The original box art for Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy computer game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. Warcraft was developed for the DOS operating system and is available for Windows and Macintosh. However, modern operating systems may have problems running this game properly. The Warcraft franchise is one of the most successful real-time strategy franchises in computer game history and has revolutionized the real-time strategy genre of computer games. The game is set in the world of Azeroth, but since Azeroth is also a name of a large landmass and a human kingdom in that world, this encyclopedia uses Warcraft Universe to avoid ambiguity.

Overview

Bloodthirsty orcs — denizens of another dimension — discover a portal allowing them to enter the largely peaceful human kingdom of Azeroth. The player can play as either the Orcs or the Humans, the main differences being the spells of the mages.

This screenshot of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans shows a small village with two footmen guarding it. Some of the surrounding terrain is obscured in the fog of war.

Sequels

Warcraft was followed by the two sequels Warcraft II and Warcraft III, and the spin-off MMORPG World of Warcraft. While it is possible to win playing as either race, later sequels have assumed that the war on which the game focuses was won by the Orcs, leading to the formation of "The Alliance" by humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes.

Warcraft Adventures was to be an adventure game set in the Warcraft universe, but was cancelled near the end of the development cycle. The official press release cited "poor quality" and a "lack of standards" as reasons for the game's sudden cancelation. The plot of the game was later used as the basis for a Warcraft novel (see Spin-offs section).

Trivia

• Bill Roper, the game designer and self-proclaimed "closet actor," provided all the voices for this game and the sequel Warcraft II.
• Individual characters in the game give amusing responses when clicked repeatedly. This is a feature that has been maintained in all Blizzard Entertainment strategy games.

Legacy

Due to the success of the game, several developers created "clones" of the game that included several similar elements. One of these were the open source clone FreeCraft. However the project was cancelled as Blizzard Entertainment sent a cease-and-desist letter letter to the project developers in July 2003. It concerned the use of the –Craft in the name and the inclusion of ideas which were too similar to Warcraft II. The game is being developed again under the name Stratagus.

Spin-offs

Besides the aforementioned MMORPG World of Warcraft, there is also an episodic Warcraft book series (simply titled Warcraft) published by Pocket Books and written by various authors, an action figure line, and other various merchadise. The three volume series, titled Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy is being authored by Richard Knaak and illustrated by manhwa artist Jae Hwan Kim. There is also a Warcraft tabletop role-playing game (Warcraft the Roleplaying Game) and a strategy board game.

External links

• The Official Warcraft I Homepage (http://www.blizzard.com/war1/)
• Blizzard's Official Warcraft Homepage (http://www.warcraft.com)
• Article on the cancellation of Warcraft Adventures (http://www.cdmag.com/articles/011/189/blizzard_cancels_warcraft_adventures.html)
• Article about the cancellation of FreeCraft (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/21/1323249)
• Warcraft 3 Top 200 (http://www.gamesites200.com/warcraft/)
• Blizzard's Warcraft merchandise (http://shop.blizzard.com/section1)