I am attatching the setup Word document that came with my download of Arena. I hope that this setup will help you all run Arena. It works fine for me, but the sound can be choppy whenever something happens.
Summary of two major problems:
Framerate: Press Ctrl and tap F12 until the FPS speeds up to around 33000.
Sound: Use the Elder Scrolls configuration program to specify the sound card. Read below for more details.
"Instructions for setting up
The Elder Scrolls: Arena
For Win2k/WinXP
Installation of The Elder Scrolls: Arena
1. Run the file “Arena106.exe”
2. This will open a new window, which will offer to extract Arena. The default destination is C:\. This is the best location to use. When you click the install button, it will create the folder C:\Arena and extract the files to that folder.
3. Next, run the installer for the DOSBox DOS Emulator. Proceed through its installation as prompted. Once DOSBox is installed, continue on.
4. Click Start, then Run. In the “Run” box, type “command” (without the quotes) and click OK. This will open a Command Prompt window.
5. At the command prompt, type “CD\ARENA” (again, without the quotes) and push Enter. If your command prompt is logged on to a drive other than C:, please type “C:” and push enter, then “CD\ARENA”, followed by Enter.
6. Once you have entered the Arena folder, type INSTALL and push Enter. This will launch the configuration program for Arena.
7. Select “Configure Game”.
8. Select “Select Sound Card”. A list will appear. Select “Sound Blaster or SB16 (or compatible)”
9. Select “Select Music Card” and do the same.
10. In yellow letters near the top of the screen, it should say:
“Sound Blaster or SB16 (or compatible) IO:220 IRQ:7 DMA:1” for both Sound and Music. If it does not, please enter the info in under both “Change Sound default” and Change music default.
11. Select Done, and then Exit.
12. Next, start the DOSbox Emulator. It should open it’s own window, logged into the Z:
13. At this prompt, type “MOUNT C C:\” and push enter. Then type “C:” and push Enter. Then “CD \ARENA”. Finally, “ARENA” to start the game.
Additional:
If you are having difficulty with the sound, or Arena fails to start but instead hangs at a black screen, likely you’ll need to match up what the emulator’s sound settings are and Arena’s configuration.
To do this, start the DOSbox emulator. When the emulator window opens, look at the lines of text within the window. One will say similar to:
“Z:\>SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4”
The only line you want is the one which contains “SET BLASTER”. The others may be disregarded. The example given is the default, however if your line is different, please change Arena’s sound configuration to match. The line would be represented in Arena as:
I/O Address: 220
IRQ: 7
DMA: 1
--
Performance: The default settings for the emulator will probably not be optimal for Arena. While Arena is running in the emulator, hold down the Control key and tap the F12 key a few times. This will increase the number of CPU cycles the emulator will use, which should speed up the game. Repeat the use of Control+F12 until the game runs at an acceptable rate. Please see DOSbox’s documentation for how to calculate the proper settings for the dosbox.conf file to configure CPU cycles, based on how many times you used the Control+F12 and to make it a permanent setting.
Copy Protection:
Please see the passwords.txt file in the \Arena\Docs folder for the needed passwords to exit the first dungeon.
The game will ask for the cost of a spell. The passwords.txt file contains the table. Enter the value associated with the spell to proceed."
