(What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

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jayhova
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(What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by jayhova »

I played Arena when it was a new game. I looked forward to Daggerfall. Daggerfall got rid of the flat D&Desce levels of Arena and replaced them with huge twisty labyrinths.

I struggled hard to get out of the first dungeon and immediately traveled to Daggerfall. I arrived at night as I made my way through the city looking for the lights of an inn I nearly jumped out of my seat when the word "VENGENCE!" boomed out of the speakers. I was immediately set upon by something way over my ability to deal with and was summarily killed.

After that, I was hooked.
Last edited by jayhova on Sat Jul 09, 2022 3:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
Remember always 'What would Julian Do?'.

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Interkarma
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by Interkarma »

My experience is almost the same. :D

After finally getting out of PH and fast travelling to Daggerfall, I arrived at night to find the city gates closed. I'd read about climbing in the manual and tried scaling up the wall with VENGEANCE hammering out. I was beset by ghosts about half up the wall. Not sure if the ghosts or the fall killed me, but I was knocked off the wall and the result was the same.

I then realised I hadn't save since PH and got to try again. And again like you - hooked. :)

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jayhova
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by jayhova »

Interkarma wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 12:10 am I then realised I hadn't save since PH and got to try again. And again like you - hooked. :)
Same here
Remember always 'What would Julian Do?'.

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Cliffworms
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by Cliffworms »

My older brother bought the PC Gamer issue that came with the Betony demo. Both of my older brothers didn't like it much, but 9 year old me was hooked (my parents didn't really check for mature content in games).

I'd make myself some scenarios like talking out loud with NPCs in taverns about my adventures, take quests from the same inn or city and pretend I was their friends. I finished the demo's time limit I don't know how many times... but I played it until I finally got the game for Christmas later that year. Then I was able to explore the whole world.

English isn't my native language so I wasn't yet billingual then. When getting a quest, I was able to understand what I had to do (kill, fetch, talk) and where, but I didn't really get the context. I did an oral presentation about the game in 6th grade and said the story involved banishing ghosts from three dungeons under three specific castles. (Like I said, I didn't understand much of the story :lol: )

Daggerfall greatly helped me understand English that's for sure.

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Metalhead324
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by Metalhead324 »

Pretty sure it was watching my older brother play it on the old PC my family had at the time before I tried it myself, and he always favored thief characters. I remember reading the manual over and over again (especially the bestiary for some reason) while watching him play. Always found it confusing as a kid and never got further than meeting Brisienna when it comes to the main quest. I always ended up doing Fighter's Guild quests and becoming a werewolf until eventually stopping for a time, then starting a new character and doing it again.

As an adult, not much has changed, except actually beating the main quest!
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Falci
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by Falci »

First time seeing it, was some of those old promotional shots in a magazine back in the 90s, before the game came out. It really caught my eye, but I never got around to seeing it in person after the release in the 90s.

First time playing it, was around the time it got released for free by Bethesda. Unfortunately, I never got around to finding the exit to Privateer's Hold before giving up. And by that time, I had already finished Morrowind and played some Oblivion, I think.

Only when I got around to playing with DFU that I really got into it and finished it. :)

dutchovenfarts
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by dutchovenfarts »

very first memory was an article in PCGamer talking about it, showing off the 3d dungeons and fire daedra. First gameplay memory is getting the first demo, which while interesting to play around in, and had some real cool promo ideas, wasn't all that great gameplay-wise. very buggy, enemies would 'stick' to you, wasn't much to really do in the game, except play with the promo modules for character creation, etc.

first retail memory is reaching gothway gardens being in awe of walking there from the dungeon exit. privateer hold wasn't difficult, although i did start with just a premade warrior.

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Kamer
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by Kamer »

After the disappointment of Skyrim and of it removing a lot of RPG mechanics, I looked to the older games I had not yet played. I was so impressed with the cope and size of DF. To see all those mechanics I wanted to see in skyrim all here in a much older game was mindblowing. I had knew nothing, and heard of nothing about the first two games so i went into it blind. It took me 2 in real life weeks to get out my first dungeon. Went inside for a quest, and then it became a fight for survival. Having a guild member yell to another to ask a question about a monster for a quest made the game feel so alive. For me its all the smaller things. The RPG game I had always wanted to play already existed. Ever since I've been playing DF none-stop. I played through the bugs, and eventually got to the point to start looking for something like a source port. I found DaggerfallXL and then after that I found Unity.

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Orbarth
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by Orbarth »

Daggerfall was the very first game i purchased when i finally could afford a PC, after reading the various super positive reviews on some pc magazines i knew this was the game for me , coming from decades of "simpler" RPG on various personnal computers (like CPC464, AtariST) didn't really prepared me for the brillance Daggerfall was.

And what an amazing experience it was, so it will always have a special place to me :)

If i try to remember how it was at first, i think my first memories was more "how the hell can i escape that Privateer Hold without dying to those super powerful skeletons", already managing to survive the bats with a non combat oriented character was an incredible feat, but the skeletons damn them.

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numidium3rd
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Re: (What are your) First memories of Daggerfall

Post by numidium3rd »

My first experience is downloading it from an abandonware site and installing it for DosBox back in the mid-2000s. The only other games in the series I played before were Morrowind and Oblivion so it was very different for me. I was initially curious about it because I read about its real-life scale map and its "700k NPCs" (with our current understanding of the game this number feels like it was picked out of thin air, lol). I never played a game before with that sense of scale so I had to see how it was possible for an old DOS game to pull it off.

When I started playing I was even more intrigued. The dark FMV intro cutscene, the strange random noises I heard while wandering dungeons, and the vague plot that slowly unfolded all contributed to an air of eerie mystery that Morrowind didn't give me. I often found myself frustrated by the game's sometimes obtuse mechanics and large confusing dungeons but that wasn't enough to turn me off from it. To me it was (and still is) a big, fun, ambitious, atmospheric, fascinating mess.

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