Updates (Worms Armageddon)
From Worms Knowledge Base
The last version of W:A created entirely by Team17 is 3.0. Following updates were developed outside Team17, by independent programmers. Until 3.7.0.0, they were considered "Beta"; however, copies of Worms Armageddon sold today (on Steam and GOG) include a (usually) recent version of these updates as part of the official game.
All updates since 3.5 Beta 2 and up to and including 3.6.26.5 were written almost solely by Deadcode, after being recruited by Team17. In September 2006, CyberShadow joined forces with Deadcode; all updates since and including 3.6.28.0 were written by Deadcode and CyberShadow.
The latest W:A update can always be downloaded from this page.
Features
For a summary of new features added in the updates, see section 2.0 of the ReadMe. A web version can be found here.
A video illustrating some of the additions in Beta updates up to 3.6.30.0 is available here: http://wormtube.worms2d.info/81/wa_beta_showdown
Archive
This site mirrors some of the released updates, and hosts some change highlight pages which explain major changes for applicable updates:
- WA_Exe-3.0.5.0_Beta_2.zip (2002.08.15)
- WA_Update-3.0.5.0_Beta_2.exe (2002.08.15)
- WA_Update-3.0.5.0_Beta_3pre1.zip (2002.08.17)
- WA_Update-3.6.19.14_Beta.zip (2004.02.12)
- WA_Update-3.6.19.15_Beta.zip (2004.02.20)
- WA_Update-3.6.19.19_Beta.zip (2004.03.21)
- WA_Update-3.6.20.1_Beta.zip (2004.07.13)
- WA_Update-3.6.21.1_Beta.zip (2004.09.23)
- WA_Update-3.6.21.2_Beta.zip (2004.09.27)
- WA_Update-3.6.21.3_Beta.zip (2004.09.28)
- WA_Update-3.6.22.1_Beta.exe (2004.10.06)
- WA_Update-3.6.23.0_Beta.exe (2005.03.23)
- WA_Update-from-3.6.22.1-to-3.6.23.1_Beta.exe (2005.03.23)
- WA_Update-3.6.23.2_Beta.exe (2005.03.24)
- WA_Update-3.6.24.1_Beta.exe (2005.03.29)
- WA_Update_from_3.6.22.1+_to_3.6.24.1_Beta.exe (2005.03.29)
- WA_Update-3.6.24.2_Beta.exe (2005.03.31)
- WA_Update-3.6.25.1a_Beta.exe (2005.04.26)
- WA_Update-3.6.26.5_Beta.exe (2006.01.05)
- WA_update-3.6.28.0_Beta_Installer.exe (2007.06.29)
- WA_update-3.6.29.0_Beta_Installer.exe (2008.07.28)
- WA_update-3.6.30.0_Beta_Installer.exe (2010.10.26)
- WA_update-3.6.31.0_Beta_Installer.exe (2010.11.16)
- WA_update-3.7.0.0_Installer.exe (2012.12.19)
- WA_update-3.7.2.1_Installer.exe | WA_update-3.7.2.1_[Steam]_Installer.exe (2013.03.15)
- WA_update-3.8_[CD]_Installer.exe (built 2020.06.21, released 2020.07.16) (version 3.8 change highlights)
- WA_update-3.8.1_[CD]_Installer.exe (built 2020.11.08, released 2020.12.23)
Technical information
Installer
WA_Update-3.0.5.0_Beta_2.exe is a Microsoft installer (with an embedded Microsoft Cabinet file, which can be extracted with cabextract under a Unix-like system or (presumably) EXTRACT.EXE on Windows). Inside this installer is actually another installer - an InstallShield installer. Inside this is the data1.hdr file, which points programs towards the two cab files. These are InstallShield Cabinets. These can be extracted with Unshield on UNIX or i6comp on Windows.
WA_Exe-3.0.5.0_Beta_2.zip and wa_update-3.0.5.0_beta_3.zip to WA_Update-3.6.21.3_Beta.zip are technically not installers. They are just a plain zip file containing the updated files. One does not need to install previous updates, as these are cumulative.
WA_Update-3.6.22.1_Beta.exe to WA_Update-3.6.26.5_Beta.exe (and presumably some other versions) is a UPX-compressed self-extracting 7-Zip archive. The contents can be manually extracted using 7-Zip. Depending on which version of 7-Zip is being used, the UPX compression may have to be manually removed first.
Versions since 3.6.28.0 come in an NSIS installer package, which automates most of the updating tasks - detects installation directory, downloads and installs prerequisites like the 3.0 Patch or the updated GFX archives (which were introduced in 3.6.22.1). The updated GFX archives can be downloaded separately here, and it is a self-extracting 7z archive. Both of these (the NSIS installer and the 7-Zip archive) can be extracted with 7-zip, both on Windows and on Unix-like OSes.
External links
