Baldur's Gate

Cancelled Dreamcast and PlayStation ports

A Playstation 5-disc version was revealed to be in the works by Interplay on October 25, 1999. It was to be ported by UK developer Runecraft but on March 29, 2000 it was put "on hold" and never saw the light of day. Howewer, years later a nearly finished and working prototype was found and "leaked" to the net by an anonymous collector.

A Dreamcast port was also in the works during that time, but was dropped by SEGA for an unspecified reason in 2000.

Drizzt Do'Urden

Though he appears only once in the game, the legendary Drizzt Do'Urden makes a brief but sweet (and rewarding) guest appearance in a certain part of the game. Drizzt is a very famous D&D character that sprung from the Dark Elf Trilogy of forgotten realms-based novels by R.A. Salvatore.

German version

In the German version all blood and splatter animations were removed.

Graveyards

Visit the cemetery in one of the towns, and you'll be able to read many funny inscriptions on the graves. An example: "Here lies an atheist, all dressed up, and no place to go".

Narrator (Spoiler!)

The same person voices Sarevok (the hero's main adversary) and the narrator in the game. This might be a coincidence, but in Icewind Dale, another AD&D game by Black Isle, the ultimate evil and narrator are done by the same person again, and in that game it's a plot point.

Novel

Wizards of the Coast published a novelization of this game in 1999, written by Forgotten Realms series editor Philip Athans.

Remake

A fan-made remake called Baldur's Gate Reloaded was released as mod for Neverwinter Nights 2 in June 2013.

Sales

In 1999, Baldur's Gate has won the Gold-Award from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • April 1999 (Issue #177) – Best RPG of the Year
• GameSpy
  • 2001 – #36 Top Game of All Time
• GameStar (Germany)
  • Issue 12/1999 - #31 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
• Origin
  • 1998 - Best Role-Playing Computer Game
• PC Gamer
  • April 2000 - #9 in the "Magazine's Readers All-Time Top 50 Games" poll
  • April 2005 - #11 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list
• PC Player (Germany)
  • Issue 01/2000 - Best RPG in 1999
• Power Play
  • Issue 02/1999 – Best Isometric RPG in 1998
• Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland<
  • 1999 - Gold Award

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, Chris Martin, PCGamer77, Pseudo_Intellectual, Scaryfun, Unicorn Lynx and Xoleras