Apocalypse Then- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

Developers: Bethesda Softworks
Publishers: Bethesda Softworks
Series: The Elder Scrolls
Engine: XnGine
Platforms: MS-DOS
Release dates: 31 August, 1996
Genres: RPG

On this day in gaming, in 1996, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall was released.

Daggerfall is the second game in the Elder Scrolls series, and is often considered by some to be the best in the franchise. The game, interestingly, has the largest game world, although most of it was randomly generated. The game also has six different endings.

The game was released as freeware this year by Bethesda, the game's developers.

There's also a source port for the game, originally meant for MS-DOS, called DaggerXL which will eventually allow people to play the game on modern systems.

You can pick up The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall for free here if you want to play a classic. Otherwise you can also try Arena (also free), Morrowind, or Oblivion.

Apocalypse Then- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

DaggerXL- a Daggerfall Source Port in the Works

I came across something interesting for a change yesterday on TTLG.com, and that was something called DaggerXL.

DaggerXL is a source port for Daggerfall, the second game in The Elder Scrolls series, which was made freeware recently by Bethesda. DaggerXL was started recently, like in July this year or so, soon after the freeware release.

I got Daggerfall off of a NAG cover DVD recently, and tried to get it working with DosBox. I installed it, but couldn’t manage to get it to work. I usually don’t like messing around with DosBox, it must be said. It’s a good idea, don’t get me wrong, but as the DB team themselves say, if you can find a source port, then rather use that, as using DosBox doesn’t always provide the best experience. Besides, a source port will naturally look and run a lot nicer on our modern systems, and I was convinced that it would only be a matter of time before someone undertook this as a project.

So, I am quite interested in this source port then, and word has it that work is speeding along quite nicely. I’d like to get a hold of a version sometime soon, as I hear that Daggerfall is arguably the best in the series of TES games, and I, like a lot of people, haven’t played it…yet. Hell, there are some people who haven't played Morrowind or Oblivion. I'm glad I'm not one of those weirdos.

You can check out the DaggerXL site, a wordpress blog, here.

Sources& Resources:

Dosbox
Daggerfall made freeware
Daggerfall Download
DaggerXL website
DaggerXL thread at TTLG.com

DaggerXL- a Daggerfall Source Port in the Works

Bethesda Releases Daggerfall as Freeware

With Bethesda being so busy nowadays, it's good to see that they had the time to get one of their old games, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, out and make it free to download, as a way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls. Arena is also available as freeware- that was done back in 2004, on the tenth anniversary.

Is it too much to hope that on the twentieth one, that Morrowind becomes freeware?

If you're not familiar with The Elder Scrolls series, Daggerfall is the sequel to Arena, and was followed by Morrowind and Oblivion.

Still not familiar? Shame on you.

It's a 148 MB download, and is provided "as is" apparently, so you'll need DOSbox, an emulator, to play it. DOSbox has full support for Daggerfall, so no problems there.

Sources& Resources:

Free Version of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Released by Bethesda
http://www.elderscrolls.com/
http://www.dosbox.com/

Bethesda Releases Daggerfall as Freeware