Proto:The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

In order to promote the game's release, Bethesda released a demo several months before the game was actually released. Because of this, there are quite a few differences. It was released mostly to show off/promote what the final game had to offer. The demo was released on the Daggerfall Interactive Preview CD, but it was also given out on the internet and to various magazines.

Since then, Bethesda removed the demo from their website a long time ago (and replaced it with another one that is based off the final game). As a result, it has become somewhat difficult to track down a copy of this demo. Luckily, copies were backed up on various compilation discs throughout the mid-90's.

The demo can be downloaded over here.

Gameplay Differences

 * Long jumping is present, but it seems to be no different than regular jumping.
 * Many controls present in the final game are absent here - Ex.: The character cannot run nor can he abort a spell
 * To cast a spell, the player has to go the spellbook, choose a spell, and click the mouse to cast it. The final game allows you to cast a spell from the keyboard.
 * The player has to jump up the stairs, rather than simply walking forward.
 * Many of the features in the pause menu are either removed or disabled.
 * When clicking on inventory in the menu, the info will only stay on screen as long as the player is holding on the info button. The final game lets the info stay on screen until the player clicks on the screen multiple times.
 * An eavesdropping feature is present in this demo. It was likely replaced with a teleporting feature. (See below)
 * The notebook is far more complex than the final version, working more like a text editor. The graphics still remain in the final version.
 * No sound effects at the character creation screen, likely for demonstration purposes.
 * Three additional skills are present in the game - Disguise, Elvish, and Faerie. These are mentioned in the final game's manual, but they are absent in the final game's executable. Descriptions for them remain inside TEXT.RSC however.
 * Archery appears to be called "Missile".
 * Dragonish is simply called "Dragon".
 * A Plesiosaurus (misspelled in the game as "Pleiseosaurus") is listed inside FALL.EXE at, at the end of a list of enemies in the game.
 * The special class advantage of "Climate Survival" is listed in the executable

Spell Differences

 * Additionally, Fenrik's Door Jam, Bouyancy, and Frostbite don't have their names. They are instead defined as GEN Spells #2, #3, and #4.
 * Feet of Notorgo is referred as Feet of Torgo, which is likely accidental.
 * Calm Humanoid is referred as Calm Mortal.
 * Some additional Spells are defined in the demo's SPELLS.STD:

Most of these entries happen to match up the with blank spaces in the final game's SPELLS.STD. Darkness, Flare, and Dim are also defined as Spells 97-99, but were replaced with Balyna's Balm, Quiet Undead, and Tame. Some of these are mentioned in the manual, but were removed in the final game.


 * If items are dropped in the demo version, you actually see the item dropped rather than a pile of stuff. This may have been changed as dropping multiple items will sometimes cause odd overlapping in the demo version.

Book Differences
Author names are missing in some of the books. Also, there is slightly different formatting in the demo version's books

BOK00000
The title of the book is "The First Scrolls of Bajdit" in the demo, while it is known as "The First Scroll of Baan Dar" in the final version. Likewise, any reference to Badjit was changed to Baan Dar

Aesthetic Differences

 * Enemies all use the same corpse graphic
 * There's a minor glitching where two cursors can be seen by moving the mouse while moving the character and navigating the menu at the same time

Interface Images
In addition to MENU.IMG, two additional menus with the same style are also in here, SLIDE.IMG and SOLID.IMG. As with the final version, none of these images ever appear in the game.



The HUD
The HUD is nearly identical to the final version, except that the eavesdropping feature was replaced and the teleporting feature was put in.

The Map
The map does not show any floor or wall textures in the demo version. It also is missing the 2D automap and the compass.

Inventory Screen
A glaring bug in the demo is that the helmets do not show their transparency correctly. The arrows are not colored red or green depending on how far you've scrolled through an inventory. Also, there are no numbers as for how much armor the player is given.

Opening Menu
The menu is normally inaccessible, since the demo has its own menu. The graphics are in the demo's files though. Nevertheless, the menu was re-rendered to be in 3D in the final game.

