Unfortunately it is rather difficult to find a working ISO (or physical CD) of WarCraft III and its expansion Frozen Throne
However, some community efforts have been made to make available pre-patched versions that require no CD:
This is a special request to make Lutris installers for these versions so that we don’t need a CD to install this awesome game (before the Reforged garbage when Blizzard made it next to impossible to play the original game)
here is an alternate thread also on Hive with other links to pre-patched installs:
It’s not so difficult to find valid iso, there are available in different languages on Internet Archives.
If you own a valid key, you can install Warcraft III from Battle Net and still play the original game.
Your asking is litigious because these are not legal packages.
If you own a valid key, you can install Warcraft III from Battle Net and still play the original game.
No, that is the problem. Battle.net forces you to ‘upgrade’ to Reforged and you cannot play the original game. I do have a valid key from both games I bought back in the day.
It’s not so difficult to find valid iso, there are available in different languages on Internet Archives.
Have you tried any of these? I’ve tried all of them, they all have corruption issues or missing files that result in failure for the Lutris scripts.
Your asking is litigious because these are not legal packages.
Totally understand, Im not sure the legalities of downloading a backup copy of a game you already purchased but I understand Lutris needs to err on the side of caution.
Perhaps the original game cds can be found on eBay
launch this setup file in the same prefix that the one you installed Battle.Net. Be careful, It will install Warcraft III: Reforged, you will need 28 Go free hard disc space. But you can play your old good game.
As you can see on this picture, I installed Warcraft III: reforged without bought it and I have a partial access to the game: I can play the two old episode (ROC+TFT), but not the third.
The game is in 16/9, cinematics are in HD quality…but it is still the same game.
However, i’m going to hold out for finding a CD or ISO because 28GB is a big price to pay for an early 2000s game haha
I am also skeptical about how this technique would work, if at all, with custom maps or LAN play. It seems connecting to battle.net to play an offline game is way overkill.
Might hold out then to wait for your script if you want to publish it again - I think Lutris users who already have W3 keys could greatly benefit from using those classic installers given the difficulty in finding original CD/working ISOs.
Hello @drschwabe
“Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” script installer for digital edition is now finished.
It will download latest digital edition (1.27b) available without Battle.net from official Blizzard servers.
Could you test it and tell me if it works for you?