girldrinkdrunk1 has posted another playthrough.  This one is the complete game of Bard's Tale 2: The Destiny Knight.

This is a complete playthough of a classic computer RPG. The party was imported from the previous game (see playlist 'Bard's Tale 1: Tales of the Unknown'). To import a party from a previous game using dosbox, mount the game directory of the previous game as a floppy drive. Example (assume dos games are in c:\dos) - mount c c:\dos; mount a c:\dos\bt1; This should enable you to access characters from the previous game in the disk options.

Sorry that I haven't been updating this section of the website much.  I've been focusing on other things and haven't played Bard's Tale in a while.  However, I did come across this little tidbit that I thought I should share:  girldrinkdrunk1 has posted a complete playthrough of Bard's Tale 1 on YouTube.  To quote:

This is a complete playthrough of a classic computer RPG. Things could have been done more efficiently in retrospect, but it could've taken longer. With the benefit of hindsight, I would probably delay entry into Harkyn's castle until I have both spellcasters with mind blade (probably grinding for exp after getting tough enough to solo/duo the catacombs zombie fight). At this point, the party could probably get past Kylearan's tower and collectively level up off the ghoul fight in Mangar's Tower level 2. When the front line people are ~level 20 would be a good time to attempt to kill Mangar (although it is still a risky proposition at that point). Also, I would not sell the speedboots. I looked up what they did afterwards. ;_;

This is the final part of the Matt’s interview with Becky where we find out a lot of information about things that go on behind the scenes in bringing gamers the games.  Favorite platforms are discussed, indie gaming and more.


Matt Chat is a weekly video show that covers games with in game graphics and video clips and when available, exclusive interviews with influential people that were involved in games.  Matt Barton’s digital home is Armchair Arcade where he is surrounded by many like minded people, author of many books and even helps host the Armchair Arcade Radio Show.  (Found via scenic7pr.com)

From the CRPG blog...

Well, my roller-coaster journey through The Bard's Tale is over. I know my postings on this game have been a bit schizophrenic, sometimes seeming as if I liked the game and sometimes as if I hated it. If so, then the posts are accurate, because that is exactly how I felt.

The game is challenging from the very beginning, thrusting you into a Skara Brae full of monsters in which the difference between survival and death depends primarily on luck. Run into some kobolds and you'll make it; stumble into a house with six barbarians, and your level 1 party is history. The game became more stable once I started dungeon-crawling, and for four out of five dungeons, my characters rarely died. But once I hit Mangar's tower, the vagaries of chance returned with a vengeance. Turning a corner and blundering into a party of six demons, four master wizards, and three red dragons is relatively commonplace, and if you can't run from the battle, there's essentially no way to survive it. Demons, dragons, magic users, and several other creatures are capable of launching deadly attacks that do more than 100 HP damage to all your party members, against which you have essentially no defense (the anti-magic bard song seemed, in my experience, to do nothing). If my characters were 10 levels higher, they wouldn't survive such an encounter, and I don't think there was any realistic way to get them 10 levels higher. It would have taken millions of experience points (most battles, even at the end, were giving me 5,000-7,000 each on average).

So my winning was mostly luck. I made probably 20-25 forays onto Level 5 of Mangar's tower, dying each time, before I found the path that led me to Mangar himself. After that, I traced that path about 12 times before I finally got lucky and defeated Mangar. I would have recorded it, as I usually do for end games, but I never knew which time would be "the" time, and by the time I finally won, I had given up on recording.

Mangar is surrounded by two demon lords and three vampire lords. Vampire lords can stone you with a single touch and demon lords can belch fireballs. Mangar himself is no pushover, capable of some serious damage. Again, I just got lucky. The monsters decided to go after my summoned dragon, giving me enough time to kill a couple of them. The demon lords decided to cast spells instead of spewing fire. One lucky round is really all it took.

(Incidentally, the summon dragon spell is the most awesome spell in the game. The dragon almost always gets the first attack, and if you're lucky he'll breathe fire and wipe out an entire group of monsters.)

Winning gives you 300,000 experience points--like I really need those now, thanks--and returns you to the Adventurer's Guild, where I was happy to save and quit. I never finished mapping Level 5. As I allow myself to do once I've finished, I consulted a walkthrough and discovered I didn't really miss anything, although he found the final battle "disappointingly easy." Whatever. Apparently, I could then have gotten a cool magic item, but I don't see any reason to keep playing after I've won.

I'm going to do a quick posting with a final ranking for The Bard's Tale. After that, I have to regress to Wizardry II and Wizardry III (I ordered The Ultimate Wizardry Archives after my first attempts to play them didn't work) before moving on to Phantasie.

One final thing: most of the messages scrawled on the dungeon walls turned out to be clues to one thing or another. Even the message "Thor is the greatest son of Odin, "found in the first dungeon, turned out to be helpful in the fifth when answering that question gives you a little Thor figurine you can use to summon him. But one message I never did figure out, also from the first dungeon: IRKM DESMET DAEM. It doesn't seem to be an an anagram ("mirk Ed Mets made?") and it doesn't give enough letters to be a solvable cryptogram. Googling the phrase just turns up references to The Bard's Tale. Any ideas?

