The Elder Scrolls: Arena

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The Elder Scrolls: Arena
Publication Information
Developer	Bethesda Softworks
Publisher	Bethesda Softworks
Game engine	Custom/In-House
Release date	NA March 25, 1994 EU March 1994
Genre	Action role-playing
Modes	Single Player
Rating	ESRB: T
Platform	MS-DOS
Game Information
Setting	Tamriel
Time Period	3E 389 – 3E 399

For the continent called Arena, see Tamriel.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is a single-player role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Softworks in March 25, 1994. Arena is the first installment The Elder Scrolls action/adventure RPG fantasy video game series, taking place during the ten years of the Imperial Simulacrum of the Third Era.

Arena was one of the largest games created at the time of its release, if not the largest. In 2004, a downloadable version of the game was made available free of charge as part of the 10th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls series, but newer computers past Windows XP require an emulator, such as DOSBox, to run Arena, as it's an MS-DOS-based program.

Arena takes place on the continent of Tamriel, complete with wilderness, dungeons, cities and villages in a 6 million square mile play-space for the player, simulating the experience of a full continent.

Although not as popular as the later games, Arena generated a cult following and was successful enough to spawn a popular sequel, Daggerfall.

Development

Map of Tamriel in Arena.

Arena was originally supposed to be a game of gladiatorial combat, hence its name. The player was to take their team of gladiators, and would travel about a fantasy world fighting other teams in their arenas until the player became "grand champion" in the world's capital.

Along the way, side-quests and various role-playing aspects were added. Eventually, these side-quests became more important than the tournament aspects, so the tournament part of the game was discarded, and Arena became a "full-blown RPG."

It sold slowly, but steadily, and despite harsh reviews, general bugginess, and the considerable demands the game made on players' machines, the game became a cult hit.

Because all the material had already been printed up with the title "Arena," the game went to market as The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The name turned into being a nickname for the world of Tamriel, since the Empire of Tamriel was so violent.

Missing their Christmas 1993 deadline, the game was released in the "doldrums" of March 1994, which was considered a bad time to release a game for a small developer like Bethesda. The misleading packaging further contributed to distributor distaste for the game, leading to an initial distribution of only 3,000 units.

When the game launched it was initially very buggy, being very difficult if not impossible to complete the main quest in the original, non-patched version of the game. Bethesda released a number of patches to fix almost all of the glitches, making the game finish-able and more stable.

Versions

Arena was originally released on CD-ROM and 3.5" floppy disk. The CD-ROM edition is the more advanced, featuring voice acting for various important characters, and an enhanced CGI-video ending.

In late 1994, Arena was re-released in a special "Deluxe Edition" package, containing the CD-ROM patched to the latest version, a mouse pad with the map of Tamriel printed on it, and the "Codex Scientia"; an in-depth hint book.

The 3.5" floppy disk edition was released as freeware by Bethesda Softworks in 2004, on the official Elder Scrolls website for Arena.

Arena had gotten a re-release on September 10th, 2013 in a collection with the other four games in the main series. It is the exact version as the original, yet unlike the downloadable free version, bypasses the DOS menu entirely.

Gameplay

A typical dungeon in Arena, the royal offices of Stonekeep.

The actual game-world is substantially larger than Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim together. The game utilizes randomly generated content to generate a massive world, without much effort on the developers' part. A consequence of the random generation is that outside of the 17 designed dungeons, areas are reset on exit. Therefore, it is not possible to 'clear' these dungeons as they will infinitely respawn enemies. It also means that unlike games from Morrowind onward, any loot dropped inside the location will vanish on exit, making carrying capacity even more important than in later games.

The world has hundreds of towns made with actual design, rather than being random, containing businesses with random names (examples being "Gold Sword", "Silver Gauntlet", etc.) As well as several hundred dungeons, along with 17 specially designed dungeons that are part of the game's main quest.

Due to the enormity of the world, fast travel is essential. Walking to a nearby town could take up to 10 hours of real time, while a far off town in another province could take several days.

The game is played from a first-person perspective. Combat is performed by clicking the right mouse button and dragging it across the screen, as if swinging your weapon. Magic is used by clicking on the magic menu, selecting your spell, and clicking where you want to shoot it. There is also the ability to pickpocket people on the street, or break into a store at night.

