StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War are now free (PC and Mac)

jaguarskx

If anyone cares, Blizzard has released the old 1998 classic StarCraft and the Brood War expansion for free. Version 1.18 provides better stability in modern operating systems. It also includes windowed mode support. Blizzard is releasing StarCraft Remastered later this year.

https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20674424

legendarylycan

call me back when D2 is free and patched to play nice on modern systems - that's the one i'm really waiting for since the last time i tried playing it was on W7, and it had an odd thumping sound every few seconds (granted, i was using the PlugY addon at the time, so that could've been the reason) - probably won't work at all on W10​​

alexmakepeace

Here's my favorite RTS that was released for free... https://fileplanet.com/217370/download/Ground-Control-(Free-Game)

evilmark444

shadowfang240 wrote: »

call me back when D2 is free and patched to play nice on modern systems - that's the one i'm really waiting for since the last time i tried playing it was on W7, and it had an odd thumping sound every few seconds (granted, i was using the PlugY addon at the time, so that could've been the reason) - probably won't work at all on W10​​

I actually just reinstalled D2 over the weekend, works great on my win 10 PC, just have to run as an administrator.

When it comes to Brood War, I'd much rather see them port it into SC2's engine than just slap new sprites on it like what they're doing. I loved Brood War back in the day, and SC2 is far from perfect, but the there are several key things that I personally think SC2 did far, far better.

legendarylycan

there is a mod that fully recreates SC/BW in SC2, and does it very well at that - it even offers alternate playstyles for certain missions (i.e. the installation ones)

and i also just reinstalled D2/LoD myself after noticing they released a series of patches last year that makes the game work on modern systems​​

evilmark444

shadowfang240 wrote: »

there is a mod that fully recreates SC/BW in SC2, and does it very well at that - it even offers alternate playstyles for certain missions (i.e. the installation ones)

and i also just reinstalled D2/LoD myself after noticing they released a series of patches last year that makes the game work on modern systems​​

Yeah but thats SP only, I'd love to do some Brood War 1v1 or even 4v4 using the SC2 engine.

legendarylycan

it should work in MP too, as long as the ones you're playing with also have the mod...i dunno; i'm not sure how MP actually works when mods become involved, because i only play the SP part of starcraft​​

evilmark444

shadowfang240 wrote: »

it should work in MP too, as long as the ones you're playing with also have the mod...i dunno; i'm not sure how MP actually works when mods become involved, because i only play the SP part of starcraft​​

From what I remember those missions technically aren't mods in the usual sense, but rather just custom missions using ported Brood War sounds. To do MP someone would have to recreate the BW units and tech tree in a custom MP map.

jasonyeefong

YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS!

evilmark444

SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!

rattler2

Oh boys...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XpImo80neo

Anyways... I'd honestly like to see them rerelease WarCraft and WarCraft 2. WC2 was my game back in the day.

evilmark444

rattler2 wrote: »

Oh boys...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XpImo80neo

Anyways... I'd honestly like to see them rerelease WarCraft and WarCraft 2. WC2 was my game back in the day.

I wasn't crazy about WarCraft 2, both races played a bit too similarly for me. WarCraft 3 was better in that regard, but I didn't like that multiplayer was focused entirely on leveling your heroes in that one.

rattler2

Well... since WC2 came out before StarCraft... yea I will admit that both factions played similar. But still... that was my game to play.

evilmark444

Well, StarCraft was my introduction to RTS games, played WC2 afterwards so that probably influenced my opinion

rattler2

Probably. Still I would LOVE to be able to play WarCraft 2 again. Every time I try to install my physical copy, I get some funky sound every time there's speech. Still hear the speech, but it also has some kind of... popping/cracking sound on top of it too.

