Blizzard Offers Original StarCraft For Free

UPDATE 4/19: Yesterday, Blizzard finished up work on what counts as the first StarCraft game patch in over eight years and released it to the masses. As well as providing a significant feature upgrade and exercise in bug fixing for the original game, which is detailed in the patch notes, it also signals StarCraft officially becoming a free game!

Installers are available now for Windows and Mac. If you're installing on Windows, Blizzard advises you "Run as Admin" to avoid any issues. After that, you can enjoy StarCraft in updated form while waiting for the remastered version to arrive in 4K this summer.

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Earlier this week, Blizzard announced that it is remastering the original StarCraft, which launched way back in 1998. StarCraft Remastered will include support for up to 4K screen resolutions, features revised game audio and dialogue, and tells the original story using "race-themed book interludes." It will also include the Brood War expansion, better multiplayer support, and a new zoom feature.

We'll be waiting until the Summer to play the remastered version, but Kotaku highlighted that Blizzard doesn't want to keep gamers waiting, so the original game is being released now for free.

The official free release will be version 1.18 and should hopefully be available today. Until then, a pre-release version is already available on the Battle.net forums. Playing multiplayer requires a Public Test Realm (PTR) account be created, but if you're only interested in the single-player experience, no PTR account is necessary. You'll also be glad to hear the download is only 1.5GB, so about the same as a game patch in 2017, then.

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StarCraft v1.18 isn't just good news because it's free, though. Blizzard spent time fixing a range of bugs and adding features. Most important is OpenGL support and improved compatibility with modern operating systems including Windows 8, 8.1, and 10. Remember, when the game originally released Windows 95 was the standard and Windows 98 was just launching.

There's sure to be a few new bugs appearing as more people download and start playing v1.18, but Blizzard seems keen to sort out the problems and improve this classic game. And of course, it all helps gain positive publicity ahead of the StarCraft Remastered launch this Summer, which is sure to turn into lots of sales.