What happens if you disable sound/music entirely.
if the game works try enabling only one of them to narrow down the problem

Didn't work either, now I have CRS, haha.

Usually the only option in cases like this is to disable stuff until it starts working again.
I would start by disabling sound and music from install.exe
which you apparently have already done.
than I would move onto commenting out autoexec.bat and removing references to the sound and music by prepending 'REM' to the lines.
if that doesn't work I would remove the mousectl command.

Now assuming all this results in the same mess I would than go and check back on the instructions provided to ensure that compatibility is set to win95 and memory is set to auto.
than I would double check again that the correct autoexec.bat and config.sys is being pointed to.

Since I am assuming you have done the above paragraph the next thing to do would be to provide us with your computer details.
or perhaps to try run the game with VDMsound but without Dosbox.

other than that I'm getting pretty stumped right here...

Hi Shorty,
put all these settings back and try running the game from a batch file -
create a new file and put this in it :

@A -sa:220 -si:5 -sd:1 -ma:330 -mq:2 -md:1 -ssbpdig.adv -mgenmidi.adv

Now save it as arena.bat into your Arena directory.
I hope it'll work for you too.

Awesome. Thanks to all these tips, I can now play Arena almost perfectly! The only issue I have left now is that after applying that one fix to not freeze and activate my sound, all the standard sounds are way too loud, like the monsters and footsteps and the woosh during character creation (I had my headphones on and I nearly went deaf!) but the MIDI music is just fine. When I adjust the volume in-game, it quiets down for about two seconds and it's loud again instantly after. I noticed it seems to constantly be resetting my Wave bar in the volume control... Anyone have an idea on what I could do?

I had that problem a while back, when I was playing Windows 98. There isn't a whole lot you can do (that I know of), but eventually you get used to the loudness.

this post should definately be stickied

Either that, or they should put a sticky at the top with all the ways to get it to work (this, VDMSound, and finally DOSBox).

I need to work on that thread I said I was going to do. I'll use this for sure. If thats cool. Now it's just bringing together all my notes.

Right ive got it going great except i have no sound! Any idea's?

Thanks Kwisatz Haderach and Vampyre!
Arena now work...

well, I've done everything (except the Sound, as I don't know where to edit that), but I when I press A.exe, it just does the usual flash-dead thing...

Has anyone found an effective method for slowing arena down? I used speedset in the dos\autoexec. but that seems to slow down some things while others are still blazing fast.

2 Nailuj
In game press "-" key (slow)/"+" key (fast) - near "Backspace"

Sorry my English... :shrug:

Thanks Peterix, that worked. Thanks for the help everyone.

You can also jack up the detial to slow it down. Dunno if it works for this method.

This is only working till i get in to the place where the game is about to start(my cell) then it goes black... did i do something wrong or is it just not working?...
it would be great if you could make a complete list how to get the game to work... course it's very confusing with all the posts :S

me too, but nice work though

I finally got it to work... i only got one problem!.. how do i hit(attack) great work guys!

I had that same problem as you had except for some reason I have no sound...:\

What did you do to fix it?

Oh and you attack by either holding down left mouse button or the right mb(I forget which)...Then swiftly move the mouse left,right,up/down for different attacks.

you did everything that Kwisatz Haderach said and you still can't get it to work right?...

here is what you gotta do:

make a new Batch file... you just go in to wordpad and copy this in to it:

@A -sa:220 -si:5 -sd:1 -ma:330 -mq:2 -md:1 -ssbpdig.adv -mgenmidi.adv

then save it as arena.bat
when you have done that, replace it with the other batch file in the arena folder. Remember to take a copy of the old batch file if something goes wrong.

Run the new batch file and then it should work!

Ok,I copied the line into wordpad but when i try to save it it doesnt give me the option to save as a .bat file...what do I do?..

you just write just copi this or write it, this is how you should write it:

Arena.bat

I have done everything exactly as described and it still wont work..

Oh well I have the Daggerfall betony demo to play...maybe sometime i'll hunt down a place where you can get it for cheap...maybe amazon..oh well,thanks for the help.

you are sure that you saved the new batch file with this name? : arena.bat