"The Elder Scrolls (abbreviated as TES) is a computer role-playing game series developed by Bethesda Softworks.

The development of the series began in 1992, when the staff of Bethesda Softworks, which had until then been a predominantly sports game-producing company, decided to shift the focus of their upcoming Arena from arena combat into role-playing. The team, inspired by Ultima Underworld and Dungeons & Dragons, released the massive and open first-person RPG The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994 for DOS PC systems. The game began a tradition of games based on the principles of "[being] who you want and [doing] what you want" that have persisted throughout the series' history."

Source: Wikipedia, "Elder_Scrolls", available under the CC-BY-SA License.