I just found a downloadable version of The Bard’s Tale online and had to share my discovery. Oh, the hours I used to waste playing this game on my parents’ Apple IIgs (remember the Apple IIgs? — it was like an amped up Apple IIe). Anyway, it’s all there: the game, the spell book, the maps. The graphics are awful, of course — the game is over 20 years old. But what makes The Bard’s Tale awesome is that it is a truly difficult RPG. You can’t just fight any enemy that appears; some will make mincemeat out of you. You can’t just wander around a dungeon; you need to make maps. It’s not just fooling around — the Bard’s Tale requires work.
Posted by Chris Lund on March 13, 2009 at 01:40 PM
Comments
This makes me laugh. I wasted days on that game in fifth grade. The part I really remember was that it took two minutes to “boot up” (a bizarre notion by today’s standards), during which the screen displayed text that read: “Waking up the monsters.”
Posted by: Matt | Mar 18, 2009 9:21:23 AM
Cool. Is Zork online? Another game you had to map, particularly the mazes.
Posted by: Bruce Boyden | Mar 13, 2009 6:24:02 PM
below the root on the IIe
Posted by: keitht | Mar 13, 2009 5:12:09 PM
I was a Wizardry guy myself.
Posted by: Ben Barros | Mar 13, 2009 4:20:14 PM
Thanks, Chris. This brings back a lot of memories. The Bard’s Tale was the first computer role playing game I played, on an Apple IIc with a monochrome monitor. It was really a terrific game – and hard!
Posted by: Carlton Larson | Mar 13, 2009 4:19:06 PM