The Bard's Tale (1985)

1985 Interplay Productions

1985 Interplay Productions

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About The Bard's Tale (1985)

The Bard's Tale (1985) is an adventure and Role-playing (RPG) game developed by Interplay Productions and published by Electronic Arts, released on 1 January 1985.

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.

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.

Gameplay