Patch 1.31.1 Backup Files

Greetings,


With Reforged being what it is, I've seen that some people want to go back to Classic. Sadly, Blizzard has removed an option to do it via an official installer, but luckily I still have Classic installed on my old laptop and so I've decided to share it with anyone who might want it.

IMPORTANT - this isn't meant to be a free pirate version of Warcraft 3, but a potential way to roll back to 1.31.1 for people who want to do that. You still need a valid CD-KEY to use this. If you don't own a legal copy of Warcraft 3, DO NOT download or use these files.

In case anyone missed it, the version of this upload is 1.31.1, a.k.a. the last Classic patch before Reforged.

And for the record, this is a purely singleplayer version of Warcraft 3.

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DOWNLOAD LINKS:

IMPORTANT - this is an old version that has been updated many times over with no clean install. This means that it has a lot of leftover files and might potentially cause some issues (though in my testing it appears to be working fine). Thanks @Anaxie for pointing this out.

Client: Warcraft III.zip
Language Fix: W3 Language Fix.reg

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HOW TO INSTALL:

1. Uninstall Warcraft 3: Reforged and delete the Warcraft III folder from the Program Files (x86) directory.

OPTIONAL - I've also chosen to delete the Warcraft III folders from the Documents and Saved Games folders. I don't think that's necessary, but I wanted to make sure that no leftoever data from Reforged interferes with my Classic game. It's up to you whether you want to do this or not, but if you do - be sure to back up any saves or maps that you have in these folders first. Once you launch the game it should automatically re-create said folders and allow you to copy back your data. That's what I did.

For the record, here are the directories for all folders that I've deleted:

OPTIONAL - I've also chosen to completely wipe all Warcraft III related registry keys for the same reason as folders. I'm not sure if this is necessary. Personally, I think it's better to do this as the game will re-create all needed keys anyway, but it's up to you whether you want to do it or not. If you do, here's how:

- Open the Registry Editor - press Windows Key + R. Type in "regedit" (without quotes) in the window that opens and press Enter.
- In the Registry Editor, nagivate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment.
- The folders that I've removed were called "Classic Launcher", "Warcraft III" and "WorldEdit".

2. Download the client from the link above, unzip it using any compression software you want (it can be the default windows function, WinRar, 7zip or whatever). You will see a "Warcraft III" folder. Move it to your Program Filex (x86) folder.

3. Run the game and then the editor using these files:

4. You should see a window asking to either enter your CD-KEY or log-in to Battle.Net. If the window appears black, wait a couple of seconds and try clicking a couple times in the inner left part of it. That solved it for me. Once the window starts working, enter your CD-KEY.

UPDATE (28.05.2020) - Some awesome people provided potential solutions for the CD-Key window not showing up properly. Here's a quick list of things to try:

- Rename the installation folder to something else.
- Run Warcraft III.exe file (in the x86_x64 folder) as admin.
- Try launching the game through the Warcraft III Launcher.exe file (in the Warcraft III folder) as admin.
- Uninstall other versions of Warcraft III and be sure to remove all Warcraft 3 and/or Blizzard registry entries.

5. The game should launch.

UPDATE (28.05.2020) - Remember to use the Warcraft III.exe file in the x86_x64 folder as the one located directly in the Warcraft III folder will not work.

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LANGUAGE FIX:

- The game might launch using the language of your operating system. As far as I can tell, outside of a couple missing strings in the editor, it appears to be working fine, despite the installation language being English. If you're okay with keeping your operating system language, you can skip the next point.

- The reason why the language changes is due to to missing registry files. To solve that issue, download the Language Fix registry file from the link above and run it. It will ask you for confirmation. Click yes. This will automatically add the registry files and set the language of your game to English.

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DISCLAIMER:

Using the method described above allowed me to restore the original 1.31.1 Classic client, but since it's not an official installer, I cannot guarantee that it will work for you too. Also, I've only done this on a 64-bit Windows 10 system. No idea if or how it would work on other Windows versions.

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If you're going to use this - I hope it works just as fine for you as it did for me. Good luck

 

Thank you for doing this man. When I opened my own backup of 1.30, the CD-KEY screen popped up, but was entirely blank... Like frozen or something. Only after I deleted all of Blizzard Entertainment registry, started the Launcher once, and renamed the folder, did I finally get the CD-Key window to finally work, and I could enter them.

