I love gaming, esp. RPGs (Role Playing Games,) Martial Arts Games, Puzzle Games, Platformers, Computerized Board Games, First Person Shooters (FPS), Sports Games and Action Games.
Let's talk RPGs:
I grew up playing games on the Commodore 64/128 and the Commmodore 64/128 was the king of gaming for 8 bit computers back in the day. On the Commodore 64/128 i spent countless days and nights and almost every waking hours play RPGs (Role Playing Games.) This is Part 1 of my series of blogs talking about my favorite RPGs. Today, i will focus on the Bard's Tale Series with mention of the new Bard's Tale and Silversword.
The Bard's Tale Series:
The original Bard's Tale Series were released for the Commodore 64/128, Apple II series, PCs, Amiga computers, original Macintosh, Nintendo and now is available for iOS (iPad.) I played and owned the Bard's Tale series-- Bard's Tale 1: Tales of the Unknown, Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight and Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate for the Commodore 128 and the PC but i love the Commodore version most. The Commodore version had real nice graphics and sound support, better than my 386 PC which had good graphics but ok sound only. To this day, I still think the commodore 64/128 had better graphics then my 386 PC in terms of the bard's tale trilogy games. i also owned the Nintendo console version of the Bard's Tale I. However, the Nintendo version of the Bard's Tale I was ok but not as good as the computer versions. Nintendo's version is considered watered down and lacks the polish of the commodore 64/128 version.
The Bard's Tale Series were very immersive content packed detailed role playing games. It came with a map of the city or area you started out on, i.e. Skara Brae for Bard's Tale 1. You create a party of 6 members who should be diverse in things like: 1)class-- it is good to have a mixture of magic users, fighters, and a bard to play magical tunes to aid your party in battle, 2) race-- Human are balanced, Elves and Gnomes better intelligence to be better magic users, Hobbits are have the best dexterity so they will be the first to strike in battle and hide in shadows to assassinate targets, thus hobbits make the best thieves. The Bard's Tale series covers a vast area, so it is wise to map out the area as you explore and get deeper and further into the game; have a pen and paper at hand. You will definitely need to map out the dungeons you explore or you will get lost and won't be able to make it back to the Adventurer's Guild to save your progress. Unlike Bard's Tale I and Bard's Tale II, Bard's Tale III allow you to fill up all 7 character slots with your own characters or you could summon a NPC (NonPlayer Character) and save them to the Roster. The Bard's Tale series would fall under the hack and slash genre too, because the game involves fighting and killing enemies to gain experience points to level up and gaining treasure through combat and exploration. I recommend you not to venture too far from camp/adventurer's guild until your party of characters get strong enough. Stay close to adventurer's guild and be sure to find the location of the review board-- which allows for your characters to level up and your magic users to gain spells and switch class. Also to to give your characters the best weapons and armor you can get your hands on and recharge your spell points for your magic users and be 100% healed before entering a dungeon. It is also good for your bard to drink so he can play magic tunes and make sure you get a fire horn or a frost horn for your bard. Having a bard with a fire horn or a frost horn will get your party out of a tight spot when starting out, when your party isn't strong enough for large groups of strong enemies in the beginning. The fire horn or frost horn allows for your bard to spray a large group of enemies, killing them or severely hurting them with one blow per round of combat. It is also a good idea to summon a NPC or create a character the fill slot 7 in the roster (like in Bard's Tale III or Silversword,) because you will need all the help you can get. In Bard's Tale III, i recommend you get your fighters the stoneblade, which instantly turns anyone you hit into stone! To make things easier, i recommend using a character editor for the Bard's tale trilogy, i use it on my commodore 64 versions of Bard's Tale to make things a lot easier. It also for you to edit your character stats and modify your characters to your liking and give them any items you want to equip them with.
The Bard's Tale Original Series I-III is available on iPad/iOS. The iOS version gives you the Apple IIGS version of Bard's Tale I and II and the Commodore 64 version of Bard's Tale III. It comes bundled with the New Bard's Tale game, which is third person action hack and slash game, a little like Diablo II. I bought it for under $3 during a sale and it is a deal, because you get 4 games for the price of one! The New Bard's Tale is kinda different from the Original Bard's Tale I-III-- there is no roster screen but a screen of the Bard and the terrain you navigate with touch screen buttons for bard tune, magic, combat, controlling movement. I haven't gone far into the new Bard's Tale yet but i will over time. The first quest you get is to rid a Tavern of a rat problem and I am not going to give away the easy solution on dealing with the rat problem-- don't want to ruin it for other players just starting out. My first impression of the new Bard's Tale is that it is a very good game, in terms of graphics, gameplay, plot and execution-- and i love the witty narratives by the narrator in the game! I, however spent most of my time playing the classic Bard's Tale Series due to nostalgic reasons and the fact that I am a retro gamer. The new Bard's Tale is also available on the Mac App Store for intel based Macs but I can't elaborate on that much because I don't own an intel based Mac (my brother has a MacBook though) or use the Mac App Store but I will be upgrading soon to a Mac Mini once Apple refreshes the lineup, and will post more about the Mac version of the new Bard's Tale in the near future. So I don't really know if the Original Bard's Tale series is bundled with the new Bard's Tale on the Mac version though. I recommend playing the Bard's Tale original trilogy series via emulation. For me, i play Bard's Tale original trilogy series on my Mac via commodore 64 emulation with VICE emulator or Power 64 emulator or Frodo emulator and it works well for me. I owned all three Bard's Tale I--III games but the disks don't work any more due to age. Don't ask me where to get the disk images for the Bard's Tale I-III trilogy though, try searching for it on Google search. I will play the new Bard's Tale on iOS when i get more time but in the meantime, i am retro gaming with the Bard's Tale original trilogy! Love retro gaming and retro RPGs!
If you love the Bard's Tale I-III Series original games, and completed all three of the games and want more, then I recommend a game on iOS-- Silversword. Silversword is the spiritual successor to the Bard's Tale I-III games. The layout is the same: Roster list, a window for view, and a text action window. Silversword also gives you the ability to save almost anywhere in the game and you get built in mapping system and a spell book too. And Silversword has natural native touch controls on the iOS versus the Bard's Tale Original trilogy series on the iOS-- which has touchscreen controls but is tacked on with some limitations and is not as nicely done as in Silversword. The new Bard's Tale (original trilogy included) is $4.99 on the App Store and Silversword is also $4.99 on the App Store. Both have versions for the iPod Touch/iPhone and an iPad version. The new Bard's Tale is also on the Mac App Store for $9.99. Silversword is not available on the Mac yet but might be considered to be ported in the near future, according to developer.
My rating for Bard's Tale I -III on commodore 64/128 & iOS
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Controls: 4 out of 5 stars
gameplay: 5 out of 5 stars
fun factor: 5 out of 5 stars
sound/music: 4 out of 5 stars
I can't give my rating for the new Bard's Tale yet because I haven't play much of it yet and spend all my time with the classic trilogy.
My rating for Silversword:
5 out of 5 stars for everything because it builds on the classic Bard's Tale series and modernizes it with built in mapping system, better graphics, and really nice touch controls!
If you love retro rpgs like Bard's Tale series i recommend you get it on iOS and also get Silversword. I also recommend you check out other retro RPGs like the Wizardry series or Might and Magic series (both which are available on the Commodore 64/128 and PCs.)
Have fun! And thanks for reading my blog!
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