Hello!
I recently tested the remastered version of WarCraft: Orcs & Humans and was pleased to learn that it contained several Quality of Life (QoL) improvements. Most notably, units can be selected through simplified drag select and commands can be issued through right clicks. If only the original game contained these features…
Since I have absolute no respect for my own time, I decided to implement the QoL improvements in the original MS-DOS release, which I purchased on CD-ROM back in the 90’s and still own.
I’ve named this project WarCraft: Refurbished. So far it features simplified drag select, contextual command dispatch and a bunch of other things making its interaction model similar to the one in the remastered version. I intend to add more features such as unit grouping within shortly.
The work is published through the GitHub platform through which the MS-DOS patch can be downloaded. It currently only works with the original v1.21 release but that might change in the future.
Please note that the patch contains no copyrighted material and that you need to provide your own copy of the original MS-DOS release in order to test it.
Hope that you find this interesting!
UPDATE
The patch now includes support for game version 1.22h which should be the version that is distributed through Battle.net and, up until recently, GOG.
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It would be interesting if you could use the superior Mac version assets to make them work in a DOS version, but this seems to be too complicated 
The Mac version ran in a higher resolution and used some higher resolution assets if I remember correctly. To make full use of them, the MS-DOS version would have to be modified to run in a higher resolution. It’s certainly possible to modify the resolution and subsequently the assets used but the scope of such a change would be enormous!
Unfortunately, I think it’s safe to say that such a feature will not be implemented. Thank you for your suggestion though! 
Yes, Mac version is 640x480 resolution.
DOSBox can run War2 in 640x480 so it should run a 640x480 War1.
But indeed it’s probably not same original MS-DOS version.
Today, this superior Mac version is still not runnable on a PC (officially) as far as I know, I think a port should be a dedicated project, and it’s indeed a too big project to be a “side” feature of another remaster project.
the dos version is easy to get. just buy it through battle.net. though it is included in the battle chest that containes the remasters.
@genomelak I have you heard of War1Gus?
Yes! I used FreeCraft back in the early 00’s and was very pleased to see its continued development into Stratagus as well as the addition of support for WarCraft: Orcs & Humans through War1gus.
FreeCraft is one of the contributing factors of me getting interested in these kind of projects.
Looks interesting so far. Would be curious to see if it works with Shareware versions (Note: it doesn’t). Either way, I do wonder if there’s any way to have only certain changes implied? Specifically, all the gameplay changes like building restrictions and Peon/Peasant attacking that just go a bit too far for War1.
The only real notable difference between the two is pixel filtering, so there’s really not much of a point in bringing Macintosh visuals aside from funny novelty (would’ve been a fun addition for War1R though). It does seemingly have the highest resolution for Victory/Defeat screens that are animated in DOS and currently absent in War1R, but those are static there.
The patch is compatible with the MS-DOS retail CD-ROM, versions 1.21 and 1.22h.
It’s fairly time-consuming to add support for other versions since every code and memory reference used by the patch have to be mapped out for each new version. I intend to implement support for the most common retail versions but will unfortunately not spend time on implementing support for other versions such as the shareware ones. The project is open source though so anyone’s free to continue building on the project
Implementing support for only applying a subset of the changes included in the patch would however be quite trivial. The patch is comprised of 14 distinct changes that could in theory be applied according to user preference. I might add support for this! Thank you for your suggestion.
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I think that both Battle.net and GOG packages are Patch 1.22h and that was the latest version of War1, so it’s fair to say that you already covered that.
Fair point. Just a matter of figuring this out for people who are capable of dealing with stuff like that.
No problem. Like I mentioned, pretty much all direct gameplay changes seem too much for the game to my liking on paper. I can’t really test it out myself because I haven’t been lucky with getting War1 since it was released on GOG: something always stands in a way, be it finances or region restrictions. So Shareware/Demos is the best I can do at this time. Despite this, I think it’s safe to assume that the support for applying only certain changes will be welcomed by some players in the future.
In case you do change your mind about other versions, you would likely want to focus on Creative Labs Demo that’s based on Patch 1.21. It’s the most content-full Shareware version with only notable thing missing is cheat code support. I’m yet to see if Multiplayer works for it or FormGem’s Demo/Shareware though.
You can find them all on Hallfiry’s Blizzard Archive, but you probably already know that.
Here’s another suggestion, but it might be way out of reach for the project.
In the fourth mission of Human Campaign “The Deadmines” (the title Blizzard & Blackbird borrowed from the community for War1R, but that’s besides the point), you’re required to heal and rescue Lothar. Besides him, there’re also a few Wounded (you can save them, but don’t need to; not in Shareware/Demo version, at least) units that transform into Archers after your units either get too close to them or you heal one from a distance. These units are supposed to use a dedicated icon that’s apparently present in the game files of original War1 (and game’s manual), but it remained unused.
My gut feeling tells me getting it to work properly might be impossible, but I’m totally clueless and maybe there’s a way to make it happen. For what its worth, War1R didn’t address this issue. Likely due to evident rushed nature of its release.
You are correct! There is one unused unit portrait image in the game files and it depicts a wounded soldier.
The portrait might have been used for the Wounded-type units in an early version of the game and might have later been changed to that of an Archer-type unit. The use of the Archer-type portrait for Wounded-type units might also be a bug.
It seems like a waste to not use the custom portrait for the Wounded-type unit so I decided to patch it. The units still transform into regular Archers when rescued though. Thank you for your suggestion!
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I can only be sure about Patches 1.21 (Creative Lab & FormGen demos, to be specific) and 1.22(h), so who knows it did work as intended before or that was just a major oversight.
That’s awesome! Nothing wrong with them still becoming Archers as that was most definitely part of Blizzard’s plan. After all, it might actually be very useful in certain situations.
Not problem! Was glad to help with a suggestion once more.