u/sagiroth

I've noticed quite a few people aren't aware how much stuff is happening around the preservation/emulation side of Turtle WoW, so I thought I'd put the main projects I've found in one place.

This isn't really about advertising another private server. I'm more interested in the work going into preserving Turtle WoW 1.18.x, documenting it, making it self-hostable and keeping the knowledge around it from disappearing into random Discord channels.

There are actually several different branches of this happening now.

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Open source restoration / emulation

Penqle - Tortoise WoW

https://github.com/Penqle/tortoise-wow

Probably the most important open source project here.

It's a community restoration of Turtle WoW 1.18.1 build 7272, and Penqle has been doing a lot of the work of rebuilding/fixing the server side.

A lot of the other open tooling below ultimately revolves around this project.

Shyalya - Tortoise WoW + PlayerBots

https://github.com/Shyalya/tortoise-wow

Fork of Tortoise WoW with active mangosbot / PlayerBots integration.

This is particularly interesting for preservation because you can actually run the game locally and populate the world with bots rather than having an empty MMO.

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Other Turtle 1.18 projects

There are also a few live projects taking Turtle in different directions.

Capybara Paradise / CapyCraft

https://capycraft.io/

This is the Chinese Turtle-derived project I was referring to before.

It's another continuation of the Turtle-style Vanilla+ world, and AFAIK it's the only real latest copy of Turtle WoW since the original Chinese devs work on it.

OctoWoW

https://octowow.st/

Another major preservation/continuation project.

They started from the Turtle 1.17.2-era code and have been restoring content toward 1.18.1 while also developing their own version of the game.

They've also been fairly vocal about preservation and are cooperating with the wider preservation scene, although their server core itself isn't currently open source. Recently this team also shared some changes that derive from the core idea and add a bit of modern wow ideas.

RavenCraft

https://ravencraft.io/

Another spin on Turtle WoW, this time run by former contributors to the 1.18.1 project.

They're taking the 1.18.1 version in their own direction with continued development and new content.

So at this point there isn't really one single "Turtle preservation project" anymore. There are several different approaches happening at once.

LunaticPTR

https://lunaticptr.com/

LunaticPTR is also a Turtle Project but solely focused on the Level One Lunatic Challenge, it restored all Lunatic Content and the items that were originally added to Frostmane Hollow and Deadmines were coded on a Forum Post that had our community mapping out item progression. The Project used that as a basis and fleshed out an entire endgame.

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Self hosting / Docker

Nescabir - tortoise-docker

https://github.com/Nescabir/tortoise-docker

Docker/Compose packaging around Shyalya's PlayerBots fork.

Probably one of the easiest starting points if you just want to get a Tortoise server running without manually piecing everything together.

Kasperfriend - tortoise-docker

https://github.com/kasperfriend/tortoise-docker

Rebuild of Nescabir's Docker setup focused on making local Turtle WoW + PlayerBots easy to run.

Reworked for any-CPU support, with additional scripts aimed at near zero-command operation, plus open and easily editable configuration files.

A good option if you want a quick, straightforward way to run Turtle WoW locally with bots without manually configuring the whole stack.

Dad's MMO Lab

https://github.com/DadsMmoLab/dads-mmo-lab

This one is much broader than Turtle WoW.

The goal is basically making old MMOs easy to preserve and self-host on Steam Deck, Linux and Windows, with automated installers, Docker setups and documentation.

They cover multiple versions of WoW as well as things like RuneScape, MapleStory, MU Online and more.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/fppHRnjHJv

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVZoGVtVWbbf3nFtvkT3stw

Definitely worth checking out if you're interested in MMO preservation in general.

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Database / player tools

Tortoise DB Viewer

https://github.com/Xian55/tortoise-db-viewer

A proper frontend for exploring the Tortoise database.

Items, NPCs, drops, vendors, quests, crafting, searches etc. Makes working with the DB considerably less painful.

Warband

https://github.com/Shyalya/warband

Vanilla-compatible UI for controlling PlayerBots.

Roster management, bags, spells, strategies, filling groups/raids etc. instead of doing everything through bot chat commands.

TortoiseGMManager

https://github.com/tortoise-wow-stack/TortoiseGMManager

This one is mine.

It's an in-game UI around the Tortoise GM commands - search, teleporting, spawning NPCs/items, lookups, quests, server management etc.

Mostly built because remembering a million commands isn't something I want to do.

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My preservation / documentation stuff

I've also been collecting some of this under tortoise-wow-stack.

It's mainly something I wanted for my own reference so I could rebuild the whole setup locally, but it's public in case it's useful to anyone else.

TortoiseWoWServer

https://github.com/tortoise-wow-stack/TortoiseWoWServer

Integration stack combining Shyalya's PlayerBots core, Docker deployment and the DB viewer into a reproducible setup.

TortoiseWoWKnowledgeBase

https://github.com/tortoise-wow-stack/TortoiseWoWKnowledgeBase

Documentation around the Penqle/Shyalya cores, PlayerBots, commands and how the different systems fit together. Especially helpful if you want to contribute to the core and have no idea where to start. Engineer/AI friendly OKF standards.

I think preserving the documentation is almost as important as preserving the source because otherwise half of the useful information ends up buried in Discord.

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Console Port addons

Ryac Steamdeck UI

https://github.com/Ryac1/Ryac_TW_Steamdeck_UI

Not quite drag and drop but works great once setup!

Vanilla Console port

https://github.com/pepordev/ConsoleExperienceClassic

A bit more user friendly than Ryac but have enough features to get you started

Where to contribute

Project Snapjaw Discord

https://discord.gg/jATNefJuh

This is probably the main place to go if you're interested in contributing specifically towards the open source Tortoise WoW / 1.18.1 restoration effort, asking technical questions or following development.

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I'm sure I've missed projects, forks or people working on this.

If you know of anything else related to Turtle WoW 1.18.x emulation, preservation, reverse engineering or self-hosting, post it below and I'll add it.

Would be nice to have one thread people can find instead of all of this being scattered between GitHub repos and Discord servers.

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EDIT:

• Added /r/kasperfriend project
• Formatting
• Added consoleport addons
• Added LunaticPTR server

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