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.

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

[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.

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

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.

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.