Blizzard Working On Warcraft 1, 2 Rerelease

[IanDavis]

Blizzard Working On Warcraft 1, 2 Rerelease

Blizzard's working on unearthing the classic RTS games from their MS-DOS prison.

In this modern age of gaming, World of Warcraft has taken the modest plotlines of the original strategy series and successively worked on each over the past decade. Crusades burned, Lich Kings wrathed, and then the entire world blew up. Players who want to explore the full backstory can play the fantastic Warcraft 3 and its Frozen Throne expansion pack, but the older games are sealed away under an arcane sigil known as MS-DOS. Blizzard has a team of arcane scholars working to get the classic games [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/10/5087768/blizzard-warcraft-and-warcraft-2-working-on-modern-pcs]ready for a future rerelease[/a] on modern PCs.

The news was revealed at Blizzcon 2013, when WoW production director J. Allen Brack was asked if Blizzard planned to rerelease any of the older Warcraft titles. "So, we actually have a guy on our team - actually several guys on our team - who are actually working on a side project to do something like that in some form or fashion," Brack answered. "We're fans of Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, and we'd love to replay those games for sure."

Warcraft: Humans and Orcs was released back in 1994 for MS-DOS. The next year brought Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness and the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion soon after. Outside of Ebay and DOSBOX, there's no legal way to obtain these classics. While Blizzard hasn't talked about the nature of these rereleases, it just released the Warcraft contemporary [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129264-Blizzard-Brings-Blackthorne-Bonanza-to-Battle-net]Blackthrone[/a] for free via Battle.net. However you can, it would be good to brush up on the past before [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129467-Warlords-of-Draenor-Expansion-Announced-for-World-of-Warcraft]Warlords of Draenor[/a] drops!

Source: [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/10/5087768/blizzard-warcraft-and-warcraft-2-working-on-modern-pcs]Polygon[/a]

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[ohnoitsabear]

So wait, Blizzard is actually acknowledging that they made three Warcraft games before their behemoth of an MMO? Well that's new and surprising.

Who knows, at this rate they might actually make a Warcraft 4. Okay, probably not, but it's slightly less improbable than it was a couple of weeks ago.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I wonder if it would ruin the game's balance if they added the ability to select more than 4 characters at a time. I remember it being much harder than the sequel partially due to selection size and pathfinding in cluttered areas.

Warcraft: Humans and Orcs was released back in 1994 for MS-DOS. The next year brought Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness and the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion soon after. Outside of Ebay and DOSBOX, there's no legal way to obtain these classics.

Really? Glad I got an original copy way back when. Pretty sure I only paid like $14 or so for it.

 

[Tony2077]

I wonder if it would ruin the game's balance if they added the ability to select more than 4 characters at a time. I remember it being much harder than the sequel partially due to selection size and pathfinding in cluttered areas.

Warcraft: Humans and Orcs was released back in 1994 for MS-DOS. The next year brought Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness and the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion soon after. Outside of Ebay and DOSBOX, there's no legal way to obtain these classics.

Really? Glad I got an original copy way back when. Pretty sure I only paid like $14 or so for it.

yeah some games are either insane prices or harder to find then real live alien

 

[BanicRhys]

I hope this winds up being a Starcraft 2 mod or a full on HD remake instead of just a simple port.

I really just can't stand old RTS games anymore.

 

[fwiffo]

I hope this winds up being a Starcraft 2 mod or a full on HD remake instead of just a simple port.

I really just can't stand old RTS games.

This is my problem as well.

I played these games when they came out. But that was then, we're at now now. We can't go back to then, because we past then...just now.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I've the first two games on DOSBOX, I'd love for a rerelease, hopefully they will make the graphics better, that is I want to play it in a window bigger then 640 by 480.

 

[Kinitawowi]

I still frickin' love Warcraft I. Except for Human Mission 7, the one where all your peasants are stuck in a stockade. That one was a pain in the arse.

And yeah, nice of Blizzard to remember that Warcraft used to be an awesome RTS series rather than a behemoth of a mumorpuger.

