Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

This page is for the original release. For the Battle.net-compatible and GOG.com enhanced releases, see Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

Developers
	Blizzard Entertainment
Beyond the Dark Portal	Cyberlore Studios
Release dates
DOS	December 9, 1995
Mac OS (Classic)	December 9, 1995
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Top-down view
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Warcraft

Warcraft
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans	1994
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness	1995
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans	Cancelled
Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition	1999
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos	2002
World of Warcraft	2004
Hearthstone	2014
Warcraft III: Reforged	2020

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		CD required to play single-player and start multi-player games. Expansion CD required to play Beyond the Dark Portal campaigns.

Multiple shareware demos are available from BlizzardArchive.com.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion pack includes new campaigns and maps.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Beyond the Dark Portal	Requires the base game (Tides of Darkness) to be installed first. Upgrades the game program to allow playing original and expansion campaigns from the same executable.

Essential improvements

Patches

Install the Tides of Darkness patch only if Beyond the Dark Portal is not installed.

Operating System	Tides of Darkness	Beyond the Dark Portal
Windows	FTP Server	Blizzard FTP Server
Mac	Blizzard FTP Server	Blizzard FTP Server

Warcraft II: Beyond The Dark Portal Map Editor for Mac

Source ports

Name	Description
Wargus	Alternative open-source engine. Aims to improve stability and availability on other platforms such as OS X and Linux. Also works with the original Warcraft. Not fully compatible with the Battle.net Edition.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\WAR2.INI
Mac OS (Classic)

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\SAVE*.SAV
Mac OS (Classic)

Video

In-game options menu.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		For DOSBox toggle with Alt+↵ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Affects scrolling speed only
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		Voiced briefings are always subtitled.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio
General MIDI audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan translation.
French				First release only had a French manual. Second release was localized entirely.
German
Italian
Japanese
Brazilian Portuguese				BraSoft release: "Warcraft II: Ondas de Terror"
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8	See IPXWrapper.
Online play		For DOSBox use DOSBox IPX/modem emulation.

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	6112-6119
UDP	6112-6119

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

IPXWrapper

Already included in the GOG version.

This tool provides a workaround the obsolete IPX protocol used in multiplayer. Extract it to <path-to-game>.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DOS video modes	SVGA

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows						Requires a source port.
macOS (OS X)					Requires a source port.
Linux					Requires a source port.
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System

System requirements

DOS	Mac OS (Classic)

DOS
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	5.0
Processor (CPU)	80486 33 MHz
System memory (RAM)	8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	SVGA-compliant video card

Mac OS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7.5	9.2.2
Processor (CPU)	Motorola 68040
System memory (RAM)	8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	256 colors