The emulator behind amberfolio.org is AGPL-3.0. It emulates only what SSI's Gold Box games need (an 8086, EGA, the timer, the PC speaker and the Tandy sound chip) and runs the original Pool of Radiance unchanged: natively on Windows, macOS and Linux, built from source, or as WebAssembly in a browser.

Where the lines are:

  • The emulator is open source; the website is not. Every page on the site that runs the emulator links to the exact source commit it was built from.
  • No game is included. The repository holds only facts about the program (addresses, offsets, SHA-256s), with a content guard in CI. Players bring their own GOG or Steam copy, which never leaves their browser.
  • Every enhancement switches off. The automap, the game's printed journal on its own screen and the rest are optional; with them all off, CI checks that a run ends in exactly the same machine state as a build without them. The site also reads the game's text to a screen reader, though not its pictures, so the game can't be played without sight through it.

It was built with heavy use of AI coding tools, and the whole history is public. Desktop browsers, iPhone, iPad and Android; a controller with the usual layout works, without remapping yet. Questions about the licensing split, or the code, are welcome.

Not affiliated with the rights holders of Pool of Radiance or the Gold Box games.

all 2 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)