Elder Scrolls: Arena Bethesda Softworks / U.S. Gold 1993

This is a first-person computer role-playing game. Like its sequels, it takes place in the continent of Tamriel, complete with wilderness, dungeons, a spell creation system that allows players to mix various spell effects into a new spell as long as they have the money to pay for it, and numerous other game features that were ahead of its time. The Emperor, Uriel Septim VII has been imprisoned in another dimension and impersonated by Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn. The only way to bring him back is to find the eight pieces of the Staff of Chaos. After the pieces have been collected, the hero battles with Tharn in the Imperial city. Ria Silmane, just prior to the start of the game, is apprentice to Jagar Tharn. During his usurpation of the throne, Tharn is unable to corrupt his apprentice and so he murders her. She is able to hold herself together long enough to direct the player's character how to escape from slow death in the dungeons through a teleportation device called a shift gate. Past that point she lacks the power to manifest physically and appears to the player in dreams. The central quest requires the player to obtain various artifacts. Each time such an item is found, Silmane appears the next time the player rests to provide the general location of the next such item. It was easy to die in the dungeon the players start in, as powerful enemies could be encountered if the player lingers too long. However, this effect slowly withered away as players became more powerful and more aware of the threats that loomed everywhere. Arena is noted for its large environment, which is significantly larger than the sequels. This is due to the game's randomly generated areas which allows for large numbers of different combinations for each area. Combat is performed by using the mouse and dragging the cursor across the screen to attack if a melee weapon is used. Arena was originally released on CD-ROM and 3.5" floppy disk. The CD-ROM edition is the more advanced of the two editions, featuring enhanced speech for some characters and CGI video sequences. In 2004, on the occasion of the game's 10th anniversary, the game was made freeware.
Screenshots
Freeware Game 9MB (uploaded by Official Site)
Reviews
Full Demo 10Mb (@ Abandonia)
Info
Deluxe Edition ISO Demo 36MB (uploaded by Scaryfun)
Manual
Floppy Images ISO Demo 11MB (uploaded by scaryfun)
Video
Full Demo with DOSBox 28MB (uploaded by The Collection Chamber)
Video Reviews
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GOG Digital ISO Demo v2.0.0.5 + Other Releases + Extras 112MB (uploaded by hgdagon)
GOG Digital ISO Demo v2.0.0.5 73MB (uploaded by Delacroix)
included in The Elder Scrolls Anthology - ISO Demo 21MB (uploaded by Internet Archive Software Collection)
OpenTESArena v0.14.0 (open-source modern engine re-implementation) 2.12MB (uploaded by Github)
Steam Free Game (uploaded by Steam)


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