 

Just a heads-up, I've tried transplanting it to my new laptop and... the game changed its language to Polish (my system language) despite my original installation being in English. I'm going to look for a fix - I think it might be related to missing registry keys, so I'm going to try importing those as well and I'll let you know if it worked.

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UPDATE: I've installed the English (US) language pack for my Windows and... after changing the system language the game converted to English. It appears that the way it works is that if there are no registy keys to set the language, the game defaults to the one used by your operating system.

 

This might actually be a hint of how to change wc3 language for that guy, who is looking for a way to make it italian... @Jarrot

 

@Jarrot
see this

 

Further update - I've opened the game, tried playing a campaign mission, custom campaign map, singleplayer vs AI game, saving and loading a game and running the WE. All appear to be working correctly. Gonna attempt to transplant the registry keys now (as I'd prefer to change my system language back to Polish, lol)

Once I'm done testing a couple more things, I'll let you know what I've found and provide a quick guide on how to set this up in the OP.

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Okay, found a fix for the language issue. Gonna post it in the OP along with some tips on how to get this running in a moment.

 

There was nothing wrong just a ton of folders and old legacy stuff that a clean 1.31.1 install would have thats what i ment. it probably woudln't affect anything haha.

 

You said it would cause "issues"... Maybe I misunderstood something, dunno.

So, should I bring the links back? Or is it better to leave it down?

 

I don't see why there would be any issues really.

 

Okay, I may have seriously overreacted

The thing is, the version I uploaded comes from my old laptop and uhm... I think I've originally installed it as 1.26 and then updated it a couple of times without ever doing a clean install. This is probably why it's bloated. Anyway...

I've brought the links back up and added another disclaimer. I'm not going to tinker with it anymore, ultimately it's better than nothing and if people want to try then now at least they've been warned

 

id bring them back we NEED a reliable download for 1.31.1 available and i had no issues it asked me when i logged in your download if i wanted to update. with an ingame popup wtf? but it clearly works fine.

GOnna be tedious to hit that have to see that prompt everytime tho.

if the single player PTR has no issues and stays functiona l offline tho. but i don't think we have much experience using that late beta build which came just before 1.31.1 hit live and fixed the horrendous 1.31

i might compare it to the PTR and attempt to clean up all the outdated / legacy crap mass of folders from your download but im thankful you put this up.

 

I think this is an intended feature - I got asked too, luckily you can just click "no" and it goes away.

 

The regfile did the job. Thanks for posting a solution to the World Editor problem! It feels really weird, having the World Editor not set to english...

 

With v1.31.0 onwards, one only needs the RoC CD-key to run RoC and TFT. Unfortunately, Battle.net support for vanilla RoC was also dropped in the process. To quote the developers:

 

As I'm already running a copy of 1.26a on my computer I didn't need to do anything fancy to get this version running (no CD check or anything). So if you're already running an older version there's a good chance everything will "just work."

 

How can I play custom campaigns though? The W3 folder does not contain a Campaigns folder. Even if I create one and paste a custom campaign file, it does not show the campaign when I enter the game.

 

It should be here: C:\Users\<YourWindowsProfileName>\Documents\Warcraft III and if it doesn't appear after running the game, create it.

 

thanks for sharing

 

This is fabulous news!
I was running classic on an old laptop that could not handle the giant patch. The new install directory measured about 30 GB opposed to the former 3 GB, so I deinstalled and warned all my friends and wife to NOT click on battlenet or update in any way. I am furious, all I wanted was the AI-controlled heroes to be able to select skills on level up, which they did not in 1.13.1.

My question: Are your files just a copy from your install folder?
In that case I could just take the clean install of 1.31.1 (or whatever version she has) from my wife, so I would have the same version she has and we would be able to play custom maps in LAN games... but where would I type in my key? In regedit?
If that fails we could both install it from my CDs, use each our own keys and look for the latest patches that are independent from logging into battle.net, should be around 1.27...

Isn't it a shame that one is forced to do such things although we all bought a once fantastic game (that ran flawless on older machines)?

 

Yes.

Once you try to start the game, you will see a window asking for either a CD-KEY or authentication via Battle.Net.