Daggerfall is now Freeware

[azraelck]

True. I have a certain limit for both graphics and interface design that I can't go past. The gold box games hit the interface bit. Whats bad, is my days of regular DOS gaming weren't all that long ago. I had a 486 laptop I used to take everywhere with me. All it had was old games. This was back in '05 when I last used it.

It's amazing to me, in 2005, I would play The Bard's Tale (original trilogy) through annually. Now, as much as I still hold a fondness for those games, I doubt I could. Even Devil Whiskey, which is basically an updated graphically BT, isn't as fun due to interface quirks. The Summoning is another one I love, but can't seem to stick with very long.

The saddest (to me) is Phantasie III. This is a lesser-known classic, which I grew up playing the heck out of. The DOS version's graphics are horrible 4 color CGA. Magenta, Yellow, Black, Cyan and Green are the only colors, or which only 4 were shown at one time. Compared to the colorful C64 version, it's a travesty. The UI is much improved over the C64's, making combat quicker and more intuitive, but the overall look is... bad. Yes, it remains among my favorites ever, but I can't stand to play it.

Here lately, I've been playing some old Windows RPGs. Might and Magic VI, VII, and Wizards and Warriors. Thankfully, all work fine in XP. I'm focusing in on M&MVII first, since it came in first. I had to rebuy all three.

[Grindstone_82]

Amazing how much fun it still is. I never got into Morrowind and Oblivion I didn't even touch, but Arena was an entertaining little game and Daggerfall is simply worth anyone's time. I can't quite put the finger on it, but I feel that everything that came from Bethesda afterwards lacked that great high fantasy feeing and immersion that Daggerfall had. And to think that this game had even more potential with all the features they had planned for it but didn't make it into this game (nor into its two successors)...

[Evnissyen]

Incidentally: does anybody know if there's a new download out there yet? Or is it still the same one from two years ago that I've never been able to get to work for me, DOSBox or otherwise?

...Not that I care that much, anyway... . From the YouTube clips I've seen: the game looked pretty cheesy... not to be too negative or anything, but, well... for one thing, the disembodied sword-arm in front of the camera... then the ultra-annoying goblin that introduces you to the legion of ever-strengthening dungeon enemies... then the default-naked female PC vs. the default-modest male PC . . . I mean, if you're gonna have naked PC's in a game at all, you might as well make it mutual... . Can anybody say Sexism?

Not that that last part was really the part that turned me off, I think it was pretty much that disembodied arm.

I mean . . . at some point, perhaps somebody should've looked at it and said: "You know: this might be original and all, but . . . it actually just doesn't work."

But then again: I'm looking at this from a modern perspective, backwards. From a modern perspective: Might & Magic is borderline unplayable, whereas when I was a kid I actually liked the game.

Oh, well. Sorry if this really does sound overly negative and serious... I guess I'm just in a poor mood, tonight. Might have something to do with not having slept since... oh, I don't remember.

Makes a person moody.

EDIT:
Sorry, Grindstone, you're probably more virtuous than myself for being able to appreciate that past more than I am, and still be entertained by it... . Probably some terrible fault of mine... . Wish I was able to maintain such appreciation for really old games... .

[CrazyBernie]

I blame it on your Mac.

[Evnissyen]

I blame it on your Mac.

I'd expect nothing less from you.

But, actually, we're talking Windows, here: XP (haven't tried running DOSBox on Windows 7 yet, but I don't have any immediate plans for such an experiment), so... joke's on you, PC boy.

[CrazyBernie]

I blame it on your Mac.

I'd expect nothing less from you.

But, actually, we're talking Windows, here: XP (haven't tried running DOSBox on Windows 7 yet, but I don't have any immediate plans for such an experiment), so... joke's on you, PC boy.

Oh ho, is it now??

Probably some terrible fault of mine... . Wish I was able to maintain such appreciation for really old games... .

Perphaps your fascination with the "Shiny" and "Pretty" OS has hampered your ability to appreciate (and get running properly) the somewhat clunky, ugly, and not-so-user-friendly games of yore?? Eh??

Incidentally, I recall running Daggerfall on an XP DOSBox without any problems. But I suppose it's one of those YMMV deals. DOSBox is usually fairly simple, but it does occasionally fight back.

[Rush]

Heard of Daggerfall, of course, but never played the game before.
Now's my chance. Thanks for the link.

Rush.

[sirdilznik]

I never had any problems getting this to run in DOSbox on Linux. The sheer scope of the game is mind-boggling. It makes Morrowind and Oblivion look minuscule by comparison. Of course all the outdoor terrain is randomly generated and there are tons of randomly generated quests so it's like comparing apples and oranges... more like comparing blueberries and pineapples.

Still a great game, especially for it's time period.

[Evnissyen]

Perphaps your fascination with the "Shiny" and "Pretty" OS has hampered your ability to appreciate (and get running properly) the somewhat clunky, ugly, and not-so-user-friendly games of yore?? Eh??

Hey, you can always buy a Mac any time. Nothing's stopping you. If you're running on the fuel of jealousy or bitterness... it's going to run out.

Incidentally, I recall running Daggerfall on an XP DOSBox without any problems. But I suppose it's one of those YMMV deals. DOSBox is usually fairly simple, but it does occasionally fight back.

Yes... finicky, I think, is a better description. Or... unpredictable.

