Released: Heroes II Map Archives

[Kalah]

<p>Ever since ByteBandit <a href="/viewtopic.php?t=10460">asked<a> if people wanted a Heroes II map archive many, <i>many</i> days ago, literally <i>some</i> people have been awaiting its arrival with greater than average expectations. ByteBandit did the work along with his *ahem* "partner" Pol (that's a direct quote, btw.), and the archive can be found at the following location:



<p><center><a href="/http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HoM ... es"><b>The HoMM II Map Archives</b></a></center>



<p>So why, other than this great desire for it, did they bother? Well, let's ask them, shall we... So, ByteBandit, why bother? Just out of a sense of service to the Community, is it?



<p><i>"Celestial Heavens, along with other popular HoMM sites, have many members who still enjoy this game. I, myself being one of them. Yet, CH does not offer maps for HoMM II. That has all changed as of now. The Map Archives are a part of Celestial Heavens. They are our parent site. You'll find most of the maps on the HoMM II Archives are from the old Astral Wizard site started by Phil McCrum back in the mid '90's, complete with original documentation, and untouched by those of us at the Archives. Many sites may have the HoMM II Astral Wizard maps, but they lack the original documentation, which are worth the download in themselves. Believe me."</i>



<p>Enough with the history lesson. Maps, man, talk about the maps.



<p><i>"Simply put, the best maps from the Astral Wizard site are here. If you have ever played HoMM II and frequented the AW site as I had done for years, you'll know what I'm talking about. All the Award winners and Runnner-Ups. All your favorites aside from the winners. Nearly all of them are now available for you once again. Also, maps from the French site, Site Du Dragons, are here. All, almost rare to find anymore. Many campaigns (yes, campaigns!) from this site are on the Archives."</i>



<p><center><img src="/https://www.celestialheavens.com/images ... "></center>



<p>So what's the fuss with this game, dude? Why are you desperately clinging on to retro games when new games are so infinitely much better? (what...? don't look at me like that... no, obviously I don't <i>actually</i> think that... I'm just reading the effing script, whaddoyouwant from me...)



<p><i>"Some may say that HoMM II graphics cannot compete with the graphics of today. But you must remember that this game was way ahead of it's time and is still fun to play. And many hold the opinion that HoMM II plays better than most of today's games. So, if you are still playing it or just want to play some of the best quality maps for <i>any</i> of the HoMM games on the planet of the Earth, you'll join us on <a href="/http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HoM ... hives">The HoMM II Map Archives</a> and discover quality once again. I don't think you'll be disappointed."</i>



<p>Seriously: good work, lads.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1256072976

[Yurian Stonebow]

Let me be the first to congratulate you two for the well done project.

This calls for a celebration!





-Yurian

[Richard Hallas]

Seconded. Also, this is actually really timely, because now that GOG has released a nicely updated version of Heroes II that runs on modern machines (including Macs) through DOS Box, and doesn't require the CD to be in the drive to play, Heroes II will be getting a lot of new interest. I've returned to it recently (and on the Mac for the first time), so I'll be trawling the new archive to see what maps I haven't collected already.

[ByteBandit]

I'll add here that I have looked at the other major map sites around the Net and none have the amount of maps we have. On top of that, we have put up links in the site on the Links page that will take you to even more maps!
The Yahoo site allows for 100 Mb of storage and we have over 75 per cent of it full. Thus the links to more maps. We wanted to keep what little space we have left for future HoMM2 maps that will appear from time to time.

[astral76minor]

Thanks for not forgetting what Heroes is all about. This is where it all began. These maps help add to the "original charm and uniqueness" of Heroes 2. Pull out that laptop and link onto multiplayer with H2 on the internet and enjoy.... Drinks all around!

[ByteBandit]

Just for nostalgia, we have added around 50 custom HoMM 1 maps. Oh, and as an added ingredient-Kings Bounty too.

EDIT: The original Kings Bounty not the newer one.

[decebalus]

I dont know where exactly are those homm II maps ..I only see homm3 maps...:(

Or i dont know where can I take them down...



EDIT: okay, i found how it works....too bad we dont have all the maps in 1 archived file...but its a great job...thx
Edited on Tue, Oct 27 2009, 15:13 by decebalus