Installing Topcoder's Vintage Arena

If you would like to follow along with Pena in the video above, he will walk you through how to properly install the Topcoder Java Applet aka the Topcoder Vintage Arena.  Otherwise, you can follow the step by step instructions below.

Prerequisite

You must have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on your computer.  If you do not have it installed, you may go here to download it.  Once downloaded, open the file to install it.  This part should be pretty self explanatory.

Alright, now we are ready to install the arena!

1. Download the Arena

If you haven’t already, download the arena.

2. Open the Executable

Once you download the file, go ahead and open it.  You will notice that you received a warning message.

This is due to modern java security policies, so we will have to add some exceptions.

3. Open Your Java Control Panel

If you are on Windows, to open the control panel, click your windows button on the bottom left and type in “Configure Java”.

To access the Java Control Panel on a Mac, open your System Preferences. You should see a Java icon. Clicking on that will open the control panel in another window.

4. Adding Exceptions

Once you are in the control panel, head on over to the “Security” tab. Assure that the security level is set to “High” and not “Very High”. Next, click “Edit Site List” and input the following endpoints one by one.

http://www.topcoder.com
https://www.topcoder.com
http://arena.topcoder.com
https://arena.topcoder.com
https://topcoder.com,
http://topcoder.com

You may receive a warning when inputting an “http” link. Just press continue to move on.

Once finished, press “Ok” and exit out of the Control Panel.

5. Open The Arena

Double click on the ContestAppletProd.jnlp file again and you will find that it successfully opens to the arena’s login page.

There have been reports that on a Mac, there may be an extra step where you will have to click a checkbox and agree to launch the application. It has also been reported that to open apps for the first time on a Mac, you need to right click -> open with -> Java Launcher app.

6. Final Step: Login with your Topcoder Account!

Hopefully this was helpful to get you up and running with the Vintage Arena. This article will be updated with other helpful “Getting Started in the Arena” articles, so check back in soon!