[CrazyBernie]

Please... buy a Mac? I can't get rid of them all! =P



Ok, so I only have one left, but still. Who wants a 500MHz iBook that has a flaky screen and can't play Book II?? Well... it might be able to play it, but I can't imagine it would be anything but a slideshow, with only 8MB for video.

So no... no jealousy/bitterness, just annoyance.

I fired up DOSBox on W7, and had Daggerfall installed/patched/running in no time. You do have to make a .bat file to get it to run properly (you're doing a CD install with no cd), but it works fine.

**Edit**
Heh, just to prove me wrong, DOSBox fought with me over the mouse the second time around loading it. Had to force the mouse into two-button mode. I use the D-Fend Reloaded front-end... makes it easy to setup custom profiles for each game.

[Evnissyen]

Oh, for the gods' sake: shrink that dock, man, it's too damn big!

I mean: this isn't Vista, here!

EDIT: And get some actual wallpaper! And on-screen files/folders! Damn! It's as if...

...nevermind. I know the answer to that one.

(Here's my current desktop, for example (I'm using my small monitor for my Mac, my large monitor for my PC... that's why this particular screen grab is so small)):



(By the way, Bernie: as of this date: Windows 7 has crashed more times than I can count. More often than XP, anyhow. There goes your fallacious hope of a Windows OS as reliable as Mac. )

(I suppose there's always Windows 8 (aka Sunburst Godsend) to look forward to... .)

[CrazyBernie]

Oh, for the gods' sake: shrink that dock, man, it's too damn big!

I mean: this isn't Vista, here!

EDIT: And get some actual wallpaper! And on-screen files/folders! Damn! It's as if...

...nevermind. I know the answer to that one.

(Here's my current desktop, for example (I'm using my small monitor for my Mac, my large monitor for my PC... that's why this particular screen grab is so small)):

Meh, after I took the picture I shut it off and stuffed it back in its cubby-hole in my desk. Not going to mess with it unless I replace the screen and casing, which isn't very likely at this point. I'll probably just ebay it as a working parts machine and take what I can get...

By the way, Bernie: as of this date: Windows 7 has crashed more times than I can count. More often than XP, anyhow.

1. It's probably a hardware problem. That's the one drawback/risk of buying from a boutique with so many component choices...
2. What have you done about it? Have you contacted the mfg and troubleshot it with them?? That machine should have been stress tested for at least 24 hours before it was shipped to you.

There goes your fallacious hope of a Windows OS as reliable as Mac. )

Not really. My Windows 7 machine doesn't crash (unless i overclock it - my fault), and neither does my Dad's, my stepmother's, my sister's, my aunt's, my grandmother's... the list goes on (and you can bet your Mac that I'll be the first one to hear about any system failures). Granted, my father and I are the gamers, so we're the only ones who really tax the systems. My HTPC crashed once... but I know it's overheating so that's not Windows related. The chances of Windows 7 being any less reliable than the Mac OS are as high as Bill Gates having a personal vendetta against you.

I've said it before... put the Mac OS on 25% as many computers as Windows is installed on, and show me how "reliable" it is then.

[Evnissyen]

The chances of Windows 7 being any less reliable than the Mac OS are as high as Bill Gates having a personal vendetta against you.

Or as high as Steve Jobs having a personal vendetta against you?

I've said it before... put the Mac OS on 25% as many computers as Windows is installed on, and show me how "reliable" it is then.

Now... unless you're doing hard scientific testing: you know as well as I do that it takes only 1 Windows7 machine vs. 1 Mac to determine whether one is more stable than the other.

By the way: How many times have you called the "tech" people about your Mac laptop?

Part of the problem with Windows, obviously, is that it's just a huge, huge piece of software sitting on top of DOS.

Stupid as hell, but... Microsoft isn't in the computer-manufacturing business and it doesn't look like PC's are going to get rid of DOS any time soon. After all... without DOS: Windows can't run.

Talk about perpetuating an anciently unhealthy system.

And... you're honestly suggesting I call these... ahem... "tech" people for assistance?

Seriously?

To be fair: Windows 7 has given me less trouble, in general, than XP. Hooray for it! But I'm not about to call Windows 7 perfect. I'm no fool. I'll believe it when I finally see that all the crashes were due only to isolated cases and incompatibility problems.

At any rate... I don't want to start up another Mac vs. Windows battle... the whole thing is pointless. You're happy with Windows... that's all that matters to me.

Just pointing out that Windows 7 is not the infallible godsend you want to make it out to be, is all... as if Microsoft suddenly decided it was in their interest to finally create an OS that's totally free of bugs, now that people have gotten used to the fact that Windows = buggy and therefore have forgiven it for that fact simply because PC's are less expensive and you can play more games on them.

(Oh, and I can't help but point out that it isn't hardware issues that prevent people from playing certain games... it's big-name game developers who keep people from playing games without spending lots of $$ to update their systems.)

(Sure, this is because big developers are always 'pushing the envelope', but... things should always be put in appropriate context.)

[Arkos]

So...back on topic here, what's the deal with this Daggerfall game. It any good? What's it like? I've never heard of it.

[CrazyBernie]

Part of the problem with Windows, obviously, is that it's just a huge, huge piece of software sitting on top of DOS.

Stupid as hell, but... Microsoft isn't in the computer-manufacturing business and it doesn't look like PC's are going to get rid of DOS any time soon. After all... without DOS: Windows can't run.

Talk about perpetuating an anciently unhealthy system.

Please tell me you don't actually believe that.