Running Daggerfall on Windows XP

[Elwro]

So, I decided to play DG another time. Unfortunately I had to change my system from W98 to XP, because the former wasn't able to process my new uberhuge harddrive.
I installed the game with a freeware XP installer and even managed to get sound & music to work correctly via VDMSound. The problem I have is with movement and its control.
I can't turn while walking. When I hold "forward" and press "right", I stop and start turning. I can't also backtrack properly, the speed is very, very slow. These may sound like small inconveniences, but they make the game quite annoying. I tried remapping the keys, pressing NumLock etc. I remember I ran into such problems years ago while playing in W98 DosMode too, but I can't remember how I dealt with them. Can someone help me?

Also, does anyone know of a key that would toggle between "point-view" and "look-view" modes? I can change it in the options menu but it takes a lot of time.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Hmmm... can't say as I've seen this problem listed anywhere. You might wanna scour this site and see if you can find anything there.

And, no, there is no hotkey to switch the two look functions, at least that I know of. I just put it on mouse look and never bother again.

 

[DrattedTin]

Daggerfall is unplayable on XP. That is, you can play it, but you can't complete the game. A bug (which is only present in XP) makes all quest-related monsters spawn in invisible.

 

[Elwro]

@Otaku: Thanks, already been to that site. It's the old m0use.net I've used for years. And if you have mouse-look turned on, how do you e.g. loot corpses? There's no pointer on the screen and the game doesn't seem to recognize that I'm standing in front of a body. Maybe I didn't try hard enough.

@Drattedtin: Isn't it so that you don't get the bug using DosBox?

 

[DrattedTin]

Last time I checked, Daggerfall won't run on DosBox.

So I went to the trouble of installing one of those PROFUSHUN3L emulators... and it ran and it worked, but it was too slow and jerky to be fun.

So, basically, we're fucked.

 

[Elwro]

Eh. Pity. I'll try the latest DosBox version (I think it's not mentioned on uesp.net without any cause) in a few days to check.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I played Daggerfall with XP just fine. Endings and all. That was XP Home though. I can't seem to get it to even run on XP Pro.

 

[Fez]

I've had Daggerfall running on an XP Pro machine. I just used the compatibility setting when running it and it seemed fine.

 

[DrattedTin]

Have you actually gone beyond the starting dungeon and played a few quests?

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I've had Daggerfall running on an XP Pro machine. I just used the compatibility setting when running it and it seemed fine.

Sadly, not even that worked. I am slowly putting a legacy system together piece by piece and will use it for older games. I'll just have to live without my Daggerfall fix until it's complete. No worries though. Got plenty of other games to keep me happy at the moment. Besides, at least Darklands works.

 

[Elwro]

OK, a small update. There are lots of folks on the net reporting that DG runs great via DosBox 0.63. I tried that, and I get a "Command 203 not found in" error while loading saves. Can someone also try this?

And other folks claim they have found a solution for the invisible quest-related stuff bug. Look here for suggestions. I did everything the guys said, but it didn't enhance my gaming experience, namely the movement obstructions didn't disappear.

 

[Elwro]

I managed to run Arena with DosBox 0.63! It runs great! I had to set the CPU Core to "dynamic" for speed to be right, though. I will have to try if it works with sound, too.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Yeah, I can run Arena at least. It works with sound for me as well, so, yeah, you should try that.

 

[Transcendent One]

Are you trying to use the arrow keys to turn? Cause they don't work for me either when I try. I have to use like wasd or something

 

[Fez]

After seeing it mentioned here again I thought I'd try out Darklands on my XP machine with Dosbox, but it doesn't seem to work properly. The main map and the towns with text selection look fine, but when the game tries to initialise combat it locks up. Any tips on getting it running?

 

[Shambukins]

Yeah, I just got a new machine which has XP instead of ME.

I just got Daggerfall for christmas, all I've ever played of it is the demo.
That ran on my computer, but the sound was all screwed up, the music wouldn't even work, and I had the turning problem described in the original post(though I might add, I didn't know this was a problem, I thought that's what the game was like :p).

I would refer to the help already provided and not revive this thread, but I can't even INSTALL Daggerfall.

The demo was a .zip, so it worked fine, but this installation program from the CD just goes to a black screen indefinently. I tried copying and pasting the CD contents to my harddrive, but it claimed DF couldn't be run off the CD and needed to be installed

Any ideas?

 

[Elwro]

Welcome!

I managed to install Daggerfall using instructions found here. There's a freeware Daggerfall installer for us XP users.

 

[Ortchel]

I'm debating with myself over reinstalling Daggerfall or not, last time I tried I started to get motion sickness D:

 

[DarkSign]

Never played it? What is this DaggerFall you speak of?

Why should I play it?

 

[Elwro]

If you never played it, I think you wouldn't like it now. For me it's one of the best games of all times. Morrowind, of which you might've heard, is the 3rd part of "The Elder Scrolls" series. Daggerfall was the 2nd part. It featured a huge world with lotsa towns & temples & dungeons, all presented in stunning 320x200 graphics that could make a PC 486 crawl. While the plot couldn't be summed up as "wonderful" and dialogue was almost non-existent, the game was able to suck you into its world so that you'd have trouble leaving it. You could create your own spells, craft your magic items, find hidden witch-covens and summon quest-giving daemons there, be a wereboar (a vampire or a werewolf would be too standard), join many guilds, buy your own house/ship, ride a horse or a cart... The cities and dungeons were huge, but generic.
I miss the atmosphere of that game which I find hard to describe. A major factor contributing to it might've been the great MIDI music. BTW, the game is FPP.

 

[DarkSign]

Sounds fun. I must admit Ive never done Morrowind, though I have a warez copy of it from my last trip back to Indonesia. (All softwrare can be bought there for 25c - thats with an actual CD/DVD, a case for it to go in, and a photocopied or laser color-printed label too!)

If you guys like this Oblivion thing, Ill try it. It sounds like the kind of game I would like from your description. If Im hearing the new info right, it might do what Fable did and actually put a decent civilization simulation running in the background to react to you more realistically?

Sign me up.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I miss the atmosphere of that game which I find hard to describe.

Hehe. I know what you mean there. Daggerfall's atmosphere is one of my favorites in any game I've played, yet I find it so hard to describe it, let alone explain why. The ambient sounds when wandering through a dungeon are a major part of it though, that's for sure. And, yes, I do so love the soundtrack and I'm not a big fan of midi so that says alot about the music. One piece in particular that plays sometimes when you're in town and it's snowing really gets me to humming along. winter2 is the actual title of it. Beautiful piece of midi music.

 

[Elwro]

[ One piece in particular that plays sometimes when you're in town and it's snowing really gets me to humming along. winter2 is the actual title of it. Beautiful piece of midi music.

Heh, damn right! That's also my favourite track. :D

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

That's also my favourite track. :D

Heh. The funny thing about that piece is I found an actual symphonic version of the tune a couple of years ago and it sucked ass. I deleted it like right after listening to it. The midi version actually sounds better. Imagine that.

 

[roshan]

The trouble with you guys is a lack of foresight.

Right now I am buying a laptop that is quite good, but Im planning to maintain it over time so that even 20 years from now, I can start it up and play obsolete games like torment, baldurs gate and fallout 2. You need to prepare for the future.