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Nestled atop the cliffs that rise from all RPGs, BG have been the finest and most comprehensive game

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  • DragonspearDragonspear Member Posts: 1,838
    Thanks for the trips down memory lane. I'll add how I got into it after work tomorrow.
    booinyoureyesRavenslightkcwiseCrevsDaak
  • marcerormarceror Member Posts: 577
    edited December 2013
    bengoshi said:

    Xzar – Frank Welker

    image , image

    Stop TOUCHING me! Due to the large number of films he is able to work on in a given year, films with Frank Welker had grossed more than those of any other actor in Hollywood from 1980 until 2011, when he was surpassed by Samuel L. Jackson!

    During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple shows including the villainous Doctor Claw in Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk and both Darkseid and Kalibak in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, various G.I. Joe heroes and villains, Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs. He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II. He also provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series Bonkers and other various voices for the series, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard and various other characters in Animaniacs and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective. He also provides the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in Futurama. He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including a parody of Fred Jones. He played the voices of multiple characters in TaleSpin.

    Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and provided voices for The Thing in The Golden Child (1986), Sil in Species (1995) and Malebolgia in Spawn (1997). He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the television series Aladdin, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres, he was also the voice of Totoro from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, and a variety of animals from Tiny Toon Adventures. YAY!

    In 2005, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together in The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and also in the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present.

    And you know what? “Ho there, wanderer! Stay thy course a moment and indulge an old man” as well as other phrases by Elminster are voiced by fantastic Frank Welker. (@elminster , did you know your character is able to yell “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” ?;)

    Conspicuously missing from this list is the fact that Frank Welker was also the voice of Megatron from the Transformers cartoon. He was also considered for the movie. Listing Hefty Smurf but omitting Megatron? I makes no sense, I tell you!

    By the way, here's Welker's voice testing for the Megatron in the first Transformers movie.

    lolienVasculiokcwiselunar
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806

    but I was only 3 at BG1 release

    *Sarevok Voice* You are indeed a "Child" of Bhaal
    "the sword coast will run red with blood!" might have been my first words :)
    You can't even talk. I was 3 Months old when it came out. @crevsdaak, it's good to know I'm not the only one of us. I literally learned to read on bg, on a computer running windows 98 and the original 3 or 5 or however many disks it took.
    Eventually, however, the old game faded out of memory, the disks had been scratched so that the flaming fist compound could not be entered. Until, I May of this year, when I looked at the old computer in the basement and said, I wonder if that old game still runs. Much to my dismay, the disks had been thrown out, but for the one that was required to start the game, glorious disk 3, preserved from the element forgotten in the disk drive itself! I played for hours, quitting and avoiding areas that I needed to change disks for.
    But it could not last. Without the disks it was not feasible, and that evening, in an act of desperation, I checked the App Store, and low and behold! My childhood, for a mere 10 bucks was before me, however dubiously "enhanced". Of course, despite these concerns, it was purchased, and oh was it worth it. How amazing a "kit" was too behold! Sorcerers, monks! Wild mages! So many choices. And where would I be without sorcerers now? A lowly specialist Mage? I think not. I was lucky, to. Just a few weeks after I bought the game, it was taken down during the legal battle. And so I am where I am now, and that was the short version. I didn't even mention the significance of Edwin's portrait.
    CrevsDaaklolienkcwiseArdul
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    @meagloth I have to say that I've used Edwin's portrait until I realized it was Edwin's :P I searched for the CDs lots of time, but I couldn't find them, if I find them I will I think I will repair that old iMac by myself, so I can go and exploit all the original BG1 bugs.
    Then, I know a lot about amazing combos of spells that can surely left experienced players amazed of the script, that was only done to crush them to goo.
    [spoiler]

    IF
    See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
    HPGT(Myself,93)
    See([GOODCUTOFF])
    THEN
    RESPONSE #100
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) <- ToB fighters can't resist Oblivion too :P
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_STUN)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_SLEEP)
    Continue()
    END

