5 ms·

It's unfortunate how much the original game has rotted, the online servers are up but the program itself is becoming more are more unplayable. The OSX versions

It's unfortunate how much the original game has rotted, the online servers are up but the program itself is becoming more are more unplayable. The OSX versions have been dead for a long time, on windows it seems to be getting harder and harder to run as well. The recent job posting hopefully indicate they're interested in de-breaking them, couldn't care less for a HD remake, just a version that actually works again. Impressed that Blizzard still runs the IRC servers necessary for that part of Battle.net though, far more modern games have lost all of their multiplayer within a couple of years let alone two decades on. There's third party remakes of the server daemons but you need a hacked up client to use them, or at least you did last I looked a decade ago.

XorNot 11y ago
To be fair Blizzard's game release cycle is about that long too.
terda12 11y ago
IMO, the game works great on Windows. I can't imagine playing games like SC2 or CSGO on OSX. It's just not economical for Blizzard to do an OSX port. The game has been kinda dead for a while now, because it's so unaccessible to the general population. Games like Dota and League of Legends have taken the place of Starcraft 2 because it's pretty accessible to newbies yet offers a very high skill ceiling for those who want to play competitively. Starcraft 2 is simply too difficult of a game - you have to micromanage not only whole armies but also create new buildings and new units, looking for ways to boost your economy, and micromanaging research, all at the same time. It's simply too much to ask for a new player looking to break into the game. Dota existed because players just wanted to play a single hero inside an RTS game, and not have to control an army. The army is automated, there is no research, and there is no building/economy to worry about. You simply control one unit. Then League came and made it even more accessible to new players. Starcraft just simply cannot compete with both of these games, it just takes too much effort to even be remotely good at the game.
- steckerbrett 11y ago
  It was originally released with PowerPC binaries on the disk, and then later re-released with Intel OSX compatible binaries, the only reason it doesn't work now is the requirement of 256 colour mode which was removed in like, OSX 10.5 or so. Starcraft 2 was released on OSX, same as all Blizzard games I'm aware of. This is a Cider wrapped OSX binary so not truly native, but works well enough that nobody seems to complain.
- qznc 11y ago
  And yet I shy away from Dota, LoL, etc, because it wants me to learn the stats of a hundred heroes before I can play it somewhat competitively.
  - AlisdairO 11y ago
    Starcraft is really heavy on twitch skills and multi-tasking, while Dota rewards knowledge. Obviously you still need strong twitch/multitask skills to be really great at Dota, but you can go a surprising distance without them. I found that when picking up Dota I started to have fun and feel vaguely competent quicker - despite the fact that I didn't play for very long or get very good. I was aware that to progress far I'd need to pick up an enormous amount of information, but I could still feel good playing against other newbies. With Starcraft (where I generally hovered between high gold and low platinum on EU), I always felt like I was doing really badly. I think this was probably due to the stress of the multitasking, at which I'm no natural :-).
    - kmkemp 11y ago
      I am a mid-gold elo LoL player and was a Diamond SC2 player when Diamond was the highest league. In my experience, MOBA's are winning because controlling one unit doesn't give you the same stress level that comes with controlling an army, setting control groups, preventing supply caps, scouting, considering what you need to build next to counter your opponent, and taking steps to stop every cheese strategy that your opponent might try. Even if you've executed at a high level, you can still lose in the blink of an eye if you fail to react. I stopped SC2 because it left me with an uneasy feeling once I got near the top. LoL, on the other hand, barely requires the kind of APM that SC2 does at a high level. It's more about knowing the correct items to build and when you can win a fight. Sure, you still need mechanics to get high creep score and execute in team fights, but you can play champions where that reliance is mitigated.
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ThePhysicist 11y ago
If on OS X, you can probably run it inside a virtual machine (Windows 98 images can be downloaded for free from the MS site I think). Performance-wise it shouldn't be an issue on today's hardware.
- steckerbrett 11y ago
  Running games in a VM is always a totally crappy experience, running it in wine is better but still not completely perfect. With Yosemite there's some graphical glitches which make it effectively unplayable, most of it runs at about 2 FPS.
Fiahil 11y ago
I play blizzard games on a MBP, and they're working quite fine; but, I'm not expecting alienware-like performance either.
- knd775 11y ago
  What do you mean by "alienware-like performance"? Even the higher end alienware systems offer subpar performance.
  - Fiahil 11y ago
    I should update my knowledge of Gaming PCs to 2015, then. What are the latest trendy high-end systems nowadays?
    - knd775 11y ago
      Honestly, most people who care just build their own now. Custom gaming PCs are more common these days.
realharo 11y ago
I don't know about multiplayer, but for the campaign parts of the original StarCraft, there is a fan-made remake of them on the StarCraft 2 engine, http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/starcraft-mass-recall/ http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/starcraft-mass-recall/.
rasz_pl 11y ago
someone could dissasemble it again http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15820-starcraft/ http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15820-starcraft/
xlcashlx 11y ago
For those interested, the recent job opening mentioned can be found here -> http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=15000XZ http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id...
ploxiln 11y ago
The best way to run original Starcraft these days is Wine (implementing windows XP behavior), on OS X or linux. I've done both, it works pretty well. IIRC the mouse acceleration was sometimes problematic in OS X, you might need one of the many third-party utilities for OS X that let you disable or tweak it, e.g. USB Overdrive, or maybe Smoothmouse would work.

