40 MB
Walk into Tamriel before the roads had guardrails.
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The Elder Scrolls: Arena is a free rpg game released under Freeware (original). It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, needs about 40 MB of disk space, and requires no account, payment or trial. On a computer, the fastest route is the PlayBound Launcher. On a phone or tablet, use the official store or site instead.
Choose how to install
Install with PlayBound or download from the official source without the launcher.
Install through PlayBound, which fetches Bethesda's official freeware package.
Run it through DOSBox — DOSBox Staging is the best current build. Without it the game runs at whatever speed your CPU feels like, which is not playable.
Set cycles in DOSBox if movement feels too fast or too slow. Around 20000 cycles is a reasonable starting point.
Save often and in multiple slots. Arena is from an era that considered losing progress part of the experience.
Minimum
Windows, macOS or Linux with DOSBox · any CPU from the last two decades · 512 MB RAM · any GPU · 100 MB storage · this is the 1994 DOS release, so DOSBox does the work
Recommended
DOSBox Staging on a modern PC · any modern CPU · 1 GB RAM · integrated graphics are plenty · 100 MB storage · raise the DOSBox cycle count if movement feels sluggish
Yes. Bethesda released it as freeware in 2004 to mark the series' tenth anniversary, and still hosts the download themselves. It is also free on Steam and GOG.
In practice, yes. Arena is a DOS game, and without DOSBox it either refuses to run on modern Windows or runs at an unusable speed. The GOG release bundles a pre-configured DOSBox if you would rather not set one up.
Daggerfall is the better game and is also free. Play Arena if you are specifically interested in the series' origins; play Daggerfall, ideally through Daggerfall Unity, if you want a genuinely engrossing old Elder Scrolls game.
An open-source reimplementation of Arena's engine with modern rendering and controls, in active development. It is promising and is progressing quickly, but it is not yet complete, so the original freeware release remains the way to actually finish the game.
The main quest runs roughly thirty to forty hours, and the world is effectively endless because most of it is generated. Most players see what the generator has to offer well before exhausting it.
No. OpenArena is a free Quake III-style arena shooter and shares nothing with this game but the word Arena.
No. The Elder Scrolls: Arena is a single-player game, so there is no multiplayer mode to join or host.