How can I quit playing the Bards Tale?

November 24, 2005 5:05 PM

I picked up a Mac Classic at a rummage sale a while ago, and it has a whole mess of games. I started one called "The Bard's Tale", but I can't exit out of it!

There's no quit or exit menu option, no obvious quit buttons or UI widgets, 'q' and open-apple q does nothing... and my google fu is weak, as I can find lots of info online about this game, but nothing on how to quit playing it. Does anyone remember the magic key combination to exit out of this game?

posted by the_W to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

Apple-period kills a current running process. I think apple-option-esc was the other.
posted by Tuwa at 5:11 PM on November 24, 2005

Oh--apple-period takes a few times (or maybe I was just always impatient); apple-option-esc was the more drastic response that forced a reboot.

You might find this list of shortcuts for OS 9 and earlier useful.
posted by Tuwa at 5:14 PM on November 24, 2005

Maybe your copy is corrupt. I just downloaded it from here and ran it under Classic on my iMac. It has a File menu with quit in it. Maybe you should get a fresh copy.
posted by tellurian at 5:48 PM on November 24, 2005

Response by poster: Hmm... maybe. But I'm not in the beginning portion of the game, where you pick a character, I'm actually playing the game itself. When I picked a character the menus changed around and that's when I think lost the quit option. (The game still may be corrupt though.)

I tried Apple-period and that did nothing. I'd try apple option escape but I don't have an escape key on my keyboard. I can get back to the finder but I can't shut down or restart; finder tells me that the shutdown cannot complete because the application "bardstale" cannot quit.

I'm running System 7.1 if that helps.
posted by the_W at 6:24 PM on November 24, 2005

Apple-stop does *not* quit a process, it does the same thing as pressing "escape".

Option-Apple-Escape will only work on System 7 or better -- check About This Macintosh in the Apple Menu to see what your Classic is running.

As for the question, tellurian has it. My Bard's tale also has menus. If you download a fresh copy and it still works, try:

Rebuilding the desktop (hold down command and option on startup, after the "welcome to Macintosh" goes away and before the Finder appears.

Booting from the Rom disk (hold down option apple x o and turn the Mac on) and run the game. If it runs OK, the problem is with your system. Investigate/reinstall it.

posted by bonaldi at 6:26 PM on November 24, 2005

Alternatively, install Macsbug, and when you want to quit the game, press the programmer's switch, type "es" and press return. That does the same thing as option-apple-esc.
posted by bonaldi at 6:32 PM on November 24, 2005

You have to go to the inn to quit and save Bard's Tale.
posted by krisjohn at 7:09 PM on November 24, 2005

Hahahahah, d'oh. krisjohn wins.
posted by bonaldi at 7:11 PM on November 24, 2005

If it's a classic, there should be a interrupt button on the side or back, you might need a paper clip to hit it. I think it has a thunderbolt icon. That should force quit the app. I think so. It's next to the reset button, which you might also need a paperclip to trip. (This is all from my blurry-ass memory.)
posted by chunking express at 7:31 PM on November 24, 2005

(the interrupt button doesn't do that. It brings up the debugger window, or Macsbug, if it's installed)
posted by bonaldi at 7:43 PM on November 24, 2005

Don't get stuck in the Temple of the Mad God.
posted by johngoren at 8:15 PM on November 24, 2005

Response by poster: Well, I tried to go to an Inn, but I couldn't save or quit from the Inn I went to (the Dragon's Grog, or something like that). I was about to give up when I noticed the escape key down near the space bar. WTF is it doing down there? Anyway, apple-option-esc quit out of the running process (it did *not* force a reboot). For curiosity's sake, I started it again and it did have a quit menu option in the character selection screen.

So is there only one inn I can save from? Because I downloaded a map of the city off the internet and it looks like there are a bunch of inns in the city.
posted by the_W at 8:40 PM on November 24, 2005

Sorry, the_W, I guess my brain had a stack dump some time between skimming that page and posting. :-/ I'm glad you found a solution though.
posted by Tuwa at 11:07 PM on November 24, 2005

If you don't have MacsBug installed, and force quit doesn't work, you can hit the interrupt button on the side, and then type:

SM 0 A9F4
G 0

Ah, good ol' user-friendly Macs!
posted by grouse at 1:32 AM on November 25, 2005

There are relatively few save/quit points. They're all inns, but I don't if every inn works. I gave up on the game because there was a really long bit where you had to get in to some hard area and back out to the inn to save and it meant you had to play for about four hours straight, minimum, between saves.

In fact, that's the main thing I remember about Bard's Tale.
posted by krisjohn at 5:25 AM on November 25, 2005

Bard's Tale 3 was better.
posted by kaseijin at 11:48 AM on November 25, 2005