Bethesda Gives Away The Elder Scrolls - Arena

Dan L writes "In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the classic Elder Scrolls PC RPG series (Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, yada, yada..), Bethesda has offered up the original DOS version of The Elder Scrolls: Arena for free download. Also, there is a rather cool contest to win some original game art, or some top of the line video cards and sound gear."

Comments

Top of the line video card?

[Endive4Ever]

I don't think I'll need a top of the line video card to play this cool free game.

Thanks anyways.

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks like it's time to upgrade my CGA card.

Way to go BethSoft

[Vaevictis666]

And for an old Dos game, they even provide a link to the DosBox emulator so all us that don't still have the good ol' 486 still up and running :)

if only..

[DeadboltX]

If only they would update the game for windows, and maybe update the textures just a smidgen so they would compete with the original doom, then I would be in heaven.

Re:if only..

[Henry V .009]

Or better yet, open the source, and let us do it.

Re:if only..

[0x0d0a]

You know, at one point I was sure that GPLed old games would languish (and that might still be the case, if the dev population is sufficiently thinned out by masses of releases), but games like Marathon, Quake and Doom have certainly not suffered from being GPLed. Quake in particular has been improved in some amazing ways.

Honestly, I'd sooner that they'd opened the source but kept the data files commercial.

Lucasarts enjoyed a bunch of people buying their old games after the ScummVM people implemented ScummVM and made the Lucasarts games run (with new features and goodies) on a modern platform. Lucasarts didn't have to pay a penny.

Re:if only..

[Carnildo]

Personally, I'd be satisfied if they'd put a pdf of the manual up. As is, the only site on the web with a copy of the manual is looking for a new host.

Very Excited

[NeuroKoan]

Nice! I missed Arena, but loved Morrowind (semi-loved Daggerfall).

This will give me the chance to catch up on the game that started the series.

Site Slashdotted, heres the program

[Anonymous Coward]

1:
Fun()
Goto 1

Free not Free Enough

[jvmatthe]

Free versions of binary-only games like this frustrates me. Perhaps this is so old that they don't still have source, but this curmudgeoning is my usual response to games offered as free downloads. In short: making the game available as source will do more to preserve the legacy of your game than any binary distribution ever will. (Again, as long as source is available...)

Re:Free not Free Enough

[shione]

I'm just happy to be able to play this game without needing to go to ebay or some p2p network. :)

Re:Free not Free Enough

[oskillator]

Emulators such as DosBox ensure that binary-only games will be runnable forever, on any platform someone cared enough to port the emulator to. Emulators currently won't help much for the games listed in that article, but that's really just a matter of time.

The inability to produce tenebrae-style variants is a shame, though.

Re:Free not Free Enough

[Nasarius]

There are potential legal issues with releasing the source. For example, all the code has to be audited, just in case one idiot programmer copied some code he shouldn't have and Bethesda gets sued. And as long as DosBox remains active, there's no worries about losing ability to play the game.

This is pretty cool

[HeLLLight]

I am a massive fan of Morrowind and have been trying to find a legit copy of Arena for a few months now. Its a nice move on Bethesdas half to release Arena for free. Kudos guys.

Daggerfall

[Nasarius]

I never played Arena (except for the demo, once upon a time), but Daggerfall is one of my favorite games of all time, despite the bugs. Morrowind is okay, I guess.

Re:Daggerfall

[xSauronx]

i loved morrowind for a time

the combat system needed alot of work to be fun, and before the expansions, there was *rarely* enough to combat as a low level character just running around.

the work taht went into it looks massive, all the characters and quests and such, too bad it wasnt dynamic, the characters got stale eventually. one could still easily get dozens and dozens of hours of play out of it though, and the graphics were pretty good.

Bugs and balance issues

[MMaestro]

Better yet, I would love the game if they were to tweak the balance and fix the bugs in the game. I donno about other people's experiences but the number of balance issues in the entire series (Elder Scrolls, Daggerfall, Morrowind) really bothered me. Daggerfall suffered from the most bugs though (the game had a habit of randomly crashing and corrupting save games). The Elder Scrolls suffered more from balance issues (starting off as a wizard was nearly impossible since all players had to go through a training dungeon. At the end of the dungeon was a level 3 humanoid enemy (thief if I remember correctly) and this is after fighting rats and bats. Since it was a training ground monsters didn't respawn either, so you can imagine it was pretty difficult for someone to get through if they had bad starting stats.

Re:Bugs and balance issues

[ikkonoishi]

While in Morrowind with the alchemy system the way it is you can easily munchkin yourself.

Ash Yam + Bloat = Increase Intelligence Potion

Increase Intelligence Potion + Ash Yam + Bloat = More Effective Increase Intelligence Potion

More Effective Increase Intelligence Potion + Ash Yam + Bloat = OMG I R TEH GENUIS Potion

Once you get int over lets say 2000 any potion you make is twinked.

Restore Health 324 points for 1399 seconds. Value 43523
Fortify Strength 577 points for 2424 seconds. Value 23999

Re:Bugs and balance issues

[Dr. GeneMachine]

Nasty but not really a problem. Simply don't do it. I didn't.

Re:Bugs and balance issues

[0x0d0a]

It sucks using Linux with a keyboard missing a CHR$(47) key.

I would say that that's not really true. There aren't a hell of a lot of OSes where it's as easy to work around a big hole in your keyboard as Linux.

It takes a couple lines of text (none of which involves using the slash key, so you don't even have to cut and paste initially) to remap, say, your right-hand control key to slash/question mark.

