-up Strength scores. (And just sell off the ioun stones, if you haven't already!)
Other PC stats didn't seem to get messed up by the ioun stones in Curse, but I'd recommend just selling all the ioun stones anyway. What benefits they provide are partially duplicated by other artifacts, and the risk of forgetting which ioun stone is which and equipping the one that fouls up the Strength score is not worth the benefit one might get from the other ones.

Would you believe the day after I last posted, my hard drive died? 😵 I got it back up temporarily by doing a "system restore" back to factory settings, but that wiped out my Secret of the Silver Blades saved game, including the PCs I'd nurtured through Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds prior to SOTSB! 🙁 I decided that, if I had to start a new character party, I'd rather start a new game, too, so I got Gateway to the Savage Frontier installed right after reinstalling DOSBox (and I finally moved up to the current version of DOSBox, too). My characters were just about to enter the Kraken base under Yartar when I went to bed last night -- and then I woke up this morning to find the hard drive had died again! 🙁 🙁 (Needless to say, I'm typing this on one of the other computers in the house today.) I'll be on an enforced break from Gold Box games until the hard drive gets replaced on my usual computer (probably getting some long-neglected household chores done! 😅 ).

That is really unfortunate. I hope you will be able to get some of your files back. Such long nurtured characters would be a waste to loose

Just in case anyone else is planning to play the 2 "Savage Frontier" Gold Box games . . . I tried both creating all-new characters (changed my mind) and the pre-generated characters in Gateway to the Savage Frontier, and I have some suggestions about character generation:
1) Whether you use the pre-gens or "roll your own," use Modify Character on all of them to max their stats & HPs (something paper & pencil D&D players don't get to do, but a commonly-recommended practice for all the "Gold Box" games);
2) If you don't want to create any characters from scratch, at least dual-class the 2 pre-gen human fighters immediately once you start playing (change 1 to a ranger and 1 to a paladin). Even better might be to strip their equipment & starting cash (giving them to the other pre-gen PCs), drop the 2 human fighters, and create at least 1 human ranger and 1 human paladin from scratch.
3) If creating a character party from scratch, create 4 human PCs (1 ea. paladin, ranger, cleric and mage) and 1 multi-class nonhuman thief; the 6th character is discretionary based upon personal playing style & preference.

Ouch, sorry to hear about your data loss!

I always disliked the dual/multi-class mechanic (I know it's a D&D thing, but some of the Wizardry games had it too). I felt that it was an extra layer of complexity with no good guidelines on how you should use it to your best advantage. Dark Sun is probably the most extreme example I've seen, where your characters will get slaughtered in the arena battles at the beginning if they're not multi-classed fighters and/or gladiators.

I just took a quick glance at the "character level limits by race & class" table from the back of the Adventurer's Journal for Treasures of the Savage Frontier (the sequel to Gateway to the Savage Frontier, of course), and it looks from that like the best combination for the nonhuman multiclass thief might be an elf magic-user/thief (max. Lvl. 11 MU/unlimited as thief) -- although I also rather liked the dwarf fighter/thief I was using in Pool/Curse/Secret of the Silver Blades (leather armor for mobility and thieving skills, but no weapon restrictions). With a dwarf fighter/thief, I'd probably go with a 2nd human mage for the 6th party member (the human cleric will be assisted by the human paladin, increasingly so as the paladin advances in levels).
In regard to my recent hard drive crash, I've been instructed by my spouse to buy one of those portable external hard drives (to facilitate data transfer to my messed-up computer once the Geek Squad replaces the internal hard drive next week, and to limit the damage from future hard drive crashes, by bulk backups of data/save game files). I'll try for something in the 250-320GB range from WalMart this weekend (closer than Best Buy for me, and I can examine them before purchase -- which I can't do online).

Ended up replacing the whole CPU instead of just the hard drive (still free, because it's under warranty), but I've got DOSBox installed on the new computer, and I've got Gateway to the Savage Frontier running as I type. Gold Box games, here I come (again)! 😁

The big battle in Loudwater (in Gateway to the Savage Frontier is a real toughie, even if one follows the cluebook's advice and tackles all the small patrols in town first. All of the Zhentarim guards were gone by the time I got to the big battle -- but there were still easily a couple of dozen manticores (think lions with ginormous porcupine-tail missile weapons). To get through it, I cast all the preparatory spells I had beforehand (Bless/Prayer/Mirror Image, basically), decreased the difficulty level to the easiest setting, and still had to bandage 3 "bleeding to death" characters (and I didn't have enough Cure Light Wounds spells memorized to revive them all prior to the end of battle). My party has more gold, platinum & gems now than they know what to do with (even after paying to level up all but 1 character), so they're off to "shop till they drop" at the magic shops in Silverymoon and Neverwinter before continuing with the main plot of the game. 🤑

Finally completed Gateway to the Savage Frontier tonight! 😁 I've installed Treasures of the Savage Frontier, and am now trying to figure out how to transfer my Gateway characters into Treasures. According to the quick-start instructions, I should be able to either load a saved game from Gateway (something which older Gold Box sequels generally didn't allow) or load Gateway, remove characters from party, and them add them to the party in Treasures -- with most of their equipment intact (also something which earlier Forgotten Realms Gold Box games didn't allow). Which method would be easier to accomplish within DOSBox? I tried the "load a saved game from Gateway" method tonight, but I must not have the path to the save game directory set up right (I pressed Enter to select the default path when setting up Treasures; my actual save game path is apparently C:\gateway\save, and I was typing mount c c:\treasures within DOSBox, with the executable file command afterwards being treasure). If I instead remove PCs from the Gateway party and copy them into the Treasures save directory, would it be best to copy all files associated with each character, since they get to keep their gear?

Glad your system recovered and you're able to continue your adventures. I'd be pretty upset if I lost my party
after such a long journey. Anyway on to Treasures, I would definitely remove your characters from the party in
Gateway and then drag-copy their data files into Treasures save directory, using Vista's/Xp's file explorer. It
looks like the data files are the .GUY and .SWG character name files. Though there might be another for
memorized spells?

I'm pretty sure it would take a great deal of work and experimentation in order to get Gateway's saved games to
load in Treasure. The utility in the game to do this was written to work in original dos, with exacting directories
and configurations. And you would have to re-create that precisely in dosbox, and even then it might not work.
On the other hand, you might be able to copy the saved game files from one of the letter saves into Treasures
saved game directory, and it might load fine there, but I wouldn't count on it. Good luck on your next adventure!

I'll try what you suggested with drag/copying the appropriate files for the individual characters from Gateway to Treasures, Tempus2, and report back on how it went. Thanks!