Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game (RTS), developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Blizzard and Interplay Productions. The MS-DOS version was released on 23 November 1994 and the Macintosh version in early 1996. Although Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was not the first RTS title to offer multiplayer games, Blizzard's game persuaded a wider audience that multiplayer facilities were essential for future RTS titles. The game introduced innovations in mission design and gameplay elements, which were adopted by other RTS developers. Blizzard's main emphases in these games were on skillful management of relatively small forces and on development of characterization and storyline within and between games played in the same universe. Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the game won three awards and was a finalist for three others. The sequel, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, became the main rival to Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series, and this competition fostered an RTS boom in the mid to late 1990s.