Pool of Raiance, released in 1988, was the first of a long series of tactical role-playing games that shared a common engine that came to be known as the "Gold Box Engine" after the gold boxes in which most games of the series were sold. It was well received with the accolade of being "the best RPG ever to grace the C64, or indeed any other computer." As the first game in the series, Pool of Radiance was to be surpassed in terms of features by later Gold Box games. Party characters could only be selected from among the classes of fighter, cleric, wizard, or thief, and the maximum class level was restricted to level 6 (9 for thieves, 8 for fighters).