Version emulation
From Worms Knowledge Base
Leading up to WA beta update v3.6.19.7 (2004.02.09), Deadcode determined that it was necessary to maintain backward compatibility with previous beta versions of WA to avoid segmenting the WA community. To achieve this, he implemented emulation of all the previous WA beta versions. Later, in v3.6.26.4 (2005.11.22), emulation of version 3.0 was also added.
In an online game with multiple Worms Armageddon client versions, the oldest client version present is the one selected to be emulated by all clients. The presence of WA clients that would incorrectly emulate the version that would normally be emulated causes an older version to be emulated to prevent desynchronising.
Similarly, there is backward compatibility but not forward compatibility when reading replay files. Thus, for example, a v3.6.31.0 user can watch replays recorded by WA v3.6.31.0 or prior, but not those recorded with versions later than v3.6.31.0.
