I have the Elder Scrolls Anthology and while its a great set for someone like me who never had played any of the games before, the versions of Arena and (I think) Daggerfall included don't have voice acting. I know there was a version of Arena with voice acting, and I thought there was one for Daggerfall as well. Are these versions on gog the ones with voice acting or are they the same as the ones from the Anthology set?

I can't say for Arena (since I don't have the GOG version), but I can tell you this.

There's only one version of Daggerfall and it's on CD. And as far as I know, it has no voice acting (except for the HALT of the guards and maybe a few phrases) due to the way the dialogue works. It has FMV cutscenes, though.

Arena had a version with voice acting (the CD version), but the voice acting was only in the cutscenes (again, due to how the dialogue worked). The CD version is superior since it also fixes a number of glitches, so I guess the GOG version is this one.

Out of curiosity, what glitches are fixed?

I'm not sure since there seems to be no changelogs anywhere, but I heard that some crashes and memory problems were fixed. And the manual-based copy protection (for the shift gate) was removed.

There is only one Daggerfall version. The quality of the MIDI instruments depends on your soundfont/hardware.

So if someone play the game with some good MIDI equipment, the music will sound better than playing it with the Windows built-in Roland SoundCanvas Sound Set (c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\gm.dls), which in turn sounds better playing with an emulated FM synthesizer in DOSBox)..

One change I remember was that the original floppy version had a high rate of crashing when you fast travelled. LIke 30-40% chance of crashing or something.

Oddly it seems there were a few floppies with the fixed version too, though I am not sure if they were sold in stores. I had purchased Arena on 3.5" floppies when it was new. A year or so later I went to install it on a new computer, and Disk 1 was corrupt so I couldn't install it. By then, the only version of the game you could get in stores (at least my local stores) was the CD version. I wrote to Bethesda and they sent a new Disk 1 that had an updated EXE on it that contaed the fast travel crash fix and a few other minor polishes, but the only thing I remember is the fast travel fix.

I'm not sure if there were any other changes with the CD version, but I had heard from an acquaintance who had the CD version that it was the same version as on the updated floppy.

Anyway, rusty memory Arena trivia there =/

Here is an extract from the readme of the latest (1.06) Arena patch. Note that there is an indication that you might be able to carry over a character from Arena to Daggerfall (at the end of the 1.06 section). I had never noticed this before and don't know if it has been implemented (and, to be honest, I doubt it).

"The following features have been implemented in the 1.06 patch:

+ A Pentium slowdown has been included in the patch. To slow down game play
for a Pentium, type:
arena -delay:#
at the DOS prompt, where # is an integer between 1 and 9. 1 causes the
least delay, 9 causes the most delay. We recommend 4 as a good speed.
If, after starting the game on your Pentium using this feature, you find
the speed still is not right, you may adjust the delay using the + and -
keys.

+ Two lockups, one related to Travelling, and the other related to Wilderness
Inns, have been fixed.

+ A problem arose where you shot a bow across water, and every other weapon in
your inventory became unequippable. It has been corrected.

+ Some users found that they could not drop any items. This has been fixed.

+ Getting stuck in a wall: if this happens, check the automap - if there is
an open tile adjacent to you, then just save your game, exit, and start up
again, restoring the game. You will find yourself out of the wall. If there
are no open tiles nearby, you will have to restore a previous game. We
recommend that you do not Passwall into a stairwell, or you will almost
certainly get stuck.

+ Can't get an Artifact Quest: This seems to be related to picking the
Start New Game option while in the middle of another game. We recommend
that you do not choose this option. If you do find that you have reached at
least level 5, and you still get no Artifact Quest when asking townsfolk
for Rumors - General, then you may enable these quests by hitting:
[ALT] F5
in combination. (a message should appear)
NOTE: This will _not_ enable another quest if you already possess an
artifact, and it could potentially ruin an Artifact Quest if you are
currently on one. This fix is only intended to be used _once_, if at all.

Other bugs in various quests and major dungeons related to memory
problems have been fixed, as well as various minor bugs. Many problems
have been solved simply using the boot disk option from the install.

If you want to hold onto a character for the sequel, save files *.0x,
where x equals the number of the saved game (notice that 0 is the first
saved slot, and 9 is the last). Note that there will be several files to
save.

Old Notes on Previous Patches:

Patch 1.05
THE AUTOMAP:
The 1.05 patch fixes a number of bugs from all previous versions of Arena,
and has a number of features, but one of the most important is that your
automap will no longer disappear on you. The bad news is that when the patch
1.05 is first added to your existing Arena game, all current automaps will
be wiped clean, so BE CERTAIN to get your character out of any dungeon
before adding the patch. From that moment on, the last sixteen locations
visited will be saved as automaps (each dungeon level counts as one location).

