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

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

First release
Sep 1985
Genres
Role-playing (RPG), Adventure · Fantasy

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.

Also known as The Bard's Tale

Attributes

No Attributes added.

Details

Storyline, release dates, time to beat, age ratings, modes, links, keywords

Storyline
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.Read more

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.

Release dates
Apple II
Sep 1985
Commodore C64/128/MAX
Feb 1986
Commodore C64/128/MAX
1986
Age ratings
ESRB T
Game modes
Single player
Perspective
First person
Keywords
ghosts, orcs, wizards, ninja, vampire
… All 38, magic, samurai, turn-based, elves, insanity, undead, dwarves, hunter, sword & sorcery, giants, warriors, possession, spider, leveling up, human, bow and arrow, loot gathering, goblins, skeletons, party system, werewolves, bards, melee, spellcaster, elementals, merchants, mana, poisoning, random encounter, paladins, gnome, barbarians, ghoul

Media

Screenshots

2 screenshotsSee all media

Videos