Character Creation Menus
In addition to the ability of importing characters from Arena, it seems like pre-made characters would have also been available. However, the feature might have been considered somewhat redundant, seeing as the final game can load games.

Also, for some weird reason, one of the character creation option menus had its options swapped.

Rest Menu
"Loiter for a while" was added to this menu.

Options Menu
No gradients are present and the option to exit (or in the case of the demo, going to the main menu) is not highlighted. Also, note the removed clothing features are mentioned in the menu.

Spellbook
The spellbook uses the same UI style as the final version. However, hidden within the demo's graphic files, there is an earlier version of the spellbook, with more primitive graphics.

Logbook
The "Go To" button was removed and the exit button became red. Also, some extra space was added to make the paper more symmetrical.

Banking
The banking user interface was heavily revised in the final version.

Bodies
Some of the bodies were altered between the demo and the final. In the first two cases, the skin color was darkened. The second image also is very slightly bigger (by two pixels).

The Dark Elf female's body's nipples were re-colored from black to pink

And nipples were added to the Khajit female's body.

Character Faces
All of them were changed to some extent.

TEXTURE.071 (Desert Store Int.)
Aside from the re-coloring of the shelves and an added frame, this sprite more or less looks the same. However, a plant got covered up in the final version.

The basic motif is the same. However, it was re-done to make it look like it is in a closet rather than out in the open. Some armor and a sword were also added

These two shelves were re-organized quite a bit. The latter texture also has a wood backing in the final.

TEXTURE.074 (Door Set)
The two slightly differently colored doors in the demo are similar to a door present in the final version, but less detailed.

This texture was made bigger

TEXTURE.087 (Fireplaces Winrak Silo)
The fireplace was completely redone. The stonework only surrounds the fire in a semicircle and the fire has more detail.

There are many more bottles in the demo, whereas the final has some barrels added.

TEXTURE.092 (coffins organ)
The textures look somewhat less like skeletons and/or decaying corpses are in the coffins.

TEXTURE.093 (Torture Set)
Half of the textures were re-drawn, as they were less detailed and looked unrealistic in the demo version

TEXTURE.122 (Mountain Dungeons A)
This entire set of textures were re-drawn in some form or another.

The first two textures have some green some spots added to them to look a little more moldy. They were also shifted to the left by a few pixels.

The third texture in the demo was used for the fourth texture in the final version, albeit with a frame around it. In the demo, said fourth texture has marble inside of a frame. Not to mention, the frame has been slightly redone in the final version.

These two bricks walls became two marble walls (with slight differences).

TEXTURE.124 (Mountain Dungeons C)
This set was also completely redrawn.

The first two textures were changed from concrete bricks with yellow moss to stone bricks with green moss.

This texture had some of the bricks recolored.

This texture has a different texture on the inside, as well as a brighter frame.

And, this texture was changed in a similar to the first two bricks, although the texture in the demo doesn't have any moss.

Other Textures
The giant bat was made larger and it was completely re-drawn for the final version.

Aside from having a different face, the skeleton looks more or less the same as in the final version.

Another completely redrawn texture, this time in TEXTURE.168.

Dungeon exits are somewhat less obvious in the final version, as a skull was added.

Aside from two added screws, it looks more or less the same.

TEXTURE.380 contains an early blood-splattering animation used when hurting something. However, it looks significantly less realistic than what was used.

Although Morgiah doesn't show up at any point in the demo version, she does have a sprite. The demo sprite bears more of a resemblance to the unused alternate sprite from TEXTURE.180. In turn, the alternate sprite is smaller than the final sprite. The cat in the demo sprite is a white cat, while the final uses a browner cat. Her pose was slightly altered for the final version, too. A still version of her demo sprite still exists under TEXTURE.197.

Misc. Notes

 * Contrary to the disclaimer that shows up when beginning to play in the dungeon, the player character can be changed somewhat through z.cfg (i.e. changing gender from 0 to 1). However, some display glitches occur, such as using the wrong body graphic for the inventory screen.
 * A cheat menu can be activated in this demo simply by pressing ALT and Q during gameplay. However, it is broken, since a lot of options don't work or crash the game. Daggerfalldebugmenu.png