Talk:Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness/Archive 1

Archive 1

Vista Problems?

I been playing warcraft II on my Vista OS for a while and have no troubles. Is there a source for this claim?--12.160.68.62 (talk) 04:30, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Online

Sine my cd is broken and cdkey is being used on a bot can somone be so kind as to update the activity of online play as of 2007? Because i went to war2 usa 1 and there was nobody there. This would be truly sad if this game is dead because i used to play nonstop online at one point in time. thank you Wera 05:45, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

The Warcraft Occult is your best source for information. As it says they have moved to a another server. Or you could check War2 Ladder Challenges on bnet, I don't know. Its forum is your best source for laughing at old rivalries and flamers and hackers and dodgers who are still going strong. –Pomte 06:00, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Conversions

Call me skeptical, but I think the whole "Conversions" section is a bit apocryphal. I admit that I'm not big into the mod scene, but I never heard about any of this stuff. I don't doubt that it really existed, but I doubt that it's notable enough the have an entire section in the article. I think we could sum it all up as, "Many utilities were developed by fans to alter and change WarCraft II assets. Many mods were developed," or some such thing. I just really don't think they were that notable. Anyone else? —Frecklefoot 14:29, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

• They were notable; many players tried out the conversions at least at some point. --Lowellian 22:16, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)

• I agree. Conversions (or mods) have their place in this article, sure. It was/is a notable part of the Warcraft 2 experience. And hey, isn't an encyclopedia entry supposed to a bit more than just a rewording of the blurb on the game box? ~Anonymous Wanderer

There we're a lot of modifications in Warcraft 2. There was Weapons of Our Warfare, made by Cameron Butchshard or something, there was Funcraft, and a mod that would attempt to make it like LOTR, a mot that would make Warcraft to Starcraft, a mod that would make warcraft to starwars, a lot of them got out, but you we're probably too young when the mod scene was at its height. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.2.105.130 (talk) 02:15, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

What doesn't belong in that section, at least as it stands, are the references to Stratagus. It improperly defines Stratagus as a "total conversion," which is far from accurate. Stratagus originally written as a Warcraft *clone*, and has nothing to do with the mod scene at all. The claim that it was an "important revolution" is bogus; note it as a clone, not as an important conversion. Bos Wars simply doesn't belong on the page at all. It's irrelevant to the topic (it's an obscure offshoot of Stratagus) and the blurb on the Warcraft II page just comes off as a shameless advertisement. 71.230.41.60 (talk) 15:14, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

"Warcraft" (lowercase 'c') was probably better

Most people (including Blizzard) seem to write it Warcraft, lowercase 'c'. Same goes for Warcraft III. --Mrwojo 20:11, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I agree. It should be moved back. —Frecklefoot 14:16, Apr 5, 2004 (UTC)

Quotations

"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" is a quote from Warcraft III, not II. I think it should be removed but should it be moved to the WC3 page? - --EatMyShortz 12:43, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I didn't notice this was on the talk page, but I've already moved that quotation to the WC3 article :) Rbarreira 02:18, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Not a stub?

It seems the article on the original Warcraft is more of a stub than this.

Yep, I think you're right. I'd say none of them are stubs, but I don't know. I'll unmark this article at stub, but it would not have been a problem at all if you had done it :) By the way, make sure to sign your posts (typing ~~~~ in the end). Welcome to Wikipedia! Rbarreira 02:15, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Online Play

I've begun a section on online play. War2 was a pretty significant step forward for online competitive gaming, and it would be nice to document some of what went on. Mutant 11:41, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Cheapness, reason for passage editing

"The depth of strategy of the game was found to be immense and evolved over time. Many of the newly invented tactics were considered unorthodox and "cheap", meaning the tactic reduced the enjoyability of the game. New players (newbies, newbs, or noobs) were able to defeat well established players by using cheap tatics. But for every cheap tactic, subsequent countermeasures were developed and matches eventually played out like complicated games of rock, paper, scissors. What was once considered cheap, eventually became routine, and established players were forced to adapt. Examples of cheap tactics include grunt rushing (rushing), barracks first (rax first), offensive barracksing (raxing), offensive towering (ot), peon rushing, and rushing to bloodlust."

Cheapness is about as subjective and unencyclopedic a subject as it gets in competitive gameplay and I didn't believe much of that was salvagable.

