Anyone remember Bard's Tale?

[Spinbrett]

The series on the commodore 64? Part 2 sucked but 1 and 3 were amazing. You actually had to sit down and map out the dungeons by hand. You could buy a clue book, but it had nothing in it. They had these "spinners" as they were called that would spin you, and if you didn't pay attention, you'd head back the way you came from. Plus, you had to really explore to find out what to do, it wasn't so linear like to days games where they tell you exactly where to go and who to talk to. The Bards Tale was so inovative for its time. I miss that game so much.

[Blanka789]

Yeah, that was a pretty fun series(even 2 imo), I wish someplace had it for download to play on regular PC"s.

[Arkaign]

I always saw this sitting in Babbage's, but never picked it up. On a side note, I *LOVE* classic video game packaging, it was so diverse and interesting. I am not an EA fan now, but back in the day, those fold-open things were so cool.

[RJ]

You could buy a clue book, but it had nothing in it.

Nice "clue book."

I asked for the latest version for Xmas. Saw it for PS2 at Best Buy recently, but wifey says it's too close to Xmas to be buying up too much game stuff.

Yeah, yeah, I know. <whip crack>

[calthaer]

I never played this on the C64, but you might be able to recognize my avatar as being from the Apple ][ version.

One of the best RPG series of all time.

FYI, the latest version is NOTHING like the originals - it's a Dark-Alliance-style dungeon hack with copious amounts of (decent) humor thrown in, spoofing the RPG genre and its clichés.

BUT - if you purchase the PC version, I believe it also contains all three of the original Bard's Tale games for the PC.

[Mayhem]

The game took several months of my life away. And then I redid it again when I got the disk version finally (I had been playing on tape before!). Beat it at last about 3-4 years ago and started on part 2 but only got about halfway before I had no time left to devote to it.

[Truffle]

I remember playing the hell out of the Bards Tale back when I was a kid. I was too stupid to get very far, and usually got killed alot.

Can anyone tell me if the NES version is any good?

[Mangar]

Bards Tales remains my single favourite RPG series ever made. Even over the Ultima series.

I played all three(Even part 2 was quite decent) on the C-64, and i believe there was a Bards Tale Construction Set released after the third one for the Amiga and PC.

The new Bards Tale is a completely different game, but the closest modern equivalent is Devils Whiskey. http://www.devilwhiskey.com/

[Sothy]

i played it on my old IBM PS2 and wasnt too impressed.

Of course The only sound support I had was modem speaker beeps so maybe i missed something.

[tylerwillis]

BUT - if you purchase the PC version, I believe it also contains all three of the original Bard's Tale games for the PC.

Can anyone confirm this? I usually stay away from PC versions, but it'd be sweet to have the old school stuff too.

And yes, the newer one is nothing like the old ones... but I gave it a good review. Probably one of the funniest games I've played in a long time.

[kevin_psx]

The best place to play old 80's PC games is not an IBM. 4 colors and beep-beep sounds? Gag me with a spoon!

Go for the Commodore 64 version with 16 colors and a real music chip. Or better Amiga with 4096 colors and near-CD sound. http://www.lemonamiga.com/?game_id=123

[kedawa]

I had this game for Amiga, but I never got very far in it, despite playing for hours at a time.
I really had no idea what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to go.

[PS1Expert]

Funny how you ask this question. I was just on an Atari ST site and was looking at the Bard's Tale preview. I used to play Bard's Tale on ST for hours and hours. I spent many sleepless nights playing it. Oh how I loved those good ole days. I also remember playing Phantasie 1, 2, and 3. Those ruled too!!

[kedawa]

I think I had Phantasie III for Amiga as well, if I'm thinking of the right game.
Did the game have damage for each limb?

[PS1Expert]

I think I had Phantasie III for Amiga as well, if I'm thinking of the right game.
Did the game have damage for each limb?

I dunno. I didn't think it was released on Amiga (otherwise I would have remembered it??)

HEre are the ST's Phantasie 2 and 3. Damn, I'd buy an ST agian just for those.

http://www.atari.st/view.php?id=1248

http://www.atari.st/view.php?id=2180

[kedawa]

Yup. That's the one. I don't know why I had so many RPGs back then. I could never get into them much.
Text adventures, on the other hand, had me hooked for months.

[zerohero]

How can I forget that game... lots of reading

[PS1Expert]

Yup. That's the one. I don't know why I had so many RPGs back then. I could never get into them much.
Text adventures, on the other hand, had me hooked for months.

Text adventures?? Ugh. I could never complete those games although I did enjoy them. I never complete any of the Zorks...etc. Did you like King's Quest? You remember that one?

[kedawa]

King's Quest was cool. My friend had it for PC Jr.
He also had Black Cauldron, which was also pretty good.

[Keir]

Best game ever. Part 2 was definitely the worst of the 3, but I would hardly say it sucked. Have you played Dragon Wars (the unofficial BT4)?

<= Note avatar.