Arena was one of the first games to have a day and night cycle, with stores closing at night, people getting off the streets, and monsters (Orcs, Lizard Men, etc.) wandering around towns at night.

The actual main quest is completed by finishing all 17 developer-made dungeons and completing the Staff of Chaos, but there are other quests as well. Asking about rumors in a town will lead to someone telling you about someone in a bar that may need help. These "miscellaneous" quests are very simple, ranging from simple delivery missions to finding an artifact item after going through a dungeon.

Another notable fact about Arena is that it has a tendency to be unforgiving towards newer players. It is easy to die in the starting dungeon, as powerful enemies can be encountered if the player lingers too long. However, this effect slowly withers away as the player becomes more powerful and more aware of the threats that loom everywhere. Even Ken Rolston, lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, says he started the game at least twenty times and only got out of the beginning dungeon once.

Introduction

"For centuries different factions battled in petty wars and border conflicts, until in 2E 896 Tiber Septim crushed all those who opposed him and took control, proclaiming himself as Emperor. Still, the bitter years of war had its affect on the populace. The name Tamriel, Elvish for 'Dawn's Beauty', seldom fell from anguished lips and was soon forgotten. In a place where life and death were different sides of the same coin tossed every day, the people of the known world began calling the land of their sorrow, the Arena... Now, 492 years after TIber Septim took control and kept the peace, the land of Arena has a new threat. The Emperor, Uriel Septim VII celebrates his forty-third birthday. But jealous hearts desire the throne and plot his downfall. It is said that hope flies on death's wings. Prepare then, for as the Elder Scrolls foretold, it will be here that your adventure begins... Uriel Septim IV, Emperor of Tamriel, stands with Talin, leader of the Imperial Guards. They have been summoned by Jagar Tharn, Imperial Battle Mage of the Empire, on rumors of treachery... The Emperor is betrayed... And transported to a dimension of Tharn's choosing... After months of preparation Jagar Tharn, takes the throne... Ria Silmane, once Tharn's apprentice, is captured before she can warn the Elder Council of the Imperial Battle Mage's treachery... Manipulating the essence of magic, Tharn prepares to take the true Emperor's place as ruler of the known land... The Imperial Wizard wastes no time in gathering his servants... And turning them into twisted counterparts of the Emperor's Guard..."

Plot summary

"It is said that hope flies on death's wings. Prepare then, for as the Elder Scrolls foretold, it will be here your adventure begins..."

―Arena's Introduction

Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn summoned both Emperor Uriel Septim VII and General Talin Warhaft on rumors of treachery. But Jagar Tharn betrays the two, and teleports them into another dimension. Tharn's apprentice, Ria Silmane, witnesses his treachery and tries to warn the Elder Council, but is killed by Tharn, her corporeal form being destroyed by the Staff of Chaos. Jagar Tharn transforms himself into the image of the Emperor and takes the throne, shapeshifting demonic minions into the Emperor's Guard, and sends a low-ranking member of the Emperor's court, the player's character and later the "Eternal Champion," into the Imperial Dungeons to die. Ria Silmane becomes incorporeal through the use of magic, and remains in Tamriel so that she can warn the prisoner that the Emperor is actually Tharn in disguise.

Ria creates a cell key to aid in the escape, and teleports the prisoner to another province through the use of a Shift Gate. The only way to stop Tharn is to obtain the Staff of Chaos, and use its magical energies, but the Staff has been split by by into eight pieces, and scattered across the continent. Being the only one Ria can trust, the prisoner must travel to Tamriel's most dangerous dungeons and mazes to recover all eight Staff pieces.

Jagar Tharn takes the throne.

Finally, in 3E 399, after a long quest to reassemble the pieces, the Staff of Chaos is reassembled. However, Tharn was not defeated as hoped; in an attempt at becoming immortal, he drained the Staff of its power and combined it with his lifeforce within an artifact named the Jewel of Fire. The prisoner fought their way through the Imperial Palace to the dungeons, and engaged in a cataclysmic battle. The prisoner united the Staff with the Jewel, melting Tharn, and creating a portal to the dimension in which the Emperor and General Warhaft were being held. They fall out of the portal, and Talin becomes Tamriel's Eternal Champion as a reward for saving them.

