The Bard's Tale

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Traianvs


eh where?

Just google for freeware spectrum/C64 emulators and ROMs.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by child of Thor
I will most likely get the PC version, so not be able to play the new game - but i'll be happy with the old versions if they are all there.

According to the blurb on the box cover they are bundled. Though how much work it will take to get them running on a Windows box remains unknown.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


According to the blurb on the box cover they are bundled. Though how much work it will take to get them running on a Windows box remains unknown.

well luckily its become something i'm quite good at. I'd rather have the 'proper' origonals and mess around in Dos, than have some awful bloated and buggy install software(like the stuff you get on most budget releases) to make the games windows friendly. I've got quite a few games running at present(Deus Ex,FM2005,Elite3,AR,Alien Hominoid and Odd worlds-strangers wrath) so i may have to put this on the back burner for a while! Still its good to hear others stories about it

[Grumbold]

Sorry I don't read Poly regularly any more thanks to all the popups, so I missed your calls for more info. By all means send me a pm if you need to attract my attention in future

It plays a bit like Diablo II in that you steer your character around and shoot/fight, but its not quite as fast paced. I chose to concentrate on archery and it takes a couple of seconds to fire off each powered-up archery shot. Your companions fight for themselves, beyond being told to charge or stay close.

What differentiates it from D2 is that you'll normally have a bit of dialogue between each map full of monster bashing and you have a lot of options in how you build a group once you can summon two or more companions and "cast" other spells with your music.

I do have the PC version of BT, and if it has the original triology on the disc then they are tucked away somewhere, not on the game launcher. Having played the original on the Atari ST I could not face playing the PC version with dire EGA graphics when I looked at it a few years ago. Last time I looked our favourite abandonware site did have them if you are interested.

[DrSpike]

This game sounds a bit unoriginal. These days combat in RPGs is designed to be more fun than point and click.

[Dis]

don't be dissin' point and click.

but seriously. I really don't like the trend to turn rpg's into action games. The new D&D online game is going to be based more on your skills at using the mouse to hit various parts of the body, rather than your stats.

yeah I suck at aiming when in the fast pace of combat. Games like Morrowind I always turn on use best attack. As it's a realy pain in the ass to move from side to side when attacking.

[DrSpike]

CoH, WoW and GW all have interesting combat system without being too taxing for noobs like you.

[Dis]

of those, I've only played WOW.

And Wow is point and click.

[DrSpike]

No, it isn't.

[Dis]

perhaps you have a different definition of point and click.

[child of Thor]

[sucks pipe] now Daggerfall had a fun version of point and click............and skills that counted.....those were the days

@Grumbold,
Thanks for the detail - i guess those EGA versions might not be so hot afterall, i discovered that trying the PC version of AR as well - not even as good as the atari8bit versions. So i might try the emu route recomended by Dr.Spike before buying.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Dis
perhaps you have a different definition of point and click.

Yes, the correct one.

[Urban Ranger]

Yeah, the graphics on the old Atari, Commodore and Amiga boxes were so much superior to PC graphics in those days, it's a shame that they died out.

[Dis]

yeah i played bards tale 2 on the C64. It looked okay. They didn't have maps. But everything was in 10 feet scquares, so it was easy to map using graphing paper.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Dis
yeah i played bards tale 2 on the C64. It looked okay. They didn't have maps. But everything was in 10 feet scquares, so it was easy to map using graphing paper.

yuummmm.......making maps on graph paper I still do it now sometimes, even when the game has an ingame automap function - atleast i can put the info i want on my graph paper

Yeah i seem to remember the Bards Tale games being superb C64 games, did the Amiga/AtariST version make any improvements?