Additional bug fixes and features are outlined below:

+ Light spell's duration has + Buying magic items has been
been fixed fixed
+ Holiday features have been + Transfer spells have been
fixed fixed
+ Key problems in dungeons have + Weapon damage has been fixed
been fixed + Player can now rename spells
+ Spellbooks are alphabetically (left-click on the spell
arranged name)
+ Heal spells have been fixed + ESC now takes you out of
+ The color of the cursor stands the automap and logbook
out now + The color of the text stands
+ Fire-based spells have been out now
fixed + New characters created from
+ Monsters will no longer trap within the game will work
you when you swim under them + Traveling estimated time
(they may attempt to block you) closer to actual traveling time
+ Magic items that add points to + Identifying potions fixed
attributes have been fixed + Encumberance caused by the
+ Various artifact quest bugs artifacts, the Skeleton's
have been fixed Key and King Orghum's Coffer
+ Memory problems associated with has been fixed.
traveling has been fixed. + Various noble quest bugs have
+ Diseases have been fixed been fixed
+ All stats maxxed to 100 bug has
been fixed.

Patches 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04
* Multiple 'Fortify' on a single spell now fortify all stats that are
in the spell. Therefore a spell that fortifies STR, INT, and WIL will
now fortify all those stats rather than changing your gender, for example.
It will NOT fix your gender if you're already changed. (sorry)

* Not able to complete certain quests:
We found a bug in the quest generator and fixed it. It should
correct the problem where quests that went to a city had no end point.

* New hot keys:
Shift + C = Recast spell
Ctrl + left arrow or right arrow = Slide left or right
'-' and '+' = scroll inventory up or down in charsheet.
Shift + J = Standing long jump. (it actually was implemented in patch 3)

* The travel routine was rewritten:
Those of you with bugs involving travel times should find the new routine
to work much better.

* The problem with people losing stats when equipping / de-equiping certain
items:
We found a problem in the way the code calculated fortified stats due
to spells vs. items such as a sword of strength. It is now fixed.

* Lost or missing keys:
We fixed the problem with keys being gone or 'worthless', but for the fix
to take effect, you must reload a game BEFORE you have gotten any of the
keys in question. Simply reloading the current game will NOT work.

* Related but not the same, if you leave a dungeon after having unlocked
some doors, those doors will now stay unlocked when you return. Any keys
associated with those doors will be marked 'worthless'.

* Witches Festival is now fixed so that you can now ID items for free.

* Not being charged for a room at an inn is now fixed.

* The F4 key now toggles message pixellation. If you would prefer
messages to pop on to the screen rather than pixellate in, click
the F4 key. Clicking the key again will toggle the messages back to
pixellation.

* Due to popular demand, spellcasters can now delete spells from
their spellbooks. Simply go to the second page of your character
sheet, click on spellbook, double-click on the spell you wish to
delete, and when the spell description appears choose the new
"delete" option.

* Also due to popular demand, it is now possible to sell most all
magic items in equipment stores, including torcs, crystals, rings,
and bracelets.

* Mouse movement has been improved.

* It is now possible to lower the detail level even more for
slower machines.

* The F3 key now toggles damage response. There are three choices
available: "Normal Roll", "Severe Roll", and "Cross Hatch". This is
in response to the "Quadrant Jerk" complaint.

* Reported problems with negotiation, character inventory,
and other minor glitches have also been fixed.

* Knights repair at 10x their level instead of 3x their level for items.

* Random encounters in city at night have been reduced a bit.

* Automapping in the interior (it used to garble up) has been fixed.

* People who saved games in interiors experienced problems when exiting
the interior in patch #1. This has been remedied.
Note: If you are one of these people, you will not get any music until
you exit the interior or climb up or down a level inside. This
is not a bug. The system needs to reread a file.

* To aid us in tracking bugs, a version number will be displayed when
exiting the game. Please take note of it. The most current version is 1.06.

* The standing long jump (shift+j) has been fixed.

* There is no spell that will allow a caster to heal a drained attribute.
This was a mistake in the manual."

That's the way midi files normally work, you're right about that.
However, I've never had any problem with low-quality midi sound in any game apart from Daggerfall and it's not just me btw.
The only explanations I could come up with are that:
a- the high quality music doesn't come from in-game.
b- something's wrong with most people's game files./ There are two versions of Daggerfall.
c- there's some hidden option to make it work properly- and I've tried.

Is this the "high-quality" midi that you're referring to?

If so, look into BASSMIDI and Roland SC-55 soundfonts. Windows' built in midi soundfont is OK in some games and absolutely SUCKS in others.

No, I don't think so. The sound in this video isn't particularly high quality either. (especially the bit rate sounds almost ear damage inducing to me :( )

This sound file for example has a better bit rate as far as I can hear (edit: well, it isn't good enough either) but sounds a bit more synthetic and probably isn't recorded from in-game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FK_dJBVcoE&index=8&list=PLDWrj6ynqDMHlvwaYcx90U4B8xVXTci9p

As for Arena, I can also confirm this is 1.07 Arena CD version with voice acting. I think there is no better one.

Great, guys! thanks for all the help!

I'm not sure why they didn't include the voice-acted version in the Antholoy set. Not a problem, though, because it didn't include redguard or battlespire either so when I pick those up it sounds like Arena and daggerfall will get thrown in as well!