Quests

• Main Quest
• Side Quest

World

• Map
• Locations
• Creatures
• Citizens

Character Information

• Attributes
• Races
• Classes

Gameplay Information

• Magic
• Artifacts
• Combat
• Glitches
• Items
• Spells

Damage

• Damage
• Diseases
• Curses
• Potions

Gallery

The first introductory slide.

The second.

The third.

The cutscene when upon starting Arena.

The autorun menu upon starting Arena.

The main menu.

Ria Silmane, a character in Arena.

The default Nord Knights in Arena.

An Iron Golem, a type of monster in Arena.

Arena logo from official Bethesda site.

Trivia

• According to Ted Peterson, the game's graphical engine is shared with The Terminator: Rampage.
• In the opening, Uriel Septim VII is referred to as Uriel Septim IV.
• Arena can be downloaded from the Elder Scrolls website for free using MS-DOS systems such as DOSBox.
• The manual for Arena states that the Eternal Champion is canonically named Talin in his discussion with Ria Silmane, though the name and gender in-game is ultimately left to the player.
• Unlike the other succeeding games, the Khajiit shown are Ohmes, which resemble the appearance of elves or men. In later games, this race progressively starts showing more feline-like features.
• Unlike most of The Elder Scrolls games after Daggerfall, the Imperial Province is unavailable as a homeland for the protagonist.
  • As Ted Peterson originally envisioned, "Imperials didn't exist in the fiction." The Imperial Province, and the Imperial family in specific, was supposed to be a sort of melting pot of various races due to intermarriage across Tamriel.
  • Also, the whole point of Ria Silmane's Shift Gate is to teleport the Champion away from the Empire's heartland to avoid Jagar Tharn. The region the Champion gets teleported to is based on their homeland; therefore, selecting the Imperial Province would be counterintuitive.
• In the French manual, the Emperor is stated to have a daughter, Ariella Septim. She is unmentioned furthermore, and has not been mentioned again in any of The Elder Scrolls games since.

Bugs

General: Use DOSBox Staging instead

A 16-bit application, Arena requires the use of a DOS emulator to run on modern hardware. Archaically, when downloaded from Bethesda's website, the user was required to download the emulator themselves; currently, however, Arena is provided with a copy of DOSBox when downloaded from Steam.

Unfortunately, DOSBox's default settings inadequately emulate games without modification. For example: many graphical elements in Arena were drawn at 300x200 resolution; many games from the DOS era were meant to be "aspect corrected" to 4:3, around 640x480 on the display, and were not meant to be left in a "widescreen" format. Leaving the window uncorrected leads to many in-game character graphics becoming "squished" and leaving user interface sprites rendering inaccurately; as a side note, aspect correction is a requirement for taking Arena images on The Elder Scrolls Wiki. Another issue is abysmal performance when the game's "disintegration effect" plays on the interface due to DOSBox's inefficient surface renderer.

Among other issues, these problems can be resolved using DOSBox Staging, a fork of DOSBox oriented to running DOS games at optimal defaults; optimal enough to require minimal modifications for the application itself. DOSBox Staging can be accessed from its website, through the Portable .ZIP.

The original directory of Arena's DOSBox implementation, ..\The Elder Scrolls Arena\DOSBox-0.74\ should be deleted entirely, except for the arena.conf text file. Steam can verify the local directory in case something goes wrong, and repair the game. DOSBox Staging should be extracted there instead; delete the contents of arena.conf, and replace it with these tweaked defaults:

[render]
#glshader = sharp
#integer_scaling = vertical

[cpu]
# ~486DX/2-66
cpu_cycles = 30000

[autoexec]
@echo off
mount C: ..\ARENA
mount D: ..\ARENA -t cdrom
C:
SET ARENADATA=C:
D:
ACD -Ssbpdig.adv -IOS220 -IRQS7 -DMAS1 -Mgenmidi.adv -IOM330 -IRQM2 -DMAM1
exit

• In DOSBox configuration, a hashtag "#" is a "comment" that is unregistered by the program.
• See #Can't change audio settings on Steam for further bugfixes to AUTOEXEC.
• See #Game runs at inconsistent speeds for why the default cpu_cycles rate was increased to 30000 from "fixed 25000".

