Install The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

This guide is for a basic install that works for me onto real hardware. I do not like packs that others put together and I definitely like getting files from official sources where possible. I prefer installing myself and deciding later what unofficial items I install after reading more about the individual items. I am not really discussing hardware yet but a Pentium MMX system with 64MB RAM will do the job very nicely.

This does not cover cheats or unofficial game patches, just the game itself with the exception of changing the DOS Extender for more reliability.

Download:

DFInstall.zip from Bethesda contains full game and latest official update
Website https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/daggerfall?
Direct File https://cdnstatic.bethsoft.com/elderscrolls.c … s/DFInstall.zip

daggerfall-en.pdf Official manual from Bethesda
Website https://manuals.bethsoft.com/
Direct File https://cdn.bethsoft.com/bethsoft.com/manuals … ggerfall-en.pdf

ADDQUEST.ZIP from UESP contains the official CompUSA Special Edition with 16 new quests
Website https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Files
Direct File http://www.uesp.net/file.shtml?dagger/files/addquest.zip

dos32a-912-bin.zip from developer contains DOS/32A DOS Extender
Website http://dos32a.narechk.net/index_en.html
Direct File http://download.narechk.net/dos32a-912-bin.zip

You probably do not need to download 7-Zip or ImgBurn since you probably (definitely) have something already, but just in case

7-Zip My favorite Zip utility
Website https://www.7-zip.org/

ImgBurn My favorite burn utility
Website http://www.imgburn.com/

Create CD

Unpack all files and use ImgBurn (or whatever you want) to create a CD-R. Depending on your machine you might use a USB flash drive or even a network share to transfer files.

Do not worry about disc structure or labels. We will not be using the CD to play.

Install Game

1. run install.exe in DFCD folder
2. change install size to Huge
3. I use the default install path
4. go ahead and configure sound card

Copy Files

However you do the copy files below it is important to make sure that they are not flagged read only once copied to the hard drive

5. copy addquest files to c:\dagger\arena2
6. copy DFCD\dagger\arena2 to c:\dagger\arena2
7. copy DAG213.EXE update to c:\dagger
8. copy dos32a-912-bin\binw files to c:\dagger

Patch

9. run c:\dagger\dag213.exe to apply patch. Choose Yes to FIXMAPS.

Change DOS Extender used by Daggerfall from CauseWay to DOS/32A

This is to alleviate save games from becoming corrupted in the first place.

10. from a command prompt go to c:\dagger and run SB.EXE /R FALL.EXE

Configure Z.CFG

11. Edit c:\dagger\z.cfg as follows

change "pathcd" to be the same as "path", ie "pathcd c:\dagger\arena2\" this will allow us to not need CD to play

change "controls betaplyr.dat" to "controls viewplyr.dat" this is HUGE, now you have WSAD keypad movement and mouse control.

If you have 64MB RAM and especially if you decide to change view distance later make the following changes to give more RAM to cache textures and objects.

add these two lines.

"texturememory 20000" give ~20MB to textures
"objmemsize 20000" give ~20MB to objects

Install DONE !!!

Run Game

To run the game now without CD we need to run the command "FALL.EXE Z.CFG" from the c:\dagger directory. Create a batch file to do this for you but do NOT name it "dagger"

Highly recommend reading up on creating custom classes!!!

After you create a character and start in the first dungeon you will probably want to change the mouse vertical movement. Just hit Escape key, Controls, Mouse and deselect REVERSE VERTICAL. You might need to adjust HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL and TURN RATE to your needs.

ENJOY

If you notice any errors above please let me know so that I can correct them.

Thanks

Hi squareguy, great guide. However i did run in to a problem. My ingame mouse sensitivity is extremely high, the bars in the menu actually extends outside the screen. And if I change it it just defaults back to the same value as soon I close the options menu. Any ideas?

Nicely done, squareguy. I missed this post when you originally posted it. This is a game on my "to play" list, and I'd play it on my MS-DOS PC. It's already set up and ready to run. The main thing stopping me is the sheer scope of the game. Seems overwhelmingly long when I typically have less than an hour per day of play time. The character creation alone is anxiety-inducing. Will I make the right character? Will I have to re-roll for hours? Will I invest 20 hrs before figuring out this character won't work?

As for system requirements, being VGA, I don't remember it being particularly demanding for most 1996 PCs. Min is 486/66, and I believe such a system with good VLB or PCI graphics would do fine. Probably any Pentium with PCI would be a safe recommended system.

The game is troublesome to make work with an MT-32. The game will crash with an error 117 if you set the game to MT-32. But if you set it to MPU401 and use the port # of the MT-32, it will work. The beginner dungeon music sounds like a different track completely than the GM song. It isn't, but it sounds so different through the MT-32 that it's remarkable.