Perhaps it is an initial localized release by an authorized distributor, Interplay. The stylization of the box is different that what I had, but it is mostly similar to what was originally done by Blizzard.

For the floppies, honestly, the disk 1 duplicator likely had a different stack of floppies from the disk 4 duplicator. That's all. And for the labeling, it was just whatever they ordered from the printer?

Yes there are different manuals when it was released at different times. I've seen two styles myself. There may be a third one. And I'm not speaking about the Interplay print you have, as that artwork had to have been done by the third party.

Honestly I have never seen the floppies in person. I think my friend said he had it on floppy. But when I went to buy it and every time I saw it, it was on CD. I'm not sure why'd anyone would have wanted the floppy (at least maybe in the US), as CD based distribution got really popular by the time this game came out. Pretty sure it was on CD day 1. So I think they only offered it on floppy to support certain markets, but then that might have been later.

This is a picture of the box cover I remember. Unfortunately, mobygames does not have a picture of the older manual. They only picture the newer manual.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/371/warcraft-o … 3988/cover-545/

And the floppy version is basically the same cover. Disk labeling is different.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/371/warcraft-o … 46/cover-84245/

Interesting. I'd wondered the same about my Warcraft floppies due to two disks also having the white printed "HD" on them. It would seem perhaps that there is just some variation.

Wowpedia has a page dedicated to the contents of the Warcraft 1 manual, although they removed the technical aspects:
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Warcraft:_Or … 6_Humans_manual
The bottom of that page also features cover scans of the original edition manual (the two-sided one, with Orcs and Humans sections flipped, and the technical information duplicated at the beginning of each section).

Replacement Docs offer the PDF of the original for download:
http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.2107
Archive.org also has a copy:
https://archive.org/details/Warcraft_I_-_Manual_-_PC

Don't think I ever saw a French Warcraft 1 manual, though...

Thank you very much!

You must be right. Floppies and label variations are probably not significant.

Regarding the manual, the European (Interplay) version must have a different manual. The Orcs/Humans one seems bundled with versions distributed by Blizzard. That's also probably why I can only see Orcs/Humans manuals located in north America on ebay, and none in Europe.

That's also probably why an anticopy word sheet was provided. If the manual is different, page numbering might be different. So to provide the good answers to the user, the sheet is mandatory.

Indeed you seem to be correct about the manual. I found some Interplay-branded European copies on eBay which seem to come with a different-looking manual, and according to some photos, the German version manual was, indeed, in German. So I suppose a French one exists as well.

dr_st wrote on 2023-08-06, 08:37:

Wowpedia has a page dedicated to the contents of the Warcraft 1 manual, although they removed the technical aspects:
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Warcraft:_Or … 6_Humans_manual
The bottom of that page also features cover scans of the original edition manual (the two-sided one, with Orcs and Humans sections flipped, and the technical information duplicated at the beginning of each section).

Yes, the bottom of the wiki has an image of the manual I remember. It doesn't have any interplay scribbled all over it either. As the archive copy shows, the interplay manual says (c)1994-1995, so if indeed they used it, then it likely came later.

BTW, I don't remember there being any copy protection!

the3dfxdude wrote on 2023-08-06, 15:33:

BTW, I don't remember there being any copy protection!

The floppy versions had a "enter word from the manual" copy protection which was common for Blizzard's games at the time (also Lost Vikings, Blackthorne). It was removed in most of the CD versions, but apparently not in all of them:
https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2014/12/ … -game-copy.html

dr_st wrote on 2023-08-06, 15:54:

the3dfxdude wrote on 2023-08-06, 15:33:

BTW, I don't remember there being any copy protection!

The floppy versions had a "enter word from the manual" copy protection which was common for Blizzard's games at the time (also Lost Vikings, Blackthorne). It was removed in most of the CD versions, but apparently not in all of them:

That article references that Warcraft had manual copy protection in the setup program. That makes sense, because if you were to play with a friend across modem who does not have the game, he would not have the manual. Remember they encouraged playing with friends by sharing the game. I generally associate copy protection to being preventing you from starting the game. In Warcraft, you would have trouble starting up a remote multiplayer match if you had to go through all that every time.

I think I DO remember there being setup based copy protection now, but not sure exactly where (which game or release version) without going back to confirm if it as what is being described. This was really like 27 years ago I played this game!

I always hated the "type the word" copy protection. Even armed with the manual, I would still miss most of the time. Does a blank line count as a line? Does a title line? Who knows. Just keep typing word from that page until you hit... So glad we moved past that (albeit, it was fun to poison the Prince of Persia a few times).