I would personally like to appeal for a sort of TES "compendium" or "War Chest" release. Something with Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion combined with their expansions in one pack. Maybe even the spin-off titles. Not completely redone, but made compatible with current OS requirements and hardware. Running Daggerfall and Arena in DOSBox is a pain in the rump. Perhaps with a bonus of more cohesive lore that spans all games, too. Maybe some cool cinematics for key points in the older games, a la Morrowind and Oblivion. Or some new content for all games.

Also, if The Infernal City sells well and becomes the first of a series of TES novels, a book of definitive lore, or an encyclopedia of some sort should be in order.

All, of course, leading to the inevitable TES movie...

With such a cast amount of history at its disposal, TES could become a real multimedia franchise, like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars.

Just some thoughts.

I don't think Bethesda is legally allowed to re-release Arena and Daggerfall as they've already been released for free and provided as-is with no support. Plus, Daggerfall sparked a lot of controversy with its nudity, so in charging money for it again the ESRB (who is now infinitely more sensitive than they were in 1996) may start some whole tirade among angry soccer-moms and the like. As a worst-case scenario, that is.

In the case of the older games, I don't think Bethesda can include DOSBox on the collection either as it's a non-profit project. They'd have to just shove a giant readme in telling people how to run the games, or do what they do with the site downloads and just say "here it is, you're on your own". Which I'm sure they can do again, but I think going retail with these things changes everything. :shrug:

It's a good idea, though. The Elder Scrolls fanbase spans roughly two generations of gamers, and has people from the PnP RPG scene (Arena/Daggerfall), the RPG scene (Morrowind), and the action adventure scene (Oblivion). Much like how LucasArts recreated the original Monkey Island to introduce younger gamers to the series in preparation for Telltale's episodes, Bethesda should do the same - the series gains more and more acclaim with each installment but lots of people just don't know enough about its roots.

As a stickler for physical copies of games and all the "goodies" included, it'd be an added bonus if we had all the original manuals and other goodies (i.e. the Stros M'kai map burned by Todd Howard in a parking lot) reproduced, which seems unlikely. Still, I'd love physical copies of Arena, Battlespire, and Redguard (the three games in the series I do not own on disc), bundled together in a nice well-designed box, akin to Blizzard's Battle Chests? Count me in!

:tops:

Well, on Steam you can get the GotY deluxe pack which has MW GotY, OB GotY and all of OB's DLC.

I'm liking this idea.

Can't speak to the nudity, they can edit it (those that place value on such things will inevitably mod it back in anyway), but a simple launcher program could be created to run the older games. Lucasarts did it with the X-Wing/Tie Fighter franchise.

I personally don't think the soccer moms will even notice a re-release of old games they ignored in the first place anyway, but what the heck, get them re-rated as M anyway. We all know what's in them, so I don't think it would put off most of the TES faithful anyway.

I'm sure I'm not speaking exclusively for myself when I say I think Steam is the devil.

Hm? Explain please.

Well, it would be nice if they made a pack with Oblivion and Morrowind. To sell the other games, they would have to get them to work on a modern operating system WITHOUT an emulator program, which would be a hassle.

No third party market. Name me another product where you can't sell it to someone when you are done. You can do it for cars, hardware, books, clothing, light bulbs, shoes, houses - I could make a list fifty pages long. But software? May the Heavens smite thee for even daring to think that you should ever be allowed to sell software that you no longer use! You had better put that in the garbage can and not even think about recouping your losses!

On Topic: I think that could be cool, especially if they republished the games they haven't put up as freeware (?) yet (i.e. Arena and Daggerfall).

But they have made them freeware already. :huh:

Off topic, has anyone seen how much brand new copies of the older games cost now-a-days? I could buy two modern games for that much money.

I phrased that poorly. I meant the "i.e." to refer to the "freeware." A better sentence construction would leave out the last parenthetical statement so as to avoid confusion. The "(?)" after freeware was me not sure if I was using the right terminology ("freeware" vs. "free software").

As for brand new unopened Battlespire and Redguard? Probably around $60? Maybe more. Depends where you look. Getting it used, but in Like New condition will be much less expensive, and you'll still get all the content.

Worst-case scenario?! lol, that will be the best-case scenario! ESRB has gone way beyond enlisting forces like those, it has gone to a whole new level.

My copy of Redguard, $40 on Amazon (everything in perfect condition minus the box). Came with the 2 CDs, the official "burnt by Bethesda" Stros M'kai map, and the Reguard manual/comic/Pocket-Guide-to-the-Empire complete with Kirkbridean artwork. That last one was worth the $40 alone, IMO.

There's the trouble with re-releasing, even ignoring all problems currently raised. With an all-in-one pack, you'll be getting the discs and virtually nothing else. No maps, no manuals.

Well, I would draw attention to the fact that the Bethesda download page for Daggerfall and Arena plainly state that they are free FOR A LIMITED TIME. Hopefully this is an indicator of some form of re-release in the future.

Maybe an expansion for Oblivion that ties together plot elements of all the games would be a cool idea, too.

Of course, my ftasy ideal would be for a complete functional Tamriel that you could play the various stories in their respective regions with Oblivion-level gameplay and graphics. But that ain't gonna happen, I'm sure.

Yeah, but for Arena at least, it's been available "for a limited time" for more than the past 5 years.

They'd lose a lot of goodwill if they 'stopped' making it free. If you make it free for years (Arena), you'll piss off a lot of people if you suddenly decided to "un-free" it. Once it hits freeware, you'll have a tough time convincing someone that they should start paying for it again.

I agree with ThatOneGuy: part of the charm of the older games isn't just the game, but the complete package: the entertaining and well-thought out manuals, the extra booklets and maps, etc.

They are not going to remake the game they release for free to the general public and then resell it.


There isn't any of that indication. Heck, there are some alternate free clients that exist one can download from if the official site get funky, like fileshack for example.

DOOM was already a freeware game by the time Final Doom came out, yet it was included. So what you're paying for is the later games and maybe extra content. And a loader to play the older games. You're not buying the older games, just releasing them on disc as a bonus.

Sure they can. They own it and can do whatever they want with it. But it would be a stupid move considering they already given away the games for free.


Sure they can. DOSBox is free, and is used together with many official game re-releases on both Steam and GOG.com and certain retail games like the King's Quest Collection released back in 2006.


DOOM never been freeware, ever. Sure, they released the source code for free back in december 1997, but the game art, the game maps, the game sounds and so on, never been free.

I'd consider buying. If it would include elder scrolls travels I'd buy it with those being the only TES games I have yet to play.

also, what will happen the day Steam closes down? with allt he games that require a steam account to play? hmmm?

Thats one reason I dont buy off steam, against all my freinds advice.

Foooools, Foooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllsssss.

I doubt it'll happen, but I'd buy it in an instant. I'm a svcker for collectors things. Also, like ThatOneGuy, I really enjoy actually owning physical copies and all the goodies they come with - no digital distribution for me.

"Y-y-y-e-s-s Momma" "You'd better Bobby Booshay!"

i agree it screwed up MW2 and Empire total war

I also love the extra game-related goodies! My copy of the Daggerfall Chronicles arrived today! :celebration: Used, but it was free (via Paperback Book Swap).