Displaying the stuff isn't what I figured would be hard. It's something we've been able to do for a long time. I've just never seen anyone get past that point. I don't think even Interkarma managed to really accomplish anything beyond making the models and sprites show up in his project, and he worked on it for a pretty long time. But that's sort of besides the point. What I've been trying to say isn't that it would be impossibly hard, just that it'd be difficult enough that making a fresh new game would just be a more viable option. Well, that and that actually making the engine work out right using all of Daggerfall's original assets would be pretty hard. The graphics are always the easiest part to getting working in that kind of project, but everything else... well, even Exult doesn't really do a perfect job of emulating the original (I don't know if they've fixed it, but the last time I used it was later last year and even then they didn't have NPC schedules working properly).


Um... wait, what? They'd have to overhaul the sprites and textures for the DS? Have you SEEN the DS?

Yep, and it sure as heck isn't some old color GameBoy!

You definitely wouldn't need to change any of the graphic resources to anything larger/higher/better than they are on that system, the DS isn't nearly as big as you seem to believe.

No, more like a lower resolution N64 on a much smaller screen. Really, it seriously wouldn't need better graphics. Most of the 3D games on it don't even look as good as Daggerfall did.

DS or PSP pl0x!

I would really love DF on PSP.. I bought a PSP, but have no games I feel like playing for more than 5 minutes..

I would buy.

While I would probably buy a PSP just for DF, I think the basic combat motions would be better suited to the DS' touch screen, but using the PSP's anologue knob for that purpose would be pretty good.

Seeing as Daggerfall was just released for free, and that I have particular interest in this discussion and prospect, I think it should be revived and reconsidered.

While Daggerfall would be a wonderful thing to see on the DS, I've seen little discussion of the prospect of Arena on the DS here. It's a considerably smaller game, with considerably smaller requirements. There isn't the issue of procedural open worlds either, or of NPC schedules beyond the wandering NPCs in cities.

What I wonder is, would it even be legal for an amateur to develop some homebrew Arena port (much like Doom and Quake have been), seeing as the game has been released free? Or are we just content to wish that Bethesda does it? :unsure:

The difference with Doom and Quake is that id Software released the actual source code for those games, so people could modify/port/enhance them. Having just the binary executables, like with Arena and Daggerfall, won't cut it. Now, if http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1008178 will actually work and the guy releases the source, then it would be a possibility.

I've done some homebrew on the DS so a DaggerXL port is not out of the realm of possibility down the road.

Isn't there such a thing as a decompiler that could preform the reverse of what a compiler does to source code? :unsure:

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily make a job easy or feasible. For starters, kiss descriptive variable and function names goodbye. For an anology, imagine if every file on your computer was renamed so that each filename was nothing more than a unique number. Also imagine changing all your icons to the same graphic and giving each icon a unique number. Now figure out what your computer does and what's in your files. Decompiling presents similar challenges--when it works.

Well then I would stop you and have you arrested untill all tes games that will come out are buyable then break you out of prison give you a bomb and say " have fun!"

If you want Arena/Daggerfall on the DS, http://www.atlus.com/deeplaby/ is a decent substitute. But I guess it's more like Battlespire, since it's a dungeon crawler. But you walk around in these dungeon levels and swing the sword with the stylus.

It's actually two games in one, sort of. Got two "chapters". The first chapter is aimed towards kids and beginners in a happy fantasy land, while the second chapter have a more serious tone to it. And it's possible to play the second chapter from the beginning.

Then you have the problems of copyright. The decompiled source code is just a different form of the compiled executable, and thus can't be redistributed without permission.. and even though Daggerfall is a free download, that doesn't give anyone rights to redistribute it. By contrast, the Doom/Quake sources are GPL licensed, which allows modifications and redistribution by anyone that obtains it.

It's not Daggerfall, but have you guys seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy--qwlMiy0&feature=related

I personally want to avoid all discussion about source code and suchlike, and discuss what a port would be like.

In my opinion, if I saw a port of the two, I would probably find it more likely to be Arena for some reason, mainly because the game is a small file and doesn't have all these issues around the source (I believe). Now, I can hear the whines that some people will let off:






But hear me out: I think it would take an approach like the new Final Fantasy on iPod Touch and iPhone:

http://admintell.napco.com/ee/images/uploads/gamertell/final_fantasy_ii_iphone.jpg

So in this case, we'd get completely redrawn, preferably hand-drawn graphics, and revised and recreated mp3's for music. Wouldn't it be great?


Plus, I'm sure everyone would love it with the feature of a touch screen and duel screen.