4 ms·

Many years ago I played one of her works, Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate and enjoyed it very much. It was a masterful blend of RPG, dungeon crawl, and puzzles an

Many years ago I played one of her works, Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate and enjoyed it very much. It was a masterful blend of RPG, dungeon crawl, and puzzles and had a memorable soundtrack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru5kg35dNso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru5kg35dNso Having a bard in your party let you choose a soundtrack and their songs brought magical effects. For example, the Rhyme of Duotime let your party attack more frequently in combat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oR4j7w4FIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oR4j7w4FIY BT3 is available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/msdos_The_Bards_Tale_3_-_Thief_Of_Fate_1990 https://archive.org/details/msdos_The_Bards_Tale_3_-_Thief_O...

sosborn 10mo ago
The original Bard's Tale was my first RPG and I've been hooked ever since.
mitb6 10mo ago
BT3 was wonderful, lots of nostalgia for me. Sad to hear of her passing.
senectus1 10mo ago
ahh i have fond memories of this game... and the silly anti piracy attempts (decoder ring) they shipped it with.
- slfnflctd 10mo ago
  In middle school, a friend and I 'cracked' that decoder ring by copying all the info by hand on to paper so we could both play the game from one store bought copy because we were poor. I don't think we ever finished the game, but it's still one of my happiest early gaming memories. They remastered all three of the first Bard's Tale games a few years ago and released them on Steam with many quality of life improvements-- I bought the set without a second thought even though I know I will probably never take the time to play it all the way through. I've spent a few dozen hours on it so far, though.
  - mrits 10mo ago
    It is hilarious to think if you could beat BT3 you could also crack the decoder ring
einpoklum 10mo ago
It seems Bard's Tale 3 can be played on the DosBox emulator: https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=188&letter=B https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=188&letter=B ... which is available for many platforms, including Windows and Linux: https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 although the latest version of DosBox seems to be from 2019, so maybe others can suggest a more actively-maintained emulator.
- 1313ed01 10mo ago
  DOSBox-X is a port that is actively developed and has many features missing in vanilla DOSBox. There are a few other ones as well. DOSBox Staging is one. Magic DOSBox seems to be the most popular on Android. There is some iOS port as well.
  - QuercusMax 10mo ago
    "DOSBox Staging" is such a weird name for that fork / continuation.
  - einpoklum 10mo ago
    That sounds promising. Do they also have a "compatibility by game title" database?
    - deleted 10mo ago
      [deleted]
mrits 10mo ago
She was originally chosen to do a remaster of the series. This was eventually reassigned to another publisher. If you purchase Bards Tale 4 you get the remastered 1,2, and 3 for free. I have played BT 1 every year or so since the late 80s.
slfnflctd 10mo ago
The first trilogy (including BT3) was also remastered about 7 years ago and released on Steam, it's like $15 and has many quality of life improvements.
trashface 10mo ago
Interesting, I didn't know BT3 was by a different author, it definitely had its own vibe distinct from the first two, which this guy wrote (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cranford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cranford). I liked them all though. The steam remasters are incredibly faithful to the originals - right down to the timing and flow of the turn-based combat. Makes me wonder if they are emulating the original code somehow.
- moregrist 10mo ago
  I believe they’re using the PC ports, running in something like DosBox or FreeDOS

sosborn 10mo ago

The original Bard's Tale was my first RPG and I've been hooked ever since.

mitb6 10mo ago

BT3 was wonderful, lots of nostalgia for me. Sad to hear of her passing.

senectus1 10mo ago

ahh i have fond memories of this game... and the silly anti piracy attempts (decoder ring) they shipped it with.

slfnflctd 10mo ago
In middle school, a friend and I 'cracked' that decoder ring by copying all the info by hand on to paper so we could both play the game from one store bought copy because we were poor. I don't think we ever finished the game, but it's still one of my happiest early gaming memories. They remastered all three of the first Bard's Tale games a few years ago and released them on Steam with many quality of life improvements-- I bought the set without a second thought even though I know I will probably never take the time to play it all the way through. I've spent a few dozen hours on it so far, though.
- mrits 10mo ago
  It is hilarious to think if you could beat BT3 you could also crack the decoder ring

einpoklum 10mo ago

It seems Bard's Tale 3 can be played on the DosBox emulator: https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=188&letter=B https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=188&letter=B ... which is available for many platforms, including Windows and Linux: https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 although the latest version of DosBox seems to be from 2019, so maybe others can suggest a more actively-maintained emulator.

1313ed01 10mo ago
DOSBox-X is a port that is actively developed and has many features missing in vanilla DOSBox. There are a few other ones as well. DOSBox Staging is one. Magic DOSBox seems to be the most popular on Android. There is some iOS port as well.
- QuercusMax 10mo ago
  "DOSBox Staging" is such a weird name for that fork / continuation.
- einpoklum 10mo ago
  That sounds promising. Do they also have a "compatibility by game title" database?
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]

mrits 10mo ago

She was originally chosen to do a remaster of the series. This was eventually reassigned to another publisher. If you purchase Bards Tale 4 you get the remastered 1,2, and 3 for free. I have played BT 1 every year or so since the late 80s.

slfnflctd 10mo ago

The first trilogy (including BT3) was also remastered about 7 years ago and released on Steam, it's like $15 and has many quality of life improvements.

trashface 10mo ago

Interesting, I didn't know BT3 was by a different author, it definitely had its own vibe distinct from the first two, which this guy wrote (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cranford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cranford). I liked them all though. The steam remasters are incredibly faithful to the originals - right down to the timing and flow of the turn-based combat. Makes me wonder if they are emulating the original code somehow.

moregrist 10mo ago
I believe they’re using the PC ports, running in something like DosBox or FreeDOS