Wastelander75: "In 1985, programmer and game designer Michael Cranford had an idea. An idea seeped in the lore and tradition of the old pen and paper games of a youth now long gone. An idea that became a song once sung by the light of tavern fires far across the imaginary lands of Skara Brae. That song became a tale. That tale, a legend. A legend that defined a generation of gamers. One that, if one were to guess, perhaps moved a person's spirit on to greater things in the gaming community... and beyond.
"Sadly, it has now become a tale all but forgotten by time. The ashes of the now cold hearth long scattered to the wind. And yet, as echoes of the past slowly become the pillars of independent-minded futures, one wonders if the song can ever be heard again; if the world-weary troubadours of old will one day take their rightful place by firelight once more. And once more fill the adventuring halls with songs of both valor and courage. Perhaps, some say.
"But just as many say perhaps not."
In this special retrospective of Playing Roles, we look back at The Bard's Tale, one of the best Dungeon Crawlers ever made, and go behind the design of the game and what's in store for the series.
GameBanshee has gotten their hands on the original design document that outlined Interplay's plans for Tales of the Unknown, Volume 1: The Bard's Tale (or just The Bard's Tale, as it was later known as). Originally, the game was going to be called "Shadow Snare" and it was set to build off the "problems and irritations" that the author felt were plaguing Sir Tech's Wizardry and Richard Garriott's Ultima series.
Bard's Tale and BT2: Destiny Knight took sooooo many of my hours back in the C64/Amiga days. Great games, probably the ones that got me hooked into the RPG genre.
Plus it lets me say "back when I started playing RPGs we had to keep graph paper by the computer to map out dungeons by hand" whenever someone complains about a bad minimap or map system in a game. :)
Yup! I 'cut my RPG teeth' on Bard's Tale 1 & 2 as well as the Ultima series on the good ole Apple II+.
