How to play Warcraft I on the Win7 Machine

warcraftwarcraft-2windows 7

I figure that I'd need to open a separate window, and run a DOS shell of some kind in it, but based on the trouble I am having with Starcraft I and my video card, which is a decent quality Nvidia bought so that Diablo III and Starcraft II run easily on it, what tweaks/adjustments can I make to screen resolution so that I can run Warcraft I (and for that matter Warcraft II BNE) in a window on this machine? I have about given up trying to run most games of that vintage "as is" due to the deep differences in graphics and screen resolutions that attend.

Are there some kits/tools that will allow me to, in a windowed mode, to run Warcraft I and Warcraft II BNE so I can enjoy some silly nostalgia?

Best Answer

For optimal results, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and all versions of Warcraft II must be run on a DOS system. A lightweight and simple way to obtain such system is DOSBox, which emulates a DOS inside a window, as if you were running a computer of that age.

Simply install DOSBox, create a folder to store your game installations, and mount that folder (see DOSBox manual) as a drive (if I recall correctly, it is strongly recommended to use the C drive letter).

Then mount your game install media (probably a CD) as the D drive. Then navigate to the CD (in DOSBox) and execute the setup or install files. Follow installation instructions, when it asks for soundcard, either autodetect or keep at default choice.

After that, you must navigate to your C drive (of DOSBox, not your computer's), and there will be a folder named after the game warcraft or war2, not sure about Starcraft. Inside that folder there will be the warcraft.exe or war2.exe files. Run whichever you want to play the game.

If you do not have a copy of the games, you might want to look at user trade sites such as Ebay (or equivalent), because they are not being sold by Blizzard anymore.

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