Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game (RTS) developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, and published by Interplay Productions in Europe. It was released for MS-DOS in North America on November 15, 1994, and for Mac OS in early 1996. The MS-DOS version was re-released by Sold-Out Software in 2002. It is the first game in the Warcraft fantasy game franchise.
Although Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is not the first RTS game to have offered multiplayer gameplay, it persuaded a wider audience that multiplayer capabilities were essential for future RTS games. The game introduced innovations in its mission design and gameplay elements, which were adopted by other RTS developers.
Warcraft games emphasize skillful management of relatively small forces, and they maintain characters and storylines within a cohesive fictional universe. Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the game won three awards and was a finalist for three others. The game's sequel, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, became the main rival to the Command & Conquer series by Westwood Studios. This competition fostered an "RTS boom" in the mid– to late 1990s.
Gameplay Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game (RTS). The player takes the role of either the Human inhabitants of Azeroth, or the invading Orcs.Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac), pp. 17–20 In the single player campaign mode the player works through a series of missions, the objective of which varies, but usually involves building a small town, harvesting resources, building an army and then leading it to victory. In multiplayer games, the objective is always to destroy the enemy players' forces. Some scenarios are complicated by the presence of wild monsters, but sometimes these monsters can be used as troops.Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac), pp. 31–34Warcraft 1 Manual: Orcs (Mac), pp. 31–34 The game plays in a medieval setting with fantasy elements. Both sides have melee units and ranged units, as well as spellcasters.
Modes Gameplay of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans expands the Dune II "build base, build army, destroy enemy" paradigm to include other modes of game play. These include several new mission types, such as conquering rebels of the player's race, rescuing and rebuilding besieged towns, rescuing friendly forces from an enemy camp and then destroying the main enemy base, and limited-forces missions, in which neither side can make further units, and making efficient use of one's platoon is a key strategy element. In one mission, the player has to kill the Orc chief's daughter.
The game allows two players to compete in multiplayer contests by dialup modem or local networks,Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac), p. 3 and enables gamers with the MS-DOS and Macintosh version to play each other. Multiplayer and AI skirmishes that are not part of campaigns were supported by a random map generator. The game also allowed spawn installations to be made.
Economy and power Warcraft requires players to collect resources, and to produce buildings and units to defeat an opponent in combat. Non-combatant builders deliver the resources to the Town Center from mines, from which gold is dug, and forests, where wood is chopped. As both are limited resources which become exhausted during the game, players must collect them efficiently, and also retain forests as defensive walls in the early game when combat forces are small.
The lower-level buildings for Humans and Orcs have the same functions, but different sprites. The Town Hall stores resources and produces units that collect resources and construct buildings. Each Farm provides food for up to four units, and additional units cannot be produced until enough Farms are built.Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac), pp. 27–30Warcraft 1 Manual: Orcs (Mac), pp. 27–29 The Barracks produces all non-magical combat units, including melee, ranged, mounted, and siege units. However all except the most basic also need assistance from other buildings, some of which can also upgrade units.
Each side can construct two types of magical buildings, each of which produces one type of spellcaster and researches more advanced spells for that type. These advanced buildings can be constructed only with assistance from other buildings.Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac), pp. 21–23Warcraft 1 Manual: Orcs (Mac), pp. 21–23 The Human Cleric and Orc Necrolyte can both defend themselves by magic and also see distant parts of the territory for short periods.Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac), pp. 24–26Warcraft 1 Manual: Orcs (Mac), pp. 24–26 The Cleric's other spells are protective, healing the injured and making troops invisible, while the Necrolyte raises skeletons as troops and can make other units temporarily invulnerable, at the cost of severely damaging them when the spell dissipates. The Human Conjurer and Orc Warlock have energy blasts, wider-range destruction spells and the ability to summon small, venomous monsters. The Conjurer can summon a water elemental, while the Warlock can summon a demonic melee unit.
User interface
The main screen has three areas: the largest, to the right, is the part of the territory on which the player is currently operating; the top left is the mini-map; and, if a building or unit(s) is selected, the bottom left shows their status and any upgrades and the actions that can be performed. The status details include a building's or unit's health, including its progress if being constructed, and any upgrades the object has completed. The Menu control, at the very bottom on the left, provides access to save game, load game and other menu functions.
Initially most of the main map and mini-map are blacked out, but the visible area expands as the player's units explore the map. The mini-map shows a summary of the whole territory, with green dots for the player's buildings and units and red dots for enemy ones. The player can click in the main map or the mini-map to scroll the main map around the territory.
