I am pretty sure that the first question to pop into the minds of the people reading this post is: Where did you get the game from, and how did you install it?

Well, we've had it since I was about 12 back when we ran it on our old 386. But I didn't really install it so much as copy it off of my brother's old hd. So it's sitting on my thumb drive right now. If I can get this to work, I'm planning on running through all three of them (Pool, Curse, and Secret).

Then we need to know how the original directory structure looked like on that 386 - the paths to where it was installed, and then compare them to the structures and mountings you have in DOSBox.

I assume the structure on my brother's lappy will work? I don't think the 386 still runs. I'll work on that and let you know what I find out.

Edit: Just so I'm not leaving you guys hanging, apparently someone else has experienced the same thing and it's been reported to DOSBox. Apparently they're treating as a bug and working on a fix.

WE ARE DOSBOX.

THIS IS SPARTA?
Here's what I was referring to. About half way down,

There is also an error afflicting some users of DOSBox where you are able to create, save and add characters, and then adventure, and save, but on returning later, your savegame is corrupted, with all six slots taken up by one character, and the name of your save folder having the last letter removed. I have reported this to DOSBox and according to one of the authors they are treating it as a bug and are seeking a fix.

doesn't sound familiar to be honest. I would probably have handled that if it was submitted by email. have to look it up in the archives.

Never heard of that either.

So to start over: use the current dosbox version, install the game WITHIN
dosbox and check the paths in the game's configuration files to match the
relative paths of your mounting.

The comments in the compatibility database mentions some problems with saving:

http://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=74 … r=P&search=pool

I will be very surprised if it is not a case of wrong paths configured in the game.

The problem is caused by running the game from the installation cd. It has a known bug
that will clone 1 character to all slots and saved games. So run the game with the start.bat
located where you installed the game to, to avoid this problem. It will not fix already
corrupted saved games, so delete those and start over.

As a bonus, adding the command STING after the st.exe in the start.bat file will remove
the tedious need to use the codewheel when starting the game.
The start.bat in the game directory should look like this.

@echo off
conf
if errorlevel 1 goto :End
st STING
:End
cls

Thanks for the information.
Can you elaborate on that part a bit, like when it happens, maybe why?

It has a known bug that will clone 1 character to all slots and saved games.

Sorry, I don't know why it does it, only that it does. Most of the problems that I
had with the collection were answered and solved by this old tech help page.

http://web.archive.org/web/19990921040940/htt … h/ad&dhelp.html

I assume it was a poorly written installation program that introduces the bug.
And is not present in the game code itself.

I was unable to get that link into a more friendly link box, so if an
Admin wants to clean it up for me, thank you.

Thanks for the link, if somebody is bored he might add this information
to the compatibility list at dosbox.com

When I saw this topic I thought it might have been about the sequel, though it was for Windows not DOS. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was very buggy. The biggest one was with the uninstall program which would wipe out system files.

Not only that, but the PoR:RoMD user interface was truly horrible. You may be much happier getting Neverwinter Nights and playing one of the PoR mods made for it..

-Oz