OpenTESArena

This open-source project aims to be a modern engine re-implementation for "The Elder Scrolls: Arena" by Bethesda Softworks. It is written in C++14 and uses SDL2 for cross-platform video, WildMIDI for music, and OpenAL Soft for sound and mixing. There is currently support for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Version: 0.6.0
License: MIT
Discord: https://discord.gg/DgHe2jG

Current status

No actual gameplay yet, but all cities, main quest dungeons, random dungeons, interior locations, and a fixed portion of wilderness can be accessed from test options on the main menu.

Fast traveling works and you can go to any city or main quest dungeon on the world map.

Clicking in the game world isn't implemented, so you can't click on things like doors yet.

Collision detection is partially implemented (you can't jump or fall yet).

A few menus work, including some of character creation, and some of the game interface icons work, too. For example, left clicking the map icon goes to the automap, and right clicking it goes to the world map.

Here are some keys in the game world:

WASD - move and turn. Hold LCtrl to strafe with A and D.
Esc - pause menu
Tab - character sheet
F - draw/sheathe weapon
L - logbook
M - world map
N - automap
V - status
F4 - toggle debug text
PrintScreen - screenshot

Project Details

The concept began after I saw the success of other open-source projects like OpenXcom and OpenMW. It really started out more as an experiment than a remake, but now the project is steadily inching closer to something akin to the original.

Note that there are two versions of Arena: the floppy disk version and the CD version. Bethesda released the floppy disk version here for free, and this project is currently only compatible with that. The user must still acquire their own copy of Arena in any case because OpenTESArena is just an engine and does not contain any content.

OpenTESArena is licensed under the MIT and uses code licensed under the GPL2. See LICENSE.txt and COPYING.txt for details.

Check out CONTRIBUTING.md for more details on how to assist with development.

Installation

The engine uses MidiConfig and ArenaPath from the options file to find where the MIDI config and game files are (see Options files below).

Windows

Get the most recent build from the releases tab.
Download the Full Game from the Bethesda website.
Extract Arena106Setup.zip and run Arena106.exe.
Pick a destination folder anywhere and install.
Point ArenaPath in the options file to the ARENA folder.
If you receive an error about missing MSVCP140.dll, you will need to download and run the Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable installer from here for your desired target (x64 for 64-bit, x86 for 32-bit).
If you see a warning about alcOpenDevice() failing, or there is no sound, you will need to download the OpenAL 1.1 Windows Installer from here and run oalinst.exe.

macOS

Get the data files for The Elder Scrolls: Arena

Download the Full Game from the Bethesda website.
Unzip Arena106Setup.zip
Arena106.exe is a self-extracting RAR file. Use a tool such as The Unarchiver to extract it into a folder of data files.

Install OpenTESArena

Download the most recent build from the releases tab.
Open the .dmg and copy OpenTESArena to the Applications folder or another location
Right-click on the app and choose "Show Package Contents"
Navigate to Contents/Resources/data and copy in the files for Arena that you extracted earlier
Return to the Applications folder or wherever you have the app installed and open OpenTESArena. If you have Gatekeeper turned on (the default for macOS), you will need to do the following:
- Right-click on the app and choose "Open"
- In the warning that appears saying that it is from an unidentified developer, choose "Open"
- The app will start. In the future, you can just double-click on the app without having to go through these steps.

Linux (Ubuntu 16.04)

Substitute <version> with the current version number (i.e., 0.6.0), and <arch> with the desired architecture (32 or 64).

sudo apt-get install wget unzip rar
wget https://cdnstatic.bethsoft.com/elderscrolls.com/assets/files/tes/extras/Arena106Setup.zip
wget https://github.com/afritz1/OpenTESArena/releases/download/opentesarena-<version>/opentesarena-<version>-Linux<arch>.tar.gz
tar xvzf opentesarena-<version>-Linux<arch>.tar.gz
cd opentesarena-<version>/data
unzip ../../Arena106Setup.zip
rar x Arena106.exe
cd ..
./run.sh

Options files

options-default.txt comes with releases and stores default settings. options-changes.txt is generated in your user prefs folder and stores user-specific settings, and you can either create it yourself or let the program create it. For now, you can change things like ArenaPath in options-default.txt, but in the future, a wizard will take care of this instead. The prefs folders are:

Windows: <username>/AppData/Roaming/OpenTESArena/options/
Linux: ~/.config/OpenTESArena/options/
macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/OpenTESArena/options/

Obtaining a MIDI sound patches library for music:

The easiest way is to download one of the eawpats packages (zip, tar.gz) and place the extracted eawpats folder into your data folder.
If you would like to use a different sound patches library, simply edit MidiConfig in the options file to point to another existing MIDI .cfg file.

Building from source

Project dependencies:

CMake
OpenAL Soft 1.18.2
SDL 2.0.4
WildMIDI 0.4.0 (optional; required for music)

Building the executable:

Create a build folder in the top-level directory.
Use CMake to generate your project files in build, then compile the executable.

Running the executable:

Verify that the data and options folders are in the same folder as the executable, and that MidiConfig and ArenaPath in the options file point to valid locations on your computer (i.e., data/eawpats/timidity.cfg and data/ARENA respectively).

MSYS2 guide for Windows

If there is a bug or technical problem in the program, check out the issues tab!

Resources

The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages are a great resource for finding information all about Arena. There are various tools available such as WinArena for browsing Arena's content, and there is a very detailed manual as well, so you'll probably want to take a look at a copy from here. I also recommend the Lazy Game Review on YouTube for a humorous overview of the game's history and gameplay.

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJpmkgtHRIxR7aOpi909GKw

Project email: opentesarena {at} gmail [dot] com

PeeksProductions / OpenTESArena