Re:Bugs and balance issues

[phoenixTMW]

As I remember it, you didn't have to fight anything in the starting dungeon if you didn't want to. You could get to the exit pretty easily just from your starting cell.

Re:Bugs and balance issues

[ikkonoishi]

At the risk of being modded offtopic...

I wrote that sig after first installing linux.
My normal keyboard wouldn't work with it, because it was a usb device and that version of linux didn't support my board's USB.

The keyboard that replaced it was really sticky due to a long period of storage in a corner after some syrup had been spilled on it.

It was missing a number of keys; both due to them actually being gone, and due to the actual board being damaged.

The shift keys were missing as well, but a skillful use of the caps lock key got around that.

This was my third time using linux so I had no clue about using any possible remaps, and the missing key made following the directions of a friend to rebuild the kernel or whatever was needed to install USB support impossible.

Re:Bugs and balance issues

[Ayaress]

In Morrowind, the easy way to get past the wizard's starting weakness is to customize the class and either:
A. make blunt weapons a major skill - since if you're strict-RP, you'll be carrying a staff anyway - and rely on that early in the game.
B. make small blades a minor skill - it's based on speed, so you don't have to worry about strength; it's good for getting stat boosts for speed, which you need, or you'll be walking like a snail with arthritis for the whole game; and knives are cheap, abundant, and work fairly well even with low skill, so you don't need to take time out from your magic practice.

contest for USians only

[laiquendi]

Come on people, if there was ever a time for continental solidarity, this is it.

Nostalgia hits

[Killjoy_NL]

Ahhh yes, Arena. The first game I bought with my own allowance YEARS ago. I remember it fondly.
Walking around for hours, especially in the snowy towns, watching the flakes fall, enjoying the great music.
A game from the pre-cdrom era, installing it from a bunch of disks.
I love Bethesda games (even if some of them weren't quite that good, bugridden even).
Personally I think that giving this game away is a "good thing", tying in a contest to celebrate too.

But one thing pisses me off though, I can't enter the competition because it's open to U.S. residents only. If only companies would realize that their fanbase (if they have one) reaches beyond their own borders.

Yay...

[Ayaress]

Now I don't have to feel guilty about pirating it so many years ago.

Then again, I never did feel all that guilty.

Let's plug Morrowind once more

[(trb001)]

I can't plug this game enough, and I'm dying to try out Arena (once I get sick of Diablo II and Tiger Woods 2004). If anyone out there hasn't tried Morrowind, head to your local Best Buy and get the Game of the Year edition, $30, comes with Tribunal and Bloodmoon. You will play this game for at least 8 months and enjoy every second of it (minus the really slow walking at first).

--trb

Re:Let's plug Morrowind once more

[Ayaress]

That walking in Morrowind always got to me. My favorite mode of travel were the Scrolls of Icarian Flight. It's always fun to jump from Vivec all the way to Dagon Fel, and save the 40 gp for the boat ride.

Is there any way to get around the fact that the landing from those scrolls always kills you?

Re:Let's plug Morrowind once more

[(trb001)]

Cast Feather on your way down, that should do the trick.

--trb

Re:Let's plug Morrowind once more

[Lathan]

No! Feather lowers your encumbrance (makes your pack lighter) -- use Slowfall instead. Cast when you're near the ground, allowing enough time to finish casting before you hit...

Re:Let's plug Morrowind once more

[Haeleth]

My favorite mode of travel were the Scrolls of Icarian Flight. It's always fun to jump from Vivec all the way to Dagon Fel, and save the 40 gp for the boat ride.

Icarian Flight is fun, but a bit impractical. To survive the landing, cast a Levitate spell before you hit the ground - for some reason Levitate stops your fall instantly, but the jerk doesn't kill you.

If you want more control over your flight, try donating a potion of levitation at the shrine under the moon next time you're in Vivec - the blessing is Levitate 500 points for 12 hours, which should be enough for any travel you might have in mind.

Re:Let's plug Morrowind once more

[Absurd Being]

I had a Lv. 60 or so char. with around 500HP, 100 Str, and 100 acrobatics. This character could just take the landing. Took away 3/4 of his health, but oh well. If you cast a second scroll before hitting the ground, you can survive too, you'll have 1100 or so acrobatics, so you take no damage.

Bugs

[Dachannien]

I'm surprised nobody yet has mentioned how buggy this game was. Numerous crash bugs, as well as a tendency to thrust your character on the wrong side of the environment (e.g., walking on top of dungeon ceilings, falling through a wall and out into space), plagued this game.

Still, this is a nice gift to the community of TES supporters from Bethesda. :)

My usual response to games offered as free dnloads

[evil-osm]

"Thanks! I appreciate that you did this for the fans out there who loved the game and for those who now have a chance to play it."

The bottom line is, they didn't have to do this. They don't have to release the source. Its their stuff, they decide to offer it for free, don't complain, or if you do, offer some form of thanks or positive feedback as well. As all your doing is slaping them in the face. If I worked for Bethesda, and read your comment (which I am sure they do read slashdot) I would feel insulted. As they really are not getting much (if any) financial gain from doing this. They might sell a few more copies of Morrowind, or Sea Dogs/Pirates of the Caribbean, but the time spent on putting this together, would easily cost more than what they'll get back. If they were out for financial gain, they would have released this for free when Morrowind was just out.

Thanks Bethesa, you guys have done a great job with Morrowind (also bought Bloodmoon and Tribunal, and the clue book thank God), and I appreciate you giving me the chance to play Arena.

Sweet!

[Ravensky]

I am (or should I say "was") a huge Morrowind fan. I've heard numerous people talk about Arena and Daggerfall, and I might as well try it myself!