Where can I get . . .

[godzilla]

Where can I get hold of Bards Tale 1,2 and 3 for the PC ? According to the fan based web sites they are available as a set in "The Ultimate RPG Archives" by Interplay, only there is no working UK site and all the online shops have no idea what I am on about. So please if someone could help me . . .

[Izzeh]

I think I saw them in an HMV in London a few moths ago, they might still have it...you tried HMV's website? :E

[[B-A]Silent.Partner]

Hmmm, this reply might come generously late, but in order to show you are not completely insane when you ask around for the Ultimate RPG archives, they do exist:

http://www.interplay.com/rpgarchives/index.html

That's Interplay's page for it, including the downloadable patch you need for the bards tale set, seeing as how they forgot to include the maps and other copy protection stuff. I tried looking up whether it's possible to buy it from their store, but they didn't show it as an item, so it could be they simply stopped putting it out. I've got my cherished copy lying right here though :E

Also, though it's slightly off topic, there's this:


http://www.crosswinds.net/~bardslegacy/Home.html

Some guys are planning on making a sort of/kind of sequel, which looks like it might produce, erm, something :E

[DCLXVI]

I bought the Ultimate RPG Archives, but only for the Ultima Underworld games, and everything on it apart from these games was pure cack - particularly the Bard's Tale games. If you still desparately want to play them, however, they're almost definitely going to be available on some abandonware site.

[[B-A]Silent.Partner]

Oh in my case it's pure nostalgia value. I used to play those games on the c64. Heck, I've even got the old infocom text adventures cd lying here, with almost all of the good text adventures that I used to play back then. Still have to try them again sometime, and finish up on those I haven't yet managed to finish.

In terms of abandonware...I think I did see them lying around on some c64 site a long time ago whilst I was looking around to see if project firestart was still available, but on the pc front I can't be too sure. In any case there are good c64 to pc ports around, so that shouldn't be too much of a hassle to arrange.