Play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Pool of Radiance Online

Pool of Radiance was my first real taste of D&D on the NES, and man, it felt like stepping into a whole new world. You start by rolling up a party of adventurers—fighters, clerics, the works—and suddenly you're knee-deep in Phlan, a city half-ruined by monsters. The first time I wandered into the slums and got jumped by kobolds, I knew this wasn’t your typical RPG.

What really hooked me was how it actually played like a tabletop session. You move on a grid, take turns in combat, and even rest to recover spells. The manual was practically required reading, which somehow made it feel more authentic. Just don’t expect it to hold your hand—those early battles can wreck you if you charge in blindly.

It’s clunky by today’s standards, but there’s something special about mapping out dungeons on graph paper and slowly reclaiming the city, one block at a time.