 

[Tanis]

They could have always given it to GOG.
I'm sure they would have worked the hell out of them.

captcha:
double rainbow

 

[CriticalMiss]

Warcraft: Humans and Orcs was released back in 1994 for MS-DOS. The next year brought Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness

What! Blizzard released a sequel the year after the previous game? Must be a different company.

 

[octafish]

I'd rather be sailing.

Warcraft and Warcraft 2 were a big part of my gaming back in my early twenties, until I discovered JA and SSG's Warlords II Deluxe. I just love me some turn based.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I hope this winds up being a Starcraft 2 mod or a full on HD remake instead of just a simple port.

I really just can't stand old RTS games.

This is my problem as well.

I played these games when they came out. But that was then, we're at now now. We can't go back to then, because we past then...just now.

LOL, I see what you did there.

I never played these two games, in the 90's I was a console gamer. My favorite RTS series is the Age of games and I can't even go back to 1 and 2 and they are several years newer.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I played these games when they came out. But that was then, we're at now now. We can't go back to then, because we past then...just now.

So, when will then be now?
Soon, I hope.

Ah, nostalgia...though I can't help but fear that these re-releases will come with some ridiculous requirement.
They're classics, but have not aged well at all.

 

[IanDavis]

I hope this winds up being a Starcraft 2 mod or a full on HD remake instead of just a simple port.

I really just can't stand old RTS games anymore.

The original is remarkably ancient and incredibly difficult to get into today. However, the vague answer that was given makes me wonder if they're planning on something special. It's easy to put a DOSBOX wrapper on something, but it might be that they're planning a more subtle reworking. I guess only time will tell.

 

[Stupidity]

{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPceWwNia6I}
That music still sends chills down my spine. Just hearing it brings back the memories of a dozen campaigns.
Graphics are so hilariously bad though they're almost good.

 

[VanQ]

As long as I don't have to build shit next to roads in the remake, I'm sold! And fix the gad damn pathfinding!

 

[saito82]

I played Warcraft one soooo many times. I still love going back and playing them on Dosbox even now. I loved having to build on a road so much that sometimes I would waste time making my base look cool.

 

[jackpipsam]

Warcraft 2's battle.net servers are still running I think.
So that means online battles again (hopefully).

 

[Therumancer]

Interesting news, to be honest I wonder if the demise of "Warhammer Online" has anything to do with it.

To set the way back machine, Warcraft was originally developed as a Warhammer video game, the devs sent a demo for it to "Games Workshop" and got a "no thanks" response, but was told that they could develop and release the game on their own if they wanted to. This is an important point, because it explains why there has been so much similarity in terms of art style and concepts, especially early on between Warcraft and Warhammer, this was done with permission, in a way that probably wouldn't happen nowadays. Honestly this is probably something that Games Workshop has been kicking themselves over for decades now, given it's generally mediocre forays into the game development front.


If your interested in information on the subject doing a search for "Warcraft inspired by Warhammer" and you'll probably run into a number of places where this is pointed out.

At any rate, where things get weird though is that I heard the original two Warcraft games wound up never being updated and re-released for legal reasons and an agreement with Games Workshop, the idea being that the plotlines and concepts from Warcraft 3 and World Of Warcraft diverged enough from Warhammer that they weren't going to pick that fight (and the chunky/blocky artstyle was something they couldn't come close to winning due to the original permissions). Basically Games Workshop wanted to be able to pimp it's IPs to developers without those developers having to worry about the more directly Warhammer-like games opening up potential doors for them to basically wind up competing against the same license they paid for.

Now with the big Warhammer Fantasy title out of the way, and the support of EA/Mythic not behind it, it seems likely that they have the opportunity to release these games, which is why we've gotten the announcement.

I'm commenting because over the years I've seen a lot of discussions on the subject (which is where a lot of this info have come from) as to why Blizzard hadn't kit bashed working copies of the first two Warcraft games and tossed them into a collectors edition on a flash drive or something before now.