Yeah, the pirate lady in the waterfront sings about him and the Clavicus Vile quest mentions some stuff about Redguard.

I got into TES when Morrowind was announced. I went back and got Daggerfall at that point and then got Morrowind on release. Redguard just slipped by me in between those and I never went back to it and now, as you say, it would be a pain to get running.

Those games will probably be released free in the future, i dont think bethesda is interested in a gog release, or in a steam release either. It'd be a real challenge to get them running.