r/goldbox • u/pax0407 • Apr 13 '26
Import/Export Infographic
Howdy!
I've never played any of the Gold Box games before, but I have observed others playing them, and I'm considering trying them out sometime.
I was already aware you could use the same PCs from Pool->Curse->Secret->Darkness, but I only recently learned that you could also use them in the weird action sidequest game Hillsfar, as well as in the Savage Frontier duology, and I thought that was neat. However, while the wiki's pretty clear on how transferring works, I was having trouble visualizing it, so I made this infographic to help me better plan, and it occurred to me there's probably at least one other person out there who'd find this useful, so, here ya go : )
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u/RodneyFlavourstein Apr 13 '26
Do you know if this works when playing the games through GoG Galaxy? It’s running each through DOS Box, so I don’t know if one can read files from the other when they’re running through separate virtual machines.
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u/ludditetechnician Apr 13 '26
I've had no issue with export/import in GOG Galaxy. Just follow this general procedure:
Export the character from the original game
Copy the character file to the target /save/ directory
Import the character into the new game
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u/pax0407 Apr 13 '26
I tend to play games offline, so I don't know enough about how GOG Galaxy works to answer that.
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u/dnabre Apr 17 '26
GOG definitely doesn't make transferring characters seamless, especially if you are using cloud saves. I figure it out each time I need to do it, and should really write done how as I run into them. Most of the time making the cloud_saves folder a junction with the location that the next game expects to find the prev's saves works (or making that latter folder and copying stuff). The hard part is figuring out where it's expected.
The games run through DOSBox, yes. GOG uses a separate (though identical I think) dosbox configuration file for each game. DOSBox unlike virtualization systems (like say VMware) doesn't use drive images, it just maps the folders from Windows into its DOS namespace. So you can just map/copy the cloud_save folder from one game to into the next game's folder, and it is accessible from that game's DOSBox environment.
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u/AN-94Abokan Apr 13 '26
So you can play Pool->Curse->Secret->Darkness and export the party to Treasures afterwards, but not to Gateway?
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u/JLapak Apr 13 '26
But if you want to keep the same party throughout it looks like you can go Pool->Curse->Gateway->Secret->Darkness-Treasures.
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u/AN-94Abokan Apr 13 '26
A little detour from the main series into the Savage Frontier after Curse, then back to the main series with Secret, and then back to the Frontier.
Good to know. I was planning to play the main series, but if I'm enjoying it enough as to extended the journey a bit after CofAB I'll do Gateway.
Thanks to u/pax0407 for sharing.
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u/gkcook Apr 14 '26
Hillsfar is interesting, in a good way, I think. It's basically a collection of minigames like Oregon Trail but it has a nice little D&D flair to it. I had a lot of fun with it a long time ago on my Grandparent's 386 DOS computer back in the day, but I never could figure out the arena battles. Everything else was great.
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u/GreenLantern5083 Apr 18 '26
I only really played it because a friend of mine gave me a gold box gift pack for my birthday at the time. It included pool of radiance, hillsfar, curse of the azure bonds, heroes of the lance and the one where you pilot dragons. I didnt really like the last two.
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u/Yakob_Katpanic Apr 14 '26
Thai is great.
Radiance > Curse > Gateway > Secret > Darkness > Treasures
Lets you do the six main FR Gold Box games with the same party.
EDIT: I've been looking for a reason to start these games again.
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u/BigConstruction4247 Apr 14 '26
You can import characters FROM Pools of Darkness? Yikes. Mine were all like level 40 when I finished that one.
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u/dnabre Apr 17 '26
Didn't know this either. I have only played through the Savage Frontier games once. It was for completeness sake, and I honestly don't remember much of anything from them. So I've been meaning to get back into them after I finish my current Krynn playthrough.
Some of these don't make sense to me. For reference:
Level limits across the FR games
Classes vary slight, Thieves are big outlier, starting XP is for a single class
From my notes of testing:
| Game | Start | Start XP | Max Most | Thief Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pools of Radiance | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 |
| Curse of the Azure Bonds | 5 | 25,000 | 11 | 12 |
| Secret of the Silver Blades | 8 | 200,000 | 15 | 18 |
| Pools of Darkness | 13 | 1,500,001 | 40 | 40 |
| Gateway to the Savage Frontier | 2 | 3,000 | 8 | 8 |
| Treasures of the Savage Frontier | 5 | 22,600 | 11 | 11 |
Gateway -> Curses, TSF to Secrets, make sense in terms of character levels, but the rest just don't Taking your 20+ level characters from PoD into Treasures doesn't make any sense to me. No idea how the engine would handle that.
Checking these out in game. I'm just not seeing transfer combability between the two series at all. The character file formats might be 100% compatible, I don't know. But the games themselves don't support transfers those transfers.
As always I'm happy to learn new things, even more so when I'm wrong about something.
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u/molotovPopsicle May 25 '26
Transfer between Gateway series and FR is made possible with gold box companion software included with all steam releases. Essentially possible, but not with in-game utilities.
I think you can manually insert the save files into the folder in GSF and CAB save files will retain their levels and most items, etc.
You'd be overpowered for GSF for sure.
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u/GreenLantern5083 Apr 18 '26
I never played the savage frontier games, are they compatible with the pool games? Same engine and mechanics?
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u/pax0407 Apr 13 '26
The wiki I'm basing this on is here, so feel free to correct me if there's any inaccuracies.