The Bard's Tale (1985 video game)

The Bard's Tale is a classic series of computer role-playing games. It comprises four parts and published by Interplay, or Electronic Arts from 1985. The title of the series is a nod to William Shakespeare ( called The Bard ), Cardinal Handlungsort is the Stone Age town of Skara Brae, which was however offset here in a hypothetical Middle Ages.

Gameplay

The Bard's Tale is technically a first-person dungeon explorer, that is, the game world is represented in a highly simplified, discrete 3D view. You can record multiple characters in his " party ", where their skills fully through their " class " ( magician, warrior, bard, etc. ) can be determined. Turn-based battles occur. The control system as a whole is heavily based on early issues of Dungeons and Dragons.

Development

Significant author of the parts 1 and 2 was Michael Cranford, Part 3 Bill " Burger " Heinemann, at which Part 3 also cooperated Michael A. Stackpole, an American science fiction and fantasy author. Was influenced the development also by Brian Fargo, former boss of Interplay and high school friend of Michael Cranford. Both had already been made at school to transfer their experience with the pen & paper role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons computer games. The Bard's Tale should be sold by Interplay Activision originally, but was rejected because it required two instead of a floppy disk. The Bard's Tale was originally intended only as a subtitle of the first part, the series was supposed to be in the name Tales of the Unknown.

The games were first programmed on an Apple II and then ported to almost all then current systems, including C64, Atari ST, Amiga and PC.

Content unites the game series influences from a vast number of sources among other pen & paper role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. The game principle is based on Wizardry, the first first-person role-playing game of this type ( published for the Apple II, then ported to the Atari 800 and Commodore 64). Furthermore, numerous parallels drawn: The classic antiquity and the Bible (especially in names like Ephesus and Tarjan ) and its mythology, Alice in Wonderland ( Jabberwocky ), Germanic mythology, the Gothic Novels like Dracula and Frankenstein, the works of HP Lovecraft, the Wizard of Oz and the recent history of the 20th century, just to name a few. However, doing so many of these influences restrict only to the acquisition of a name or a figure.

Successor

The unofficial successor to The Bard's Tale series is Dragon Wars. This game has been developed on a similar game engine, but the backstory was completely reworked, so the working title The Bard's Tale IV was dropped. Furthermore, Interplay was allowed the title alone therefore not continue because the company as a developer had no rights to the name. Dragon Wars was less successful than The Bard's Tale and was therefore not continued.

Rights holder Electronic Arts also worked from 1990 to continue with the project title ' The Bards Tale 4, 1992 published the first reports in the German game press. The project was never completed.

In the years 1992 to 1998 was a series of books whose action takes place in the world of The Bard 's Tale, published.

Since about 2003, a role playing game that is heavily inspired by The Bard 's Tale exists. It is sold under the name The Devil Whiskey. According to the authors had to be chosen for reasons of copyright another name. The game structure is similar to Bard's Tale, but is not 100 percent acquisition.

In June 2005, the fourth part of The- Bard's - Tale series, which, however, is very different from its predecessors appeared. Action and strikingly comedic, especially parody, elements characterize this ( controversial ) putting the saga.

The company inXile has just acquired the naming rights, but no content rights to the The- Bard's - Tale series.

In December 2011, on the rules and regulations of The Bard's Tale ( Part 1-3 ) appeared based roleplaying game for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch ) called Silversword, a free " Lite " version is also available in the Apple App Store. It tries to preserve the look and feel of the original game was, with some improvements for the use with mobile devices ( control by touch instead of a (virtual ) keyboard, Quest Log, improved auto -map and other things).

Parts

• Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale ( 1985)
• The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight ( 1986)
• The Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate (1988 )
• The Bard's Tale ( 2005)

There is also the The Bard's Tale Construction Set (1991 )