Warcraft II requires the CD to be present to play single-player games (and if you have the “Beyond the Dark Portal” expansion, you need the expansion CD to play the expansion campaigns). If you do not wish to hunt for the CD or to swap CDs, you can patch the main program (WAR2.EXE) to skip the CD check.
Several versions of the DOS program exist and they can all be patched in the same manner – by changing a few bytes at different offsets in the executable. The original “Tides of Darkness” releases require change in a single place; The “Beyond the Dark Portal” versions need two places altered. Consult the following table:
| Version | 1.22 | 1.33 (BDP) | 1.40 | 1.50 (BDP) |
| File size | 878,695 bytes | 900,539 bytes | 884,571 bytes | 906,927 bytes |
| Offset 1 | 0x737B0 | 0x764D9 | 0x74330 | 0x77268 |
| Change | 74 0C → EB 14 |
74 0C → EB 1F |
74 0C → EB 14 |
74 0C → EB 1F |
| Offset 2 | – | 0x9BD47 | – | 0x9CEB7 |
| Change | – | 31 C0 A0 → 8B C2 A2 |
– | 31 C0 A0 → 8B C2 A2 |
Additionally you would have to copy MUDDAT.CUD and SNDDAT.WAR from the DATA directory on the CD to the DATA subdirectory where the game is installed on your local drive (these files contain the movies and the audio narration before each campaign mission). For “Beyond the Dark Portal”, you need to take the files from the expansion CD, which include both sets of campaigns.
Lastly, change the cdpath line in WAR2.INI to point to the game directory instead of the CD. The simplest way is to change it to cdpath=. (. specifies current “run-from” directory).
These patches only remove the protection-related CD check. If you do have a CD in your drive, the game will still allow you to play CD music. Without a CD, you will only be able to play MIDI music (CD music option will be grayed out in the settings).
Crack courtesy of PiXIE
Cloaked Thargoid 