Some of you may fondly recall the “gold box” Dungeons and Dragons computer games put out under the SSI label during the eighties, including the original Pool Of Radiance. If so, whatever you do, do not buy Pool Of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Unfortunately, I did, and I deeply regret it - that’ll be the last time I impulsively buy a game based on the box without reading its reviews first. There are so many things wrong with it - terribly clumsy interface, crippled or missing classes from the 3rd edition D & D rules, barely any NPCs, pointless repetition. And I nearly bought Civilization III instead, dammit.

One good thing has come out of this though: it annoyed me enough to do some coding on the mud for the first time in months.