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Warcraft 1 and 2

TakisMegasTakisMegas Member Posts: 835
in Off-Topic

Warcraft 1 and 2 are now available on GoG.

Comments

  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    These two games (along with Monkey Island 1 & 2) were basically my formative gaming experiences. I am especially fond of 2. I managed to beat the main campaign back then, but I would be seriously surprised to run into anyone who completed even half the missions in the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion without cheat codes. Even more so than Brood War, it is an add-on that is for experts only. I think I maybe managed the first two missions on each side.
  • TakisMegasTakisMegas Member Posts: 835

    I'm very excited for this weekend. Gotta squeeze Grim Dawn in also. Ah, first world problems.
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    What Blizzard did from 1994 to 2004 was unreal. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo, Beyond the Dark Portal, Starcraft, Diablo II, Brood War, Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne, and World of Warcraft. It was an unprecedented run of quality. Which is why their current state is so utterly depressing.
  • Humanoid_TaifunHumanoid_Taifun Member Posts: 1,063
    I remember playing Warcraft 1 long before I learned how to speak English. There was a mission where you had to leave one tower standing, and it was only through repeated runs that my friend and I slowly figured out the winning conditions. That was fun.
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    What Blizzard did from 1994 to 2004 was unreal. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo, Beyond the Dark Portal, Starcraft, Diablo II, Brood War, Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne, and World of Warcraft. It was an unprecedented run of quality. Which is why their current state is so utterly depressing.

    I won't argue your point, but just state that "Blizzard North" wasn't really Blizzard. It's still a very, very impressive set of releases!
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
    It's too bad @PhillipDaigle is no longer here. ;)
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    I'll wait for a sale.
  • BelleSorciereBelleSorciere Member Posts: 2,108
    Skatan wrote: »
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    What Blizzard did from 1994 to 2004 was unreal. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo, Beyond the Dark Portal, Starcraft, Diablo II, Brood War, Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne, and World of Warcraft. It was an unprecedented run of quality. Which is why their current state is so utterly depressing.

    I won't argue your point, but just state that "Blizzard North" wasn't really Blizzard. It's still a very, very impressive set of releases!

    Blizzard North was its own thing, but Blizzard's main studio contributed a lot to Diablo's final design, and I believe Blizzard North people contributed to Blizzard's games. Bill Roper, for example, did at least some of the orc voice work in Warcraft II. While they were distinct offices, I think it's unfair to say that Blizzard North wasn't really Blizzard. It's a lot of what Blizzard so recognizable in the mid-late 90s to early 2000s.
  • VerticorVerticor Member Posts: 119
    I personally like to refer to it as "Blizzard Now" and "Blizzard Then", whenever the talk revolves around the quality of Blizzard titles. It tends to make people go "Ahhh, I see".
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    What Blizzard did from 1994 to 2004 was unreal. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo, Beyond the Dark Portal, Starcraft, Diablo II, Brood War, Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne, and World of Warcraft. It was an unprecedented run of quality. Which is why their current state is so utterly depressing.

    Well, some necromancy going on up in here. I'll jump in.

    That's an impressive list, sure. But it really boils down to just 3 IPs. Technically, it's only 6 games, with 5 expansions.

    I would say the only companies that come to mind that rival that sort of success is Microprose in an earlier era, and Interplay.

    We all know and love Interplay for Black Isle for the Baldur's Gate series, of course. And Icewind Dale and its expansion. And Planescape. And Fallout 1 and 2. And Wasteland, the predecessor of Fallout. Other titles from Interplay I'm familiar with were the M.A.X. series.

    Microprose practically made the turn-based strategy genre with 4X "high strategy" with Civ, MoM, and MoO. Other turn-based "tactics" level hits such as X-Com. They had a host of other "simulation" games, of which I have fond memories of F-117 and Silent Service II (WW2 Pacific sub sim). Lightspeed/Hyperspeed was a blend of flight/strategy/RP/Econ. For a game from 1990, it had exceptional, groundbreaking graphics.

    Games from these three companies never leave my hard drive.

    Honorable mention to Westwood for Command and Conquer and Dune RTSs, and Blizzard's devs even cite Dune 2 as being inspiration for them developing Warcraft 1. They also had the Lands of Lore and Kyrandia series.

