Amazing news! Though I didn't play it competitively, StarCraft was a big part of my life -- my friends and I made custom scenarios to be played in 'Use Map Settings' mode, like dozens of iterations of tower defense and the like.<p>Given the impressive list of tune-ups, I'm hoping that some improvements will be made to mapmaking -- or perchance, even "modding", which was never really supported aside from third-party hacks. On the low end, support for mp3, Vorbis, or some other compressed audio format for custom sounds would be nice instead of .wav, but if they aimed higher they could rejuvenate a player-generated content community for years to come.
Sorta related… a fun podcast interview with someone who's been involved in the Age of Empires II modding community and is now helping release official expansions. Some anecdotes about the performance impact of changing from assembly-coded 2D sprites to 3D graphics.<p><a href="http://hanselminutes.com/568/forgotten-empires-amazing-games-age-of-empires-is-back-with-bert-beeckman" rel="nofollow">http://hanselminutes.com/568/forgotten-empires-amazing-games...</a><p>I played a lot of AoE II and StarCraft back in the day.
For the uninitiated, StarCraft Brood War is perhaps the most mechanically demanding game there is:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQRIxq_cJDE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQRIxq_cJDE</a>
I remember the competition between Starcraft vs Total Annihilation. I was very much into TA at the time, which was a beautifully crafted game. I could play against my friend across the country on 33.6kbps modem with 500 units each without crashing. Sure, each frame would take a second or so, but we would set up our attacks and just sit there and watch without worrying it would crash, it was amazing.<p>Obviously Starcraft ended up winning, but boy was TA an amazing game.
Exciting news, but this just rubbed me the wrong way:<p>> Do you have fond memories of LAN parties and dial-up connections, or have you heard stories of the good old days?<p>Very arrogant, coming from the company that killed the LAN parties by forcing always-online-DRM.
Widescreen? Do I get to zoom out in multiplayer?<p>I'm very curious to see just how much they feel okay changing game-altering systems or behaviours. Ie. Even widescreen alters how the game will get played to some extent.<p>I think the hard part is knowing where to draw the line in order to keep it "authentic"
There may only be so much they could do and maintain compatibility with the old game, but I don't think the remastered graphics look that great. A clear step up from the original on modern screens, but not that great.
As a huge fan of Starcraft and its expansion Brood War, I am really excited.<p>I bought StarCraft 2 after it was released but I simply didn't like it, maybe I grew older and life was busy then. However, I think it's more about the focus was shifted, when adding fancy graphics effects, the RTS elements are gone, plus added complexity.<p>I think the remastered version will re-ignite the faded friendship between a group of guys/gals. The original game used to be our bond. However, the bond is fading over the years as I moved overseas, most folks have their own family/people/things to care about.<p>The best thing is: "Most importantly, the strategy gameplay that StarCraft perfected years ago remains unchanged."<p>Nuclear launch detected ;-)
Boy am I optimistic for this game. I fondly remember UMS Sunken Defense, tower defense originators and of course Big Game Hunters maps. I'm really hoping a robust map editor is included.<p>Mac friendly would be nice too, especially considering Overwatch(?!) is Windows only.
I think there was a foss project to remake.<p><a href="https://github.com/Wargus/Stratagus" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Wargus/Stratagus</a><p>I think it needed Starcraft data files to work. I got an old CD from 1998 but never tried it.<p>I heard it is cross platform.
I had to double-check that it wasn't April 1st already. This is really cool and I personally didn't think something like this would happen (I was worried Blizzard would consider it an admission of defeat for SC2's competetive play).
I've played countless hours of this game on 56k when I was a kid. Needless to say, I was ridiculously excited after hearing about this. But seeing the before and after footage in the video on StarCraft.com has left me pretty disappointed. The maps nearly look identical and that's where I hoped the biggest improvement would lie. A little more detail than the original in the environments would go a long way towards me wanting to shell out some cash. What I've seen looks like a new skin on the old engine and literally nothing else in terms of aesthetics.
The following may be of interest to HN types; the Student Starcraft AI Tournament. <a href="http://sscaitournament.com" rel="nofollow">http://sscaitournament.com</a>
<a href="http://www.openra.net" rel="nofollow">http://www.openra.net</a> Is a remastered Red Alert (Command and Conquer) which as well is really fun to play.
"Revised dialogue and audio" makes me nervous. Hopefully they don't mess with perfection, could ruin an otherwise awesome sounding project.
I was going to say that they should offer a discount if you own the original version, but then I remembered I bought the game almost 20 years ago and probably have no proof of purchase.
Remember the HTML5 version? Too bad they shut that down. Would have preferred a paid/hosted version rather than their DMCA action.<p>Missed an opportunity there folks.
Is that QR code on the Terran's forehead the introduction to an ARG? I don't have time to decode it at the moment, so I'm wondering if anyone else has.
Ridiculously excited. Nothing in my life was better than BW+1.6. Rotated those games religiously and went pro, wasted about 5 years of my life but damn it was the most fun 5. Love that new life is being breathed into such a mechanically (but graphically lacking) engaging game.
Many acclaim this. I am dismayed.<p>Remastering Starcraft should be done almost 10 years ago. While swimming in the money pool of WoW, Blz lost their entire charm of relentless demand on quality, innovation, and dedication.<p>They forcefully killed Starcraft with StarcraftII. They abandoned WarcraftIII, one of most popular game (among all genres) at its time. Warcraft III gets less balance patch then Starcraft, the game they intended to kill.<p>They remastered DiabloII, rebranded it DiabloIII. They released a great Moba game, called overwatch. After almost 10 years they witnessed WarcraftIII's demise and raise of the original Dota.<p>Now, they started reaping profit from their most loyal fans, with a <i>remastered</i> Starcraft. The very game that they tried to kill.<p>I think, to me, this is a milestone of Blz's own demise. Farewell Blz, you truly redefined yourself as a <i>mediocre</i> game developer.