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

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.

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

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.