The Apple 2 version has a few minor bugs that were corrected in the Commodore 64 version. For instance, the Yellow Staff only restored 1 MP per round, and the Angel Ring would not revive a character who died while wearing it.

The Commodore 64 version, according to a poster in another thread, is missing a vital clue. I also tested the Giant Strength spell in this version, and it didn't seem to do anything. (Does it work in any version?)

The DOS version is filled with significant bugs, the worst of which prevents monster special attacks (both status effects and breath weapons) from working at all. That combined with the many other bugs (so many that someone actually made a bugfix patch) makes this version not worth playing, except maybe with said patch.

The Amiga version, from what I've read, is much like the DOS version.

The IIgs version was never released and is not available to the general public (the only reason I even know about it is one of the developers mentioning it) and therefore doesn't count.

The remaster isn't out and therefore does not count (yet) either. I am hoping this version will have all the notable bugs fixed.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the experience point exploits with the old man. It's quite possible to hit them by accident!

I do hope that Becky of the Burger requests to use and looks through the drifting patch for materiel. As you point out many bugs are dos-specific, but not all. If nothing else, the huge number of spelling and grammar errors would be nice (You are now able to breath.)

What i meant by a vital clue is on the c64 version I couldn't get to levels 2 or 3 of the white tower in Gelidia. So I had no idea of the solution to Lanatir's Tomb (which is on those floors).

Incidentally, I've found several bard songs and spells don't seem to do much in various versions of the earlier games. I don't fee like Bard's Tale 3 is particularly more broken than the other games. Though maybe DOS & Amiga are more so.

How did you test giant strength? I can't tell from the description whether it would be intended to increase chance-to-hit, damage, or both. I expected it to be a stronger form of Mage Gauntlets or Vorpal Plating. Given how early stoneblades arrive, it seems mostly pointless spell, even if it does work.

Now that I can finally post again, I can answer the questions.

I actually did stumble across the experience point exploit back when I was playing the game on an Apple 2gs.

I tested giant strength by having low level fighters (or it might have been decent level mages) attacking low level enemies unarmed. I may have attacked party members. No bonus to damage or accuracy was observed. (By contrast, Ogre Strength did have an effect on accuracy, as did Luck Chant, making that spell very useful end game.)

As for your comments on its usefulness, there are two issues:
1. Late game, unless you power level, you will have trouble hitting the enemies, so any to hit bonus is appreciated. If you can't hit, you can't petrify with the stoneblade.
2. In the DOS and Amiga versions, the stoneblade *does not work*. The DOS (and possibly Amiga) version has many other nasty bugs, including:
Monster status effects don't work. This means that Slayers don't critically hit and Magic Eaters don't eat magic.
Monster breath attacks don't work. (There's actually an outdoor enemy that is supposed to have a weak breath attack. In the DOS version, nope.)
Anti-magic areas dispel light, but not levitation.
Encounters don't correctly check the area you're in. (Sharks appearing out of water that are supposed to be able to critically hit, ice monsters in the Sacred Grove, Nazis in Rome.)
Divine Intervention doesn't heal the party.
Kael's Overture lowers the party's AC to 15 less than their base value in addition to the intended effect of buring the enemies.
After being cured from level drained, you have enough experience to gain another level. (Tested by hacking because, of course, level drain attacks don't actually work.)
I believe Second/Sorcerer sight doesn't properly work either.

I guess I just levelled too much for the accuracy bonus to matter.

LUCK is obvious and huge though, if only for surviving spells.

For better or for worse, I kind of discount the DOS/Amiga versions when discussing the usefulness of things. Those games are so broken I'm not sure why you'd finish.

Amiga BT1 is full of bugs too, but they're less game-breaking.

Actually, LUCK is useful for more than just surviving spells. It makes your spells more effective, and the first character's luck is used for running away.

Corollary: Casting Anti-Magic will, I believe, make your spells (and breath attacks) more effective.

By the way, the luck boosting song was broken in the DOS version of Bard's Tale 1. Does it work properly in the 2gs version? If so, than it's the most useful song in that game.

Incidentally, I have reached Malefia in the DOS version of Bard's Tale 3. It wasn't nearly as fun as the 8-bit versions, however.

I am really hoping the remaster of Bard's Tale 3 is bug-free. Of the original trilogy, that one needs a remaster the most.

I am wondering why the DOS and Amiga versions were so buggy. Was there a time crunch or something during development? Did the testing team go on strike? (Of interest, I don't remember if the credits building (across from the review board) is even present in the DOS version.)

First-char for running away is true for BT1, but not 2 or 3. They changed it to some kind of averaging.

I *believe* lucklaran did work in the IIgs BT1. When swapping my mages to their next class, it seemed to help them not die so much (ie. the first round they took damage but after 4-5 copies of the song, no one took damage).

Memory may be hazy though, since I played the luck-boosting song so many many times on Bt2 immediately afterwards.

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Regarding the bugginess of the DOS & Amiga versions, read the credits and you'll see there are different names on them for programming. I'm assuming they gave the work to reimplement the game in C from the 6502 assembly to people who didn't know the ins and outs of the game as well. In some cases the bugs feel like they read the manual/went by the name to try to figure out what a spell should do (e.g. vorpal plating).

It's clear for 1 & 2, the 6502 8bit are the originals, for which the IIgs is a simple matter of tweaking. For 3, I'm much less clear how the development process played out.

We could ask burger becky on ask.fm.

DOS and Amiga versions of BT3 are definitely broken, not merely buggy like BT1-2 are. Production values are also lower, especially the Amiga version which doesn't look nearly as good as BT1-2.
But BT3 is perfectly playable with drifting's patch. I completed it myself half a year ago. Only problem is that after the beginner dungeon the game is too easy if you don't run away a lot.

I'm surprised that given BT's historical relevance in gaming, no one has made any kind of community patch for the games.

One was made for BT3.

@PetrusOctavianus: The production value by platform is something I'd be happy to debate in its own thread, but seems not relevant here. Edit: and it seems I misunderstood anyway and agree with you.

@ChaunceyK: I think the issue is they're too old. People didn't typically make community patches for games in the 1980s. There wasn't a community.

Obviously there are retro-enthusiasts that sometimes take on such projects, like Drifting's bt3 bard's tale patch within the last few years, or the Amiga AGA Eye of the Beholder games, but they seem somehow the exception rather than the rule.

Of course, we're due to get what will hopefully be the ultimate patch for these games this year.

Personally, since the whole topic is about bugs which may vary by platform, I think it is relevant to discuss version differences.

Incidently, another bug in at least the Commodore 64 version is that the Familiar Figurine doesn't regenerate spell points as it should according to the game data. I have a progrem (in C, I believe) that I wrote to extract the data from the image and print it in readable form. I could try porting it to other versions.

Once I get ahold of the remaster, I am going to play through at least Bard's Tale 3 and test for every single bug I know about.

Also, it's possible that the lack of difficulty that PetrusOctavianus experienced could be due to a bug the patch did not fix.

Actually it's partly because of a bug the patch did fix: items that recharge mana now drop in abundance. Also, it's more an issue of game balance (which is harder to get right) than bugs. Or maybe you are supposed to run away a lot? After all, the game does provide several means to make fleeing easier.