Why does Bard's Tale 3 look so awful compared to the other ones?

[RollingK]

Why does Bard's Tale 3 look so awful compared to the other ones? It is a complete downgrade. Does it even have sound?

[The Space Ferret]

BT 3 is apparently the Apple II version of the game. When you load it up it says Apple on the screen. I don't like the bizarre colours myself. Dunno why it couldn't have been like the other versions.

[RollingK]

I was so hype to play the third one after booting up the first 2, I probably won't even bother with it.

[SinusPi]

Yeah, that's an insult. The PC version had proper EGA graphics, I cannot comprehend why they'd use the Apple versions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqGZeKhdt3g&feature=relmfu

This is how the game should've looked. WTF?

[KamikaziFly]

that looks horrrible... that cant be Bards Tale 3... can it?!

[Mark Langdahl]

I think I can explain it (though not excuse it properly...) The Bard's Tale 1 and 2 were both put out for Apple IIgs which was a machine pretty much on par with a Commodore Amiga... The Bard's Tale 3 however were never released for IIgs. So instead they opted for the Apple II version. And the Apple II is an 8-bit computer pretty much on par with Commodore 64. And that's why the third game looks so bad... I am very happy that the first two games were the Apple IIgs versions as the PC version only had PC speaker sound even on Tandy systems (trust me I've tried :-) ). But the third game does have Adlib support on the PC as well as EGA graphics. So you actually get both good sound and graphics on the PC.

[Tibbs]

The PC version, unfortunately, is terribly buggy, to the point of being extremely difficult to actually finish. Somebody was hacking the executable to fix many of these; search around at http://bardstale.brotherhood.de/talefiles/board/viewtopic.php?t=989 for more info. Assuming I'm even allowed to post a link....

[alienstookmybeer]

If it's right that someone has pretty much unofficially fixed the pc version, then it's a real shame we can't have whatever the latest official version was so we can tweak it ourselves.

[leech]

Anyone know if the Amiga version is just as buggy as the PC version? I was planning on playing through these, eventually, and have an actual Amiga that can play them. I was hoping the Amiga versions were what were included, since it'll most likely have the best sound track. Sad they grabbed the Apple versions.

[Adoru]

Yes, Amiga version has the same bugs as DOS version. So it was the best choice to include Apple ii version. I'd prefer DOS version with unofficial fixes, though, but there probably were technical (I'm sure, one of the reasons was using the same emulator for all three games) and legal complications.

[BEEZER]

I actually played and beat Bard's Tale 3 on my Apple ][+ .... and loved it. I'm getting that humble bundle asap!