All functions can be invoked by the mouse. Keys can also invoke the game setup, some of the menu options and some gameplay functions including scrolling and pausing the game.Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac), pp. 5–15 Players can select single units by clicking, and groups of up to four by shift-clicking or bandboxing. To move units, players can shift the mouse to select units on the main map, move to the unit menu to select an action, and then back to the main map or mini-map to specify the target area; shortcut keys can eliminate the middle mouse action in this cycle.
Storyline Backstory The Orcs originate from another world. A warlike species, they conquered everyone else around them, and eventually, the various Orc clans started scheming against one another. The Warlock clan, noticing these developments, tried to find a solution and prevent the Orcs from turning on one another. The Warlocks noticed a rift between the dimensions and, after many years, opened a small portal to another world. One Warlock explored and found a region, called Azeroth by its Human inhabitants, from which the Warlock returned with strange plants as evidence of his discovery.Warcraft 1 Manual: Orcs (Mac), pp. 17–20
The Orcs enlarged the portal until they could transport seven warriors, who massacred a Human village. The raiding party brought back samples of good food and fine workmanship, and a report that the Humans were defenseless. The Orcs' raiding parties grew larger and bolder, until they assaulted Azeroth's principal castle. However, the Humans had been training warriors of their own, especially the mounted, heavily armed Knights. These, assisted by Human Sorcerers, gradually forced the Orcs to retreat through the portal, which the Humans had not discovered.
For the next fifteen years, one faction of Orcs demanded that the portal be closed. However a chief of exceptional cunning realized that the Humans, although out-numbered, had prevailed through the use of superior tactics, organization, and by magic. He united the clans, imposed discipline on their army and sought new spells from the Warlocks and Necromancers. Their combined forces were ready to overthrow the Humans.
Characters Several important characters are introduced in WarCraft: Orcs and Humans. The two campaigns center around unnamed player characters in positions of high importance. WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness reveals the player character of the orc campaign to be Orgrim Doomhammer, who begins the game as a lieutenant of the ruling Warchief, Blackhand the Destroyer. The human player character begins as a regent over a small section of Azeroth, appointed by King Llane Wrynn. Other characters present in the game include Garona, a half-orc spy who is ostensibly a diplomat to the humans; Medivh, the most powerful magician of Azeroth; and Anduin Lothar, one of the greatest champions of Azeroth.
Game The game's two campaigns are exclusive to each other.
After several battles against the Human forces, the Orcish campaign culminates with the Orc commander killing Blackhand and overthrowing him, sacking Stormwind, killing King Llane and becoming victorious as the new Warchief.
The Human campaign involves the rescue of the trapped Anduin Lothar, and the killing of Medivh, who has become insane. King Llane is killed by Garona, but before his death, wishes that the player character becomes the commander of the Human forces. The player character marches on Blackrock Spire and destroys the Horde. After the Human victory, the player character becomes the new King of Stormwind.
In WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness, it was revealed that the canonical campaign was the Orcish one, though many events from the Human campaign were confirmed to be canonical in later games, such as the assassination of Llane by Garona and the death of Medivh.
Development and publication Though the earliest real-time strategy games appeared in the 1980s, notably the multiplayer RTS game Herzog Zwei,DGC Ep 24: Interview with Bill Roper, Dev Game Club (August 18, 2016) and others followed in the early 1990s, the pattern of modern RTS games was established by Dune II, released by Westwood Studios for DOS in 1992. Inspired by Dune II and Herzog Zwei, Blizzard Entertainment was surprised that no additional RTS games appeared in 1993 and early 1994 – although in fact Westwood had quietly been working on Command & Conquer since the completion of Dune II. Seizing on this lull in RTS releases, Blizzard produced Warcraft: Orcs & Humans by copying all artwork from Dune II and then redesigning each asset, though it accidentally retained the font of Dune II.
According to Patrick Wyatt, the producer of Warcraft, Warhammer was a huge inspiration for the art-style of Warcraft, as the game was originally meant to be an RTS adaptation of Warhammer, but Blizzard was unable to receive a license from its IP owner Games Workshop, and so decided to make its own IP. According to Bob Fitch, the theme for Warcraft was inspired by the Vikings of The Lost Vikings, combined with masses of creatures under their automated control similar to Lemmings, and adding the multiplayer element of having these opposing masses of Vikings meet up and fight each other.
Though subsequent Warcraft games are famous for having complex stories presented lavishly, the first installment of the series had no script and the plot was improvised in the recording studio by producer and sole voice-actor Bill Roper. The contract composer Gregory Alper wrote music that Blizzard staff found reminiscent of Holst's The Planets. Demos in mid-1994 whetted appetites for the completed game, released for MS-DOS in November 1994 and for the Macintosh in 1996. The game was published by Blizzard in North America and by Interplay Entertainment in Europe,Warcraft 1 Manual: Humans (Mac) copyright page and Sold-Out Software republished the MS-DOS version in March 2002.