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Here is another fantasy role-playing adventure in which you first create a set of characters and then set off for the Adventurer's Guild.

I played the C64 version. It comes on two disks, complete with the usual complicated fantasy manual expected for this type of game. This details all the single-key commands, the spells and their effects, character attributes, methods of combat, weaponry and what it's for, and all the other usual stuff.

Black mark number one: The program loads with "bad sector" copy protection, which causes the head of your drive to bounce violently aganst the endstop a number of times, eventually causing the head to go out of alignment.

Too many loads of this sort of program will set you back a tenner or so for a re-alignment job by a specialist computer dealer.

Black mark number two: The title screen has an animated picture of the Bard plucking a suitable medieval instrument, with his lyrics appearing below as he sings. Unbelievably in this day and age, this all takes place in complete silence.

Only at the end of the song is there a short sharp burst of tune, to a black and white version of the new still picture.

Black mark number three: The first thing you must do is to create a character disk, by flipping the program disk over, and selecting option M. This invokes a utility which reads in a set of characters called ATEAM, and then calls for a spare disk to be inserted, which it then proceeds to format.

The reading process itself is quite lengthy, and if, perchance, you should inadvertently supply a write-protected disk as the spare, as I did, the process aborts, and the source disk must be read against from scratch.

Five separate read and write sessions, between each of which the disks must be swapped, are required to make the copy disk. Altogether, this process took (including the mistake) an incredible 30 minutes!

Black mark number four: When the copy is complete, you are then instructed to turn the computer off, and start Bard's Tale again. It was another five minutes before I was able to start into the game, and by now I was heavily prejudiced against the whole package.

The "A Team" soon arrived at Skara Brae, facing a closed door, so with a quick glance at the manual. I entered the K command to kick the door open. I was first treated to the game credits, and a portrait of Michael Cranford, the brains behind it. By this time I felt like kicking him!

Instead, I took my vengeance on three barbarians, who eventually appeared behind the beaten down door.

With the team listed below with all the usual fantasy hit points, condition points etc, and a picture of one of the beasts in the doorway at top left, the conversation took place in a scrolling box.

After deciding to fight, each member of the team is given the option to attack, defend, play a tune(!), or hide in the shadows - probably for a change of underwear.

I made them fight! At each round (these things have to be drawn out to give the illusion of the game player having skill) the team points are reduced as they are hit.

Before long, all three were dead, and it was not without a degree of smug satisfaction, that I noticed two of the "A Team" were dead too! Serves them right for taking so long to copy!

Of course, you can do the usual fantasy-type things in this game, cast spells, add new characters, visit Garth's Equipment Shoppe, or simply recopy the character disk, for kicks!

If I sound flippant, then I am. I find that once you've played one of these, you've played the lot - give or take a few points for implementation.