First, the word noob shouldn't be used in an encyclopedia. That should be obvious. Second, grunt rushing and rushing to bloodlust are THE two bread and butter strategies of the game. If you consider those cheap, every single game of War2 is cheap because you no longer have bread and butter ground units. I have never seen an offensive barracksing, or at least never seen one that succeeded.

As a former IPX player, that passage just rubbed me the wrong way. Showdown 16:18, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Warcraft Disco

Shouldn't there be something about the hidden disco song? SockMonkeh 05:40, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Last item at Blizzard Entertainment#Trivia. I'll paste it here. –Pomte 06:00, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

It isn't there. --David-bel (talk) 20:36, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Move article?

Shouldn't the main article be found at Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness with Warcraft II being a redirect? Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is the full title of the game. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft: Orcs & Humans are found at the correct full title, why not Warcraft II?

This article is about the bnet edition as well. The Dark Portal expansion has its own article just to tell the story, I guess. –Pomte 06:00, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

The Battlenet edition has a small paragraph within this article. I do agree that the name should be changed to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and make Warcraft II a redirect to that one, not the other way around. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is the original full title of the game. The Battle.net edition was merely a rerelease with the expansion combined. Also Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition already redirects to this page to that section. Anyone looking for the b.net edition is automatically forwarded to the right place.--Fogeltje 10:38, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Battle.net edition

Is the Battle.net edition just Tides of Darkness, or does it also include Beyond the Dark Portal?

Pretty sure both. –Pomte 06:00, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Cleanup

It appears this article has been heavily edited recently, and requires cleanup. I've found numerous spelling and gramatical errors. Source checks and accuracy checks appear to be in order as well. Also some of the added pictures should be moved so that they arent covering text or creating empty space. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.234.47.244 (talk) 09:42, 5 April 2007 (UTC).

Heh. Where do we even begin? The TMI in the intro and the copyvio in the story section are the first glaring problems, but the whole thing is going to be fun. Chris Cunningham 11:00, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

I completely removed the story section, the content seems to be copied straight from a source. It was way too long anyway. I replaced it with a brief summary of the game's story in my own words from my own experience of playing the game as well as reading novels and such. I also removed the images in this section. Take note that the cleanup tag was placed before the story section was added. I think we should also look at the list of buildings and units and revise those sections. I don't think it should contain mere lists of units. Worth mentioning would be things like the balanced units, every Alliance unit has an exact counterpart in the Horde with the notable exception being the spellcasts (Mage and Death Knight) and the spells used by the Paladin/Ogre-Mage.--Fogeltje 13:46, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for working on this :) The article's already looking quite a bit better, although "better than really bad" isn't much of an accolade. Chris Cunningham 14:24, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Something that's even more important is the title. Right now Warcraft II has the main article and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is a redirect. This should be the other way around. But since Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness exists already we can't simply move the page. Copying the information and talk page to the redirect doesn't transfer edit history, which could be relevant and one would have to go to the redirect to look for old versions. Should we nominate the redirect for deletion so we can move the article or ask as an admin to swap the pages or what? I'm not sure what the procedure is for this.--Fogeltje 14:35, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Replace the blocking page with {{db-move}} and it'll be flagged for removal. Or you can add a request to WP:RM. Chris Cunningham 14:50, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, I flagged it for speedy deletion. Once the redirect is gone I will move the page. --Fogeltje 15:21, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Alright, the move has been made by now, thank the admins. I also drastically cut the section about buildings, it read more like a manual listing all the buildings and what they do. Story, unit and building sections have been done. Any more opinions on more cleanup that should be done? Once we are all satisfied I think we can remove the clean-up text. Most 'manual material' is gone, story section has been drastically shortened (though it was written after the tag was placed). Anything else? --Fogeltje 14:31, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

The mods section is a mess, and we need a {{warcraft}} template for related articles instead of all those seealsos. But we're looking a lot better, and I think the tag can go. Many thanks. Chris Cunningham 09:32, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Good point about the see also links, they are already all present in the templates below so I removed that section and moved the portal link. --Fogeltje 10:29, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

development

Did it really take just one year to produce? This Gamespot article said it did. [1] Anyone know when it was first shown? 129.120.86.246 (talk) 23:15, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Cheats

I was wondering if we should put a list of cheat codes not just on this page but on all of the Warcraft and Starcraft series games.I have lists for some of the games.Doomrider15 (talk) 14:59, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

No. Wikipedia is not a game guide. Pagrashtak 15:06, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Features Section

