Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale cover

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale

Login to rate this game

Genres
Role-playing (RPG)Adventure
Themes
Fantasy
Modes
Single player
Perspective
First person
Developers
Publishers
Release dates
Platform Date
Apple II September 01, 1985
Amiga December 31, 1986
Commodore C64/128/MAX December 31, 1986
Apple IIGS December 31, 1987
Atari ST/STE December 31, 1987
DOS December 31, 1987
Amstrad CPC December 31, 1988
ZX Spectrum December 31, 1988
Mac December 31, 1989

About

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I, better known as "The Bard's Tale", is an RPG developed by Interplay Productions in 1985 originally for the Apple II. It was quickly ported to numerous other platforms and became widely successful. This was partly because it incorporated unprecedented 3D graphic design, featuring partly animated character portraits and engaging gameplay. It also helped that the game was available on the Commodore 64-the most successful game console at the time, whereas the main competitor-the Ultima series, was not.

Story

The Bard's Tale is a typical dungeon crawl styled game, where the objective is to gain experience and progress each character's skill level through combat and monsters. This is done by working through a number of labyrinths, solving puzzles, and upgrading equipment. In this particular dungeon crawl, the story is centred around the evil wizard Mangar, who must be defeated by a small band of unproven young Warriors, Magic Users, a couple of Bards, and a few Rogues, led by the player. Mangar has brought evil creatures into the town of Skara Brae and cast a spell of Eternal Winter, isolating Skara Brae from outside help.

Similar Games

See all games like Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale