For those wondering. As I've mentioned in previous threads, the Apple II version has the best sound of all the versions (I don't know about the Atari ST version but I'll put up the information on the hardware).

The best at least of the versions I've heard is the Apple II GS versions of Bard's Tale I and II. These are the versions included in this The Bard's Tale collection. Ensoniq ES5503 DOC wavetable sound chip, the same chip used in Ensoniq Mirage and Ensoniq ESQ-1 professional-grade synthesizers. It is noteable for using an actual 8-bit (15/16 to 32-channel) professional wavetable synth. It is capable of playing realistic instruments and realistic voices. It can play multisymphonic music up with up to 15 instruments/voices at one time (with the potential for more with custom software, games for example often used all 32 channels directly from the board).

The Amiga version is a 8-bit 4 channel sound (2 channels per speaker for stereo sound). This could be boosted to 8 or more virtual channels through special software emulation (more of an audio special effect using 'volume' changes). I think it uses a PCM style soundboard. There wree 3rd party soundboards that could add 16 bit sound though. These of course do not show up in the standard game emulators as far as I know. As it does handle some digital sound, some of the instrumentation does sound fairly good, just not to the quality of the Apple II GS's wavetable synth. It certainly doesn't reach the complexity of the Apple II or the Amiga due to the limitation in number of channels. However, I do not know how many channels each of the BT games are using, real or virtual.

The Atari ST appears to be somewhat comparable to the Amiga, depending on the model it came with2 channel or 4 channel or in the Atari Falcon, 12 channel (8 mono channels, and 4 stereo channels). These were 8bit PCM sound. The one int he Atari Falcon was 8/16bit. This seems depending on your system, its either going to be very close the Amiga (inferior on 2 channel, and comparable on 4 channel).

Adlib is also 8-bit (9 channel sound as far as I can tell), very synthetized sounding. Digital audio (PCM) is not supported (so its pleasant to hear, but it doesn't reach the quality of Amiga's sound, although it can reach a higher complexity in notes due to more channels. This option only offered in Bard's Tale 3.

This is the four 'best' options as far as sound. I might discuss the IBM PC Speaker and Apple II sound later. Of those two, the Apple II is the best of the two, but inferior to anything above.

Sound is hardly that important IMO. From what I remember of the Amiga versions it was only used in the intro/Adventurers Guild, when the Bard was playing, or when entering Temples. And probably a few others I've forgotten.

It's more interesting to compare the levels of buggyness.
From what I've read only the Apple versions of all three games are bug free. I know from experience that the Amiga versions of BT1 and/or 2 had an overflow bug which reset the Hunter's critical hit ability every 16th level.
Both the Amiga and DOS versions of BT3 were quite buggy, with none of the monsters' special attacks working. The C64 version of BT3 also had some minor bug.

So it seems that all in all, considering both sounds, graphics (except for BT3) and buggyness, the Apple versions are superior, and was the right choice for inclusion in the Bard's Tale collection.

Good information. BTW, which apple versions were you reading about there are actually two different versions of Bard's Tale (1987) and BT2 on Apple computers? The Apple IIGS and Atari ST (both 1987) versions are based on the same game engine used in Amiga (1986), which was based on the dos version from 1985 (different title screen). Amiga version is somewhat stripped down in a few things (like the title screen, and few other cosmetic differences), so the improved title screen was added to the ports later.

Bard's Tale II is essentially the same engine/graphics on all systems, except the original Atari II version and NES version.The DOS (and c64 version) version came first (1986), and the later Apple II and Amiga (1988) versions are based on the dos version. Apple II (1987) was based on the c64 version.

Not to say that bugs may have been introduced when porting the enhanced Bard's Tale I and II "remakes" across the various platforms.

There is also the original Apple II versions of BT 1 (1985) and BT 2, which looks like BT3 Apple II in style. Basically the colorbook look, with CGA colors (ok its not quite CGA, it has a few more colors, but its not the most colorful of artwork). They seem to be on a different engine.

The C64 versions are based on the Apple II versions in engine and appearance. But sounds like bugs were introduced to it?

Actually for me Sound and Graphics are major points, as I find they help immersion.

I haven't played through this series, but from what I've read that the music main appearance throughout the game is when you use Bard spell system (some kind of musical spell system?). Some of the reviewers of the dos version mention avoiding using Bard songs because they sounded so horrible, and mixing up using other forms of attacks.

It's a shame that a Applie IIGS version fo BT3 was never made. It would have probably been the best version, best music, graphics as good as the Amiga, etc.

Bard's Tale Collection originally came with the dos versions when the PC CD was originally released, but I'm very happy that the new updates come with the Apple II GS versions.

As I own the DOS version of BT3, I'll probably be playing that version, when I get around to it. I'm not its worth the trouble of going out and emulating the Amiga version.

Here is the original 1985 Apple II/e Bard's Tale;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiUoD2QftbA

Here is the original 1986 Apple II/e Bard's Tale II,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6eo1GiXJSc

As for Bard's Tale III, the dos and Apple II/c64 (the apple II and c64 versions based on the same graphics) versions came out first (1988). The Amiga came out in 1991.