    IF
    See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
    HPLT(Myself,85)
    Delay(6)
    See([GOODCUTOFF])
    THEN
    RESPONSE #100
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_LOWER_RESISTANCE)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_LOWER_RESISTANCE)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_LOWER_RESISTANCE)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_BLIND)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) <- this one is the real killer, and cheesy!
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell(Myself,WIZARD_IMPROVED_MANTLE)
    ForceSpell(Myself,WIZARD_SPELL_TRAP)
    Continue()
    END

    IF
    Allegiance(Myself,ENEMY)
    See([PC])
    HPGT(Myself,65)
    THEN
    RESPONSE #100
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_SILENCE)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_STUN) <-here are some mistakes, it was the first I wrote
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_KILL)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CHARM_PERSON)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    Wait(1)
    Continue()
    END

    IF
    See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
    HPGT(Myself,45)
    THEN
    RESPONSE #100
    ForceSpell(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),BEHOLDER_CHARM_PERSON)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_KILL)
    Wait(4)
    Continue()
    END

    IF
    Allegiance(Myself,ENEMY)
    See([PC])
    !StateCheck(LastSeenBy(Myself),STATE_HELPLESS) <-that tends to catch the PC, XD and kill him :P
    HPGT(Myself,35)
    THEN
    RESPONSE #100
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CHARM_PERSON)
    ForceSpell(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),WIZARD_MAZE)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    Continue()
    END

    IF
    See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
    HPGT(Myself,20)
    THEN
    RESPONSE #100
    ForceSpell(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),WIZARD_DOMINATION)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) <- triggers at 20 HP or less, he's gettin' weak
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS)
    Wait(3)
    Continue()
    END</pre>
    [/spoiler]
    Then I might me a power gamer as many people know, but I also make a nice background story for my characters, most of the characters that I don't name Crevs Daak and make them M/T tend to have a relationship with him (Sarilien, my female Swashie/Mage who was supposed to be Dualed to Fighter :P is his consort, his child, Derian, a half-elf (he has two versions, a F/C LN version and a Swashbuckler LE version) that is amazed of the legacy of Crevs, searches for it and unexpectedly he finds himself with another PC of mine, what I am actually running, and the first draft of the names tend to have typos too, Sarilien was originally Sarlien).
    I didn't learned to read with BG because I knew how to read at 7 YO, and having played LOTS of KotOR2 before was the key to be able to read a single word of english, BG taught me a lot too, but not so much, because I knew a lot of english by that time.
    I like this game a lot, mainly because, really, I don't know, maybe because it has a nice and captivating story, its NPCs are geniously made and everything in the game is nice for me, PS:T is the only game with a better story than BG2:SoA, most of SoA is based in Time Bandits, a nice movie to see, more if you are a Jonaleth "Jon" Irenicus fan like me, he is as badass as Darth Bane, and he surpasses Darth Vader by waaaaaay far, I think the real baddie is Arioch (I am both mental and physically like him, according to the description of the Elric saga), but Stormbringer seems evil too, but this topic is spoiler for those books ;)
    AAAAAAAAAnd, yeah, I like writing, no matter what, and I am god at it, more if there is something to motivate me >:D
    lolienkcwiselunarjackjack
  • And yet we've still to find the dragons with rabbit feet...

    'Tis true I swear!
    lolienkcwisejackjack
  • RavenslightRavenslight Member Posts: 1,609
    Just found this excellent thread for the first time today. Thank you for this wonderful shot of nostalgia @bengoshi . My mind was instantly filled with memories of seeing large stacks of the BG game boxes in stores everywhere for a very long time. I really miss seeing that.

    This line makes me smile.

    “will support up to six different players in its Internet-based multi-player mode and also provides for an excellent solo play experience.”

    I guess the Internet-based multi-player mode was a bigger selling point then I had realized. It’s a good thing I was introduced to the game by a person rather then reading about it as I wasn’t even on line yet back then. I probably would have read that and thought, oh something for that newfangled Internet thing.
    JuliusBorisovlolienkcwisebooinyoureyes
  • VasculioVasculio Member Posts: 469
    Lets us not forget that Frank Welker also voiced Tiamat the multi-headed dragon in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
    He is a amazing voice actor, i think he's best work was as Xzar. But he always seemed out of place to me, when it came to Megatron.
    marceror said:

    bengoshi said:

    Xzar – Frank Welker

    image , image

    Stop TOUCHING me! Due to the large number of films he is able to work on in a given year, films with Frank Welker had grossed more than those of any other actor in Hollywood from 1980 until 2011, when he was surpassed by Samuel L. Jackson!

