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Looking for Multilanguage Warcraft 3 Legacy Downloaders

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Hello everyone!
I am an Archiver from the Warcraft 3 Unforged Discord.

It is one of my passions to back up copies of Warcraft 3.
But not only do i want to back up the English Versions, it is also imperative that we get copies of other Languages as well so that those do not fade away into obscurity.
To do this i have collected most Language Downloaders:
The type that you receive from Official Blizzard Links such as "http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/war3x/patches/pc/War3TFT_127b_English.exe"
Now. I have almost all Languages saved up including
-English
-French
-Italian
-Polish
-Spanish
-Russian
-Traditional Chinese
-Korean

The ones that i require are:
-Czech
-Simplified Chinese
-Japanese

If somebody would be able to provide me the Legacy Downloaders (Or Links Or Language Tags for them) i would be tremendously grateful!
 
Last edited:

pyf

pyf

Level 32
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Mar 21, 2016
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If somebody would be able to provide me the Legacy Downloaders (Or Links Or Language Tags for them) i would be tremendously grateful!
If you are looking for copies of the official standalone offline patches, then maybe this info will help:
Blizzard offline updater
(note: forgot to mention back then that Taiwanese is also a supported language)

If some of the files are not available anymore from Blizzard's servers, one may hunt for a copy from archive.org. As an example:
Wayback Machine
(v1.27b TFT standalone offline patch, Czech version, from archive.org - be sure to doublecheck that the files are not corrupt on their servers)


... and in case you are looking for info about the patches that go from minor version to the immediate next minor version:
Update size for latest patch?
(incomplete list)

Hope it helps.


** Update **

... and in case you are looking for info about the patches that go from minor version to the immediate next minor version:
Update size for latest patch?
(incomplete list)

I knew I had done a somewhat better job elsewhere:
Stop the CASC madness
(note: did not bother linking the 1.25 to 1.26 minipatches, though)
 
Last edited:
Level 2
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Messages
20
Oh thank you very much, but i must have worded my Post wrong, i am not looking for the Patchers, i am looking for the Installers

6WKRtOx.png


Here, I already have all the patches, but what i require are the "War3-1.27-Installer-xxXX-RoC" and "War3-1.27-Installer-xxXX-TFT" for the languages mentioned above.
I already have all the Patches i require.
pHxlLop.png


(note: forgot to mention back then that Taiwanese is also a supported language)

Yep, I have Taiwanese (Traditional Chinese) already :3

I knew I had done a somewhat better job elsewhere:
Stop the CASC madness
(note: did not bother linking the 1.25 to 1.26 minipatches, though)

This is absolutely invaluable, thank you for these!

EDIT:
RKX6ukw.png

This is my current progress so far
 

pyf

pyf

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This is absolutely invaluable, thank you for these!
Glad you like them. Too bad I can see no practical use for those minipatches but hey, it is all about archiving and preserving a bit of Blizzard history after all.

There also exists minipatches to fill the gap from 1.24e up to 1.26a as well, but I did not bother linking to them, as nobody seemed to care.
Unfortunately, Blizzard afaik never bothered creating any 1.26a->1.27a minipatches, nor any 1.27a->1.27b ones.

As a side note, I am still amazed that the file size of the full official v1.27b standalone offline patches can vary so much from locale to locale. Was the Italian version of the game that broken/non-conformant so that updating it to v1.27b required a whopping 238 MB patch to download?
 
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As a side note, I am still amazed that the file size of the full official v1.27b standalone offline patches can vary so much from locale to locale. Was the Italian version of the game that broken/non-conformant so that updating it to v1.27b required a whopping 238 MB patch to download?
OYw7g6s.png

Yes indeed it was, it is incredible to see the varying filesizes on each Patcher
 
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Level 2
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I doubt that the Taiwanese
:wink:

The thing with the Traditional Chinese Installer is that they were downloaded with the tag zh-TW
qoXKjRc.png

So this raises an interesting question: If Traditional Chinese IS actually not the Taiwanese Version, then who is Trad Chinese for? Hong Kong?


Maybe there are some language specific modified sound files?
Maybe the difference in filesize comes from the way the voicelines were recorded in different languages?
I am very sure that all these different lines would have been recorded with varying levels of equipment.
 
