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Amber Folio: an AGPL-3.0 emulator built for SSI's Gold Box RPGs
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BussardRamjet lemmy.world BussardRamjet@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-10-11
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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.

2   Original
Shimitar downonthestreet.eu Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu
Joined: 2025-01-28
#2 · Quote Reply

Can it be self hosted?

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BussardRamjet lemmy.world BussardRamjet@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-10-11
#3 · Quote Reply

Can it be self hosted?

I see no reason why it should not be!

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Shimitar downonthestreet.eu Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu
Joined: 2025-01-28
#4 · Quote Reply

I see no reason why it should not be!

I own a box they made years later collecting them all on a CD....

With automap it's worth to try and play the games I think....

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BussardRamjet lemmy.world BussardRamjet@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-10-11
#5 · Quote Reply

Sorry, I missed this one. The emulator is made for the GOG and Steam releases and recognises them by fingerprint. If your CD's copy of Pool of Radiance has the same files, it's recognised as that and everything works. If not, the player offers to play it anyway, but without the enhancements, the automap included: each one is a set of addresses in one particular release, so it can't be offered on a copy it doesn't know.

Since then, 1.0 is out, the emulator's first full release, still AGPL-3.0. And on self-hosting, which you asked earlier: the release carries the web host as well as the emulator, for a page that wants to run it, with every file's sha256 in a manifest. The amberfolio.org site itself isn't open source.

As ever: your own copy, which stays in your browser; built with heavy use of AI coding tools; not affiliated with the rights holders.

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