This seems more like a trivia section. Why would the ability to make critters explode by clicking on them be considered a "feature"? 76.29.139.167 (talk) 04:36, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

wikquote

Shocked not to find it, I created a wikiquote for Warcraft 2 and linked to it. < /geek > —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.84.7.102 (talk) 05:59, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Story Section Editing

I'm not currently logged on, I can't recall my password, but I was reading through the Story section and noticed that it was all in past tense. I know that this is incorrect, because when discussing a story/book/movie, the present tense always needs to be used. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.29.88.47 (talk) 09:56, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Merger proposal

To merge into Warcraft II (new title):

• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (this article)
• Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal

Section "Statement by Philcha (proposer)" explains why the proposer believers the merger would be beneficial. Contributors may add statements after this.

"Supports" and "Opponents" to be are numbered list for each of counting. "Comments" to be an unnumber list. All of these to be after "Proposal". --Philcha (talk) 21:32, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

1. Support --Philcha (talk) 21:32, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
2. Support, no reason not to, really. :) ----Tustin2121 _talk 01:58, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
3. Oppose - See comments. UncannyGarlic (talk) 19:53, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Comments

Reasons for merger - mainly avoided what would be large duplication:

• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal used the same UI and the only different in game play in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal is more powerful heroes.
• If Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal remain separate, the compilation Warcraft II: Battle (1996; the PC version is DOS) would have to be a separate article, as it has the UI and most of the game play was established in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, but the more powerful heroes was established Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal and the story would be a combination of the stories from Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal.
• If Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal remain separate, there should be a separate article for Warcraft II: The Dark Saga, although this is a Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal compilation with addition UI elements (selecting units by click and shift, etc.).
• If Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal remain separate,

there should be a separate article for Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, as Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal is a compilation of the content but with a Windows environment, additional UI elements (first developed in Warcraft II: The Dark Saga) and addition of Battle.net. --Philcha (talk) 21:32, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

I disagree with the assertion that the several versions would need separate articles, as the several versions don't have much reception for themselves (as you've duly noted). However, I'm hesitant to comment for the other side, because I have a special place in my heart for Warcraft (and would like to see the expansion if nothing else remain separate).

The default, I think, though, should be a merge, and see if you can dig up more reception in favor of keeping the expansion separate. It seems to me though that, we could split some of the coverage up from the other releases between these two, as it doesn't seem to me like the coverage isn't always about both games at the same time. Of course, you're working with the sourcing moreso, so that's your call. Go with what you wanna' do; I think this is a case where silence is tacit approval. --Izno (talk) 22:19, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't see why they can't be merged. Lots of game articles have sequals in the same article. Not to mention that the sequal article is rather short as it is. If there were more information, then merging would be more of a question.

I would also like to point out to whomever setup the merger that we use templates here at Wikipedia to allow the database to keep track of mergers and other stuff that templates handle. I have replaced the shoddy custom message at the top of the two pages with templates, as they should have. So, other than that, I have nothing more to contribute to the discussion. Place me under supporters. ----Tustin2121 _talk 01:55, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

I'd say that the current issue is quality. Most decently written game articles give expansions a seperate page (if you really want, I could easily dig up numerous examples) as it allows for better organization and separation of information. The argument appears to be that the games are not sufficiently different in gameplay to require seperate articles and if that's the case, are there other articles for similar games and expansions which are the merged for that reason? In fact, I'd point to StarCraft and Brood War as an example of minimal changes in the expansion the products have seperate pages. I agree that the quality of the Beyond the Dark Portal article is low but I'd say that a merger of the articles would be against common form. UncannyGarlic (talk) 19:51, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Suggested merge of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal

See Talk:Warcraft_II:_Tides_of_Darkness#Merger_proposal. The combined article would be Warcraft II] (new title). I've asked at Help_talk:Merging#Help_text_needs_adjusting.3F on how to a merge from A and B into C, and will add merge templates when this question is resolved. --Philcha (talk) 22:27, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

All done. --Philcha (talk) 23:56, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Removed sections, etc. that lack citations

If you find WP:RS citations, please add the supported pages, with the citations: --Philcha (talk) 23:56, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

• Section "Utilities, modifications, and conversions"

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness was an unusual game for the time because a large number of third-party utilities were written for it. Among the first things, Daniel Lemberg reverse-engineered the Warcraft II map file (*.pud) format and created the first third-party map editor, War2xEd, which could do numerous things the bundled map editor could not do, such as editing unit attributes. Although Lemberg did not make the source code for War2xEd public, he did publish the complete Warcraft II map file format, which led to a wealth of new tools, including a Macintosh version of the tool called PudMaster. More importantly, Blizzard began to use War2xEd internally, and it influenced them to bundle a feature-rich editor with their immensely popular game StarCraft, which was released later, in 1998.

