Which 1994 game launched The Elder Scrolls role-playing series?

The Elder Scrolls: Arena launched The Elder Scrolls role-playing game series in 1994.

Bethesda Softworks released Arena for MS-DOS on March 25, 1994. The project began as a gladiatorial combat game, but its design expanded into a large first-person fantasy role-playing adventure. Players travel across Tamriel, complete quests, explore randomly generated wilderness, and eventually seek to rescue the emperor.

Despite the title, Arena is not primarily an arena-combat game. The name remained from the project’s earlier concept, which often causes confusion for players who know the later series entries better. Arena’s world was far larger and more procedurally generated than the handcrafted regions that became common in subsequent Elder Scrolls games.

The sequel, Daggerfall, arrived in 1996 and expanded the series’ scale further. Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim later brought the franchise to much larger console audiences.