Elder Scrolls: Arena IBM PC MS-DOS Bethesda Softworks 1994

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Elder Scrolls: Arena

Bethesda Softworks released Elder Scrolls: Arena for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in March of 1994. Arena was lead-designed by V.J. Lakshman and programmed by Julian Lefay.

Before Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion, there was Arena, which was the first Elder Scrolls game.

Note that Lakshman (chief designer) referred to Arena as a cRPG, not an RPG Game.

Arena Features

• 18x character classes
• 8x races
• 8x character stats that range from 1-100
• Strength modifies damage and carry-weight
• Agility modifies to-hit and defense
• Speed modifies turn-speed and run-speed
• Endurance modifies hitpoints and healing rate
• Intelligence modifies spellpoints
• Will modifies magic defense
• Personality modifies charisma
• Luck affects many things
• 7x armor ratings
• 4x shield-types
• 8x metal-types
• 21x weapon-types
• Inventory can hold up to 40 items
• Character paperdolls
• Character Sheet & Character Status
• Logbook & Spellbook
• Action modes: Attack, Cast Spell, Use, Thieving, Jump, Jump forward, Sheathe / unsheathe
• Arena Navigation: Compass, Automap & Continental map
• Taverns, Inns, Temples and Merchants
• 7x guilds
• Mages Guild with Spellmaker facility
• 50x spells
• 3x effects per spell
• 21x enemy-types
• Smooth hardware mouse cursor

Arena Technical

Arena displays in 256-color VGA 320x200 and employs real-time 3D texture-mapped graphics overlaid by sprite-scaled objects and actors.

Arena requires 603K of free conventional memory and 2 megs of EMS/XMS memory; that is, 4 megs of RAM. Arena supports SMARTDRV, EMM386 and QEMM 7.0+ memory managers.

Arena was distributed on 8x 3.5" 1.44 MB HD diskettes and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Bethesda Softworks Install Utility v.2.31. The install size is 20 megs.

Arena sound effects support Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, Gravis Ultra Sound, Ensoniq SoundScape and Aria Chipset.

Arena music supports Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, Roland (LAPC-I, MT-32, Sound Canvas), General MIDI / MPU 401, Gravis Ultra Sound, Ensoniq SoundScape and Aria Chipset.

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