When finished, Arena should launch with more optimal defaults. DOSBox Staging's executable is named dosbox.exe, like the original, and Steam will launch the game like normal. Windowed mode will cover more of the screen, reaching an optimal 1:1.2 aspect ratio DOS games require, and fullscreen mode should operate at a better-scaled resolution. Other changes include automatic sound mixing to avoid wasting CPU power by mistakenly up or downsampling audio, other bugfixes not included in the original DOSBox source, and more customization options in the default configuration file for DOSBox Staging.

By default, DOSBox Staging uses an accurate CRT filter reproduction on the screen to closely emulate a proper analog image. This filter is recommended, and scales based on the user's resolution to be consistently accurate. If this filter is unwanted, in the above configuration, remove the hashtag "#" symbol before the #glshader and #integer_scaling lines. This will restore a "regular" image, however, unexpected artifacts may occur when removing the blur the game's imagery was expected to perform under.

Game runs at inconsistent speeds

This issue, which is also known as "tes arena runs too fast" or "tes arena runs too slow," is a symptom of Arena's unstable design. There is a "logical cap" to the game's performance, which won't increase after a certain point, but many animations and engine functions are tied to the game's "cycle" rate; how many instructions the CPU can process from the engine quickly. This also increases difficulty, as enemies' attacks are dictated by their animation speed. At the fastest speeds, enemies will kill the user in seconds.

According to the box design, Arena was designed for, at minimum, an Intel i386/25 MHz CPU. However, due to the recommended CPU being an Intel i386/33 MHz, or the Intel i486/33+ MHz as a CPU that "really cooks!" the game was likely designed for and tested on those more. DOSBox Staging can emulate those CPUs effectively and is reflected through the cpu_cycles parameter, though emulation isn't perfect, and the amount of "cycles" to emulate a CPU is estimated.

From lowest to highest in cycles:

• i386/25 MHz: around 3500
• i386/33 MHz: around 6000
• i486/33 MHz: around 12000
• On a related note, the i486/66 MHz, the 33 MHz's more powerful brother, will be around 25000 to 30000 cycles.

As expected, using anywhere from 3000 - 7000 MHz is borderline unplayable by today's standards; the game plays abysmally slow, even on the lowest detail settings. To rectify this, it's recommended to use at least 12000 cycles and increase lightly until it becomes more comfortable to play. On the other hand, the user can immediately use the i486/66 MHz cycle rate, considered the "sweet spot" for performance. Arena will run the best at around 27000 to 30000 cycles.

At 30000 cycles, the game will consistently play at max detail with acceptable performance. Animations will be noticeably sped up, but the rate can be decreased if this is considered distracting. Lowering detail will only be required at large or NPC-heavy locations. In the game's configuration for DOSBox Staging:

[cpu]
# ~486DX/2-66
cpu_cycles = 30000

It should be mentioned that Arena was meant to be a slowly played video game, and many developers during the DOS era could not predict the evolution of CPU performance. To counteract fast CPUs breaking the game, Bethesda implemented a -delay:# command for Intel Pentium/i586 CPUs to slow the game down. However, with manual cycle control, this isn't necessary. Setting the cycles command in DOSBox, or cpu_cycles in DOSBox Staging to anywhere from 25000-30000 will be enough to play Arena properly.

It should be noted that the user should not use the "max" cycle rate. This is a common setting that comes from a misconception: maximum cycles run as fast as possible, therefore, the game runs as fast as it can, and therefore as it should. This is untrue, as the DOSBox Staging developers explain: "The reasoning here is that older games are often sensitive to CPU speed; they might run too fast or misbehave if the CPU is too performant, ... Newer, more demanding games, however, benefit from the extra speed advantage and can generally handle faster processors without negative side effects."

