Bard's Tale (1985)

The Bard's Tale
Cover art
Developer(s)	Interplay Productions
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts, Ariolasoft (Europe)
Designer(s)	Michael Cranford
Platform(s)	Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, NES, ZX Spectrum, NEC PC-9801
Release	1985 - 1991
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I, better known by its subtitle The Bard's Tale, is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in 1985 and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford.

Based loosely on traditional Dungeons & Dragons gameplay and inspired by the Wizardry computer games, The Bard's Tale was noteworthy for its unprecedented 3D graphics and partly animated character portraits. The Bard was also an innovation: "The Bard was author Michael Cranford's contribution to the genre, a character who casts spells by singing one of six tunes."

It was originally released for the Apple II, and was also ported to the Commodore 64, Apple IIgs, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and NES platforms.

The following text from the box cover summarizes the premise:

Long ago, when magic still prevailed, the evil wizard Mangar the Dark threatened a small but harmonious country town called Skara Brae. Evil creatures oozed into Skara Brae and joined his shadow domain. Mangar froze the surrounding lands with a spell of Eternal Winter, totally isolating Skara Brae from any possible help. Then, one night the town militiamen all disappeared.

The future of Skara Brae hung in the balance. And who was left to resist? Only a handful of unproven young Warriors, junior Magic Users, a couple of Bards barely old enough to drink, and some out of work Rogues.

The introduction depicts a bard sitting in a tavern. Between occasional sips from his mug, he strums a lute and sings:

...
Wikipedia