WoW Vanilla Servers... whence they sprung?

[+DZ-Jay]

I have a question and I don't know which is the most topical forum to place it, so I chose "Modern Gaming."

 

Anyway, my question is regarding the so-called World of Warcraft "Vanilla" private servers, where people play WoW using a version of the game from 2006.

 

My question is, where do they get the server code? I'm just curious because having tried one of these servers, it looks and plays exactly as I remember it from 2006, when I started playing WoW.

 

Was the WoW back-end ever made available to third parties by Blizzard, in the same way that Quake servers were available from Id Software back in the day? Or did people just reverse-engineer the entire server by hand (I can't imagine how this would be even possible)? Or perhaps it was "leaked" by a Blizzard insider?

 

My curiosity was sparked because the project status messages talk about writing code to get the server ready, so it sounds like it is home-grown, but... how do they manage to make it so close to actual Blizzard WoW from 2006?

 

By the way, I don't want to start a holy war on the moral or legal merits of such services. I played WoW back in the day, I left it when it got nerfed and silly (a race of space pandas, really??), and I re-discovered the awesomeness to which I got addicted 10 years ago. I would gladly pay Blizzard for the chance, but alas this appears to be impossible. I may or may not continue playing "vanilla," but one thing is certain: I won't go back to "modern" WoW... EVAH!

 

I'm just curious to know how these things came about.

 

-dZ.

[Flojomojo]

Something similar happened within Everquest, and those old style servers are still up. I think they did via reverse engineering but I'm not sure. Seems like yet another example of the power of nostalgia. If I had lots of fun with old WoW, I'd want to relive those glory days, too.

 

I've been looking for more details, but they're all "what" and "why" without much explanation as to "how." Could piracy be involved?

[+DZ-Jay]

Something similar happened within Everquest, and those old style servers are still up. I think they did via reverse engineering but I'm not sure. Seems like yet another example of the power of nostalgia. If I had lots of fun with old WoW, I'd want to relive those glory days, too.

 

To me it's more than the "glory days." I really enjoyed it back then and continued playing as it evolved. Eventually I saw the changes I didn't appreciate take over and affecting my enjoyment, so I quit.

 

This is why the old game appeals to me, but of course, it's also because I have an emotional connection to it.

 

In other words, to me it's more than just the rosy-petal lense of nostalgia, but an actual fascination with a game which I genuinely felt was eventually ruined.

 

I've been looking for more details, but they're all "what" and "why" without much explanation as to "how." Could piracy be involved?

I'm sure there's piracy involved, since these are not sanctioned by Blizzard. However, I don't know if it's due to the server code being available at some point, someone from the inside leaking it, or creative people reproducing it from scratch.

 

I think it's an interesting story, but like you, I can't find any information about the origins.

 

dZ

[+xucaen]

Blizzard recently shut down some private servers. I guess Nostalrius was the big one. They sent a petition to Blizzard to put up an official Vanilla server but they rejected it.

 

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=blizzard+shuts+down+private+vanilla+servers

[Hyper_Eye]

The code for private servers was created from scratch with a healthy dose of reverse engineering. These servers may play like vanilla now but for many years they were very buggy. Over the years they have gotten better. I started playing WoW before any expansions and I did enjoy it but I prefer to play Wrath of the Lich King private servers rather than base game servers. WotLK was the expansion released before they remade the world so all of the vanilla zones are still around but I love some of the content in The Burning Crusade especially. I also like getting a mount earlier as the time I have to spend on the game is significantly limited compared to what it was back in the day.

[omegadot]

I know project1999 (an EQ server rooted in the first few expansions) still gets patches to match things like movement speed, pathing, etc. Most of these servers are a best effort (and a hell of a lot of effort) to reverse engineer the original experience. PJ99 has the acceptance of Daybreak at this point, though.

 

Of course they also often rely on pirated or modified clients.

 

I have an active WoW account I play with my wife on and we've never looked at the emulated WoW servers. I imagine it would be similar though.

[Bakasama]

I tried one of those free severs years ago. They had a vanilla server and a "cheat" server. The cheat one had max level upon the first kill and most of the epic weapons and armor for sale. I gotta say it was fun trying to kill raid bosses with a twinked character.

[+thanatos]

I played one the Feenix vanilla servers for a bit, probably a year and a half ago. Worked really well, don't recall any problems.

 

Been away from WoW for so many years, I'd have to start all over again since it has changed so much. My wife never stopped playing.

[Inky]

I've been away from WoW for a very long time, but these vanilla servers have piqued my interest.

[+xucaen]

If you all find one let me know.