    During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple shows including the villainous Doctor Claw in Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk and both Darkseid and Kalibak in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, various G.I. Joe heroes and villains, Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs. He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II. He also provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series Bonkers and other various voices for the series, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard and various other characters in Animaniacs and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective. He also provides the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in Futurama. He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including a parody of Fred Jones. He played the voices of multiple characters in TaleSpin.

    Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and provided voices for The Thing in The Golden Child (1986), Sil in Species (1995) and Malebolgia in Spawn (1997). He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the television series Aladdin, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres, he was also the voice of Totoro from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, and a variety of animals from Tiny Toon Adventures. YAY!

    In 2005, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together in The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and also in the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present.

    And you know what? “Ho there, wanderer! Stay thy course a moment and indulge an old man” as well as other phrases by Elminster are voiced by fantastic Frank Welker. (@elminster , did you know your character is able to yell “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” ?;)

    Conspicuously missing from this list is the fact that Frank Welker was also the voice of Megatron from the Transformers cartoon. He was also considered for the movie. Listing Hefty Smurf but omitting Megatron? I makes no sense, I tell you!

    By the way, here's Welker's voice testing for the Megatron in the first Transformers movie.

    kcwiseJuliusBorisovlolien
  • kcwisekcwise Member Posts: 2,287
    bengoshi said:

    Besides, the merchant had an honest face. He was very insistent too, waving his pipe as he named the stars that Boo might have seen. There were many more words amidst his "thee"s and "thou"s that I did not even recognize, but everything became clear to me as he spelled it out.

    That merchant seems suspiciously like Elminster. The truth revealed!

    ----

    My own experience with Baldur's Gate was one of skepticism at first. My dad and I had played SSI's Gold Box series (along with a variety of other turn based RPGs) and enjoyed them a lot, so we weren't sure what to think of the real time with pause system. As it turned out I came to love it, but my dad never did. He finished BG, but that would be the last of the new era of games he would play. He still prefers the turn based combat, which can be found in a few indie titles.

    It was also a strange experience to go from creating an entire party of six to creating only one character. I had a hard time adjusting to that concept, but after I met the characters and laughed at their various action dialogs I never did consider using multiplayer mode to create a party of my own. I came to feel attached to the various NPCs I met along the way.

    I think I fell in love with the game somewhere between Xzar's first utterance of "I am become death, destroy of worlds!" (At the time I didn't realize it was taken from an Oppenheimer quote) and the first time I realized leaving from different edges of the map could open up new areas. The world seemed huge, and I spent many happy hours trudging from place to place in an attempt to find everything. Stumbling across a demon child looking for his lost dog, or a crazed warrior woman looking to challenge any male she met was just plain fun.

    A few years later BG also marked the first time I ever downloaded something from the internet for a game. The college computer lab frowned on such things, but I managed to get several voice sets and a few portraits.

    All hail Baldur's Gate!
    RavenslightJuliusBorisovCrevsDaaklolien
  • dementeddemented Member Posts: 388
    I'm pretty new to the Baldur's Gate series, compared to most on this forum. Only discovered it in the last year or so. Since then, it's become one of my favorite RPGs. No matter what else I play, or how busy my life gets I always come back to it.

    I found it difficult enough to get into, but I'm glad I never gave up on one of the most enjoyable experience in my gaming life.
    RavenslightkcwiseJuliusBorisovlolien
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    I've just read this thread for the first time and oh my gods and goddeses do I feel OLD! How old was I when my hubby treated me to this wonderful, exciting, all absorbing game. Check your Douglas Adam books to find the answer!

    I've been a huge lover of fantasy and sci-fi fiction since I was 5 years old. Yep, I could read then and my glorious mum and dad took us to the library every week and let us pick our own books. I have been known to be so lost in the laternative reality of a great speculative fiction book that family members hd to actually hit me on the head to get my attention. I immediately found I could get just as lost in the world of Baldur's Gate, and I could get just as attached to the characters that inhabit it. I've played it so many times that hubby now knows all the Minsc quotes off by heart, and loves to hear them coming from my machine.
    kcwiseJuliusBorisovRavenslightlolien
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    It's so nice to read your reminiscences! I literally feel my own emotions in your warm words.