Level 2
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Glad you like them. Too bad I can see no practical use for those minipatches but hey, it is all about archiving and preserving a bit of Blizzard history after all.

There also exists minipatches to fill the gap from 1.24e up to 1.26a as well, but I did not bother linking to them, as nobody seemed to care.
Unfortunately, Blizzard afaik never bothered creating any 1.26a->1.27a minipatches, nor any 1.27a->1.27b ones.

As a side note, I am still amazed that the file size of the full official v1.27b standalone offline patches can vary so much from locale to locale. Was the Italian version of the game that broken/non-conformant so that updating it to v1.27b required a whopping 238 MB patch to download?


I think they mean the full installers, so not just the patch files but the full installers for versions like 1.21. People have found ways to get those with links but doing that with the missing ones don't do anything, even with the correct language code (cs-CZ, ja-JA, so on), Kinda like the ones from this thread here except in other languages.

Warcraft 3 Legacy Installer (1.21b - 1.27a)

Modifying the file itself gets you the *text* if you patch it but the audio is still in English so that won't work either
 

pyf

pyf

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The thing with the Traditional Chinese Installer is that they were downloaded with the tag zh-TW
qoXKjRc.png

So this raises an interesting question: If Traditional Chinese IS actually not the Taiwanese Version, then who is Trad Chinese for? Hong Kong?
Blizzard's own naming conventions are a bit inconsistent here. See for example 'War3TFT_121b_122a_Taiwanese.exe', and now compare it to 'War3Patches_TFT_122a_123a_zhTW.exe' for example. This feels a bit messy imho...

Maybe the difference in filesize comes from the way the voicelines were recorded in different languages?
I am very sure that all these different lines would have been recorded with varying levels of equipment.
Out of interest, what makes you very sure of that?
That increase in localized patch file size started iirc with the 1.27.x ones, and most notably with Patch 1.27b.
 
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As you archive old game versions, do you've the 1.29 PTR @CinderWC ?
I would like to have it to be able to benefit both Widescreen support and a Zoomed out Camera :peasant-i-object:
 

pyf

pyf

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Because each locale version of the game was developed kind of separately from each other afaik, I am guessing that v1.27.x was Blizzard's early attempt at normalizing/sanitizing the assets from all the locale versions of the game, to later fuse them into one single, cohesive baseline.

I am guessing this proved to be impractical by using standalone offline patches, because any subsequent patch after 1.27b would probably have been almost half as big as the game itself. I am therefore guessing it was the reason they launched the 1.28.x series of online updates/patches, for which one had to re-download the entire game with each new minor revision. I am guessing this was because Blizzard was in the process of refactoring the contents of war3.mpq and of war3x.mpq, to create a new baseline for all locales

I am guessing that this soon led in the deprecation/removal of war3patch.mpq, because it became useless. Some discarded legacy files were left out iirc in the new 'deprecated.mpq' file, for compatibility reasons (or for modders to integrate some of its contents into their maps, before these assets disappear for good?).
 

pyf

pyf

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I think they mean the full installers, so not just the patch files but the full installers for versions like 1.21. People have found ways to get those with links but doing that with the missing ones don't do anything, even with the correct language code (cs-CZ, ja-JA, so on), Kinda like the ones from this thread here except in other languages.

Warcraft 3 Legacy Installer (1.21b - 1.27a)

[...]
@Juno Slade: Well, the title of the thread says 'Downloaders', not Installers, while he just mentioned he found Portable versions of the Czech version (which are obviously unofficial ones, as Blizzard never made any portable version of the game)

Those official full downloadable versions of the game may have their own set of issues, compared to their original retail CD-ROMs counterparts from 2002/2003. As an example and about the files linked in the thread you mentioned above, the v1.21b EN-GB full installer for RoC will install successfully on a W98SE VM client (and one can later update RoC to any of the patches up to and including v1.26a), *but* installing v1.21b EN-GB TFT linked in the thread above will fail on that OS. And it is not because of the FAT32 file system, because I also tried to install the game on a W2000 client with a FAT32 partition, and this time I was able to successfully install TFT v1.21b (note: never ever attempt to patch your game beyond v1.26a on W2000!)
 
