Daggerfall is now Freeware

[azraelck]

Old, old news, but not posted here. Daggerfall has been released as freeware. I might download it. I think my old copy is messed up.

http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/07/17/ ... aggerfall/

[Necromis]

This was a great game. I never owned it, and had to play it at my friends house back in the day. I might just download it and go thru it again. It would be nice to finally actually finish it. LOL

[azraelck]

I bought my copy off a bargain bin for $3. Still has a sticker. It worked back in the day, even on a Win98 machine, but I couldn't get it to work in either DOSBox or XP. Probably just a bad disc.

Never beat it, kept running into some bugs that crashed the game (and occasionally the entire computer, Win98 FTL!). Those may have been because I wasn't running under real DOS.

[binger]

Works perfeclty under DOSBox, there's only one bug of note remaining in the patched version (the dreaded 'void').
I played around to refresh some fond memories, but Daggerfall hasn't aged that well.

I'm off to replay the fan-patched Arcanum in 1920x1200.

[MegaHassan]

I never could get the damned thing to work on my Vista. >.<

[Evnissyen]

Finally! I've been wanting to get a hold of this game.

...Hope it works on my spare Windows 98 PC... of course, it would be nice if there were a Mac version.

[Zeno]

You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it working. It's not like most DOS-box compatible games where you can just mount the cd, navigate to the directory and run the game. Here, you need to install the game, configure DOS-box's sound card emulator, patch the game, etc etc etc.

It's probably worth it though, if only to experience the largest "free-to-roam" world in a video game. Ever.

[CrazyBernie]

Works all right on the "new" computer I just built...

AMD K5 100MHz
64MB EDO DRAM
8MB Nvidia Riva 128
Western Digital 10GB hard drive (formatted to 8 due to Motherboard limitations)
Sound Blaster Pro 2 (non-PnP card)
MS-DOS 7.10
19" Dell Trinitron CRT

[BasiliskWrangler]

Works all right on the "new" computer I just built...

AMD K5 100MHz
64MB EDO DRAM
8MB Nvidia Riva 128
Western Digital 10GB hard drive (formatted to 8 due to Motherboard limitations)
Sound Blaster Pro 2 (non-PnP card)
MS-DOS 7.10
19" Dell Trinitron CRT

That is an awesome setup! I wish I had one- I'd call you up with a 56 kbps modem and play a little Duke Nukem 3D one-on-one deathmatch (or Descent, your choice).

[CrazyBernie]

Man, 56k is too slow for me... gotta meet somewhere and hook 'em up via null modem cable.

Next up I'm building a Win98SE box...

Intel Pentium MMX 233MHz
128MB EDO or SDRAM (Maybe 256)
16MB PCI TNT2 Vanta
DVD/CDRW Combo
a 15, maybe 20gig hard drive


That way I can comfortably play some slightly heaver hitting DOS titles (Quake, System Shock, etc) and enjoy some Windows games like Dungeon Keeper 2 and Thief. ^_^

DOSBox is all well and good for many classics, but I've had a lot of games that just won't play right without the genuine hardware to back it up... especially if they support any sort of hardware acceleration.

[azraelck]

I've been thinking of building a new DOS system, or maybe setting up a old P1 laptop as a DOS unit. Problem is I no longer have any copies of an actual DOS version I can access or use. I have a version of DR DOS on 5.25 floppies... but I haven't had one of those drives since the Clinton Administration. And I doubt it'll work a lot of the 'heavier' DOS titles.

Has anyone tried FreeDOS? Parts are used in DOSBox I think, and (most importantly) it's free. Otherwise, I think Dr DOS is still available for sale, though mostly for businesses and probably not able to run many of the games I have.

DOSBox works fine for us too lazy to build a system just for those old games though. Plus, I have nearly every PC game I've ever owned on my drive right now (a few not worth mentioning, much less playing, are floating around and a few that have DRM viruses like SecuROM). Kinda nice to be able to pack my GBA, PSP, and laptop and have literally hundreds of titles to play, dating from old Intellivision classics to Call of Duty.

[CrazyBernie]

If you have a copy of Win 98 (for licensing purposes), you could go with DOS 7.10

http://ms-dos7.hit.bg/

I have had some mild issues with it... I originally put a SB AWE64 and had to use a 6.22 boot disk to run the config utility 'cause it kept telling me it wouldn't run in a Win9x dos box. Ended up switching to the SB Pro2 when I couldn't get the card to work anyway (PnP isa card wouldn't "play" nice on a non PnP mobo). Jumper Configuration FTW!!

But it does support FAT32, LFN, yada yada. More pluses than minuses. The biggest issue I have with FreeDOS is that you need to multiboot if you want to run a Windows 9x GUI where DOS 7.10 basically IS the os that Win9x runs on. I installed Win98 then MS-DOS 7.10 on a P133 Compaq Armada laptop and it ran flawless, except for when I used a USB->PS2 adapter to hook up a mouse... it sometimes flips out when in DOS running games. But it was able to run Quake1 in lo-res pretty smooth. I might try throwing UniVBE on it to see if I can't squeeze out some higher resolutions.

[Grue]

play a little Duke Nukem 3D or Descent

Ahh, the memories! Has it really been over 10 years since I played those games? My, my, time sure flies.

[CrazyBernie]

play a little Duke Nukem 3D or Descent

Ahh, the memories! Has it really been over 10 years since I played those games? My, my, time sure flies.

10 Years?? Try about 10 days! Muahahaha!

I try to rotate the old in with the new to help me remember where the good stuff really came from. It's also fun to try out old games like Duke and Quake with fan mad hi-resolution mods. For example, the Dark Places Quake mod w/Rygel's Ultra High Resolution Textures makes the game look like new... and will bog your system down like it's not new enough... ^_^

I remember installing some texture packs for morrowind a few years back... it's amazing how a little facelift can change the experience... 0_o

[Grue]

I try to rotate the old in with the new to help me remember where the good stuff really came from.

Yeah, same here actually. DOSBox is in constant use on my computer. But unfortunately sometimes old is too old - some games haven't aged that well (and I'm not talking about graphics here). Case in point, the old Gold Box games. I dug them up about a year ago and thought I'd give 'em a spin for old times sake. I even had the dinky code wheels still intact. However, I didn't get very far before the archaic interface took its toll and I decided to put those golden oldies back on the shelf. Clunky graphics I can stand, but clunky interfaces are something I cannot stomach anymore.

After my short-lived attempt to play the Gold Box games, I decided to try other cRPGs of that era (more or less). Ultima 6 and EoB 1-2 were a lot of fun!