Warcraft

Related Topics:
WarCraft_Series :: WarCraft_III_-_Reign_of_Chaos :: WarCraft_II_-_Tides_of_Darkness

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy computer game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. Originally developed for DOS, the game was subsequently ported to version 7 of MacOS making it fully playable on the Macintoshes of the era. The real-time strategy genre had been pioneered by Dune 2, among other games, but Warcraft (along with Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer) is widely credited for the genre's rise in popularity. Warcraft and its sequels went on to become one of the most successful franchises in computer gaming history.

The game is set in the kingdom of Azeroth, part of the fictional Warcraft Universe. The events that take place in this game are known in Warcraft lore as The First Great War or The Great War.

Overview

Demonically-driven 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 spellcaster units. Besides the two campaigns there are many skirmish levels. There are also dungeon levels where the player has to escape to the exit while fighting monsters and hacking doors. Such levels were removed in Warcraft II, but returned in Warcraft III. The game's interface is similar to Dune II, as the "right-click to move/attack" cursor found in later games was not implemented, and buildings require the construction of adjacent roads.

Units and Structures

As with real-time strategy computer games at the time, Warcraft featured two opposing factions, the noble Humans and the savage Orcs. Again, as in other games of this genre, each faction’s units and buildings have a counterpart within the other faction.

Units

Humans	Orcs	Notes
Peasant	Peon	Basic units that construct and repair buildings, gather gold and harvest lumber.
Footman	Grunt	The most basic fighting units of either side.
Archer	Spearman	Ranged units capable of hitting their enemies at a distance.
Knight	Raider	Heavily-armored and powerful melee units.
Catapult	Catapult	Slow-moving, slow-firing siege machines that are capable of dealing devastating damage to stationary targets, such as buildings or unmoving units.
Cleric	Necrolyte	These are the basic, more defensive and support oriented spellcasting units of each side.
Conjurer	Warlock	Advanced spellcasting units capable of conjuring even more powerful spells than the Clerics and Necrolytes.
Summonable Units
Scorpions	Spiders	Weak melee summonable units.
	Skeleton	Necrolytes have the ability to raise back the remains of dead units. There is, however, a time limit to how long the skeletons remain active.
Water Elemental	Daemon	The most powerful summonable units.

Buildings

Humans	Orcs	Notes
Town Hall	Great Hall	The basic main structure, without which any other building may not be built.
Farm	Farm	Basic structures necessary to provide food for each race. In order to train more units, more farms must be built.
Barracks	Barracks	The building necessary to create more Footmen, Archers, Knights and Catapults for Humans; Grunts, Spearmen, Raiders and Catapults for Orcs.
Lumber Mill	Lumber Mill	Building where each race may store the lumber harvested. Also allows upgrades for the Archers/Spearmen’s weapons.
Blacksmith	Blacksmith	This building allows the player to upgrade the armor and weapons of the Knights, Footmen, Grunts and Raiders.
Stable	Kennel	The buildings necessary for the ability to create the Knights (stable for Humans) and Raiders (kennel for Orcs, who ride wolves).
Church	Temple	The buildings to train Clerics and Necrolytes, as well as research the spells for them.
Tower	Tower	The buildings to train Conjurers and Warlocks, as well as research the spells for them.
Stormwind Castle	Blackrock Spire	These structures appear at the end of each race's campaign. The player is never able to make use of these buildings but is required to destroy them.

Monsters

Monster	Notes
Scorpion	Giant monster. Can be summoned.
Spider	Giant monster. Can be summoned.
Brigand	Fast human enemies, melee unit
Ogre	Strong melee unit.
Skeleton	In two variations, one can be summoned from resurrected corpses.
Slime	A green puddle that can devour its enemies.
Fire Elemental	A spirit that attacks with fire.
Water Elemental	A spirit that attacks with water. Can be summoned.
Daemon	Powerful melee unit that attacks with a sword. Can be summoned.

Movie

Just before E3 2006, an official press release from Blizzard announced that a live action motion picture based on the Warcraft world was being planned. Legendary Pictures has acquired the movie rights for the game universe, and both companies are now focused on translating the Warcraft experience to the big screen. No further details have been released ^*.

Trivia

Bill Roper provided all the voices for the game.
Unlike future titles, every unit of each race had the exact same voice.
Individual characters in the game give amusing responses when clicked repeatedly. Blizzard Entertainment has maintained this feature in all of its strategy games, and many other companies have copied it.
Both factions (Orcs and Humans) are made up of only their respective races. In the sequel, both factions include units of other races as well. Humans with Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes, Orcs with Trolls, Ogres and Goblins.

Spin-offs

Besides the MMORPG World of Warcraft, there exist the following spin-offs:

A set of three books (simply titled Warcraft), related only by their placement in the Warcraft Universe
- Day of the Dragon, Richard Knaak
- Lord of the Clans, Christie Golden (This book was used for the story of Lord of the Clans'')
- The Last Guardian, Jeff Grubb
A trilogy of novels, War of the Ancients, Richard Knaak
- 1)The Well of Eternity
- 2)The Demon Soul
- 3)The Sundering
A new upcoming trilogy of novels, The Sunwell Trilogy, Richard Knaak (with illustrations by manhwa artist Jae Hwan Kim)
Several lines of action figures
A Warcraft tabletop role-playing game (Warcraft the Roleplaying Game)
A Warcraft strategy board game
Blizzard has also announced a Warcraft movie ^*
Various other merchandise

External links

Official Warcraft: Orcs & Humans site

Lore

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