StarCraft Available For Free From Blizzard, Nearly 20 Years After Launch

R-T-B · Apr 20, 2017

In 1998, I wasn't a StarCraft guy. My Packard Bell 486DX 8MB wonder that my parents refused to upgrade couldn't run it. That thing wouldn't do a merciful "fall-on-its-sword" act like all the other Packard Bells in the neighborhood either. The thing insisted on surviving until almost 2004 when my parents finally took it to the dump. I personally, got out of that hell in 2001 when I built my own system with an Athlon Thunderbird 1Ghz chip and a lofty 512MBs of ram, but StarCraft was never really my thing.

Now, the jokes on you, suckers, cause I can download it for free!

Seriously, Blizzard has released the entire "StarCraft 1" saga including Brood War expansion on their own site for free download, legally. Go ahead, grab it. No, it's not "remastered" or "4K" or even "HD" It just is what it is. Just follow the source link. If it sucks, don't be surprised, the 90s were kind of like that. I'll be suffering along with you, but man, the nostalgia... It'll be there, TPU. It'll be there.

PS: Yes, I realize I never played StarCraft, and so the nostalgia shouldn't be rightfully mine. Screw you guys, I'm sucking the nostalgia from an alternate universe where I DID play StarCraft. Don't question me, just download the game and have some fun.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

GoldenX · Apr 20, 2017

Nice! I'm going to test it under wine.

R-T-B · Apr 20, 2017

GoldenX said:
Nice! I'm going to test it under wine.

If winehq is to be believed, it should run wonderfully.

xkm1948 · Apr 21, 2017

Geez I envy you RTB! Back in 98 my texas instrument 486-80 would crash even when I try to install windows 95.

Prima.Vera · Apr 21, 2017

Already there are the full StarCraft I campaigns under the StarCraft II, made as a mods, with all the latest graphical enhancements but with original soundtrack, voices, etc , so really no need for this anymore...

xkm1948 · Apr 21, 2017

Prima.Vera said:
Already there are the full StarCraft I campaigns under the StarCraft II, made as a mods, with all the latest graphical enhancements but with original soundtrack, voices, etc , so really no need for this anymore...

Where? I wanna try it

Prima.Vera · Apr 21, 2017

xkm1948 said:
Where? I wanna try it

Search for StarCraft: Mass Recall

etayorius · Apr 21, 2017

This is good, but i rather have Diablo1 for free. I would even pay for a GoG version.

R-T-B · Apr 21, 2017

xkm1948 said:
Geez I envy you RTB! Back in 98 my texas instrument 486-80 would crash even when I try to install windows 95.

80 as in 80Mhz?

Mine was 33.

etayorius · Apr 21, 2017

R-T-B said:
80 as in 80Mhz?

Mine was 33.

I remember i had a 486 with Win95, i don't recall how did my uncle managed that, but i remember that was not possible or hard to accomplish.

xkm1948 · Apr 21, 2017

Yeah there is HUGE difference between intel 486 and TI486. How bad was TI486? Lets say they are even worse than Cyrix 486. I couldn't even play Red Alert 1 smoothly. A dos game that many intel 386 plays fine!

ViperXTR · Apr 21, 2017

ran fine on my MediaGXi Cyrix 166Mhz with 16mb edo ram

ShurikN · Apr 21, 2017

I'm hoping for a D2 remaster. Now that we are getting a SC remaster, this seems even more likely.

R-T-B · Apr 21, 2017

etayorius said:
I remember i had a 486 with Win95, i don't recall how did my uncle managed that, but i remember that was not possible or hard to accomplish.

It could be done. Our Packard Bell did it. It just sucked.

toastem2004 · Apr 21, 2017

Had an old Packard-bell 486DX2-66 with 32MB of ram running Windows 95. It was still running as of a few years ago. My grandma was using it at her school strictly as a word processor; using Word 6.0

Ubersonic · Apr 21, 2017

You missed out OP, Starcraft didn't actually become big until the mid 00's anyway. It was originally the poor man's Total Annihilation but after Cavedog software went bust the servers went down and that left a void that Starcraft stepped into and dominated

Tartaros · Apr 21, 2017

An upgrade to 16mb and you would have played it. It run perfectly on 486 unless you wanted to do big armies.

PLAfiller · Apr 21, 2017

I downloaded straight from my Blizzard account and it was a blast last night. Servers were quite alright. Desert Strike FTW

Disparia · Apr 21, 2017

My P75 @ 100Mhz = 8-way network matches. Single dip switch overclocking!

Though at that point I knew I needed something new, ended up with a Pentium 200 shortly thereafter.

GreiverBlade · Apr 21, 2017

i still have the CD-box the original cardboard box for sure and probably the manual somewhere ...

oh well now i don't have to find the CD back ... and the box can sit pretty, on my shelf that host my nostalgic hard/software collection

R-T-B · Apr 21, 2017

Tartaros said:
An upgrade to 16mb and you would have played it. It run perfectly on 486 unless you wanted to do big armies.

Considering the video card in this thing was some odditity that could not support proper msdos vesa modes (wasn't it a dos app?) I don't know, but maybe.

lexluthermiester · Apr 23, 2017

Jizzler said:
My P75 @ 100Mhz = 8-way network matches. Single dip switch overclocking!

Though at that point I knew I needed something new, ended up with a Pentium 200 shortly thereafter.

Right? I see all these folks talking about running a 486 and realize how fortunate I was to have the PC I had built. By the time SC came out, was running a P166MMX OC'd at 233 with a 48MB of EDO and a Trident 4MB video card. That system had no problems running anything. Upgraded the CPU a few months later to a 233MMX and OC'd it to 266 and the video card to an 8MB version of the Trident.

Ah.. Good times..

etayorius · Apr 24, 2017

My very first PC was a 486 my parents bought from some American guy who just passed away, his wife sold it very cheap and at the time i was playing N64. I was probably around 14-15 but i been begging my parents to buy me a PC when i first learned about PC's being able to connect to the internet, it blew my mind. Saddly the 486 was too slow to actually run any games so like 3 years later i got Acer Spire Pentium1 ar 166Mhz and that's when the magic hit! the very first title i remember playing on PC was some TimmeCommando (which came along with the PC) a Motocross and Nascar games... i was not into those Racing games, but that was the only games i had access to. Then i got a CD disc with a bunch of demos. I don't exactly remember which PC magazine it was from but it had Diablo and StarCraft as Demos... And ohhhh boy! never went back to touch my N64 or any console after that. I remember begging my parents to buy me Diablo and Warcraft for Xmas but only got Warcraft. A few months later i got Diablo and i remember playing the heck out of it in battle.net. Diablo is still one of my top 10 Games of all time, along Skyrim, Oblivion and Vampire Redemption.

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