Also, the Bnet version's cutscenes are inferior to the DOS version...

Im happy it is the Battle net version. Because all i wanted is to play this game online against some of my friends :-)

Oh, wow. Are those also cut compared to the original ones? I don't remember.

And that's okay! :)

Well, i rather have a Warcraft 2 Edition to begin with, as digital backup which i also can download as a drm free copy and where i can finally play such an classic for the first time, even it means that i miss out some "Soundtrack-Content" (which i can listen on YT anyway), than not at all or are being forced to pay an high praise for a copy online (or cheap a second hand edition where i can't be sure if the disc is okay or the key still in etc etc).

I don't want to disrespect you, but why are People like you always so selfcentered and only think the whole world bow to them, instead of thinking of other People. If you have an "better" Edition than good for you....

GoG, you need to get on this and ask Blizzard for permission to replace the cut and glitchy soundtrack with the full and non-glitchy soundtrack.

The Battle.net version of Warcraft II is an insult to the heritage of Warcraft II, because it's just a repackaging of the original game and the expansion that cuts stuff in order to fit onto the size of a single CD, while giving Blizzard the the opportunity to re-market the game 4 years after its original release. It's like the Age of Empires Gold edition release, which is nothing more than a repackaging of Age of Empires and the Rise of Rome expansion with nothing added, but with the CD music removed and replaced with inferior MIDI music in order to fit both the original game and the expansion onto one CD - for the sake of saving the publisher a few cents on each copy sold.

The Battle.net version of Warcraft II is a downgrade from the original release and the expansion.

But, even using the Battle.net version of Warcraft II for the GoG release doesn't mean that you have to stick with its same-but-less-and-inferior soundtrack. You can swap the music files for the track taken from the Warcraft II and Beyond the Dark Portal CDs.

Isn't GoG all about making available the pinnacle presentation of games, with as many extras as possible, out of passion for gaming history? Then selling a Warcraft II that doesn't have its amazing soundtrack in full or quality format runs contrary to GoG's mission and philosophy.

If you ask Blizzard for permission to fix the soundtrack by sourcing it from the non-Battle.net release of Warcraft II and Beyond the Dark Portal, do you think they'll say no, that they want a worse and incomplete presentation of the soundtrack being given, so that people are less enticed to purchase the game and are less impressed by it? Of course not. You just have to get in contact with them and inform them of the situation and ask them for permission to replace the incomplete and glitchy soundtrack with the quality version of it.

Have there been any updates to the game that maybe contain the full soundtrack files?

GoG support said they were trying to do everything they can to make this release the best one possible, but they couldn't confirm whether the full soundtrack was coming or not.

gog where first known for not only adding games that wernt available on steam, but also fixing them with new updates that the original versions never had, as they got more popular, the obvious happened and they decided to basically copy steam and just upload games regardless of issues as long as they load. the fact that steam also has more retro games now (even if they sometimes appear on gog first) kind of takes away some of the reason for using gog, sure they are still drm free on here, yet ive never really seen the advantage of that like others do

You don't see the advantage of a company trusting you / treating you like a normal customer and not checking at every corner that you're pirating a game and in certain cases breaking the game once the support for that title ends?

As for GOG's release of WarCraft II - I use both BNE and the original Dos release, which you can set up in the DosBox yourself. I don't think that Blizzard will provide GOG with the Dos version and Blizzard is the one that has the final say in the matter as usual.

Blizzard don't need to allow the DOS version of Warcraft II to be uploaded to GoG. They simply need to allow GoG to replace the cut-down Battle.net soundtrack files with the full-length soundtrack files. I don't have the GoG Bnet version because I already have the full-content version and still have my original War 2 boxes and CDs, but I expect the sound files are loose and that it's an easy swap job and that all they need is the OK from Blizzard to fix the GoG and Bnet version.

If you had checked an earlier thread about this topic, you would've found the work has actually already been done to restore the original redbook audio to battle.net edition on this thread:

https://www.gog.com/forum/warcraft_ii_battlenet_edition/original_redbook_audio_restored_junk_removed

delicieuxz
nothing to fixed. .cda on DataCD is not a actual lossless anyway.

Last time I checked, August 2019, the date of that thread, is not earlier than March 2019, the date this thread was made. So, this thread is actually the earlier one, by about 5 months.

Thanks for pointing out the thread, though. It's cool that somebody has created a mod to fix the missing music issue in the GoG release of Warcraft II, but it should be fixed in the actual release.

Personally, I'll wait for the GoG release to be fixed before buying it. I already have Warcraft II on my PC with the full and higher-quality music and everything else in it. If I buy it from GoG, which I want to do, it will be to have the full quality package added to my collection and ready to play whenever it's installed. If I have to mod it after installing it anyway, then there's no advantage over my copy of Warcraft II which is ever simpler to use because the work is already done on it and I have it archived so it's just extract and play.

As soon as GoG fix their release of the game, I'll happily buy it.

I didn't say anything about lossless. The Battle.net version of Warcraft II is missing a significant amount of the original game's music because it was cut-out of the B.net re-release in order to fit the base game plus the expansion onto a single CD (Blizzard was too cheap to ship the re-release on 2 CDs).

With the GoG release, despite there being no CD storage-size limitation, the audio tracks included are the B.net versions which are edited to remove a lot of the music. The edits made to the B.net release's music are also done poorly and clearly not by somebody with audio editing familiarity because the cuts are not made at the zero crossing of the audio transients, resulting in audible pops and clicks in places.

So, there is something to be fixed.

Also, regarding the difference in quality between 22khz and 44khz, there is definitely an audible difference in quality between those. If the B.net version uses 22khz compared to the original using 44khz, then that's another thing about its music and sound effects that needs fixing.

So, there are two things to be fixed about the GoG Warcraft II release's music. The sound effects should be looked at as well to see if they suffer from the same degradation of quality. And also the CGI movies and the audiotracks for them - since somebody else claimed they were also of inferior quality in the B.net re-release of Warcraft II. It seems that Blizzard made a lot of shoddy cuts to the quality of the game in order to save the cost of a 2nd CD in the B.net re-release. This just goes to show that the B.net edition, while being the first version many or maybe even most people played, is an inferior product and a poor choice to use as the basis for a remaster.

What exactly tracks on Expansion CD are new? Never heard that expansion have additional tracks, except bonus song.
And one additional track and one video seq. for The Dark Saga console version.