Well I got arena off the website and installed it following the instructions but when i tried to play it it was soooo slow, the movements were all lag spiked and I tried it on my XP pc as well but same thing happened. Is it because its not the original retail version, or am I doing something wrong?

Are you using DOSbox?

If so, press a certain keyboard command repeatedly until you are up to the speed you want. I haven't played in a while, but I belive the command is....Alt + F12? Ctrl + F12? One or the other, I think.

ooo ok i'll try that lol i figured it was just slow! if it works.... i'll feel real dumb xD

Open your DosBox config file, you'll find it under DosBox in your programs list. change core to Dynamic and Cycles to 25000 or 28000. If it still runs too slow your processor might not be fast enough for DosBox.