The Elder Scrolls fans, get ready for a treat! An unofficial PC port of The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey is now available. This 2004 game was first made for the Nokia N-Gage. And now, more than two decades later, PC gamers can enjoy it.
Shadowkey Reforged runs on a new engine. It uses the original game files and scripts but adds widescreen support, new lighting, and recreated art. It also supports game controllers, making it easier to play on a modern PC.
Shadowkey Reforged offers two modes: Classic and Modern. You pick one when you start a new game, and each save keeps that choice.
Classic mode keeps the look and feel of the old game. It also keeps the old HUD and tall screen shape of the Nokia N-Gage. Modern mode adds new graphics, lighting, combat, menus, and music. You can set each of these options on its own.
The port also brings a full art upgrade. Sprites, menus, the HUD, map marks, weapons, and boot screens have been redrawn at up to 4K. The new art keeps the style of the old game. Character art is also being worked on. Fonts have been changed, too. They now stay sharp at any screen size.
Modern mode adds many new visual effects. Doorways, gates, and caves now show the real place beyond them. The view also changes as you move. Dark areas stay dark, with only light from torches or spells to guide the way.
Lighting has also seen a big upgrade. Lights now have a soft glow, while fog and haze add more depth to towns and dungeons. Fires, candles, and torches have new flames and rising embers. Spells also glow and light up nearby walls. When a spell ends, it can leave a flash of sparks.
Water now moves and reflects the world around it. You can see walls, bridges, torches, and people on its surface. The night sky also has stars, drifting clouds, and Morrowind’s two moons. Snow falls in Snowline and Glacier Crawl.
Combat has some new visual effects as well. Hits can leave blood, green slime, bone dust, and sparks. Ghosts leave pale wisps, while spells can burn marks into the ground. Metal and wet stone also reflect torchlight. Dead enemies now have better poses instead of falling into the old T-pose.
The PC port also adds full widescreen support. You can play at 16:9 or use other screen sizes and resolutions. Modern mode has a wider view, new menus, and a HUD made for widescreen. Classic mode keeps the old N-Gage screen shape. You can even use the original 176 × 208 pixel size.
The game also supports up to 120 FPS. However, its logic still runs at the old rate of 25 updates per second. This means the game plays as it did on the N-Gage, while the image can update at a higher rate.
There are many other changes to make the game easier to play on PC. You can use a mouse and keyboard, change every key, and set up a gamepad. Sprinting is also an option. In Modern mode, it uses stamina. You can turn it on with the L3 button on a controller.
Other options let you change the HUD size, weapon size, render scale, frame rate limit, menu size, and crosshair. You can also pick between windowed, borderless, and full-screen modes. A frame rate counter can sit in any corner of the screen.
The port also adds four save slots, quicksave, quickload, and autosave. You can skip the tutorial, change the brightness, and take screenshots. Doors can be used from a greater distance, and you can lower a drawn bow without firing. There is also a longer view distance and a red dot on the compass to show nearby foes.
Finally, Shadowkey Reforged lets you turn on fixes for bugs in the original game. Each fix has its own option, so you can choose which ones to use. Online co-op is also planned for a future update.
This is something that a lot of TES fans may appreciate, as most of them have not even heard of Shadowkey. Just make sure to temper your expectations. This is an N-Gage game.
You can go ahead and download it from here.
Have fun!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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