Anybody interested or willing to share their old map archives?

[Deliverance]

I love to browse through old warcraft maps and wonder if some people here still have their map folders, especially from the years 2003-2009 for nostalgia. There are also so many famous maps that are not lost that could be archived.

So if someone here reading this still has maps (e.g. in their Download folder) from that time I would love you to share it !

 

[deepstrasz]

What are the oldest Warcraft 3 maps?

The oldest map I can find here is from january 2005. THe oldest one from epicwar is february 2005. Considering reign of chaos was released july 2002, that's quite a gap. Anyone have any maps from that era? Any old archived websites or other stuff like that? curios what people played back then.

www.hiveworkshop.com

A lot of stuff in that thread.

 

[Retera]

I saved most of the map folders I had until 2009. When it gets to 2013 things get murky and I didn't totally save everything, but when I go back far enough I have it all. I remember once in like 2012 a friend messaged me who I played War3 with in maybe '08 or '09 asking if I still had a copy of the island survivor map that we got from joining a game on BNet, and I replied in like 5m like 'ohh yea here ya go' and sent it to him. He was mystified.

But how do I share that kind of stuff? I have the same situation with MDX files. Many of these things are not mine to share, and only work for folks who use return bug patches and stuff. It's like loading up InvX in 2024 for the memes, as if to reminisce and believe that InvX was somehow superior to @TriggerHappy or @Tasyen using UI natives to spawn an onscreen bag system.

My rewrite of War3 made in java has to work harder than I expected to play return bug maps. Last time I tried to do it, I literally had to go into the JASS VM code and shut off typechecking in like 5 different places that I had put in to help myself debug, just to ensure that a function that returns unit can go on to then execute return 0 as one of its code statements, and that the zero passes through ignorant of its own type. The initial premise that rewriting the game in Java should allow a future where all maps are supported, even the dead ones, is not yet proven wrong, but.... Why should I do so much work? The old maps... do they really hold up?

 

[Deliverance]

@Retera Well, I for one would be very interested in those maps, just for nostalgia's sake. In my experience a lot of the old maps still work.

 

[Retria]

I found my old external disc with folder with maps from 2013-2017, there should be over 100 unique maps at least.
Omg it suck on 95%

Spoiler: omg

try this then:

2013-2017.zip - Shared with pCloud

Keep, share and access your files whenever you need from wherever you are. Create a free pCloud account and make your life easier.

e.pcloud.link

 

[Deliverance]

Thank you so much.

 

[Talu]

Here's mine.
oldies.7z

Back in the early 2000s when lan cafes were still a thing, I asked the local owner to burn me a Wc3 CD. Being young I had no concept of copyright (I did buy a licensed copy later). The maps folder was full of random stuff people at the cafe had played (the roc and tft folders). Aside from the Blizz campaigns, I basically learned the game mechanics from these maps, playing for countless hours. They look like crap now but I was super impressed then. It was like Christmas.

The 'downloaded' folder is mostly from the 2010s when I was very active in the game - a combination of maps downloaded from lobbies and RPGs I've scraped off random forum archives (might be some overlap with the other folders). Most of them aren't anything special but there are a few real gems. I don't have time to organize them properly so sorry about the mess.

Have fun!


Also, what about epicwar? The 7000-12000 page range seems to be exactly maps from the 2000s era.

 

[Deliverance]

Thanks for sharing . A lot of maps are lost media today, including some dota-spinoffs. I think a lot of them still exist somewhere. I also just like to see what was actually played, not what was uploaded to epicwar back then.

But of course it's an awesome resource and it's a blessing it still exists after so many years!