If any non-Blizzard users here read this and agree with any/all of my points, please reply to help the topic gain attention!
I grew up on StarCraft. I played it since the demo was released, and I still play it. I have Asperger's Syndrome - and practically live on my computer - so please understand the emotional attachment I have to these games. I started on the demo, which I played repeatedly, eventually making up my own rules - pretending Engineering bays were walls once I'd used the upgrades, madness! When I discovered LAN play and had the whole Terran tech-tree, it was a dream come true for me. At one time in my life (1995 [demo] to 2002, roughly) I played StarCraft for 7-12 hours a day, with the lower-houred days being weekdays when I was in school. I dreamed StarCraft, and I squeezed it into my school projects and assignments whenever possible. As such a devoted fan of this game, I would like to put forth some requests to you, Blizzard:
- The StarCraft Alpha builds, particularly the Warcraft 2 engine ones, are like a StarCraft prequel - a chunk of history of the game series that we've hardly seen. If you still have the StarCraft Alphas laying around, you releasing a binary copy of it would be more than amazing. If you deigned to release it's source too, that would be yet more amazing! Note that when I refer to the version built on the Warcraft 2 engine, I mean as seen here: http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/e/e0/Zergalpha.jpg For comparison, here is a later alpha which is also from an era that I and others would love to see/experience - http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080413225332/starcraft/images/9/98/SC1_Alpha6.jpg
- StarCraft is now 13 years old, going from retail release. I think, and hope you agree, that it is time to release the source. Note this: I do not mean that you should release the art assets, nor open the license to distribute those, etc. I mean that you should release the source to the binaries *only*, so that it can be ported to *nix, updated for modern Windows without compatibility hacks, and so on. I realize that this is still actively sold and played, etc.
On a slightly different note..
- If you deem it appropriate, it is my opinion that Warcraft I and II are old enough (and AFAIK no longer actively sold) to become freeware, i.e., no legal ramifications for their distribution. It would please the community and myself greatly if their source (and yet nicer if the art assets as well) were released for updating and porting, etc.
I would love to see a copy of StarCraft running natively on Linux. I would love to see a copy of the earliest StarCraft Alphas running on old machines that can't run DirectX/Win95 (though I know that's a niche thing, I use vintage machines - it's my hobby), or even to see it at all. I would also love to see Warcraft I ported to Windows via DirectDraw or Direct2D. There are so many possibilities - and none of them should cut into your profits in any way.
I beg you, please seriously consider my request(s). I won't think any less of you if you were to deny them, though - Blizzard Entertainment was and is a wonderful company.
That is mostly what i do agree with, however, why you want starcraft alpha so badly? Starcraft beta had more features in, release this one instead, with source.
About recreation: already much enough is known about data structures so it can be recreated as a port on other systems, however, because of legal issues its not done.
Also, it would be nice to release the starcraft developmental graphics as 3d files used in those prerendered videos (or 3d stuff used otherwise), if nothing else it should be part of some fan bonus pack thingy or what not, which could be sold on blizcon or whatever for a somewhat larger price or i dont know (so that many people if agrees to buy on place, then an amount would be sold at once). I dont know, maybe a thousands of people are present at Blizzcon or some other gaming community event, then it can be sold there.
Zurgmaster
USWest
3. Re: A Request For Blizzard 08/10/2012 08:37:53 PM PDT
