Bethesda releases Daggerfall for download

qwertyuiop · 08-07-2009, 04:10 PM

After not checking the elder scrolls site in quite a while, I came back to find that Daggerfall has been released for free download just as they did with Arena, along with instructions on how to get it working with dosbox.

Daggerfall is arguably the best elder scrolls game. I enjoy Morrowind more, but Daggerfall is an excellent game. It's nice to play it again, I had stopped after getting my new computer as I didn't want to torrent it again, but now I don't have to.

~kev~ · 08-10-2009, 02:39 PM

I remember when daggerfall first came out. What was it, 1997 or 1998? Somewhere in there.

PC Gamer magazine wrote up a good review of daggerfall. If you bought the magazine that included the CD, a demo was included. The install file was around 100 megs. I bought the CD version of the magazine just so I did not have download 100 megs on dialup. If I remember right, the demo was 300 - 400 megs after it was installed. Which was huge for back then, a demo of that size was unheard of. Entire games at the time might have been 200 - 300 megs. So just the demo of daggerfall was larger then most of the games on the market at the time.

The actual playing area was supposed to be the size of England.

The one major draw back to daggerfall, there was no multi-player support. This could have been the first MMORPG. But the developers decided not to include a multiplayer side and dropped the ball in the process.

Desyphur · 08-10-2009, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~kev~

The one major draw back to daggerfall, there was no multi-player support. This could have been the first MMORPG. But the developers decided not to include a multiplayer side and dropped the ball in the process.

UO came out in 1997, and there were a few MMO's before that. Otherwise, yes, they probably should have put Multiplayer in, as they should have with Morrowind and Oblivion.

qwertyuiop · 08-10-2009, 07:58 PM

Daggerfall was released in 1996 I believe. I don't think online play should have been a part of it, I don't know how it could have been adequately incorporated into the game.

~kev~ · 08-10-2009, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qwertyuiop

Daggerfall was released in 1996 I believe. I don't think online play should have been a part of it, I don't know how it could have been adequately incorporated into the game.

Yea, I looked it up on wikipedia after I made my post. I was going off of memory when I posted that.

The thing is, the internet did not really catch on until after the release of windows 95 - because it had built in TCP/IP support. Windows 3.11 did not have networking built in, but windows 3.11 for workgroups did.

When Daggerfall was released, the internet was just being born. So the idea of adding multiplayer support was probably frowned upon. Not too many people at that time knew that the internet would grow into what it is today. People dont like change, and adding TCP/IP support to a game at that time was almost unheard of. Even Doom did not have TCP/IP support. ID software did not add that until Quake. Even then the networking code was buggy and caused a lot of lag.

I can not say the daggerfall developers should have added networking support, because it was rare at the time. But I can look back 14 years later and say "guys, yall were on the edge of a gaming revolution and did not even know it."

YomMamasHouse · 08-11-2009, 04:14 AM

I can't imagine a multiplayer ever being possible given the way elder scrolls games handle resting. Certainly would suck to wait even 8 game hours while you slept and others continued to play.

stray kitten · 08-11-2009, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~kev~

Yea, I looked it up on wikipedia after I made my post. I was going off of memory when I posted that.

The thing is, the internet did not really catch on until after the release of windows 95 - because it had built in TCP/IP support. Windows 3.11 did not have networking built in, but windows 3.11 for workgroups did.

When Daggerfall was released, the internet was just being born. So the idea of adding multiplayer support was probably frowned upon. Not too many people at that time knew that the internet would grow into what it is today. People dont like change, and adding TCP/IP support to a game at that time was almost unheard of. Even Doom did not have TCP/IP support. ID software did not add that until Quake. Even then the networking code was buggy and caused a lot of lag.

I can not say the daggerfall developers should have added networking support, because it was rare at the time. But I can look back 14 years later and say "guys, yall were on the edge of a gaming revolution and did not even know it."

Since we are feeling all nostalgic and shit... Even if it did support multiplay most games at that time only supported IPX anyway.

As that is a non-routable protocol you could play games like Duke Nukem or Red Alert on a lan but not on the internet. Unless you had a plugin like heat.net or some shit. Heat died a long time ago so don't go to that site. Take a ride on the wayback machine...

Another was kali.

**mervaka** · 08-18-2009, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~kev~

When Daggerfall was released, the internet was just being born.

you mean the web? Tim Berners-Lee is most displeased at you!

08-07-2009, 04:10 PM	#1
qwertyuiop Voted #1 FF Forum Member D&A Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Canada Posts Rated Helpful 3 Times	Bethesda releases Daggerfall for download After not checking the elder scrolls site in quite a while, I came back to find that Daggerfall has been released for free download just as they did with Arena, along with instructions on how to get it working with dosbox. Daggerfall is arguably the best elder scrolls game. I enjoy Morrowind more, but Daggerfall is an excellent game. It's nice to play it again, I had stopped after getting my new computer as I didn't want to torrent it again, but now I don't have to.

08-10-2009, 02:39 PM	#2
~kev~ pmagnvs Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: East Texas Class/Position: Engineer - D Gametype: Free for all CTF - no stupid clan rules Posts Rated Helpful 0 Times	I remember when daggerfall first came out. What was it, 1997 or 1998? Somewhere in there. PC Gamer magazine wrote up a good review of daggerfall. If you bought the magazine that included the CD, a demo was included. The install file was around 100 megs. I bought the CD version of the magazine just so I did not have download 100 megs on dialup. If I remember right, the demo was 300 - 400 megs after it was installed. Which was huge for back then, a demo of that size was unheard of. Entire games at the time might have been 200 - 300 megs. So just the demo of daggerfall was larger then most of the games on the market at the time. The actual playing area was supposed to be the size of England. The one major draw back to daggerfall, there was no multi-player support. This could have been the first MMORPG. But the developers decided not to include a multiplayer side and dropped the ball in the process. Last edited by ~kev~; 08-10-2009 at 02:41 PM.

08-11-2009, 04:14 AM	#6
YomMamasHouse Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Your Mom's House Posts Rated Helpful 2 Times	I can't imagine a multiplayer ever being possible given the way elder scrolls games handle resting. Certainly would suck to wait even 8 game hours while you slept and others continued to play. Last edited by YomMamasHouse; 08-11-2009 at 04:15 AM.

08-10-2009, 07:58 PM	#4
qwertyuiop Voted #1 FF Forum Member D&A Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Canada Posts Rated Helpful 3 Times	Daggerfall was released in 1996 I believe. I don't think online play should have been a part of it, I don't know how it could have been adequately incorporated into the game.

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