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Curse of the Azure Bonds

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Curse of the Azure Bonds cover
Developers
Strategic Simulations Inc.
Mac OS (Classic) MicroMagic Inc.
Publishers
Retail Strategic Simulations Inc.
Digital, former GOG.com
Digital, current SNEG
Engines
Gold Box
Release dates
DOS 1989
Mac OS (Classic) 1990
Windows (DOSBox) August 20, 2015[1]
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) August 20, 2015[1]
Linux (DOSBox) August 20, 2015[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Turn-based
Perspectives First-person
Genres RPG
Themes Fantasy
Series Gold Box
Curse of the Azure Bonds on HowLongToBeat
Curse of the Azure Bonds guide on StrategyWiki
Curse of the Azure Bonds on MobyGames
Curse of the Azure Bonds on Wikipedia
Subseries of Dungeons & Dragons
Pool of Radiance (series)
Curse of the Azure Bonds 1989
Secret of the Silver Blades 1990
Buck Rogers (series)
Champions of Krynn 1990
Neverwinter Nights 1991
Pools of Darkness 1991
Gateway to the Savage Frontier 1991
Death Knights of Krynn 1991
The Dark Queen of Krynn 1992
Treasures of the Savage Frontier 1992
Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace 1992
Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures 1993

Curse of the Azure Bonds is a singleplayer first-person RPG game in the Gold Box series.

General information

Characters can be transferred from Pool of Radiance, Hillsfar, and Gateway to the Savage Frontier (see Transfer characters).
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions for game series

Availability

The retail version requires the Translation Wheel to answer copy protection questions. The GOG.com version will accept any answer.[2]

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Edit CURSE.CFG[3]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit CURSE.CFG.
  3. Change F to N.

Notes

The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons splash screen will still be shown.

Skip Translation Wheel prompts

Launch with start.exe STING Wooden parameter[4]

Run the game with start.exe STING Wooden

Gold Box Companion

Gold Box Companion is a program for Windows that adds various optional features when playing the DOS version in DOSBox (automap, party HUD, raising level restrictions, character editing, etc.)

Enable PCjr/Tandy sound on DOSBox

Most later releases are configured to use PC speaker sound. DOSBox can be set to emulate the additional sound hardware of PCjr/Tandy systems and the game configured to use PCjr/Tandy for sound instead of more primitive PC speaker.
Edit the configuration file of DOSBox and CURSE.CFG in the installation folder[citation needed]
  1. Open the configuration file of DOSBox and seek tandy setting under [speaker] section. This setting is usually tandy=auto. Change the setting to tandy=on and save the changes.
  2. Open CURSE.CFG in the installation folder. The second line controls sound with P standing for PC speaker. Change this setting to T to enable PCjr/Tandy sound and save the changes.

Transfer characters

Characters can be transferred from Pool of Radiance and Hillsfar.
Gateway to the Savage Frontier characters are also compatible (this is not officially supported).[5]
Instructions[3]
  1. For Pool of Radiance, if a character you want is currently part of a saved game, load that save in Pool of Radiance, go to the Training Hall, then Remove (not Drop) the character and save your game (otherwise that character's data will be out of date).
  2. Run <path-to-game>\COPYCURS.EXE to transfer files, or manually copy the character files from Pool of Radiance (*.CHA) or Hillsfar (*.HIL) into Curse of the Azure Bonds' <path-to-game>\SAVE\ folder.
  3. In Curse of the Azure Bonds, go to the Training Hall (either on an existing save or when starting a new game) and add the characters to the party.

Notes

Characters can be freely moved between Curse of the Azure Bonds and Hillsfar, but Pool of Radiance characters cannot be transferred back. For Hillsfar, see the Hillsfar character transfer instructions.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\CURSE.CFG
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVE\
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
The default save folder can be changed by editing CURSE.CFG.
Saves are SAVGAMA.DAT to SAVGAMJ.DAT.
Character files are *.GUY. Character files are only present when that character is not part of a party in a save file.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
320x200 only.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
No mouse support.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
On/off only (toggle with Ctrl+S).
Surround sound
Subtitles
Everything is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes CGA, EGA, Tandy

System requirements

DOS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 4.01
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM) 512K
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) CGA, EGA, Tandy


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Release: Forgotten Realms: The Archives - GOG.com
  2. NOTE: Copy protection in these games, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
  3. 3.0 3.1 Verified by User:Garrett on 5 September 2021
  4. VOGONS • View topic - more Pool of Radiance... - last accessed on 9 June 2023
  5. The CRPG Addict: Game 215: Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991) - last accessed on 5 September 2011
    "Characters and items can even be swapped between Curse of the Azure bonds, and Gateway to the Savage Frontier."