The next important breakthrough came when Alexander Cech and Lemberg broke the encryption used in the base game data files. Cech went on to create a program called Wardraft, which allowed users to browse and modify the contents of the game data files, allowing comprehensive modifications. The spawn of extensive alterations became known as "Total Conversions", and a great many projects were in motion for a good long while.

Another important revolution was the introduction of a completely new engine called Stratagus. Instead of using the engine and modifying the images/animations/sounds that the engine uses, Stratagus is a completely re-written version of the Warcraft II gaming engine. (Wargus uses the original War2 units/sounds but it uses Stratagus instead of the Warcraft 2 engine.) Thus, writing a completely different game became possible and that game lives on today as Bos Wars (Battle of Survival). Stratagus and Wargus are no longer developed (although Wargus is essentially complete.) The developers have instead put their efforts into completing BOS.

• Section "Utilities". Also may be irrelevant.

Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal were released together for Sega Saturn and PlayStation under the title Warcraft II: The Dark Saga in 1997 by Electronic Arts.

There was also a reverse engineered free software game engine called Freecraft, which allowed users to import the actual game data from Warcraft II and play the game on different platforms and with additional features like queuing unit production, finding idle workers, an improved AI and network connectivity for up to 16 players. In addition to being compatible with Warcraft II, it could also be used with a set of artwork and scenarios made by the Freecraft Media Project (FcMP). Although the actual Freecraft program and FcMP used no art or code from Warcraft II, the project received a threatening cease-and-desist letter from Blizzard, apparently due to similarity to the Warcraft trademarks. Not willing to fight Blizzard, the maintainers canceled the whole project, later rekindling it under the name of Stratagus. By using this game engine through Wargus, the game is also playable on BSD, Linux, Mac OS X, AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS.

• Section "Special features". Some also covered above.

* Humorous unit quotations are a feature of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, following the tradition of the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. If a single unit is clicked on several times in a row, his or her voice samples change from regular to longer, emotional ones. He or she may start getting angry at the player, or quote lines in reference to movies or games. For example, a footman would say, "don't you have a kingdom to run?" or "are you still touching me?" These phrases differed in the game's demo for the Footman and Grunt units, and were mostly indignations to purchase the full version. In a pre-release version sent to magazines for reviews, these quotations included samples like "I love your publication!" or "Remember: A good review... for Warcraft 2."

• Clicking on a non-playable critter such as a sheep enough times causes it to blow up.

• If the disk for Beyond the Dark Portal or the original demo is inserted into a CD player, the orchestrated music from the game can be played. In addition, there is a bonus 13th track called "I'm a Medieval Man" which features remixed sound bites from the first game. The track is also available in-game by typing "disco" as a cheat. (This however gives you the status 'Cheater' when you finish that mission.) "Medieval Man" is also a cheat code in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness to play the song as background music or in StarCraft to obtain all unit upgrades for free. Also, in StarCraft, if one clicks on an observer while playing as the Protoss, a clip of the song will be played.

• The script that was used in the book positioned in the background screen while the player was informed about mission objectives is the Cyrillic alphabet, but the language in which it is written is English. The text contains a small section of a game story text, mentioning how the Orcish hordes entered the forests of Lordaeron.

• The soundtrack by Glenn Stafford has been released in MP3 format by Blizzard.

Notes for GA review

Re interaction (?) btw C&C and WC2:

• • • Chronology:

      • Command & Conquer (1st version) development began in earnest early in 1993
      • WC2 development started Feb 1995
      • C&C released August 31, 1995.
      • WC2 released Dec 1995

      Google got nothing about announcements, preview, news or press releases re WC2.

      Google got nothing about announcements, preview, news, press releases or demos re C&C --Philcha (talk) 15:39, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

a combination that surpassed Starcraft's success.

