Daggerfall Demo

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Jay_H
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Jay_H »

In the city of Betony there's a ranch home included within the city walls, which is not in the final game; ranch houses are always found in rural locations, AFAIK.

I also found a stone hill with grass on top, similar to the kind found in the "Odd Blades" merchant block. It exists on its own, which I haven't found duplicated in classic.

I only touched around a bit, but I'll try seeing if there are more things I can pick out later.

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Channel1
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Channel1 »

Jay_H wrote:In the city of Betony there's a ranch home included within the city walls, which is not in the final game; ranch houses are always found in rural locations, AFAIK.

I also found a stone hill with grass on top, similar to the kind found in the "Odd Blades" merchant block. It exists on its own, which I haven't found duplicated in classic.

I only touched around a bit, but I'll try seeing if there are more things I can pick out later.
I really need to re-configure dosbox to get this running again! Unused features/other things! :D :D :D

Dr. Dingles
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Dr. Dingles »

Might as well give some insights into this demo. Or rather, the two demos. They are rather similar in content, but the earlier version is way less common. The one most people have is the November 1995 demo and that's the demo being discussed. There is an earlier demo found only a couple years ago and that seems to be the more interesting one, as there is more contained there. I have both demos on my computer, though I don't know of a convenient link to the October 1995 demo.

It's got all sorts of signs it was rushed too, like a cheat menu being available quite easily rather than having to be accessed with hex editing.

I've got both of these partially documented on TCRF. I still need to get rips of the inaccessible music tracks, as the demo only allows dungeon crawling. To be fair, this dungeon is massive and I still never found my way out.

For those wondering how I ripped the graphics, I used both Daggerfall Player and Daggerfall Imaging 2. For the latter, I simply copied and pasted files from the demos into the final folder. Kind of cheap, but it worked for me.

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Channel1
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Channel1 »

divingkataetheweirdo wrote:Might as well give some insights into this demo. Or rather, the two demos. They are rather similar in content, but the earlier version is way less common. The one most people have is the November 1995 demo and that's the demo being discussed. There is an earlier demo found only a couple years ago and that seems to be the more interesting one, as there is more contained there. I have both demos on my computer, though I don't know of a convenient link to the October 1995 demo.

It's got all sorts of signs it was rushed too, like a cheat menu being available quite easily rather than having to be accessed with hex editing.

I've got both of these partially documented on TCRF. I still need to get rips of the inaccessible music tracks, as the demo only allows dungeon crawling. To be fair, this dungeon is massive and I still never found my way out.

For those wondering how I ripped the graphics, I used both Daggerfall Player and Daggerfall Imaging 2. For the latter, I simply copied and pasted files from the demos into the final folder. Kind of cheap, but it worked for me.
So can I download it anywhere? :D

Dr. Dingles
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Dr. Dingles »

Interkermit wrote:So can I download it anywhere? :D
Just added a DL for the October 1995 demo article. Check it out there and see what else has been found.

Dimillian
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Dimillian »

Well this is actually the demo I took my screen from.
The later one is basically what the final game with just one dungeon and no outside.

And the other one is the Betony one.

Dr. Dingles
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Dr. Dingles »

There have been four demos found so far.

October 1995 Demo - ~13 MB zipped (The rare preview version)
November 1995 Demo - ~10 MB zipped, has a few bug fixes, a different player character, and some stuff is removed (also available on UESP as DaggerfallPreview.zip)
Dungeon Demo (1996) - Based on the final game; ~16 MB zipped
Betony Demo (1996) - A more expansive demo, also based on the final version; ~58 MB zipped

All in all, the prototype page only covers the first two demos. Even then, the screenshots for the October 1995 demo are that of the November 1995 demo, but I am occupied with plenty more things. With enough luck, proper screenshot for the October 1995 demo, plus more differences b/w the two demos should be added. If there are any more, I'd really like to know, though I doubt many prototype demos of the game survive.

Taemos
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Taemos »

This demo was sold in stores as the Daggerfall Interactive Preview. Very early and very buggy (more so than usual).

I went through its fall.exe with a hex editor years ago, although I didn't document anything and it's mostly been done by others at this point, anyway (see TCRF link). I was probably the one asking about moving the creature animations to the final game. If I remember correctly, those animations were not part of the normal set of creature/animation files and I never found out where/how they were stored. Even if all of the frames were in the proper files, it wouldn't surprise me if it failed anyway due to Daggerfall expecting to play only X number of frames or something along those lines. Daggerfall Unity will allow for a much greater degree of fidelity once complete, anyway.

Fun fact: I have vague memories of my brother purchasing this demo many years ago in either an Electronics Boutique or Babbages. I still have the disc somewhere, although unfortunately the (rather unique) box is long gone.

I am curious if there are any interesting models/blocks that may have survived in the demo that have yet to be uncovered. Interkarma's tools don't directly work with the demo assets. I unfortunately do not know enough about programming to determine file structure differences and make the necessary changes (if it's even that simple).

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epicurius7
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by epicurius7 »

Related:
http://xlengine.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1188

A DaggerXL thread discussing the animation frames, the old demos and early promo screenshots.

Dr. Dingles
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Re: Daggerfall Demo

Post by Dr. Dingles »

Taemos wrote:This demo was sold in stores as the Daggerfall Interactive Preview. Very early and very buggy (more so than usual).
I went through its fall.exe with a hex editor years ago, although I didn't document anything and it's mostly been done by others at this point, anyway (see TCRF link).
Oh, definitely. There was someone going around claiming that there might have been an even earlier demo from August/September 1995 that has yet to surface. There's still a lot more to find in the October and November 1995 demos anyway. I just found the warring texts in the demos and put it up there. It would be nice to more people documented stuff inside the demos, not just on TCRF, but especially here and UESP Forums.
Taemos wrote: I was probably the one asking about moving the creature animations to the final game. If I remember correctly, those animations were not part of the normal set of creature/animation files and I never found out where/how they were stored. Even if all of the frames were in the proper files, it wouldn't surprise me if it failed anyway due to Daggerfall expecting to play only X number of frames or something along those lines. Daggerfall Unity will allow for a much greater degree of fidelity once complete, anyway.
Unfortunately, the creature animations seen in the bestiary are FLC files under BEASTY00.FLC through BEASTY008.FLC, which also include the bestiary UI. Unsurprisingly, there's only one view and the in-game sprites seem to be largely similar to their final counterparts. I did find a version of the bear with more detailed walking animations in the final game, but aside from that, no dice.
Taemos wrote: Fun fact: I have vague memories of my brother purchasing this demo many years ago in either an Electronics Boutique or Babbages. I still have the disc somewhere, although unfortunately the (rather unique) box is long gone.

I am curious if there are any interesting models/blocks that may have survived in the demo that have yet to be uncovered. Interkarma's tools don't directly work with the demo assets. I unfortunately do not know enough about programming to determine file structure differences and make the necessary changes (if it's even that simple).
Ouch, at least you still have the disc. I hope Interkarma's tools can support the demo versions sometime in the future, but it seems the format is slightly different from the final game too.

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