The Kali TCP/IP IPX bridge allowed you to play this multiplayer over the internet, and the style of game was tolerant to low bandwidth and high pings. Which made this one of the first games that really provided a glimpse of the future of gaming (for better or worse, much of gaming has moved away from single person campaigns to multiplayer). I have so many great memories of this era in gaming because of this game and the handful of others that Kali supported (descent, doom 2).
30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
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Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#42The Kali TCP/IP IPX bridge allowed you to play this multiplayer over the internet, and the style of game was tolerant to low bandwidth and high pings. Which made this one of the first games that really provided a glimpse of the future of gaming (for better or worse, much of gaming has moved away from single person campaigns to multiplayer). I have so many great memories of this era in gaming because of this game and…
Kali was awesome!
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#43I spent many hours playing this, C&C, Red Alert, over null modem cables and kali with my friends growing up. One of the most satisfying things is to hit the unit limit!
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#44The Kali TCP/IP IPX bridge allowed you to play this multiplayer over the internet, and the style of game was tolerant to low bandwidth and high pings. Which made this one of the first games that really provided a glimpse of the future of gaming (for better or worse, much of gaming has moved away from single person campaigns to multiplayer). I have so many great memories of this era in gaming because of this game and…
Kali was awesome!
I had a lot of fun using Cases Ladder to find matches.
I know the game was horribly unbalanced against humans once bloodlust showed up, but I still quit after they "patched" bloodlust years later in Battle.net. Felt sacrilege, like patching the queen in chess. Yeah, the queen is imba, but that's chess. Beating an orc player as a human was a fun flex.
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting, I think most RTS players would point to StarCraft 2 as the apex, and they'd probably be correct given how its still played so much today. What makes Warcraft 2 the apex for you over StarCraft 2?
Funny how many people think Starcraft 2 isn't even better than Starcraft 1, especially when you add in Brood War.
The game's campaign being what it was made it so people never warmed up to it, the big hero-focused storylines and then mishandling of said characters (Kerrigan's abortive humanization and then rushed redemption, the Protoss being framed in entirely the wrong tone, the half baked epilogue) just made it so that the campaign didn't stick as Brod War's did, even if the gameplay was superior.
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#46The apex of RTS games -- what a great gaming era RIP. Since then graphics are way better but business models have just deteriorated and mass appeal has driven games.
Yet two of the most played games out there in 2025 are RTSes, Dota and League. The genre just progressed forward.
WC3 was peak design with the mod support (maps) where Dota originates from and and it was also the bane of the company. They couldn't monetize it and IceFrog choose Valve instead of them. No wonder that later Blizz games has 0 community support.
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting, I think most RTS players would point to StarCraft 2 as the apex, and they'd probably be correct given how its still played so much today. What makes Warcraft 2 the apex for you over StarCraft 2?
Buildings as walls and using spawn points to jump through terrain are fun mechanics in WC2.
I remember creating a moat of farms around my town hall.
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#48And now that disco easter egg is stuck in my head... (although technically I think that was part of Beyond the Dark Portal).
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh goodness, Brood War most certainly is not the game that started e-sports, tho I of course appreciate your enthusiasm for the game.
It started modern esports. There were gaming competitions in the 80s, but there weren't team houses, coaches, analysts, big money sponsors, regular huge events, dedicated TV channels, players in prime time commercials and dating actresses and pop stars, etc... Brood War hit in Korea like nothing before or after it . There were literally three full time, 24/7 TV channels showing Starcraft content at it's peak. No othe…
Flash was an absolute legend.
I do wonder if Brood War's long period without balance patches helped or hurt it as an esport. In modern games, it feels like developers "shake up the meta" on purpose, whereas in brood war, it was up to map designers to ensure balance. This made it easier for long time fans to appreciate tactics... in SC2, I have to be caught up on the latest balance patches to appreciate anything.
Re: 30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
#50This game lead me down a path that resulted in me becoming a software engineer. Good game.