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.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. 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.Ĭertain 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 main city gates which open to the west are blocked by snow, and remain impassable throughout the game. Access to one tower in the northeastern and southwestern city corner each is blocked by locked gates. 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). 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. 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. Between occasional sips from his mug, he strums a lute and sings: In the NES Version, you're just being brought to the adventurer guild without one single word being said.The introduction depicts a bard sitting in a tavern. But mentioning heaven and the image is against NoA's company policy, the dying sequence has been entirely removed. You're also being told you were going to go to adventurer heaven. Amiga Version: "Fine Wines - 10 years and older. Private" on the NES.Īnother door, another sign. Keep Out!" It's become "Good grape juice. It smells moldy".Ī door sign in the Amiga Version reads: "Rare Wines - 50 years and older. In the NES Version, it's simply "You are in the cellar of the Scarlet Bard. A grape fruit cellar? (Unless you're splitting hairs by saying wine was a very particular kind of grape juice but that's ridonculous.)Īfter entering the wine cellar, the text in the Amiga Version says: "This is the wine cellar of the Scarlet Bard. It ought to be obvious that the modification from wine to grape juice is completely pointless and screws with the inner logic. Having asked for it, one is being asked to go in the wine cellar to choose a bottle. One of the missions is finding the only bar that still serves wine. "Beer", "Mead", "Foul Spirits" and "Ginger Ale" have been completely scratched from the menu.This modification causes inconsistencies because the bard needs alcohol for his good voice (old belief what singers need to successful) which gets completely lost in the NES Version. The alcoholic beverages are non-alcoholic now plus some of them have been entirely scratched from the menu. The second and more important issue is that NoA didn't like references to alcohol in their games which affects the bars in the game. "Killing him/her/it" has become "Defeated him/her/it" in the NES Version. So it shouldn't be surprise that the text during the fights has been censored. The word "kill" was black-listed by the headship of Nintendo of America. The graphics are inferior, the game itself is shorter and also censored - thanks to Nintendo of America and its company policy.Ĭompared are the Uncensored Amiga Version, which is the most sophisticated one from the technical POV, and the Censored NES Version. Only the gameplay and the graphics were upgraded. ![]() A group of adventurers, lead by a bardic, don't like it at all which is why they set out on screwing Mangar up ugly and free Skara Brae.Īfter its original release for C64 and Apple II, the game was transfered to many other systems without changing the content. The city falls into an eternal winter and many residents become dreadful monsters. And hew wreaks his ill humor on the city Skara Brae by cursing each and everyone in Skara Brae. Arisen because Interplay wasn't capable of getting the rights for C64 from Wizardry - Sir-Tech simply refused to transfer it and didn't give in until the success of the competitors - the series became popular pretty fast and set new standards for RPGs in the 80s. The Bard's Tale is a classic RPG, two sequels followed.
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