So, you think you’re an Elder Scrolls superfan? You say you’ve been there since The Elder Scrolls Arena on MS-DOS and have logged hundreds of hours in The Elder Scrolls Online? You say you’ve bought all of the roughly 5,000 re-releases and remastersof Skyrim that have been made available in the last 15 years?
Tell me, then: What do you think of The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey?
What’s that? You’ve never played Shadowkey? You weren’t there day one back in 2004, Nokia N-Gage in hand, ready to experience the game’s 176 x 208 resolution mobile hack-and-slash RPG combat for yourself? And you call yourself a real Elder Scrolls fan?
Well, don’t worry. Now you can fill in this crucial gap in your history without even having to track down functional, decades-old N-Gage hardware. That’s thanks to Shadowkey: Reforged, a free fan-made PC port that pairs updated art with the original game files and scripts for an upscaled, 4K experience that runs natively on PC, no N-Gage or emulator needed.
A few decades of upgrades
Moving from a pre-iPhone mobile game to a modern PC obviously comes with major graphical upgrades, powered by a completely rewritten PC graphics engine. What was once a cramped portrait orientation on the N-Gage has now been expanded for a 16:9 monitor standard that displays at up to 120 fps (though the game’s logic still matches the original game’s 25 fps). In addition to newly retextured character and environmental models, the new port also sports small touches like bloom lighting, rippling water, and an upgraded interface with sharper text rendering than was possible on an ancient mobile phone.
The height of mobile 3D graphics in 2004.
Dan Whelan
The height of mobile 3D graphics in 2004.Dan Whelan
The same scene gets a significant graphical improvement for the Reforged port.
Dan Whelan
The same scene gets a significant graphical improvement for the Reforged port.Dan Whelan
The height of mobile 3D graphics in 2004.Dan Whelan
The same scene gets a significant graphical improvement for the Reforged port.Dan Whelan
Using the original game files (which you can obtain from an easy-to-find legitimate copy of the game, of course) means that Reforged‘s quests, dialogue, and game rules are “worked out from the original program,” as the game’s website puts it. That said, the game’s “Modern” mode adds a few touches like smarter enemy AI, fall damage, searchable containers, and a fast travel system that are missing from the original game (and from Reforged‘s more authentic “Classic” mode). The Modern mode also includes some welcome quality-of-life improvements like controller rumble, a smoother on-screen interface, and “better death poses.”
Those with a disposition against vibe-coded clones and ports should know that Reforged author Dan Whelan writes that he used “AI to assist with coding and building the engine, and with debugging,” as well as for the creation of “most of the modern, higher resolution artwork.” But those who are OK with this AI assistance should be happy to see the project moved from its first playable version in late October to a full-featured “release day” build for Windows, Mac, and Android that came out Wednesday. Whelan has been releasing daily updates to the project and seems set to continue, if the current “Version 0.2.9” designation is any indication.
The inherent limitations of 2000s-era N-Gage game development (which helped earn the original release some middling review scores) are still pretty apparent in even this Reforged remake. Still, it’s nice that Elder Scrolls completionists can now experience one of the series’ least-played releases. At the very least, it’s something to tinker with as we all continue the long wait for Elder Scrolls VI.
Kyle OrlandSenior Gaming Editor
Kyle OrlandSenior Gaming Editor
Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper.
Source: arstechnica.com
