Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale
1985
- role-playing (rpg)
- adventure
- fantasy
- single player
The story
Tales of the Unknown: Volume I, better known as "The Bard's Tale", is an RPG developed by Interplay Productions in 1985 originally for the Apple II. It was quickly ported to numerous other platforms and became widely successful. This was partly because it incorporated unprecedented 3D graphic design, featuring partly animated character portraits and engaging gameplay. It also helped that the game was available on the Commodore 64-the most successful game console at the time, whereas the main competitor-the Ultima series, was not.
What it’s like
Sparse, blocky first-person dungeon corridors rendered in stark monochrome and a handful of muted colours, with the walls flattening into grid-like stone and the view snapping forward one square at a time. The rhythm is deliberate and turn-based: long pauses between moves, the click of a menu, a cramped party of adventurers reading their stats while torches gutter in the distance. Sound is sparse, mostly chiptune stingers and the occasional eerie drone, so the silence between fights does most of the work. The mood is grim, nostalgic and faintly uncanny, a brittle sword-and-sorcery dread where ghosts, orcs and undead lurk behind every turn. Violence is cartoonish and abstract: combat is handled through text and simple sprite flashes, with no gore and little sexual content, though the fear of getting lost or wiped out runs constant. It suits a slow evening alone, a late-night retro session, or anyone curious about how early computer roleplaying felt before modern polish. It is for players who enjoy mapping unknown rooms by hand, managing a party patiently, and savouring old-school atmosphere.
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