legendarylycan

why don't you see if you can stick the CD key in your account on blizzard's site, download the game installer from there and see if that still has the sound issue? if it doesn't, the CD was the problem; if it does, there's something wrong with your computer, probably sound card/audio driver related

https://us.battle.net/account/management/ just go there, log in, then click the giant green Add a Game Key button on the right-hand side - assuming you actually HAVE a battle.net account...if not, you'll need to make one first​​

rattler2

shadowfang240 wrote: »

why don't you see if you can stick the CD key in your account on blizzard's site, download the game installer from there and see if that still has the sound issue? if it doesn't, the CD was the problem; if it does, there's something wrong with your computer, probably sound card/audio driver related

https://us.battle.net/account/management/ just go there, log in, then click the giant green Add a Game Key button on the right-hand side - assuming you actually HAVE a battle.net account...if not, you'll need to make one first​​

Actually... I'm pretty sure its just the fact that its OLD software that still has options for Sound Blaster cards. These are actually physical discs I got. My guess is that its just not optimized for modern systems as it is using stuff from the mid 90s.

And yes I do have a B.Net account.

legendarylycan

i have about as modern a system as one can get except for the GPU and monitor, and i have no issues with sound from games around that same period - which is why you test to see if the problem lies with the discs by grabbing the installer directly from blizzard and bypassing the CD entirely​​

rattler2

WarCraft 2 didn't have a CD Key. This is Pre Battle.Net days. Hopefully its only a matter of time before we see a WarCraft anthology thing on B.Net like they do StarCraft. Hell... you can still get digital copies of Diablo 2 through B.Net!

legendarylycan

geez, you would think they would've invented CD keys by 1995...​​

evilmark444

The battle.net edition that was released in '99 had a cd-key, idk if those are redeemable or not though. I don't see why they wouldn't be, but I have no idea where mine is so I can't test it.

legendarylycan

when trying to find something, it's always in the last place you'd look - always​​

evilmark444

Well, I suspect it's in a box full of empty (I kept all the discs in a binder) jewel cases for all my old PC, PS1, PS2, and Dreamcast games, locked in a storage unit with a bunch of other boxes, I just don't know for sure

rattler2

Yea. My copy is not B.Net edition. Its the original. Hell... I got a copy of the ORIGINAL Warcraft as well.

starswordc

shadowfang240 wrote: »

geez, you would think they would've invented CD keys by 1995...​​

Only reason Blizzard ever had CD keys originally was to register games on Battle.net. They didn't even use them for DRM: they actively encouraged making copies of StarCraft CDs for LAN parties (good times). The patch before this even disabled the CD check.

jaredza

FOR THE SWARM!

rattler2

starswordc wrote: »

shadowfang240 wrote: »

geez, you would think they would've invented CD keys by 1995...​​

Only reason Blizzard ever had CD keys originally was to register games on Battle.net. They didn't even use them for DRM: they actively encouraged making copies of StarCraft CDs for LAN parties (good times). The patch before this even disabled the CD check.

Not just that, Diablo allowed for making "Spawn" copies for LAN parties, and I don't use the word Spawn randomly. It was literally labled Spawn.



It wasn't until Diablo II and StarCraft that they started with the copy protection stuff.

jorantomalak

i have starcraft on my old N64

starkaos

shadowfang240 wrote: »

geez, you would think they would've invented CD keys by 1995...​​

Does anyone else remember when you had to copy the game manual due to the game asking a question about the 14th word on the 23rd page as their form of DRM?

legendarylycan

no; i've never seen a game do that

i have, however, seen games (like might and magic games, which is why 6-8 are awesome; dunno if 1-5 or 9 also had that, because i never played them) with riddles and passwords where you had to actually type out the answer instead of being provided with a few choices, which you could just brute-force your way through...that's something modern games with riddles need to start doing again​​

rattler2

starkaos wrote: »

Does anyone else remember when you had to copy the game manual due to the game asking a question about the 14th word on the 23rd page as their form of DRM?

I have. The disk versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter had something like that where you had to match symbols that were on a certain page, and type in the code. It was always three Aurebesh symbols, and some word or phrase under it. So for example you'd have three symbols on page 13 of the TIE Fighter manual, and you'd have to type in the counter, which could be the phrase Emperor's Will.

Battle Bugs was similar, where you had to input the correct symbols from a given page.