D2GS start with txt files ?

Going back to a very old thread. Apologies if you solved this already...

To answer your question: no. Are you trying to do some patch modifying? If so, you'll need to open a standard D2 install with the -direct -txt flag to build the .bin files inside the /data folder.  Once you have successfully joined a game with the new patch (I normally delete/rename the original patch file to make sure it is loading from /data) then you can rebuild the Patch MPQ.

After that, I'd test locally on your D2 with your newly created Patch MPQ and then if it all works well - upload it to your server.