From the CRPG Addict blog...

I had hoped that I would be able to announced that I had won The Bard's Tale this weekend, but I'm not even close. I finally just finished mapping the first dungeon of four levels; at least, I hope it's only four. I nearly didn't find the fourth level because getting down to it involved (d)escending through a pit in the floor with a levitation spell in effect. The pit was barely visible, though.

As you can imagine, the monsters get tougher the lower the level. I'm finding that spellcasters are my worst enemy. I routinely run into parties in which there are 12 or more spellcasters in three or more groups, making it nearly impossible to clear them out before they get a couple of fireballs in. Most monsters are standard D&D fare; I haven't encountered any truly unique ones yet.

Fortunately, I've yet to have my entire party wiped out. I don't even know what happens if that occurs. I've lost individual characters several times, though, and it's getting expensive to raise them.

Some miscellaneous things about the game:

• There are several party-effect spells that I've found useful to have running when I start my dungeon crawling. These include MALE (levitate), YMCA (mystical armor), MACO (compass), and GRRE (a light spell that also reveals secret doors). The screen shot below shows my party in a dungeon with several buffing spells active (lined up in the center of the screen).

• These spells take up a lot of spell points, and spell points do not regenerate in the dungeons. I've gotten in the habit of standing outside Roscoe's Energy Emporium, casting these buffing spells, then going inside and paying to get my spell points recharged before heading into the dungeons.
• There are four spellcaster classes in the game--conjurer, magician, sorcerer, and wizard. You cannot select the latter two when you start, but you can change a conjurer or magician to those classes (or each other) once they reach Level 3. There are seven spell levels per class. I'm on the cusp of getting Level 7 spells for my conjurer and magician, at which point I'll switch them over to the other classes. Theoretically, I guess, one character can cycle through all spellcasting classes and get all the spells, but this must take an incredibly long time.
• Only after about 10 hours of playing did I figure out that the "T" key pauses the game. If you don't pause during mapping and such, the clock keeps running and your spells run out faster. It would have been handy to know that earlier.
• The "P" key starts combat with your own party, giving you a chance to have your characters assail each other. I can't imagine why I would want to do this.
• When you first encounter creatures, you can try to run from combat. If you succeed--which you seem to do about 75% of the time--you stay in the same square, and as far as I can tell there's no penalty. I have frankly been running from a lot of combats if they look difficult.
• Instead of armor and weapons +1, +2, and so on, better armor and weapons seems to be distinguished by the metal used to craft them. During this dungeon crawl, I found some mithrail swords and armor that seem to be one step up from the regular weapons and armor I had. I also found a "bardsword" that only my bard can equip; I'm not sure what it does.
  

The main purpose of dungeon crawling so far, it seems, is to pick up hints and clues written on the walls. I don't understand most of them yet. These are some of the ones picked up in the first dungeon:

• "Pass the light at night!"
• "Golems are made of stone."
• "IRKM DESMET DAEM"
• "Heed not what is beyond understanding."
• "Thor is the greatest son of Odin."
• "The hand of time writes but cannot erase."
• "Seek the snare from behind the scenes."

One inscription was helpful, though. A magic mouth appeared and told me that "a man called Tarjan, thought to many to be insane, had through wizardly powers proclaimed himself a god in Skara Brae a hundred years ago. His image is locked in stone until made whole again..." I'm guessing Tarjan is the name of the "mad god" whose priests keep asking me for his name. I suspect this leads to the second dungeon.

I'll leave you tonight with my map of Level 4 of the wine cellars/sewers. With luck, I'll win the game this week.

formerly known as 'oldskool 3D maze game' [NOW VISTA OK]

notes..

• remember games like Eye of the Beholder, Wizardry and (original) Bard's Tale? this engine reproduces an environment like that.
• fairly easy to expand on (and tidy up) * not recommended for absolute beginner to develop!
• still being developed
• combat is more detailed (critical hits, fumbles, knockbacks etc)
• has detailed & upgradeable magic items
• skills, quests, etc (something the original games lacked)

features:
you can make a group of adventurers, explore the first dungeon area and local forests, fight monsters, maybe even get a magic item from a treasure chest, there are some quests added now, and other game content (a trading post, training hall, tavern, inn, so you can maintain a group of adventurers) .. the game is being developed with more quests etc

• make groups of up to 6 party members
• diverse items and equipment (and being expanded)
• 4 basic char classes, with advanced classes on the way
• 6 char races, having different sizes (and being expanded)
• fully working inventory system (and being expanded)
• some magic spells, skills already developed
• magic item generation is already supported

future features:

• character personality traits, background histories and background quests
• an 'X-Com type' bring-stuff-back-to-the-HQ-and-research-it system
• storyline and objective (i got one, just needs to be implemented)

Download, source code, and more information on the Secret Of Lamidia work in progress page.