Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard’s Tale Video Review

For his seventy-first “Matt Chat” episode, Matt Barton does a video review/overview of Electronic Arts and Interplay’s original Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard’s Tale. During his lengthy review, we even hear some interesting trivia like the fact that Michael Cranford initially wanted to call the game “Master of the Seven Magics” and that the inclusion of a bard class was actually an afterthought:

Matt also briefly covers The Destiny Knight and The Bard’s Tale Construction Kit, and then picks up a guitar and sings the original bard song toward the end of the video. No, I’m not kidding.

I remember struggling to play through the first couple of Wizardry and Ultima titles to their conclusion, but I distinctly recall finishing The Bard’s Tale at 8 years old. It took a ridiculous amount of patience (and coordinate guessing with the Apport Arcane teleport spell) making it through the Skara Brae Sewers, Tarjan’s Catacombs, Harkyn’s Castle, Kylearan’s Tower, and Mangar’s Tower, but I’d have to agree with Matt that it’s an achievement I won’t forget for the rest of my life. I think I even have all of my graph paper maps stored away somewhere. If you ever want to challenge yourself and get a better idea of how tough the old school RPGs really were, fire up whichever version you prefer and try making it all the way to Mangar without looking up any info on the Internet. Hell, even tracking down the review board for the first time to level up your characters was a pain in the ass.