It's hard to believe how quickly time flies, but 15 years ago today, Bethesda Softworks released the second installment of its RPG series. While the end result of all that hard work was a more stellar experience than TES: Arena, it was still a bit buggy in spots. That said, Daggerfall was still impressive for its amazing visuals, scope and gameplay. Ah, memories. I still have my copy of the original game minus the interior box and the cool letter opener thanks to a really stupid roommate years back when I was living in NYC. At the time, I was recycling some cardboard boxes for mailing and I kept a small stack of folded boxes near my games collection, as I was using the boxes to ship out games I sold or traded. One day as I was going out to work, my roommate asked if he could use a box to ship a gift out for his mother's birthday and I recall saying something like "Sure, take anything near the stack of games" before heading out the door. Little did I know that my invitation was a call for some major stupidity and minor theft...
When I got back home that evening, I found my copy of Daggerfall had been opened and all of its contents neatly placed on top of the slipcase on a table. The box and letter opener were nowhere to be found. While I was trying to figure out what the hell happened in terms of miscommunication, my soon to be deceased roomie pops his head in and says something like "Oh, I hope you don't mind - that box was the ONLY thing that would fit what I got perfectly!" While I was trying to keep the top of my head on securely, he added "And that letter opener was COOL! I'm glad it was in there, dude - my mom is gonna LOVE that! Before I could respond, he points to the rest of the contents and says "I took all the rest of the stuff out, because I KNOW you're selling off all those games, right?"
OK, so i didn't kill him. But let's just say I didn't allow him to breathe near me without asking for a while. I need to track down the manual and all the other stuff so I can post a photo of my own. Fortunately, I have boxed copies of Battlespire and Redguard here that are in nice shape, so perhaps I'll run images of those when their anniversaries come around...
How did you obtain a daggerfall letter opener? Where did you get it from? They were promotional Items and I didn't think anyone got one besides a couple of bethesda employees.
ReplyDeleteThat was a case of absolute luck on my part. I had a copy of Daggerfall before that (just the game and manual that a friend gave me), but I always wanted a complete one for the collection. Back in the late 90's, I used to work in an independent game shop that took stuff in for trade, credit or cash, including PC games. We had a few regulars who either worked for game companies or wrote for magazines or other media drop in every so often to trade or sell games. I came into work after a day off, and sitting near the bottom of a stack of recent trade stuff was "ding!* that boxed Daggerfall, a boxed Redguard (which I already had) and some other games. Other than my boss, no one else knew what it was, so I made sure to pick it up when I got my next paycheck.
ReplyDeleteThe stupid thing is that opener got swiped with some games during a move and I'd bet the jerk who stole them had no idea what he took...
So....it got stolen from your friend in turn....... T_T
ReplyDeleteToo bad you din't still have it. I would pay a very very very good amount to have one right now. Have you tryed to track him down? If you ever track it down give me a shout and just name your price.
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