XorNot 11y ago

To be fair Blizzard's game release cycle is about that long too.

terda12 11y ago

IMO, the game works great on Windows. I can't imagine playing games like SC2 or CSGO on OSX. It's just not economical for Blizzard to do an OSX port. The game has been kinda dead for a while now, because it's so unaccessible to the general population. Games like Dota and League of Legends have taken the place of Starcraft 2 because it's pretty accessible to newbies yet offers a very high skill ceiling for those who want to play competitively. Starcraft 2 is simply too difficult of a game - you have to micromanage not only whole armies but also create new buildings and new units, looking for ways to boost your economy, and micromanaging research, all at the same time. It's simply too much to ask for a new player looking to break into the game. Dota existed because players just wanted to play a single hero inside an RTS game, and not have to control an army. The army is automated, there is no research, and there is no building/economy to worry about. You simply control one unit. Then League came and made it even more accessible to new players. Starcraft just simply cannot compete with both of these games, it just takes too much effort to even be remotely good at the game.

steckerbrett 11y ago
It was originally released with PowerPC binaries on the disk, and then later re-released with Intel OSX compatible binaries, the only reason it doesn't work now is the requirement of 256 colour mode which was removed in like, OSX 10.5 or so. Starcraft 2 was released on OSX, same as all Blizzard games I'm aware of. This is a Cider wrapped OSX binary so not truly native, but works well enough that nobody seems to complain.
qznc 11y ago
And yet I shy away from Dota, LoL, etc, because it wants me to learn the stats of a hundred heroes before I can play it somewhat competitively.
- AlisdairO 11y ago
  Starcraft is really heavy on twitch skills and multi-tasking, while Dota rewards knowledge. Obviously you still need strong twitch/multitask skills to be really great at Dota, but you can go a surprising distance without them. I found that when picking up Dota I started to have fun and feel vaguely competent quicker - despite the fact that I didn't play for very long or get very good. I was aware that to progress far I'd need to pick up an enormous amount of information, but I could still feel good playing against other newbies. With Starcraft (where I generally hovered between high gold and low platinum on EU), I always felt like I was doing really badly. I think this was probably due to the stress of the multitasking, at which I'm no natural :-).
  - kmkemp 11y ago
    I am a mid-gold elo LoL player and was a Diamond SC2 player when Diamond was the highest league. In my experience, MOBA's are winning because controlling one unit doesn't give you the same stress level that comes with controlling an army, setting control groups, preventing supply caps, scouting, considering what you need to build next to counter your opponent, and taking steps to stop every cheese strategy that your opponent might try. Even if you've executed at a high level, you can still lose in the blink of an eye if you fail to react. I stopped SC2 because it left me with an uneasy feeling once I got near the top. LoL, on the other hand, barely requires the kind of APM that SC2 does at a high level. It's more about knowing the correct items to build and when you can win a fight. Sure, you still need mechanics to get high creep score and execute in team fights, but you can play champions where that reliance is mitigated.

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ThePhysicist 11y ago

If on OS X, you can probably run it inside a virtual machine (Windows 98 images can be downloaded for free from the MS site I think). Performance-wise it shouldn't be an issue on today's hardware.

steckerbrett 11y ago
Running games in a VM is always a totally crappy experience, running it in wine is better but still not completely perfect. With Yosemite there's some graphical glitches which make it effectively unplayable, most of it runs at about 2 FPS.

Fiahil 11y ago

I play blizzard games on a MBP, and they're working quite fine; but, I'm not expecting alienware-like performance either.

knd775 11y ago
What do you mean by "alienware-like performance"? Even the higher end alienware systems offer subpar performance.
- Fiahil 11y ago
  I should update my knowledge of Gaming PCs to 2015, then. What are the latest trendy high-end systems nowadays?
  - knd775 11y ago
    Honestly, most people who care just build their own now. Custom gaming PCs are more common these days.

realharo 11y ago

I don't know about multiplayer, but for the campaign parts of the original StarCraft, there is a fan-made remake of them on the StarCraft 2 engine, http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/starcraft-mass-recall/ http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/starcraft-mass-recall/.

rasz_pl 11y ago

someone could dissasemble it again http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15820-starcraft/ http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15820-starcraft/

xlcashlx 11y ago

For those interested, the recent job opening mentioned can be found here -> http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=15000XZ http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id...

ploxiln 11y ago

The best way to run original Starcraft these days is Wine (implementing windows XP behavior), on OS X or linux. I've done both, it works pretty well. IIRC the mouse acceleration was sometimes problematic in OS X, you might need one of the many third-party utilities for OS X that let you disable or tweak it, e.g. USB Overdrive, or maybe Smoothmouse would work.