I just started the game and when I try clicking on the first goblin to fight him nothing happens. I have my sword at the ready. Any idea why it's not hitting him?

You need to actually move the mouse while holding (I believe) the right mouse button to make a melee attack.

Also, Arena, like Daggerfall and Morrowind, use random numbers to determine whether an attack lands. If you see your weapon swinging and it doesn't hit, that is why.

Note that combat in Daggerfall is the same way.

Thanks I will try it.

You might wanna at least skim through the manual a bit: Arena and Daggerfall are from the time when most games expected you to have read the manual at least a little before you played. ;)

Yes I will. Was just dinking with it a little,.. not sure if I was going to get into it as I am on World of Xeen as my next rpg. I might do both a bit. Too many games, hard to pick which one to chug through....