This sentence is causing some contention in the article. It was first removed by an IP editor, then restored by a registered user. I agreed with the IP, so removed it again. There has now been a flip-flop between the two states, and no attempt at discussion - so here we go:

As requested, I've read through the entire Warcraft II text, and cannot find any claim that WC3 has surpassed the popularity & sales of Starcraft. In the edit summary, I ask where this claim is, and get no helpful response. I've also checked the MOS, and the Citing sources help pages - none of which say that you shouldn't cite a lead paragraph.

So where is the claim - what source and reference back it up? a_man_alone (talk) 15:32, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Most browsers have a "find" facility. If yours has, you can find the content in the main text, with citation(s). --Philcha (talk) 16:35, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Warcraft II sold over two million copies. [2]. Starcraft sold 11 million copies. Dream Focus 02:56, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

There is no way WC2 surpassed SC's success. SC survived over 10 years and WC2 died out when WC3 came out. There are people that still play SC competitively on Iccup.com Jwjkim (talk) 05:39, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

second expansion

there was a second expansion that was released in a package containing the original and beyond the dark portal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.208.103.135 (talk) 16:11, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

• I have both the originial and expansion in 1 package (a good deal!) That's one reason for Warcraft II, and the other is the 2 consoles, which combined the originial and expansion. If you think there are objections, I suggest you can raise them when the community GAR is under way. --Philcha (talk) 17:17, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Merges from Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

This notes that the following discussion were moved from Tides of Darkness.

!! to do Talk for: Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, Battle.Station, consoles. --Philcha (talk) 07:27, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Merger proposal

To merge into Warcraft II (new title):

• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (this article)
• Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal

Section "Statement by Philcha (proposer)" explains why the proposer believers the merger would be beneficial. Contributors may add statements after this.

"Supports" and "Opponents" to be are numbered list for each of counting. "Comments" to be an unnumber list. All of these to be after "Proposal". --Philcha (talk) 21:32, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

1. Support --Philcha (talk) 21:32, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
2. Support, no reason not to, really. :) ----Tustin2121 _talk 01:58, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Comments

Reasons for merger - mainly avoided what would be large duplication:

• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal used the same UI and the only different in game play in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal is more powerful heroes.
• If Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal remain separate, the compilation Warcraft II: Battle (1996; the PC version is DOS) would have to be a separate article, as it has the UI and most of the game play was established in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, but the more powerful heroes was established Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal and the story would be a combination of the stories from Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal.
• If Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal remain separate, there should be a separate article for Warcraft II: The Dark Saga, although this is a Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal compilation with addition UI elements (selecting units by click and shift, etc.).
• If Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal remain separate,

there should be a separate article for Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, as Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal is a compilation of the content but with a Windows environment, additional UI elements (first developed in Warcraft II: The Dark Saga) and addition of Battle.net. --Philcha (talk) 21:32, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

I disagree with the assertion that the several versions would need separate articles, as the several versions don't have much reception for themselves (as you've duly noted). However, I'm hesitant to comment for the other side, because I have a special place in my heart for Warcraft (and would like to see the expansion if nothing else remain separate).

The default, I think, though, should be a merge, and see if you can dig up more reception in favor of keeping the expansion separate. It seems to me though that, we could split some of the coverage up from the other releases between these two, as it doesn't seem to me like the coverage isn't always about both games at the same time. Of course, you're working with the sourcing moreso, so that's your call. Go with what you wanna' do; I think this is a case where silence is tacit approval. --Izno (talk) 22:19, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't see why they can't be merged. Lots of game articles have sequals in the same article. Not to mention that the sequal article is rather short as it is. If there were more information, then merging would be more of a question.

I would also like to point out to whomever setup the merger that we use templates here at Wikipedia to allow the database to keep track of mergers and other stuff that templates handle. I have replaced the shoddy custom message at the top of the two pages with templates, as they should have. So, other than that, I have nothing more to contribute to the discussion. Place me under supporters. ----Tustin2121 _talk 01:55, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Suggested merge of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal

See Talk:Warcraft_II:_Tides_of_Darkness#Merger_proposal. The combined article would be Warcraft II] (new title). I've asked at Help_talk:Merging#Help_text_needs_adjusting.3F on how to a merge from A and B into C, and will add merge templates when this question is resolved. --Philcha (talk) 22:27, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Article history and reasons for title

