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''Tales of the Unknown: Volume I'', better known by its subtitle ''The Bard's Tale'', is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford. Based loosely on traditional ''Dungeons and Dragons'' gameplay and inspired by the ''Wizardry'' computer games, ''The Bard's Tale'' was noteworthy for its unprecedented 3D graphics and partly animated character portraits. The Bard was also an innovation: "The Bard was author Michael Cranford's contribution to the genre, a character who casts spells by singing one of six tunes." It was originally released for the Apple II, and was also ported to the Commodore 64, Apple IIgs, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, Apple Macintosh, and NES platforms. ==Plot== The following text from the box cover summarizes the premise: Long ago, when magic still prevailed, the evil wizard Mangar the Dark threatened a small but harmonious country town called Skara Brae. Evil creatures oozed into Skara Brae and joined his shadow domain. Mangar froze the surrounding lands with a spell of Eternal Winter, totally isolating Skara Brae from any possible help. Then, one night the town militiamen all disappeared. The introduction depicts a bard sitting in a tavern. Between occasional sips from his mug, he strums a lute and sings:
In the actual game, the player forms a group ("party") of up to six characters in the Adventurer's Guild building which is the only "home zone" where the current game, or more precisely, the characters and their current inventory, can be saved. Game progress is made through advancing the characters so that they are powerful enough to defeat the increasingly dangerous foes and monsters in the dungeons, obtaining certain items relevant to solving the overall quest, and obtaining information. The fictional town of Skara Brae (with no connections to the real-world historical site of the same name) consists of 30x30 map tiles containing either buildings or streets (plus gates and magical guardian statues blocking certain streets). Access to one tower in the northeastern and southwestern city corner each is blocked by locked gates. The main city gates which open to the west are blocked by snow, and remain impassable throughout the game. One street seems to lead south endlessly, by actually teleporting the party back to its beginning upon reaching the portion where the city walls would be. Certain buildings within the city are special, such as the Adventurer's Guild, Garth's Equipment Shoppe, the Review Board (which is unmarked and must be found first, and is the only place where characters can level up), various taverns and temples and the dungeons. The latter are mazes of various kinds—cellars, sewers, catacombs or fortresses—full of monsters and riddles, some guarded by magical statues that turn to life to attack trespassing player parties. # The first dungeon is the Wine Cellar (1 level) of one particular tavern, which proves connected to the Sewers of Skara Brae (3 levels) that in turn feature an exit that leads to an otherwise inaccessible southwestern corner of the city where Mangar's Tower, the final dungeon, is located. It cannot be entered without a key, however. In the sewers, numerous hints are found including the name of the Mad God. Finding this first dungeon (the wine cellar) required the party to order some wine at a certain tavern. There was a hint to this in the manual (''Hint: The first dungeon is the wine cellar of the only tavern in town which serves wine. It's on Rakhir Street''). However this hint was not present in the manual included with the C64 release of the game. Upon ordering wine, the party would be sent by the bartender to his cellar to fetch a bottle themselves. It is not actually possible within the game to obtain a bottle of wine, nor is it required to proceed. The purpose of this introductory "dungeon" was simply to introduce the dungeon concept and provide access to the sewers. # The undead-infested Catacombs (3 levels) beneath the temple of the Mad God, accessible only if his name is known (but not technically requiring the party to have found this password themselves; it just needs to be typed in by the player regardless of how they came to possess this information). On the lowest level, a Lich must be defeated to obtain an eye. # If they possess the eye, a statue of the Mad God in Baron Harkyn's Castle (3 levels) will teleport the party to the (otherwise inaccessible) northeastern area where the next dungeon is located; however, it is not required to proceed to the next dungeon immediately. If weakened too much from the fighting in the castle, the party may elect to leave the area via one-way portals instead at this point and return to the city and the Adventurer's Guild. # Kylearan's Tower (1 level) is only accessible through the teleporter in Harkyn's Castle, requiring any party who wish to enter to fight through the castle's three levels first. Kylearan the Archmage awaits the party at the conclusion of his tower maze and turns out to be friendly. He gives the party an access key to Mangar's Tower, the final dungeon, but they still have to circumvent the locked gates around the tower by going through the Sewers. # Still reachable only via the Sewers at this point in the game, Mangar's Tower (5 levels) is the final dungeon that has to be overcome to reach Mangar and slay him, provided the party has acquired several items in the other dungeons which are required to best him. At one point within the tower the party can acquire a key that will allow them to access Mangar's Tower and Kylearan's Tower from the city directly thenceforward, without having to move through the Sewers or Harkyn's Castle, respectively. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Bard's Tale (1985 video game)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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