How to install and play TES: Daggerfall on Windows 10 using DOSBox

An efficent and easy way to install and play Daggerfall using DOSBox on Windows 10

Disclaimer

I'm aware there is already an existing guide on how to do this, but I found it to be inefficent and tedious in some areas. This is going to be similar to that guide, but with my own steps replacing some of his. The guide i'm refering to is by ColaKong and can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=758463228

Step One

Visit here: https://www.dosbox.com/ to download the newest version of DOSBox. Once downloaded, install it. It installs into (HardDrive/SSD root) :\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-(Version Number). Make a shortcut of the .EXE to the desktop.

Step Two

Visit here: https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/daggerfall to download the game. Once downloaded, make a folder in the root of your HardDrive/SSD called "DOS". Extract the contents of the .zip you just downloaded into a new folder inside "DOS" called "Daggerfall". Your "Daggerfall" folder should have 2 new folders called "DAGGER" and "DFCD". If it does, you're good to go from here.




(My Example)

Step Three

Make your way to (HardDrive/SSD root) :\Users\ (Your username on the PC) \AppData\Local\DOSBox. You'll notice that there's a .conf file inside this directory, copy it and paste it into (HardDrive/SSD root) :\DOS\Daggerfall. Once it's there, rename it to Daggerfall.conf. Leave this for now because we still need to install the game.

(My Example)




If it is not there, go into the DOSBox prompt and type in "config -all -wc dosbox.conf". This will generate a .conf file in the same directory you ran DOSBox in. Copy and paste that .conf file into (HardDrive/SSD root) :\DOS\Blood.

Step Four

Open the DOSBox shortcut you made to the desktop and type these commands into it. Make sure to spell it right or else it won't work:

mount c c:\DOS\Daggerfall -freesize 1000
mount d c:\DOS\Daggerfall\dfcd -t cdrom -label Daggerfall
D:
install

(No, you can't Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V this, you gotta type it)

Now the game's install screen should appear. Click the options here:

Agree to the terms of service
Agree to install on the HardDrive
Change the Installation Size
Huge Installation (450mb)
Yes, this installation size is fine
Yes, I want to install the game here
Go ahead and install the game

Wait for the game to install. It should ask you to configure your soundcard once it's done. Click "yes" to setup the soundcard. (Use Arrow keys for this) Go into "Select Midi" and look for "SoundBlaster 16". Press enter until you get booted back into the DOSBox prompt

Once it boots you back to the DOSBox prompt, type in "dag213", then type in "y". This updates the game. It'll ask you for another yes or no question after this, type in "y"

To make sure it works, type in "DAGGER" to make sure the game boots up.

If it does, good, if it doesn't, read this again carefully to find your mistake.

Step Five

Go back into (HardDrive/SSD root) :\DOS\Daggerfall and open Daggerfall.conf in Notepad.

Scroll to the very bottom and find [autoexec]. Delete everything already inside it and Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V this into it:

mount c (HardDrive/SSD root) :\DOS\Daggerfall -freesize 1000
mount d (HardDrive/SSD root) :\DOS\Daggerfall\dfcd -t cdrom -label Daggerfall
c:
cd dagger
dagger


(My example)

Step Six

Find the shortcut you made of DOSBox and go into it's properties.

Find the box called "target:" and make a space at the end of the quotation already there, then Ctrl+C Ctrl+V this to it, but edit the bracket to the HardDrive/SSD root.

-conf "(HardDrive/SSD root):\DOS\Daggerfall\Daggerfall.conf"

(My example)

Step Seven

Open the DOSBox shortcut you were just making edits to, and it should open the game automatically.

P r o f i t

You should probably rename the shortcut to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, so you don't forget what it does.

Differences between this guide and ColaKong's guide

The installation process is the same thing. We used different directories n all that but it's pretty much the same thing but in my own words. Where it starts to differ is how he makes his [autoexec] commandlines.

ThePilgrim used the default configuration file for all of DOSBox, meaning that if you opened DOSBox at all, those commands would run automatically. I found this to be annoying because it pretty much limits DOSBox to only that one game and purpose. I myself play multiple games using DOSBox, so this was an issue.

What I did different is making a seperate configuration file ONLY for Daggerfall (You can do this with any game) so that I can still make other shortcuts for other games. With this, I can have multiple shortcuts that only launch games and another shortcut just for the DOSBox prompt.

For example, I have a configuration file for Wolfenstein 3D and Daggerfall seperetly. I never touched the default configuration file that DOSBox uses. The editting of "Target:" was to tell DOSBox to use that specific configuration file instead of the default one, thus, running those specific commandlines when opened.

[ﾌㄩ丂ㄒ丨匚乇]

Quick tooltip incase you didn't know: After mounting a directory, that will essentially act as the root of the drive inside DOSBox. Typing " cd <directory> " will move you around directories with ease.

[Pingpong Dingdong]

well never mind all that, actually, i did some stupid mistakes, but its all good now, after some twerking around, i can boost up the game and play as your guide shows, thank you, big help, all these errors were because of me :D

[Pingpong Dingdong]

how to guide myself into the DAGGER folder tho? You mean after the "install" line or before? If before, how to guide into DAGGER folder?

[ﾌㄩ丂ㄒ丨匚乇]

I'm going to assume you're using the same version of DOSBox. regarding the problem finding the .conf file, try typing "config -all -wc dosbox.conf" into the DOS Prompt (without quotations of course). This should generate the .conf file in the directory you ran DOSBox in. Regarding your second issue, you already installed the game so here's a solution to editing some of the settings. Go through the process of mounting the game's directories and all that. When you're all mounted, guide yourself into the DAGGER folder. From there, type in "setup" and you'll be able to edit the game settings.

[Pingpong Dingdong]

well i have 2 problems now, the first one is that my DOSBox folder doesn't have that .conf file; the second is when i installed the game through DOS, i might have forgot to check the MIDI soundcard confiq, when i tried to test boost the game using "DAGGER" line, in the end it said "detected error 0" and its freeze.
After i closed it and try again, this time it said i don't have enough free space for the huge size installation, so now i don't know what to do, please help.
The Daggerfall on Bethesda Launcher usually crashes when i save the game, and just like Arena on Launcher, it can't change the cycles, so this is why i'm here, and while the manual installation of Arena is quite simple, this is a bit more complicated

[bobhome2]

No offense taken! I hesitated in posting to begin with, just because it's slightly off the topic. But, at the same time, I spent hours trying to get DosBox + Daggerfall to work. Eventually, I just gave up... so I figured I wasn't the only person who has run into this issue. :)

[ﾌㄩ丂ㄒ丨匚乇]

I apologize if my reply seemed aggressive, my bad. Thanks for the clarification though.

[bobhome2]

Oh, I can definitely appreciate that. Still, when all else fails, there are alternatives that are still worth exploring. My comment was not to take away from the work you've put in; instead, I wanted to let folks know that other options are available, just in case.

[ﾌㄩ丂ㄒ丨匚乇]

Right, I understand this. The guide was to install it using DOSBox and play it through DOSBox. I'm aware there's other alternatives but those are unrelated to the guide i've created. The idea was to create an experience closer to the games initial launch.

[bobhome2]

I had a very hard time installing and running Daggerfall, so I highly recommend UESP's installer version. It worked right out of the box, and hade all the updates, too. So if anyone's having trouble, just search it up and have fun!