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The Bard's Tale is a series of dungeon crawls heavily based on Wizardry.
Original series
The games share an almost identical character creation and interface, and an absolutely identical combat mode with Wizardry. Notable differences are: (1) the introduction of the bard class, with a "bard song" ability; (2) the surface is an actual city to be explored, instead of a simple menu screen (it becomes an extensive world in later titles); (3) there is more than one dungeon.
In the original series, characters could be transfered from one title to the next, including Dragon Wars. The latter was supposed to be "The Bard's Tale IV", but the title was changed very late during the production.
Platform |
Bard's Tale 1 |
Bard's Tale 2 |
Bard's Tale 3 |
Dragon Wars | Notes (limits and defects) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
C64 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1989 | 8-bit graphics; bugs |
Apple II | 1985 | 1987 | 1988 | 1990 | 8-bit graphics; bugs |
MS-DOS | 1985 | 1988 | 1990 | 1989 | Encounter rate is too high |
Amiga | 1987 | 1988 | 1991 | 1990 | - |
PC-9801 | ? | ? | ? | ? | Japanese language only |
Platform |
Bard's Tale 1 |
Bard's Tale 2 |
Bard's Tale 3 |
Dragon Wars | Notes (limits and defects) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atari ST | 1987 | N/A | N/A | N/A | - |
CPC | 1988 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 8-bit graphics |
ZX | 1988 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 8-bit graphics |
Apple IIgs | ? | ? | N/A | ? | - |
NES | 1990 | 1992 | N/A | 1991 | Games reduced to fit in cartridge |
X68000 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1991 | - |
Other titles
- Maze Master is the precursor of the series, developed by the same author in 1983; it clearly shows the influence of Wizardry. For more information, see here.
- The Bard's Tale Construction Set is a program to create dungeons; it also includes a playable scenario titled Star Light Festival.
- The Bard's Tale (2004) features a completely different gameplay from the rest of the series.
- The Mage's Tale is a game developed for virtual reality headset.
- The Bard's Tale IV started development after a 25-years-long pause in the series.
The Bard's Tale series
Software:
Precursor:
Related games:
Compilation(s):
Pages in category "The Bard's Tale"
The following 2 pages are in this category, out of 2 total.