    Part 5.

    Alora - Amber Hood

    imageimage

    "Happy Happy Joy Joy!" Amber Hood is known for her work on Onimusha 3 (2004), Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (2007) and Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (1999). She is not so well-known as other voice over actors of BG but still her voice is so lively that she's an often guest in animation and video games.

    Natalie in Ape Escape 3, Paddra Nsu-Yeul in Final Fantasy XIII-2, Pixie in Free Realms, Parin in Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Girl in Green Pajamas in The Polar Express.

    Amber also voiced Dryad, Nymph and Tenya.

    Tiax - John Mariano

    imageimage

    "The day comes when Tiax will point and click!" No doubt about it, John Mariano is a veteran character actor and Emmy Award winning Voice Actor.

    For the last 25 years, he has been honing his craft in film, television, animation, theater and nightclubs.

    John has had the good fortune of developing his skills as an actor, comedian and improviser, working with such Hollywood legends as Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Blake Edwards and Steven Spielberg to George Clooney, James Gandolfini, Danny Devito, Gary Sinise and Edward Norton.

    With a long list of credits, John has appeared on such shows as “CSI: Miami,” ‘’The Sopranos,” “Desperate Housewives,” “The West Wing,” “The Tonight Show,” and recently “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” where his contributions were that of both writer and actor.

    When he’s not appearing on television, John can be found in the recording booth voicing many characters for cartoons including “Batman Beyond,” “Extreme Ghostbusters,” “Transformers,” “Hey Arnold,” “MIB,” “TMNT,” or video games such as ‘’Godfather 2,” “World at War,” “Final Fantasy,” “Star Trek,” “World at Warcraft” and many others too numerous to mention. John can be seen performing around town with the acclaimed Improv group, “The Spolin Players”, the last remaining pupils of Viola Spolin, the Mother of Improv. John can be heard with his co-host Josh Robert Thompson on the “Pokin Around Podcast” on iTunes-Snitcher and Sound Cloud.

    Kagain is also voiced by John, along with Brage, Slythe and Tuth.

    Kivan - Rob Paulsen

    imageimage

    "There is a time for talk. This is not such a time." Although Rob Paulsen voice this line, he has been the voice of over 250 different animated characters and performed in over 1000 commercials. He continues to play parts in dozens of cartoons as well as characters in animated feature movies.

    Rob Paulsen is best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr. Otto Scratchansniff from Animaniacs, and Pinky from Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs (!!!).

    He plays "Morte", a well-known floating, talking skull, in Planescape: Torment. Anomen Delryn is also voiced by Rob Paulsen.

    I wonder how many Kivan fangirls will be surprised to find out the voice they love is the same as Anomen's!

    He provides the voice for Erik the Swift of the Lost Vikings in its second installment. He portrays "Tobli" and "Lian Ronso" in the English version of Square Enix's Final Fantasy X-2 and has played the lead character in Bubsy. Although an extremely minor role, Paulsen has also done the voice for the Greek soldiers in God of War. He voiced Jaq and the Grand Duke from the Cinderella world in Square Enix's and Disney's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. In the video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, he does the voice of "Igor". He also reprised his role as "Yakko Warner", "Dr. Scratchansniff", and "Pinky" in Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt. Rob Paulsen voiced the lead character, Lazarus Jones, in the PS2 game Ghosthunter, and played The Duck Avenger in Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows. Rob also voiced Alfredo Fettuccini, Bob the Ghost Pirate, Lookout and Ghost Priest in The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition. He voiced the Fox and the Mouse in the Green Eggs and Ham PC game. He also voiced "Tlaloc" in Tak and the Power of Juju. Most recently he has voiced The Riddler in Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes, a role he reprised in Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite. Rob is the voice of talking alien dog Beak-Beak in Armikrog.

    Rob also voiced Chanters, Prism, Telmen and Volo.
    Ravenslightlolienkcwise
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