The Bard's Tale
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Bard's Tale IV ???

Bard's Tale Collection One the one hand, Bard's Tale IV doesn't exist. On the other hand, Bard's Tale IV exists in four different incarnations. (And if you think you're confused now, wait until I explain it!)

BT4 cover First off is the rumored 90% complete but never released game from about 1990. This was possibly called "Castle of Deception." For whatever reasons, this game was not completed and was never released. No known copies exist. There is a description available at http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/3743/ however, be aware that the images are most likely fakes. The box cover image is the same as the cover of the first novel, and the in-game shots are reported to be from a DOS-based game creation kit.

Secondly, there was a game released called Dragon Wars which some people (including the author!) claim was originally contracted to be BT IV.

Thirdly, there has been at least one game which, by accident or design, appears to be a tribute or homage to Bard's Tale and other great games of that era.

Fourthly and finally, there are professional game authors who would like to create a new BT IV, but can't get the trademarks, copyrights, and other licensing agreements.

In the event that an official BT IV is ever released (from any source), this page will tell you all about it. Until that time, here are a few comments about Bard's Tale IV from authors who worked on The Bard's Tale novels, "Set in the same literary universe as the bestselling computer adventure, The Bard's Tale IV" according to Amazon.Com.

Here's the story of Bard's Tale "ownership" as told by Bill Burger:
Date: October 15, 1999
Name: Burger
E-Mail address: $mail:burger@logicware.com$

Actually, here is how it works...

Interplay designed and created the Bard's Tale series. 1 and 2 was designed by Mike Cranford and 3 was designed by Bill Heineman.

Electronic Arts was the publisher and sold the games under the EA banner.

So...

Electronic Arts owns the name "Bard's Tale", all trademarks and images associated with the title. They own the name Bard's Tale IV and any other variations on the theme and name.

Interplay Productions owns the actual code, technology and art that went into the making the game but does not have the right to sell the title under that name. Hence Interplay came out with Dragon Wars in 1988 as an informal Bard's Tale IV but it did not have anything linking it to the Bard's Tale storyline since it was owned by EA.

Time passes...

Interplay bought the rights to create a Bard's Tale contruction set which was sold under the Interplay banner. Also a year back, Interplay bought the rights to sell the Bard's Tale series (I, II and III) as part of a RPG compilation. These rights are the rights to use the name for these properties only.

Present day...

For Bard's Tale IV to come to pass. One of two things must occur. Either EA decides they wish to publish Bard's Tale IV, in this case it will be developed internally or externally through a developer and will be brought to the market under the EA banner. In this case, I heard that EA has to pay some sort of royalty to Interplay.

Second case, EA chooses not to publish Bard's Tale IV and is willing to let someone else do it. Interplay is very interested in doing BT IV but they need EA to be willing to license the rights to them.

One of the above must occur to move forward. Currently EA is deciding if it is prudent to bring the Bard's Tale series back. The roadblock is the titles age and the royalty for Interplay. The last Bard's Tale game that shipped was Bard's Tale Construction set in 1989-1990. Over 9 years ago. Ancient history as far as games go. Also how will Bard's Tale compete against Ultima Online and other RPG titles from EA. Will Bard's Tale hold up against Might & Magic? Will it hold up against Final Fantasy VIII?

Contraband (My company) has a Bard's Tale IV proposal that we're really excited about but EA must first make a decision. It's a slow process and it MUST MAKE MONEY for EA or EA will not pursue it.

I've been waiting 10 years to do another Bard's Tale game.

Burger

Questions about Bard's Tale IV

Here's a letter that I've sent out, in one form or another, to all the authors who have written Bard's Tale novels:

Dear xxxxxxxx,

I enjoy a few good computer-based fantasy role playing games, including The Bard's Tale series. I've recently learned that several novels have been written that are based on that series, including at least one by you. I am now working to obtain them as part of my 80's RPG nostalgia kick.

In the meantime, I was wondering if you could help me with something. Some of the write-ups I've seen concerning Bard's Tale novels indicate that they are set in the same world as the best-selling Bard's Tale IV computer game. As near as I can determine, Bard's Tale IV was scheduled for release some time in the early 90's, about the same time as the first novel was published. However, the Bard's Tale IV computer game was never actually released for sale. I and other fans of the series are in search of anyone who may have information about or who may have actually played IV.

I am curious as to what background information you were provided with when writing your Bard's Tale novels, and if it included anything specific concerning Bard's Tale IV. I realize that it is likely you were given very little information at all and probably nothing concerning the actual computer games. Still, any information that you can provide will be most welcome. For example, was Bard's Tale IV spoken of as if it was about to be released, or were the novels simply written to cash in on the popularity of I-III? Is it true that playable copies of Bard's Tale IV were being distributed to authors of the novels as background material? Manuals? Spell lists? Character descriptions? Anything?

Any reply containing any information (or simple statement concerning a lack thereof) will be appreciated.

Yours,
Troy H. Cheek

The Replies

Josepha Sherman (Castle of Deception, Chaos Gate)
Sat, 12 Sep 1998 13:36:05

Sorry, but we never saw anything to do with BT-IV, either! Which is a shame, because they were going to incorporate some of our characters! So it goes. We were given pretty much the same data that you, as a gamer got, and extrapolated stuff from there.

Mark Shepherd (Prison of Souls, Escape from Roksamur)
Sun, 13 Sep 1998 03:56:19

In 1989 or 90 Bill Fawcett brokered a book package deal with Mercedes Lackey and three other authors: Me, Ru Emerson, Josepha Sherman. Originally Holly Lisle was going to do the Prison of Souls volume with Mercedes Lackey. Holly's schedule wouldn't allow it, so they made me the offer (which I graciously accepted).

Bard's Tale IV was in the works at Origins, and was going to be released some time after 1990. For whatever reason (and they didn't tell me) the project was never finished. There was a lot of speculation and rumors about "cashing in" on the popularity of the first three, and I sure do see why it would look like that. But as far as I know, that was not the marketing stragegy. The only people who could answer that question would be Bill Fawcett or Jim Baen, and whoever was our liaison at Origins (I never dealt with him directly, and I don't recall his name.)

We did not receive any advanced copies of the computer game (which I don't think ever existed, particularly in any releaseable form).

They did however send me four computer games, which were called:

Ultima The Second Trilogy IV V Vi
Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss
Ultima Underworld Labyrinth of Worlds
Ultima The Black Gate.

But I never used them as background material for the novels.

We did, however, receive the Bible, which was what everyone was working from, including the artists, programmers, etc. I rember it had a gridmap for Althea (the world of 1-3, but they said they never had an actual name for it, so misty [Mercedes Lackey] and I came up with it for book purposes), some thumbnail sketches of the characters, character descriptions, storylines (which we incorporated only lightly in the novels). It was printed on a color inkjet (1st generation).

Aaron Allston (Thunder of the Captains, Wrath of the Princes)
Mon, 14 Sep 1998 11:04:10

The cover copy for the novels Holly and I wrote mentions only THE BARD'S TALE -- presumably #1, or perhaps it's in reference to the series as a whole. BT #4 is not mentioned.

We weren't provided with any world data, I'm afraid. We just acquired copies of the BARD'S TALE novels released to date and utilized the setting information provided therein. In fact, while we did use a villain from the BARD'S TALE novel PRISON OF SOULS, we moved the action to a distant continent on the same world and therefore had only that one link with the previous novels.

Best of luck on your continuing search.

This page last updated on Aug 29, 2004 by Troy H. Cheek
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