DOS

The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/downloads_games.htm

148 MB download, but it's FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Grabbed it, thanks!

Ha, just came here to post this, already got it.

For those who get crappy download speeds from Bethesda:

http://www.filefront.com/14005983/The-Elder-Scrolls-Daggerfall-Full-Free-Game/

Convenient. After Quake it was next on my list of mid-90s games that I haven't played yet but might enjoy.

Indeed, you might. It was a great surprise for me that the majority of all those marvelous books in Morrowind were already present in the previous chapter of Elder Scrolls saga. And, needless to say, Daggerfall is the most ambitious of the bunch.

Does it come with a crack or something? I mount a generic folder on my c drive as c:\ and the folder DFCD as a cdrom using "-t cdrom" it installs fine and the patch also installs fine, but when I try to launch the game (in Dosbox) it says my cd isn't in the drive...

I want proper support with my free games dagnabbit! :P

edit:
UESPwiki gave the answer: "Contrary to the installer's instructions, run Daggerfall by typing fall z.cfg."

But now I'm stuck in the mainmenu... It doesn't respond to mouse or keyboard.

edit2:
Got it to work after reinstalling. No idea what went wrong the first time. I spend almost an hour creating a character and then I get murdered by the second enemy I encountered, a fricking bat. No saves of course...

Always remember to create an Elven (High Elf?) characters. Has a poison resistance bug you can exploit during character creation.

Yes, the first dungeon is already pretty tricky to survive. Make sure to acquire a teleportation spell as soon as possible to get out of the randomly generated dungeons.

Bleh, I'm trying to start a new game, but now it locks up in the main menu again...

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

A lot of people seem to be having all kinds of problems getting this to run, and Bethesda's instructions don't help very much. When I first tried installing it yesterday, I couldn't install the patch. After reinstalling it in the exact same way, I could install the patch, but I kept getting asked for the right CD. I tried Stvedder's suggestion and it worked - but only once. Now I got it working with this no-cd crack:



Open the image with winrar or a similar program, place the patch in your "Dagger" Folder and launch the game by typing "NoCD". I hope it's okay to post this here, but since the game is officially freeware now, still bugged and Bethesda's instructions are useless, I thought it was okay.

A buggy Bethesda game? Well I NEVER thought it would be possible!

You have to admit, though, that today they have gotten much better in this aspect. I mean, now they have patches that break the game even more!! =D

A little hint for those that might not know: always keep multiple save states! I've only finished the starter dungeon an went to Daggerfall and one of my save states is already corrupted. I'm gonna continue from a slightly older save state now, hoping to get sent to a nearly impossible dungeon for a quest I probably won't be able to finish. Ah, they don't make 'em like that anymore...

I'm affraid the new Prince of Persia has poisoned my mind somehow and I can no longer enjoy games this difficult.

And here's another little hint: always, in any game, keep multiple save states. Doing that saved my behind a million times.

Of course. What I meant is that in Daggerfall you should keep duplicate save states because they get corrupted. Also, it seems I can't load states I saved inside a town. I guess I'll have to wait until DaggerXL is finished...

Wow, I'm surprised Bethesda hasn't slapped them with a C&D, considering how touchy they are about people messing with their games.

Ok I gave it another try. And didn't get any critical bugs actually. But I can't say I enjoyed playing the game. The difficulty is outrageous in spite of me abusing the pathetic AI.

I spend about 6 reloads just to try and kill a single archer. when I finally did I got my first piece of armor and I felt pretty powerful. Until there were suddenly wraiths everywhere which were completely immune to my attacks. Did Bethesda even bother playing through the game when they made this?

Can't use the normal hack-and-slash technique in this game. Some opponents are simply too dang powerful. Unless you become a werewolf. Woof.

Was that in the starter dungeon? Never saw any wraiths there. Archers aren't all that hard to kill, it seems you made a character that doesn't focus on combat. In that case, you should try getting out of the dungeon without fighting anything more dangerous than bats and rats. There is a secret door somewhere that lets you bypass many of the enemies. In many cases, you should be happy if you're able to survive a dungeon, you can't expect to always be able to clear it out entirely. If you make it out of the starter dungeon, remember to save before accepting a quest, since there's a good chance that you'll be send to a dungeon full of enemies you can't even hurt.

For my character I picked a class that combined fighter and rogue things. My Agility was pretty high (80) but my strength was a bit less (55 or something). I had about 115 hitpoints at level 1 (and upped it when I got to level 2) which probably isn't very much. (assuming it starts with 100)

The problem with the archers was that they took about 10-15 hits to kill and they only had to hit me 3 times to kill me. So even standing around a corner and strafing towards him and hitting him didn't work because the chances of getting stuck in a wall are pretty high and then they'd hit me. But I had to attack them because they are the only source of equipment and income at this point. I guess I could have just robbed them all empty, since I found out you can do that through walls without any penalty. But that would've only given me gold, not equipment and I felt that my lack of protective clothing was what was being the death of me constantly.

The wraiths particularly appeared when I tried to rest (which is one way ticket to loading a previous game, unless the room I'm in has another exit), but they were roaming around at various places as well. Needless to say they are quite annoying since I can't do them damage and the kill me in 2 hits.

And finding the exit is easier said then done. The place is huge and fricking maze. I couldn't even find my starting point anymore without bumping into dozens of enemies.

The starter dungeon is not randomly generated and the original game contained a printed map with instructions on how to get out. Probably because it is pretty hard.

But the enemies are randomly generated (or at least partially)

I restarted the game this time building a class where I focussed on damage, chance of hitting and hitpoints.

The first two enemies I encountered (a rat and a bat) where a breeze, I killed them both in one or two hits (instead of 5 to 10 with my previous character) and they failed to do me damage. But then in the middle of the hallway there's an Imp. He's immune to my attacks and I can't cast any harmful spells. he kills me in two attacks. And there's no way to get past him.

"Pretty hard" doesn't do this game justice. It's downright impossible to play.

I managed to lure it into a room without dying. And now have succesfully finished the tutorial (no wraiths this time!).

I'm stopping here though, but it did inspire me to perhaps pick up Eye of the Beholder II. I never finished that one.

I always got the same enemies in the starter dungeon, so I'm guessing that's based on your class, abilities etc. You can kill imps once you've found a steel weapon and you can easily avoid them before that. And as I said, depending on what character you create, you can be happy to make it out alive and can't expect to kill everything in the dungeon. That said, I feel your pain. The game can be really frustrating and I'm not sure if I continue playing myself.