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@Juno Slade: Well, the title of the thread says 'Downloaders', not Installers, while he just mentioned he found Portable versions of the Czech version (which are obviously unofficial ones, as Blizzard never made any portable version of the game)

Those official full downloadable versions of the game may have their own set of issues, compared to their original retail CD-ROMs counterparts from 2002/2003. As an example and about the files linked in the thread you mentioned above, the v1.21b EN-GB full installer for RoC will install successfully on a W98SE VM client (and one can later update RoC to any of the patches up to and including v1.26a), *but* installing v1.21b EN-GB TFT linked in the thread above will fail on that OS. And it is not because of the FAT32 file system, because I also tried to install the game on a W2000 client with a FAT32 partition, and this time I was able to successfully install TFT v1.21b (note: never ever attempt to patch your game beyond v1.26a on W2000!)


Gotcha. Been trying to find Japanese and that's proven well into impossible so far, since there's no downloader in the FTP for that languag, probably due to the publishing (Handled by Capcom in Japan), even doing searches in a VM didn't turn up anything. Might just look on a Japanese Amazon and see if I can find a Disc and try my luck with that, since spoofs didn't work either.
 
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Downloader? FTP? I am confused. I am not sure we are talking about the same things.

You are using a Virtual Machine?

Downloader is those Official FTP links Blizzard provides, which download the installation files, you still need an official CD KEY. Dunno if I can link it but the format would be

/download/getLegacy?
product=WAR3&locale=en-US&os=WIN

With Locale and WIN being replaced with whatever language your looking for (Change WIN to MAC for the MAC versions), these are for about 1.27b.
Those work with all languages with the exception of three, which are Czech, Japanese and Simplified Chinese, the three OP was having issues with. I'm thinking it's because those three were handled by different companies from Blizzard (Catenga CZECH for Czech, Capcom for Japan, and who knows who for China), that's why they don't appear on Blizzards own official downloaders, only as patch files, and those only work for their version (using a JP patch on enGB won't work).

Virtual Machine would be if I searched on my own, particularly for Chinese, that one didn't go so great so I might just skip that one.
 
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If someone needs to start @dq11 's Chinese 1.31.1 client: you must first switch the language in registry, else you'll get a black screen. Simplified Chinese is zhCN. Afterwards, change to your normal language.

Code:
:: Save this file as wc3-set-registry-lang-chinese.bat
:: Double-click to run

:: See https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/list-of-official-patches-for-warcraft-3.322919/
:: Section: "FAQ"
:: -> "Why do I have a black screen at startup? (relevant for versions 1.30.0.9900-1.32)"

set WC3LANG="zhCN"
echo "Setting language to %WC3LANG%"

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3"  /v "LOCALE" /t "REG_SZ" /d "%WC3LANG%" /f
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3"  /v "LOCALE_AUDIO" /t "REG_SZ" /d "%WC3LANG%" /f

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3t" /v "LOCALE" /t "REG_SZ" /d "%WC3LANG%" /f
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3t" /v "LOCALE_AUDIO" /t "REG_SZ" /d "%WC3LANG%" /f

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3b" /v "LOCALE" /t "REG_SZ" /d "%WC3LANG%" /f
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3b" /v "LOCALE_AUDIO" /t "REG_SZ" /d "%WC3LANG%" /f

Why do I have a black screen at startup? (relevant for versions 1.30.0.9900-1.32)
The client’s language and the language in the registry do not match, you need to change the language in the registry to the one in the client.
(w3 - Retail, w3t - Test PTR, w3b - Beta)
(enUS ruRU deDE esES frFR itIT koKR plPL zhCN zhTW - ROC TFT)
(enUS ruRU deDE esES frFR itIT koKR plPL zhCN zhTW enGB esMX jaJP ptBR thTH - Reforged)
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3] "Locale"="enUS"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3t] "Locale"="enUS"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Classic Launcher\w3b] "Locale"="enUS"
 

Ralle

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Thank you for sharing this. We have uploaded the versions we deemed to be of high enough quality here:

Look in the "Other languages" tab.
 
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Can you upload it separately? I am living in Uzbekistan, and it will not be able to download until finish.
 
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