    Also honorable mention to Maxis. A billion sim games, with hits being Simcity/Simcity 2000. However, Maxis is probably best known these days for "The Sims", which except for the earliest dev, would have technically been under EA in 1997.

    It is interesting to see what success is and how that has grown over time. Warcraft 1 (1994) sold 300,000 copies, total. Warcraft II sold 500,000 within 3 months in 1996. Diablo did 750,000 in its first year. Diablo II 3 years later did almost 200,000 on its FIRST DAY.

    Baldur's Gate apparently was not expected to be a strong performer. Bioware had a goal of 200k. When it stormed in early 1999, it sold 80k copies just in January. In 6 months of 1999, it did 700k.
  • AmmarAmmar Member Posts: 1,297
    Quickblade wrote: »
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    What Blizzard did from 1994 to 2004 was unreal. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo, Beyond the Dark Portal, Starcraft, Diablo II, Brood War, Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne, and World of Warcraft. It was an unprecedented run of quality. Which is why their current state is so utterly depressing.

    Well, some necromancy going on up in here. I'll jump in.

    That's an impressive list, sure. But it really boils down to just 3 IPs. Technically, it's only 6 games, with 5 expansions.

    I would say the only companies that come to mind that rival that sort of success is Microprose in an earlier era, and Interplay.

    We all know and love Interplay for Black Isle for the Baldur's Gate series, of course. And Icewind Dale and its expansion. And Planescape. And Fallout 1 and 2. And Wasteland, the predecessor of Fallout. Other titles from Interplay I'm familiar with were the M.A.X. series.

    Microprose practically made the turn-based strategy genre with 4X "high strategy" with Civ, MoM, and MoO. Other turn-based "tactics" level hits such as X-Com. They had a host of other "simulation" games, of which I have fond memories of F-117 and Silent Service II (WW2 Pacific sub sim). Lightspeed/Hyperspeed was a blend of flight/strategy/RP/Econ. For a game from 1990, it had exceptional, groundbreaking graphics.

    Games from these three companies never leave my hard drive.

    Honorable mention to Westwood for Command and Conquer and Dune RTSs, and Blizzard's devs even cite Dune 2 as being inspiration for them developing Warcraft 1. They also had the Lands of Lore and Kyrandia series.

    Also honorable mention to Maxis. A billion sim games, with hits being Simcity/Simcity 2000. However, Maxis is probably best known these days for "The Sims", which except for the earliest dev, would have technically been under EA in 1997.

    It is interesting to see what success is and how that has grown over time. Warcraft 1 (1994) sold 300,000 copies, total. Warcraft II sold 500,000 within 3 months in 1996. Diablo did 750,000 in its first year. Diablo II 3 years later did almost 200,000 on its FIRST DAY.

    Baldur's Gate apparently was not expected to be a strong performer. Bioware had a goal of 200k. When it stormed in early 1999, it sold 80k copies just in January. In 6 months of 1999, it did 700k.

    Don't forget SSI and especially Origin Systems.
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    Well, I mean, if we're playing the best of all-time game, the clear winner as far as PC developers go is Looking Glass Studios. They are the 90s Chicago Bulls of PC game development. Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, System Shock 1 & 2, and Thief 1 & 2. The sheer amount of influence here is staggering. If they didn't flat-out create the immersive sim, survival horror, and stealth genres, then they were absolutely the ones who refined and defined the concepts of each. The amount of games that wouldn't exist without these titles could fill a book.
  • AmmarAmmar Member Posts: 1,297
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    Well, I mean, if we're playing the best of all-time game, the clear winner as far as PC developers go is Looking Glass Studios. They are the 90s Chicago Bulls of PC game development. Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, System Shock 1 & 2, and Thief 1 & 2. The sheer amount of influence here is staggering. If they didn't flat-out create the immersive sim, survival horror, and stealth genres, then they were absolutely the ones who refined and defined the concepts of each. The amount of games that wouldn't exist without these titles could fill a book.

    True enough. Though I was thinking of Publishers (given that Blizzard had two separate studios as well) and then both System Shock and Ultima Underworld were also Origin.
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    Ammar wrote: »
    Don't forget SSI and especially Origin Systems.

    Definitely can't forget those two. I heart the Warlords Battlecry series, and Crusader and Wing Commander.

    Warlords Battlecry presaged so much that got implemented in Warcraft III.
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