The Elder Scrolls: Arena was developed and published by Bethesda Softworks and released for MS-DOS on 25 March 1994; it had been planned for Christmas 1993. Vijay Lakshman and Ted Peterson designed it.
Arena began as a gladiator game in which a team would fight in arenas across the continent. During development the tournaments were dropped and the party was cut to a single hero, but the name stayed. It became the first game in The Elder Scrolls series: the story is about rescuing Emperor Uriel Septim VII. Open land is generated procedurally, and the game has 18 character classes and more than 400 towns and villages.
Computer Gaming World named it the Role-Playing Game of the Year for 1994. Bethesda made the game freeware in 2004 for the series' 10th anniversary.123
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | The Elder Scrolls: ArenaOn CD-ROM and 3.5-inch floppy disks. | MS-DOS | Mar 25, 1994 | Bethesda Softworks | 1 |
| NA | The Elder Scrolls: Arena Deluxe EditionLate 1994: patched CD-ROM, mousepad with a map of Tamriel and the Codex Scientia hint book. | MS-DOS | 1994 | Bethesda Softworks | 1 |
| WW | The Elder Scrolls: ArenaMade freeware for the series' 10th anniversary (floppy version). | MS-DOS | 2004 | Bethesda Softworks | 1 |
| WW | The Elder Scrolls: ArenaFree on Steam. | Windows | Apr 26, 2022 | Bethesda Softworks | 3 |
Also known as: The Elder Scrolls, Chapter One: Arena NA1The Elder Scrolls, Volume 1: Arena NA1Arena NA1
Box art by region
NA The Elder Scrolls: Arena
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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AudioCD-ROM
The CD-ROM version adds speech for some characters and CGI video sequences missing from the floppy release.1
-
ContentFreeware (2004)
The 2004 freeware release is the floppy version, not the CD-ROM edition.1
-
Bug fixv1.06
Patch 1.06 added a -delay option to slow the game down on fast processors such as the Pentium; 1.05 added spell renaming.4
Translations
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Russian Fan
—MS-DOSReleased
There was no official Russian release, but a fan translation exists.2
Where to play legally today
-
Steam Free
How to run it today
The game is free on Steam. Bethesda also made it freeware in 2004; on modern systems the DOS version needs an emulator such as DOSBox, and OpenTESArena is an open-source re-implementation in development.
- OpenTESArena on GitHub github.com
Reception
Arena started with an initial run of 3,000 units and, according to PC Data, sold 120,000 copies from 1994 to 1996. Computer Gaming World named it the Role-Playing Game of the Year for 1994, and the game built a cult following.1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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