Pud Master

PUD Master is a Macintosh-native editor for Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness by Brett Wood, released in 1998. It goes well beyond ordinary scenario editing, exposing the .PUD custom map format alongside Warcraft II's internal data so users can modify built-in campaign levels, unit graphics, animation sequences, projectiles, terrain behavior, upgrades, and computer AI scripts.

Beyond a Map Editor

Where Blizzard's bundled editor only let players draw new scenarios, PUD Master treats the entire Warcraft II data archive as editable. Built-in campaign missions, unit stats, sprites and tile sets, and AI scripts are all exposed for modification, making PUD Master closer to a total-conversion toolkit than a level-design tool.

PUD File Format

The .PUD file is Warcraft II's custom-map container, holding terrain, unit placement, triggers, and scenario metadata. PUD Master parses and rewrites these files directly and is compatible with maps from both the original game and the Battle.net Edition expansion, letting Mac players prepare scenarios for online play.

System Requirements

PUD Master ships in both 68k and PowerPC builds; the Info-Mac upload is the PPC version. The author specifies a minimum of 4 MB of RAM with 8 MB strongly recommended, and Warcraft II must be installed on the same machine for the editor to find and modify game data.

Authorship

The tool was developed by Brett Wood (bwood@uiuc.edu) at the University of Illinois and originally distributed from a personal student web page. PUD Master was widely regarded by Mac Warcraft II players as the most capable Mac equivalent to the various PC-side modding utilities such as War2xedit, WarDraft, and PUD Browser.