Heroes of Might and Magic IV

Heroes of Might and Magic IV

Developers
	New World Computing
Mac OS (Classic)	Contraband Entertainment
Publishers
2002-2003	3DO
2003-present	Ubisoft
Re-release	Sold Out Software
Release dates
Windows	March 28, 2002
Mac OS (Classic)	November 15, 2002
Reception
Metacritic	84
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Multiple select
Genres	TBS
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Heroes of Might and Magic

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Heroes of Might and Magic IV is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric TBS game in the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

The game received two expansion packs - The Gathering Storm in September 2002, and Winds of War in February 2003 - with additional campaigns, heroes and neutral creatures. Official patches maintained feature and balancing parity between all aforementioned releases.

The Complete Edition, which contains the base game and both expansions, was released in September 2004. It is the most widely available version of the game, and is the one which is sold on digital stores.

The game requires the GL wrapper by Verok to resolve compatibility issues. It also includes quality-of-life improvements such as high resolution support and windowed mode.

General information

HoMM IV section on Age of Heroes

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v2 DRM.
GOG.com		Complete Edition. Uses GOG's custom DirectDraw wrapper as of 7 September 2022.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Version differences

The retail-only Gold Edition includes the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion.

The Complete Edition includes the base game and both expansion packs.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion packs include new campaigns, maps, artifacts, and neutral units.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
The Gathering Storm
Winds of War

Essential improvements

Official patches

The latest patch for all versions is 3.0. The retail version of Winds of War and Complete Edition is already 3.0.

• Mirrors for the base game are here.
• Mirrors for The Gathering Storm are here.
• Mirrors for Czech- and Russian-specific Winds of War localization fixes are here.

HoMM4 Resolution Mod with GL Wrapper by Verok

Changes the graphics renderer, fixes the lag and crash when entering a battle, allows higher resolutions along with 32-bit color support and windowed mode. Originally they were separate, but as of version 1.50 of the GL Wrapper, they are combined in a single download.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\New World Computing\Heroes of Might and Magic IV HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Wow6432Node\New World Computing\Heroes of Might and Magic IV\1.0
Mac OS (Classic)

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\games
Mac OS (Classic)

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy		Added on 7 September 2022.

Video

General settings menu

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See HoMM4 Resolution Mod with GL Wrapper by Verok
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		See HoMM4 Resolution Mod with GL Wrapper by Verok
4K Ultra HD		See HoMM4 Resolution Mod with GL Wrapper by Verok
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Doesn't work at 1280x1024 by default. Runs on all resolutions with the HoMM4 Resolution Mod with GL Wrapper by Verok and is toggled by F4.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music and effects.
Surround sound
Subtitles		Cutscenes only.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio		While heavily sampled, there are no known issues with streaming the game's music.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Local retail version only.
French
German
Hungarian				Retail only.
Italian
Polish
Russian				Local retail version only. Patch for digital version
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		4	Hot seat
LAN play
Online play		GameSpy services have been shut down; see GameSpy for workarounds.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Direct IP

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	7

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	GameSpy	Shut down in 1 August 2007.

Mods

Equilibris

This mod improves the game by fixing bugs, improving the game balance and adding new campaigns. Once installed, it will create a file that allows for playing the original game, without reinstalling it.

System requirements

Windows

Mac OS (Classic)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 400 MHz	450 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible	DirectX 9 compatible