When talking about Apple versions I assume they refer to the regular Apple versions.
So if playing the Apple II GS versions of BT 1 and 2, which may or may not have the critical hit overflow bug, it's probably best to avoid creating a Hunter character to avoid the (possible) bug).

As for BT3, with no Apple II GS version, and the Amiga one defintiely being buggy, I'd probably have gone for the similarly bugged DOS version and applied the unoffical patch.
There is a discussion and link to the patch here: http://bardstale.brotherhood.de/talefiles/board/viewtopic.php?t=965
http://bardstale.brotherhood.de/talefiles/board/viewtopic.php?t=989

However, there is supposed to be an unofficial fix to the dos version of BT3. It's not unusual to find games that were never officially fixed and fans have finished the job. And with the superior graphics, yeah there are some of us who would still love to see this version added somehow.

See my message above for a link to the unofficial fix.

Petrus, well I was reading ab it, apparently the Apple II GS games are less buggy than the amiga version. They must have went back and fixed things on those versions. Note, they say "less buggy", that doesn't mean completely bug free? So no idea exactly. Maybe someone can test it out?

BTW, thank you for the patch information!

Necroposting:
The IIgs is the best audiovisual experience for Bard's Tale 1 to be sure. The music is arranged in a superior way to my ear as compared to the Amiga version. There seems to be more polyphony. The graphics are only 16 color, whereas some of the Amiga versions graphics were reworked for 32, but in practice the difference is fairly subtle.

But there's so many small and large touches. The IIgs interface for selecting things with mouse and keyboard has been given more love. Getting out of screens on the Amiga is a mishmash of random keystrokes unclearly indicated. On the IIgs there are fewer unnecessary pauses. The 3d scrolling in town on a 2mhz 65816 (or whatever) is smooth and snappy, while on the 7.14etc mhz 68000 of the Amiga it's sluggish and annoying. The Amiga version has essentially zero variation in the look of the dungeons which is a great shame. The C64/Apple versions had their low resolution touches (I especially liked the feel of seeing the sewer walls for the first time), and while the Apple IIgs has less variation on dungeon walls from the 8bit systems, it at least has a certain amount. Mangar's Tower stands out in my mind.

It was also relatively easy to install Bard's Tale to a hard drive on the Apple IIgs, which translates into essentially no loading times, while just looking at a temple on the Amiga triggers a floppy grind. It's possible to get it going with WHDLoad, but it's a lot of effort.

But as for the Apple IIgs having better sound than the Amiga in the hardware, it's just not relevant. Sure the ensoniq chip had more polyphony but I never encountered a IIgs game that used more than 3-4 channels, and the Amiga's PCM dac and audio circuitry were MILES clearer. That shouldn't matter in an emulated environment, but because of the speaker being built-in to the hardware on the IIgs, it seems like no one bothered to really try. The samples in most games are uninspired and muffled. And of course everything is in mono, because there wasn't even a line hooked up to the other channel unless you had a soldering iron handy. Where is the IIgs's equivalent of something like the Amiga's Xenon 2? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs3ddebo638

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As for bugs, the Amiga version seems wonky. When I played it semi-seriously long ago uncritically, it certainly worked fine, but the well-known lack of functional traps (DOS & Amiga both) is present. Also there's strange things like Mage Gauntlets & Vorpal Plating spells lowering your armor (they're supposed to increase your damage). Bards incorrectly get multiple attacks. Some mages can use Mithril Scale armor, but most can't. etc. Some event in Harkyns castle is just plain missing (memory is fuzzy).

There's one thing that stands out as odd on the IIgs version though, which is the effect of bard songs in combat. On the Apple 2e and Commodore 64, a song like Bahdr's Kilnfest gives an ongoing buff of 1hp per round for the rest of the combat. I'm a little fuzzy but I'm suspicious it stacked, like if you used it over and over you got increasing returns. On the Amiga it doesn't stack but persists. I believe this is the same on DOS as well. However, on the IIgs, it just doesn't persist at all, a change from every other release.

A bug? a bugfix? It certainly makes the game harder!

Re: bug. IIgs Bard's Tale 2 has Zanduvar Carack healing continue round after round, so I think this is a IIgs Bard's Tale 1 bug, or incorrect implementation anyway.

While I was digging around the IIgs for my own goals recently, I learned the key difference.

The IIgs's ensoniq chip had a fixed 64KB of sample ram, while the Amiga had 512KB of chip-ram which could be used as normal system memory, graphics memory, or sound memory. It was pretty typical to allocate over 64kb for music & sound, and it was quite easy to copy memory from non-chip ram to chip ram to increase the possible space.

Even with 8bit samples, 64KB is pretty limiting. Most likely 8khz or worse samples were used, while on the Amiga 11khz was more typical. I still feel the DAC circuitry gave a clearer sound on the Amiga as well, but don't have the hardware around to test.

That aside from the mono-speaker and low-quality in-case speaker issues, as above.