Daggerfall:Old Unofficial FAQ/General Info

This is the General Information section of the Unofficial FAQ, version 0.992.  The text version of the FAQ was released on 24 August 1996, but the web version was last updated on 13 November 2006.  Other websites mentioned in this document are unlikely to still be valid.

:This is an archive of a historical document and should not be edited other than formatting, links, or minor typos.

What is TES:Daggerfall, Anyway?
The Elder Scrolls (TES):Daggerfall is the sequel to the award winning role playing game TES:Arena released in 1993.  Daggerfall will be a 'free-form' 1st person perspective (you know, like DOOM) role playing game. A 'free-form' game is a game in which the player has a large, sometimes infinite, choice of what to do, unlike some games where the player has to everything at given time and sequence. See Daggerfall Description for a detailed description of what features Daggerfall will include. 

When will Daggerfall be released?
Daggerfall was released in late September, 1996 in the US. The release date in other countries may be significantly later (I got my copy in Canada in late October).

If you ordered the Daggerfall Limited Edition you are "guaranteed" to get it earlier than this.

Daggerfalls initial release date was February 1995.

Tell me about the demo...
The Daggerfall Demo is OUT!!!

The first demo is currently 10.3MB zipped (46MB unzipped), which includes a swap file on your hard drive. It has also been available on different Game Magazines (those funky CD-ROMS demo things).  The first demo is no longer available since it contains lots of bugs and is greatly inferior to the second demo (below).

The demo will run with the Matrox Millenium video card only with 1.9 BIOS which is available from The Matrox WWW Site.

It includes Demo versions of the character generator, the item maker, the potion maker, the spell maker, a tour of sites of interest, and a playable
dungeon.  Your character will be a pregenerated male 16th level spellsword.  There will be no save in the demo.  The Demo's 3D rotatable automapping function combines areas covered by your various dungeon explorations, until you log out of the Demo proper.  The Demo also contains water, no magic items, and some 'eye candy'.  Due to space restrictions, there is no monster AI in the DEMO.

The dungeon is from the pit of jagadha. The dungeon consists of 4 8x8x8 3D blocks. Each block loosely has 8 "levels": there are many partial levels, intersecting ramps between the levels, stairs, balconies, overhangs and rooms with different height ceilings.

There is a second version of the Demo.  It was released only in the European Version of the April 1994 PC-GAMER and a CDROM of all Bethesda Software's products, the latter now being out of production.  It has a woman character, no water, magic items, books and less "eye candy" in the dungeons and some new monsters, such as the giant bat, and an encounter with the UnderKing.  It also allows for faster keyboard based movement & levitating up/down know no longer requires the PgUp/PgDn keys, but Insert/Delete.  Though it has its downsides such as buggy graphics and "sticky walls", DAGGERFALL Beta Tester's apparently swear that this is the better *version and is definitely more fun to play.
The demo is available from The Daggerfall Web Page  at BETHESDA, and is a 15.6MB ziped file.

So how do I order Daggerfall & What is In the Limited Edition?
Ordering the regular edition of Daggerfall through BETHESDA Softworks is $79.95 US (shipping and handling extra), less $0.50 US for each 'credit' that you have gained from using the BETHESDA WWW page.  You can order the following ways:

#Internet: Online Shop
#'Snail' Mail: Customer Service-Daggerfall Pre-Order Bethesda Softworks 1370 Piccard Drive Rockville, MD 20850
#Telephone: 1-800-677-0700  (toll free in America)

BETHESDA accepts all major credit cards and money orders (no personal checks or CODs),   All certified checks and money orders must be in US dollars.  
Your credit card will not be charged until the game ships. 

You can no longer order the Daggerfall Limited Edition. However, for those collector types you are prepared to buy it off someone else, here is how it differs from the regular edition:
serialized limited edition of 10,000 copies
a Limited Edition Daggerfall T-Shirt (100% cotton) Features the DaggerfallLBox Cover design on a black background
a "World of Tamriel" mousepad
a Limited Edition Daggerfall poster

What are the system requirements for Daggerfall?
Currently, the system requirements stand at:
486DX2/50 MHz IBM PC or compatible running DOS 5.0+
8MB RAM
512-540kb Base Memory (Not yet determined)
2x CD-ROM Drive
30MB of Hard Drive Space (Minimum)
VLB or PCI VGA graphics card
Supports: Aria, Ensoniq, Roland, SoundBlaster, and UltraSound. Bethesda uses the HMI sounds drivers.
Joystick or Microsoft compatible mouse. 

People with slower machines (i.e., just above the minimum requirements) will be able to turn off some features to increase the speed.  People with faster machines will be able to take advantage of extra features.

Recommended requirements are:
Pentium IBM PC or compatible running DOS 5.0+
16MB of Installed RAM
Quad speed CD-ROM drive
VLB or PCI graphics card with 4MB of VRAM
4 Different Hard Drive Space Options: 30MB, 90MB, 300MB & 500MB.  Larger installs will speed up the game.

The Daggerfall game will be able to be run under Windows 95 but will not be a native Windows 95 Game.  It is rumoured that the setup program for DF will have an option to add a PIF file to the Win95 desktop fully configured for Daggerfall play under Win95.

Debate is currently raging among Daggerfall Demo Gamers whether or not it runs slowly.  Here are some tips to help you optimise its performance:
#While you can run the Demo on 8MB RAM, 16 MB is strongly recommended
#Your character will move faster is you use the mouse for movement, rather than the keyboard.  Remember the further the cursor is away from the centre of the screen, the faster you will move. Also, using the shift key and the mouse togethet is even faster.
#In your CONFIG.SYS file, set FILES=99 &amp; BUFFERS=55.
#In your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, create a 1MB SmartDrive utilising the /X switch if you have 8-15MB of RAM, a 2MB SmartDrive if you have 16-31MB RAM, and a 4MB SmartDrive if you have more than 32MB of RAM.  These values are general guides only.
#Switch off expanded memory.

What's this I hear about the sequels to Daggerfall?!

The ability to import your Arena character into Daggerfall will be available as a stand-alone utility, which it is planned will be available by the time Daggerfall comes out.  Exactly what features of your character you will be able to keep hasn't been decided.

No Daggerfall add-on mission disks are planned.

Bethesda does have plans to do a Gold Enhanced Edition of Daggerfall.  However, it is unlikely that there will be any significant changes to the game, due to the work being done on TES.

Development of TES3 is already well advanced under the stewardship of Bruce Nesmith as Chief Designer and Julian Le Fay as Chief Programmer.  It is set in the province of Summurset Isle, and will run under a later release of X(n)gine, which incorporates SVGA.  It will probably not be a native Windows 95 application.  The (first) release date is slated for August 1997.

There are rumours to use Daggerfall as the core of an online game. Bethesda is unwilling to comment further at this point but it would be quite unlikely that an online game got off the ground in the near to medium future.

Where can I find more information on Daggerfall?
A good place to start would be The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages. This contains over 60 separate web pages devoted to the game series, most of that being Daggerfall information. A monster bestairy, calendar, large collection of hints/spoilers, and file area are just a few of the things offered here. Also found here is a list of close to 30 sites on the net offering Daggerfall and The Elder Scrolls information.

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