Article history

• This article was titled Warcraft II when it was sent to Talk:Warcraft II/GA1, and the reviewer accepted that title right through the review, 17:25, 7 May 2010 to 00:43, 11 July 2010. --04:48, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
• At the very first change, at 13:23, 7 October 2010User:Niwi3 changed the title with no notice nor discussion, and on 13:31, 17 November 2011 I reverted it to as at Talk:Warcraft II/GA1 --Philcha (talk) 04:48, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
  • Why did you do a cut-and-paste move (diff) instead of moving over the redirect? I think the best way forward is to speedy G6 the Warcraft II page – like a histmerge, but the reverts can stay deleted. Flatscan (talk) 05:46, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
  • Hi, Flatscan. Please no not evert Warcraft II - see down (when I get time to it!) --Philcha (talk) 07:12, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
    • If you want the article at Warcraft II, that's fine. But you're splitting the history between two pages, and that absolutely must be resolved. I am currently awaiting a merge of the talk page. Once that is fixed, we can discuss the correct title. Or don't discuss it and just move it. I don't care at all which title this article has. But either way, the technical process of moving the page must be done correctly to preserve revision history. Reach Out to the Truth 07:28, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Reasons for title

• Warcraft II has been sold as: --Philcha (talk) 09:23, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
  • Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness for MS-DOS and Mac
  • Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal for MS-DOS and Mac
  • Warcraft II: Battle Chest for MS-DOS and Mac
  • Warcraft II: The Dark Saga for Sony PlayStation , which combined the campaigns of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal under the one title
  • Warcraft II: The Dark Saga for Sega Saturn, which also combined the campaigns of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal under the one title
• Advantages of combining the accounts of versions:
  • Many hands to maintain all these verions
  • Keeping and enhancing WP's name for reliability and useful info. A fragmented set of info will be become inconsistent, and some cases will have no or poor citations.

--Philcha (talk) 09:23, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

We don't have articles for different versions of the same game. And anyone getting confused and searching for the wrong thing will hit a redirect to the proper article. Dream Focus 19:18, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

• Games are called by the full name that they were released by. This includes the many games which have expansion packs, as most games made in the past 15 years or so have. The expansion pack Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal even has its own article right now. Most games are later sold as collections, and those collections are called by a different name. Sometimes they are released in various collections with totally different names. And when they release the games on a different system, they might change the name a bit, but that doesn't matter either. The long accepted standard throughout the English language Wikipedia has been to call the game by the name it was released by in English. Dream Focus 12:20, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

What a crazy mess

I realise this article is going through a review process, but the current sandboxed version is absolutely pathetic, and unfair to those who surf in for a read. Would anyone object if I WP:BOLDLY reverted this back to (the last clean) revision 474815697 by Khanassassin?  -- WikHead (talk) 07:20, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Release Dates

The release dates are all messed up. In the infobox PC (DOS) and Mac were released in 95 (US) and 96 (EU) and the Console Versions (Saturn and PlayStation) in 97. But the first sentence states that the PC Version was released in 95 and the Mac one in 96. The development section repeats that. But the development sections states that the Console Versions were released in 96 instead of 97. Maybe that's all mixed up because of different dates for US and EU? I don't know which dates are true, so I won't change it and hope someone here can fix it. --MetalSnake (talk) 15:59, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Linux Version

I could find no single reliable reference to confirm the Linux version exists. I believe it does, Blizzard promised a Linux release in 2013, game database sites list this game as a 2013 release, but wikipedia should show a reference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.111.92.243 (talk) 00:45, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

No Linux support

None of Blizzard's products have official Linux support. This should be removed from the sidebar.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 223.195.99.242 (talk • contribs) 07:05, 14 November 2014‎ (UTC)

Done. -- ferret (talk) 12:15, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

AmigaOS4?

There never was (and likely never will be) an official AmigaOS4 version (AmigaOS4 final version (previous versions were meant for developers only) was released in 2006, so would be quite old game to license)

So why is the OS listed here? There's a port of Stratagus engine: http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=game/strategy/stratagus.lha

This is NOT based on original Warcraft 2 sources (which remains closed source), but can run "something like the original game" with the original Warcraft 2 data files - however, in my opinion, this should NOT be considered a port of Warcraft 2.

Alternatively, there are TONS of other, currently unlisted platforms, that Stratagus is also ported to, should they be added as well? ~Anonymous — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.78.170.157 (talk) 12:30, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Battle.net is inferior in some ways

The music was truncated so the game would fit on one CD. Can someone add that to the article? Imagine Reason (talk) 01:44, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

Reviews

• The Duelist #12

207.229.139.154 (talk) 01:39, 9 May 2023 (UTC)