View source for The Bard's Tale (1985 video game)

{{Short description|1985 first-person fantasy role-playing game}}
{{Infobox video game
| title = The Bard's Tale
| publisher = Electronic Arts
| platforms = Apple II, Commodore 64, and later others
| released = 1985
| genre = Role-playing
| modes = Single-player
}}
'''''The Bard's Tale''''', first sold with the series name ''Tales of the Unknown: Volume I'', is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by Interplay Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1985 for the Apple II and the Commodore 64. Its party of adventurers explores Skara Brae, a city that an evil wizard, Mangar the Dark, has frozen. Jimmy Maher, a historian of computer games, gives its sales as over 400,000 copies and calls it the best-selling single role-playing game of the 1980s.<ref name="maher">{{cite web |title=An Independent Interplay Takes on Tolkien |author=Maher, Jimmy |website=The Digital Antiquarian |date=2017-05-26 |url=https://www.filfre.net/2017/05/an-independent-interplay-takes-on-tolkien/}}</ref> In 2022 [[Molecular Reality Corporation]] listed it as one of two "3d" inspirations for the planned game ''[[Labyrinth of the Dragon Tyrant]]''.

== Gameplay ==
Players see the world in first person, through a window that holds a picture of the street or corridor ahead, and move one square at a time through streets, sewers and dungeons of several levels. A party has up to six characters. The classes are warrior, paladin, rogue, hunter, monk, conjurer, magician and bard, and experienced players can reach sorcerer and wizard. Only the bard plays songs. A song works on the whole party for a while, raising its armor or the speed of its attacks, and each has its own tune.

Combat is turn-based and described in text. Spells on keyboard versions are cast by typing a four-letter code, which the manual prints. Characters could be imported from ''Wizardry'' and, on some platforms, from ''[[Ultima (series)|Ultima]] III''. Two sequels followed.

== Versions and reception ==
Early editions carried the series name ''Tales of the Unknown'' on the box, and later ports dropped it. The British magazine ''Zzap!64'' gave the Commodore 64 version 94 percent and its Sizzler award. A remastered edition of the first game came out for Windows in 2018 and for the Xbox One in 2019.<ref name="maher" />

== Influence on Labyrinth of the Dragon Tyrant ==
In the memo ''[[Early Releases on Maxine's Quest]]'', ''Labyrinth of the Dragon Tyrant'' is "Inspired by: 2.5d-rogue-like, with 2d hints of Gauntlet, Ultima, and Pac-Man, and 3d hints of Bard's Tale and Dungeons of Daggaroth"{{sic}}.<ref name="early">{{cite web |title=Early Releases on Maxine's Quest |publisher=Molecular Reality Corporation |year=2022}}</ref> Those two "3d hints" are the games on the list that show the dungeon in first person. ''[[Dungeons of Daggorath]]'', which the memo misspells, is the other.

A bard also turns up in the company's own roster. Its member software lists "Bard" among the character classes, glossed "storytelling/marketing".<ref name="help">{{cite web |title=EQBio-OS help: Gamification & Epic Quest Bio |publisher=Molecular Reality Corporation |date=2026}}</ref> For the idea of classes, the founder credits the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' campaigns of his childhood rather than this game (see [[Character classes of Epic Quest Bio]]). ''Labyrinth of the Dragon Tyrant'' had not been released by October 2026.

== See also ==
* [[Gauntlet (1985 video game)|Gauntlet]]
* [[Pac-Man]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1985 video games]]
[[Category:Electronic Arts games]]
[[Category:Apple II games]]
[[Category:Commodore 64 games]]
[[Category:Role-playing video games]]