"DOSBox traditionally defaulted to 3000 cycles for real mode programs, and “max cycles” (as fast as your host CPU can go) for protected mode programs. 3000 cycles for real mode is a good middle-of-the-road setting that gets most games running (even if not optimally). The “max cycles” setting, on the other hand, is quite problematic for a couple of reasons:

• "A significant number of games crash, misbehave, or manifest subtle bugs when the emulated CPU is “too fast”. In the early days of DOSBox, cycles = max was not a problem because the much slower host CPUs from 10-20 years ago acted as a “natural throttle” on the effective emulation speed. However, many of those old speed-sensitive games that used to work with cycles = max are now broken on today’s fast CPUs.
• "The max setting is not transferable across setups as it depends on the host CPU’s speed. Games configured for cycles = max might work fine on your particular machine, but they could break on your friend’s faster computer or yours a few years later when you get your next CPU upgrade. The max N% cycles setting (e.g., max 70%) is plagued by the same problem.
• "cycles = max often causes audio glitches and drop-outs in games. It’s best to use the lowest fixed cycles value that runs the game at an acceptable speed ...
• "Some DOS programs really freak out when the emulated CPU is being dynamically changed at runtime, which is what max tends to do."

As noted above, using "max" is old advice when CPUs could technically self-throttle their speed in DOSBox. Using the recommended speeds will optimally run Arena as intended.

DOSBox not closing after "Drop to DOS"

If installing the floppy disk/v1.06 release of Arena through Bethesda's installation PDF, or launching Arena through a .BAT file, the user may notice Arena doesn't close the DOS prompt when exiting the game. Instead, the DOS command line will display:

ARENA V1.0[X] complete.
C:\>_

The reasoning is that, by default, DOS and BAT files share control over the OS. Usually, when most users launch the game, their AUTOEXEC configuration section will look similar to:

mount c .\games\tesarena
c:
cd arena
arena.bat
exit

In that example, the OS is giving control to arena.bat to execute its commands, and expects it to exit out, which Bethesda never equipped arena.bat to do. This is because dropping to the command line is expected behavior in DOS; for solely launching games in a DOS emulator, it is not. DOSBox then can't finish its command, exit, as it was never returned control.

To rectify this, using DOS' CALL command on the BAT will return control to DOSBox when the program finishes, and exits as expected:

mount c .\games\tesarena
c:
cd arena
call arena.bat
exit

Can't change audio settings on Steam

When launching INSTALL.EXE and changing the music or sound settings with the Steam release of Arena, the settings will not change in-game. The Steam release is unfortunately hardcoded to use GeneralMIDI. The reason why is unknown; the publishers at Bethesda mandatorily selected specific GeneralMIDI drivers when launching the game. However, using Sound Blaster 16 or similar is supported. This behavior can be rectified.

When installed from Steam, a standard Arena AUTOEXEC from arena.conf will look like:

[autoexec]
@echo off
mount C: ..\ARENA
mount D: ..\ARENA -t cdrom
C:
SET ARENADATA=C:
D:
ACD -Ssbpdig.adv -IOS220 -IRQS7 -DMAS1 -Mgenmidi.adv -IOM330 -IRQM2 -DMAM1
exit

Originally, for both v1.06 and v1.07 releases of Arena, the game's INSTALL.EXE utility would directly modify arena.bat with new audio driver settings. When launching the game via call arena.bat, these settings would be selected automatically. As seen above, with ACD -Ssbpdig.adv -IOS220 ..., this is no longer the case.

To rectify this, the AUTOEXEC can be modified to run the original arena.bat as intended, and will reflect the user's changes when running:

[autoexec]
@echo off
mount c ..\ARENA -t cdrom
mount d ..\ARENA -freesize 1024
d:
call arena
exit

• arena.batalready sets a system variable for Arena's game data. Therefore, the C: and D: directories need to be swapped, with C: technically being the CD-ROM drive because D: is the "ARENADATA" directory.
• -freesize 1024, to provide the directory with a non-null amount of space to write/read (DOSBox and DOSBox Staging by default will claim 0KB is available from the directory).
• call arena, using the fix from #DOSBox not closing after "Drop to DOS".
• exit, to quit the game upon selecting "Drop to DOS."

The game should now properly read the audio drivers as the installation utility selects them.

External links

• The Elder Scrolls official Arena site
• Free official download, from The Elder Scrolls official site
• Free official download, from Valve's Steam
• "Arena" storyline - more info (French version for additional details)
• Arena Codex Scientia pdf

References

Notice: The following are unlicensed references. They are not copyrighted by a ZeniMax Media company, but can still be considered part of The Elder Scrolls lore and are included for completeness.