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Amber FolioPlay

The project

About Amber Folio

Amber Folio recreates the 1980s PC that the SSI Gold Box role-playing games were made for, and runs them in your browser. You bring your own copy of a game; the original program runs on it, unchanged.

Where it stands

The current build plays a Gold Box game from start to finish on your own copy: creating a party, exploring the city, fighting, shopping, saving and loading. It works on Windows, macOS, Linux and in a browser, from the same code.

The player on this site keeps your copy of the game and your saves in your browser between visits, and has sound, an on-screen keyboard, save export and import, and a switch for every enhancement. What it does not do yet is on status.

Faithful to the original

  • Your game runs, not a rewrite. The program on your disk does all the work, instruction by instruction, on an emulated processor.
  • Your files are never changed. Enhancements act on the running machine’s memory; the files on your disk stay as they are.
  • Nothing is guessed. If the game asks for something the emulator does not provide, it stops and says so rather than inventing an answer.
  • Tested against real hardware. The processor emulation is checked, bit for bit, against test data recorded from a real 8086.

Enhancements

Built-in enhancements — a code-wheel helper, an automap, the Adventurer’s Journal on the game’s own screen — help a modern audience enjoy these games without changing what made them great. Each has its own switch, and all of them are on from the start. For readability the game’s text is drawn in clearer lettering, an accessibility option you can change or turn back to the original. Enhancements says more.

Your own copy

Neither the emulator nor this site contains any part of a game. You bring your own copy, which is read in your browser and never uploaded. Games lists every title and where to buy it.

Open source

The emulator is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3. Source, history and plans are at github.com/amberfolio/amberfolio (opens in a new tab). This site runs v1.2.0 (opens in a new tab), built from commit f222bd3. The website itself is separate work, at build 405; the licences page has the details.

Thanks

Playing the GOG or Steam version on your own computer? Gold Box Companion (opens in a new tab) is a fan-made utility that adds automapping, journal entries and interface improvements to SSI’s Gold Box games, running alongside the store versions. It is a separate project, and our thanks to its maintainer for listing Amber Folio.

Thanks also to Sacibengala (opens in a new tab) on the RPG Codex forums, who lost their saved games twice and both times wrote up exactly what they had done. Those reports found a bug that could wipe every save after the game had been reset many times in one sitting.

Contact

Found a bug, or have a copy the player does not recognise? Report it on GitHub (opens in a new tab). A saved game that shows the problem is welcome (Saves on the player’s toolbar exports one); the game’s own files and your journal are not, because a report is public. For anything private, such as licensing, legal matters or press, email hello@amberfolio.org.

Amber Folio is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any publisher or rights holder of the games it is compatible with. “Pool of Radiance”, “Gold Box”, “Dungeons & Dragons”, “Forgotten Realms”, “Dragonlance”, “Spelljammer” and “Buck Rogers” are trademarks of their respective owners, used here only to describe compatibility. Amber Folio supplies no game files or manuals: you supply your own copy, and the player reads and keeps it in your browser without ever sending it to us.

Generative AI was used to build both this site, its artwork included, and the emulator. Without it, none of this would exist.

Visit amberfolio.org for more information. Made by fans. For adventurers everywhere.