Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale

1001 Video Games

The Bard's Tale appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Buildings

While most of the buildings are empty and exist only to increase the size of the map, entering the building directly across from the guild shows the game credits.

Novels

Though any direct connection to the game series, setting and characters is slight at best, an officially-licensed Bard's Tale series of novels eight strong (!) were published by Baen Books over a six-year period in the '90s:1. Castle of Deception (1992), by Mercedes Lackey and Josepha Sherman; 2. Fortress of Frost and Fire (1993), by Mercedes Lackey and Ru Emerson; 3. The Chaos Gate (1994), by Josepha Sherman; 4. Prison of Souls (1994), by Mercedes Lackey and Mark Shepherd; 5. Thunder of the Captains (1996), by Holly Lisle and Aaron Allston; 6. Wrath of the Princes (1997), by Holly Lisle and Aaron Allston; 7. Escape from Roksamur (1997), by Mark Shepherd; and 8. Curse of the Black Heron (1998), by Holly Lisle.

References

• Michael Cranford, a devout Christian, put many Biblical references into the first two Bard's Tale games. Most notable are a reference to the crucifixion in the first game and the Holy Spirit in the second. In fact, Cranford ended his video game career with the second game in the series and now programs web sites for religious groups.
• One of the more powerful shields in the game, the Ybarra shield, is in fact named after Joe Ybarra, a producer at Electronics Arts, who was directly involved with The Bard's Tale.

Skara Brae

The original Skara Brae is a well-preserved Neolithic village located in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The four thousand year old settlement was buried by encroaching sand dunes and uncovered a century ago when a storm exposed parts of the structures. Today it is a well known tourist site and undoubtedly inspired Michael Cranford (Bard's Tale) and Richard Garriott (Ultima series).

NES version

In the NES version, the post-death screen was removed, the word "kill" was avoided and all alcoholic beverages were replaced with non-alcoholic ones.

Awards

• Commodore Force
  • December 1993 (Issue 13) – #88 “Readers' Top 100”
• Commodore Format
  • November 1994 (Issue 50) – #29 The All-Time Top 50 C64 Games
• Computer Gaming World
  • March 1988 (Issue #45) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • November 1996 (15th Anniversary issue) - #89 on the "150 Best Games of All Time" list
• GameSpy
  • 2001 – #17 Top Game of All Time
• Happy Computer
  • 1986 - Best Role Playing Game of the Year
  • Issue 04/1987 - #2 Best Game in 1986 (Readers' Vote)
• Power Play
  • 1987 - Best Atari ST Game '87

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Chip Arnett, Peter Ferrie, PCGamer77, Pseudo_Intellectual, Ray Soderlund, Vance.