MrFlibble (18266) on 5/26/2014 6:50 PM · Permalink · Report

The male Spellsword version of the demo is the most widespread one, available from a number of sources (e.g. here). However, it is not the first one that was released by Bethesda. An earlier version that features a female Breton Spellsword, rather than a male one, was published on the Bethesda Softworks 1995 Product Demo CD, and also allegedly on a European PC Gamer Magazine cover disk (this is referenced in the unofficial Daggerfall FAQ).

The female Spellsword demo had been a rarity until recently, when Hallfiry was able to obtain the contents of the Bethesda Sampler CD. As soon as the files were available I checked out the demo and made some screenshots (they have already been approved). I also wrote a trivia entry about the female Spellsword version which runs as follows:

Female Spellsword version

An earlier version of the Daggerfall demo, with a 16th level female Breton Spellsword player character called Johanna Wilson, was released by Bethesda in late October 1995. This version showcases some extra features not available in the other demo, such as bows, books, enchanted items, and a few more monster types. The female Spellsword version was included on the Bethesda Softworks 1995 Product Demo CD (CD Sampler) alongside demo versions of The Terminator: Future Shock and PBA Bowling, and non-interactive previews of XCar: Experimental Racing and 10th Planet.

The trivia submission was escalated for a second opinion by Alaka, who has explained to me that the female version of the demo might be different enough to warrant a separate entry in the MobyGames database.

At Alaka's request via PM I'm bringing this now to public discussion. Personally I do not favour either option, but when I made the initial decision to add the information about the female Spellsword demo as a trivia entry, rather than as a separate game entry, I did that in accord with what Rola said a while ago about keeping the database tidy and not clogged with too many separate entries.

The facts are as follows: the male Spellsword demo is basically an updated version of the earlier female one, with minor changes here and there. There is sufficient evidence to point at the fact that the male Spellsword demo was created not from scratch, but by modifying the female Spellsword demo (some details concerning this are outlined here; also Hallfiry ran a byte-by-byte comparison of the data files in both demo versions, with many files having turned out to be identical). The dungeon layout is generally the same, although there are differences in the placement of certain props and items. One major difference is that a cavern area near the starting point became flooded with water in the second demo. Some monsters, items and weapons that are present in the earlier demo are disabled in the male Spellsword version, possibly because their behaviour was still unstable.

That said, the differences between the two versions are still quite substantial.

Please post your opinions on this, fellow MobyGamers.