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Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans cover
Developers
Blizzard Entertainment
Publishers
Retail Interplay Entertainment
Retail re-release Sold Out Software
Digital Blizzard Entertainment
Release dates
DOS November 23, 1994
Mac OS (Classic) 1996
Windows (DOSBox) March 28, 2019
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) March 28, 2019
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Top-down view
Controls Multiple select, Point and select
Genres RTS
Themes Fantasy
Series Warcraft
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans on HowLongToBeat
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans on IGDB
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans guide on StrategyWiki
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans on MobyGames
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans on Wikipedia
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

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a singleplayer and multiplayer top-down view RTS game in the Warcraft series.

General information

War1gus & Stratagus patch - For playing on modern systems.
Developer site
GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Some pre-1.21 versions prompt for words from the manual.[1]
DOS
Mac OS
Battle.net
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Warcraft I & II Bundle is also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Multiple demo versions are available from BlizzardArchive.com.

Version differences

The CD-ROM version launched without DRM.
Certain Mac OS (Classic) release supported CD quality streaming audio.
The GOG.com version includes the DOS CD version patched to v1.22h pre-packaged with DOSBox, as well as a DRM-free hybrid disc image with both the 1994 DOS release and the 1996 Mac OS release.[2]

Monetization

Type Notes
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patches for the DOS and Mac OS versions are available on Battle.net's support section.

The GOG.com version is already patched to the most up to date version available.

Warcraft Mouse Helper

Warcraft Mouse Helper options.
Warcraft Mouse Helper options.
Enables more modern mouse controls: ordering units with right mouse button, scrolling with mouse wheel, and selecting multiple units without holding down CTRL.
Requires running the game in DOSBox under Windows.
Works with 2019 GOG.com release.

Game data

In-game options menu.
In-game options menu.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\CONFIG.WAR (sound card settings)
<path-to-game>\PREFS.WAR (in-game options)
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVE*.SAV
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
When the game is run from GOG Galaxy.

Video

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
DOSBox allows for stretch full-screen or pillarboxed full-screen.
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
120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Only scroll speed can be changed.
Mouse sensitivity
For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
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
Screen edge scrolling requires a left click in this title.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Most speech during cinematic scenes and briefings is accompanied with matching text.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio
General MIDI audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Japanese
Local retail release.
Russian
Fan translation by «Открытый перевод Бюро Old-Games.Ru»

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
2
Online play
For DOSBox use DOSBox IPX/modem emulation.

Issues fixed

Game will not start on Windows 10 despite using DOSBox

Change DOSBox output mode
  1. Go to the <path-to-game> folder.
  2. Open dosbox_warcraft.conf with a text editor.
  3. Change output=overlay to output=ddraw and save the file.

Notes

See DOSBox issues fixed for more information.

Bypass WarCraft Launcher menu (GOG.com only)

Edit DOSBox batch command
  1. Go to the <path-to-game> folder.
  2. Open dosbox_warcraft_single.conf with a text editor.
  3. Find goto launcher on or around the 11th line from the top.
  4. Change it to goto game and save the file.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes SVGA
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
64-bit requires a source port.
macOS (OS X)
64-bit may require a source port.
Linux
Requires a source port.[3]
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System

Source ports

Name Description
War1gus
Alternative open-source engine.
Aims to improve stability and availability on other platforms such as OS X and Linux.
Also works with Warcraft II.
Compatible with the GOG.com version.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Information on running this game on Linux can be found on the GOG.com forums.

Cover art gallery

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) MS-DOS 3.2
Processor (CPU) IBM 386/20 MHz
System memory (RAM) 4 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 3 MB
Video card (GPU) VGA graphics card
Mac OS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7
Processor (CPU) Motorola 68030
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 3 MB
Video card (GPU) 256-colour system
Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 7, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU) 1 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB
Video card (GPU) WDDM 1.0
DirectX 9 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.11
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

References