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

"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."

Interplay Productions·Electronic Arts· September 1, 1985· Main Game

User Score

19 ratings

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.

Released 1 September 1985 for Apple II and Commodore C64/128/MAX by Interplay Productions, published by Electronic Arts. Rated T by ESRB.

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.