Classics On Deck #8: Warcraft 3 (2002) / Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998)

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It's Friday again, and we're back with another Classics on Deck article! Last week, we showed how to get Midnight Club 2 and the original Marathon from 1994 running on the Deck. This week, we're looking at the classic RTS Warcraft 3 (by Michael Baker) and Epic Megagames Platforming Shooter, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (by Oliver Stogden).

Warcraft 3 (2002)

• Digital Availability: None (Delisted from Battle.net with the launch of Reforged. Physical versions are also around, but there is no reliable way of getting the original Warcraft III digitally)
• Version Tested: Latest Version of the game (CD-ROM)
• Wine/Proton Version Used: Proton Experimental

Installation

Man, what a legendary game Warcraft III is. It is an RTS that still looks great. Getting your hands on it today is annoying since 2020’s biblical failure, Warcraft III Reforged, a terrible remaster that removed the ability to buy the original. On launch, it even forced mandatory updates to the Reforged edition, a move that pissed off many people for good reasons! Because of the lack of availability, I used a physical CD version of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos for today's episode.

If you have a physical disc of the game, you can use a USB DVD drive and use Lutris to install the game that way. Insert the Warcraft III disc into your USB DVD Drive and select “Install a Windows game from an executable” when adding a game to Lutris. I named my folder "Warcraft III,” but you can name it whatever you want. Proceed along the Lutris steps. Select the “Setup.exe” file on the root of the disc as the setup file for the game when Lutris prompts you for one. Proceed with the installation as usual; just bear in mind that installing might take quite a while.

Once you’ve saved the new configuration, you can boot the game as normal from Steam if you made a Steam Shortcut or from Lutris otherwise. If all else fails, or if you encounter a problem with Lutris, you can install it on another platform and transfer the installed folder to the Steam Deck through a flash drive. I started using the Keyboard (WASD) and Mouse profile as a default controller profile, and I plan on testing more layouts next week.

Steam Deck Performance & Issues

Despite its old age, Warcraft III runs very well on the Steam Deck. The game plays at a smooth 60FPS on stock settings on the Steam Deck OLED, but I found the game to break above 60FPS for some reason. It doesn’t make things unplayable, but I recommend keeping the framerate locked to 30 or 60 FPS, depending on how much you like battery life.

The controls will take a little while getting used to, but they play surprisingly well. I recommend tuning down the mouse sensitivity, as the mouse movement scrolls rather quickly by default. In the profile settings, I remapped the usual WASD keys to Up/Down/Left/Right and set the Escape function to F10 for easy access to the menu.

The game runs well and sips very little power even at full TDP. With graphics settings on high, and a 60FPS/60Hz frame lock, I found an average power draw of 8 watts. Warcraft III is quite visually striking even by today’s standards, and it looks great. You can add an extra hour of battery life by locking it to 30fps, too. It plays well even at a 4W TDP, but with how efficient the game is, there is no reason not to go full power with this one. What a performer!

Gameplay

It is impossible to think of the real-time strategy genre without considering Warcraft III, one of the most influential games ever made. It is an incredibly strong RTS game with landmark visuals for its time, great gameplay, and a wealth of content in both single-player and multiplayer. Don’t forget about the mods!

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998)

• Digital Availability: Available on GOG.com
• Version Tested: GOG Version (Jazz Jackrabbit 2 with JJ2+ v5.12, under the extras menu)
• Wine/Proton Version Used: Wine-GE 8-26

Installation

Connecting your GOG account to Lutris and installing the game doesn't let you install the JJ2+ community patch, so instead, we'll boot a web browser in Desktop Mode, navigate to GOG.com, login, find "Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Secret Files" in your library, and then download "Jazz Jackrabbit 2 with JJ2+ v5.12" under the extras menu.

Go back to Lutris, and add a game, searching for a Jazz Jackrabbit 2 installer, select the standard Jazz Jackrabbit 2 entry, and then select "G O G + JJ2plus + cnc-ddraw", when asked for the file for JJ2+ 5.12, direct it to the EXE file you just downloaded from GOG.

The installation will proceed, and once it's done, you can right-click the game in your Lutris library, add it to Steam, and boot it in Game Mode.

Steam Deck Performance & Issues

When booting the game, it might default to a logging window, so just hit the STEAM button, navigate to the bottom where it says "SWITCH WINDOWS," and select Jazz Jackrabbit 2 from there.

As for controls, you should use the Keyboard (WASD) and Mouse layout, and then configure your controls from the in-game controls menu. There aren't many controls, and all of them can be mapped without changing anything in the Steam controller layout menus.

Graphics settings should already be defaulted to decent ones. The game will run at 800x450, a 16:9 resolution, so you do get black bars, but you can't expect a game from the 1990s to support 16:10 as an aspect ratio.

Performance is a smooth 60, which the game is locked to. Power draw is only around 5- 7W, so expect a solid 7+ hours of battery life on a Steam Deck OLED, and a good 5+ hours on an LCD model.

Gameplay

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a solid platforming shooter. It was one of my favorite games growing up as a kid, and I have great memories of playing through the campaign in split-screen co-op with my brother. It's possible to dock your Steam Deck and still enjoy that same experience today, too.

The movement is smooth, the music is phenomenal, and the environments and enemy designs are creative and interesting. If this is a game you missed back in the 1990s and early 2000s, it's worth checking out to see if it's a game you'd enjoy.

That's it for this week's Classics on Deck. We'll return with more classic games on your Steam Deck next week.

Let us know in the comments below if you want us to check out any specific games, too, and we will add them to the list of games we plan on finding and testing.

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