Centauri Alliance

Centauri Alliance is a science-fiction role-playing game set in the year 2214, where six races have formed the Centauri Alliance to maintain peace across the galaxy. A hostile faction known as DAYNAB is searching for the pieces of the "Fractyr Fist", an ultimate weapon, and your mission is to retrieve its components before they do. Designed by Michael Cranford, creator of The Bard’s Tale I and II, the game allows you to build a team of up to eight characters from six different races, using weapons and psionic abilities. Combat is turn-based on a hexagonal grid, with exploration viewed from a first-person perspective through space stations and other environments.

Commodore 64

Released in 1990 by Broderbund on three 5.25" floppy disks, developed and coded by Michael Cranford with graphics by Tom Wilcox. Supports joystick (port 2) and the Commodore 1351 mouse. Often described as "Bard's Tale in space", the game features a much larger universe than its fantasy predecessors. A unique feature allows importing characters from The Bard’s Tale series, Wizardry 1-3, Ultima, and Might and Magic. The combat system uses hexagonal tactical grids where obstacles can create strategic advantages or disadvantages. Due to lengthy delays in artwork production, the project was seriously delayed and released when the Apple II market was already dying, which hurt its commercial success. Reviews note very unforgiving difficulty with much harder combat than Bard’s Tale II. Available only on C64 and Apple II, with no Amiga or ST versions.