Diablo II Gets Native Mac OS X Installer

Sutekh-Acolyte writes "Blizzard Entertainment just released a native Mac OS X v10.2+ Diablo II installer, so Mac users no longer have to use the Classic environment to install the game and its expansion set. At 25 megabytes, it's not a small download, because it includes patch files and installs as version 1.10b. PlanetDiablo has a set of screenshots of the installer in action. Download it from FilePlanet (login required) or directly from Blizzard."

Comments

Is there a market for this?

[dbm1175]

When did Diablo II come out? Three or four years ago? Is there still a market for this game such that they need to be spending a lot of time and development effort on developing an installer for another OS? I'm all for being able to play games on multiple platforms, but this seems like too little too late. There are much better games on the market now!

Re:Is there a market for this?

[gamgee5273]

Yes, there is a market for this. In fact, Blizzard has said that an OS X installer of StarCraft is on its way pretty soon, too.

Blizzard looks out for its old games, especially if they are the most recent in the series, hence the reason there is no OS X installer for WarCraft II (WarCraft III is already OS X ready), but Diablo II and StarCraft get ones.

Frankly, this is what I consider strong customer service - Blizzard could have killed these games years ago, but they choose not to and they choose not to charge their users to keep the games updated (think of the various updates of Myst we've seen). I like that.

Re:Is there a market for this?

[Rappy]

Could you go into how there are better Dungeon Crawl type games that are out there that are better than D2? I've played Dungeon Seige, Beyond Divinity, and Sacred, but none of them are as fun to play as D2...but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed a hidden gem out there somewhere.

Re:Is there a market for this?

[valkenar]

I assume you've already played Nethack, Moria, and Angband. Have you tried Zangband or T.o.M.E?

For those that don't know, these games are the same basic style of diablo, but are text-based (or graphical text-based if you consider ascii maps graphics). Short on graphics, long on depth of play. Most versions don't have an action-element however, and that's something you'll miss from Diablo. Though there are multi-player Angband variants that aren't as turn-based as the rest.

Has Blizzard ever mentioned these old games? It seems that the basic item system is very much like certain angband varients.

Re:Is there a market for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a reason they don't kill their games like that:

The last three non-expansion pack games they released are

Warcraft III (2002)
Diablo II (2000)
StarCraft (1998)

They MUST support these games with patches and expansion packs or they'll have no source of revenue! Cut off StarCraft and Diablo II and all you've got is Warcraft III! Also, their games typically stay at full retail much longer than games from other developers. That's just their business strategy.

Re:Is there a market for this?

[gamgee5273]

Well, let's keep in mind: Win 2K was not meant for home use. If you wanted to play games on it, you had to suffer the consequences that came with it or should have picked up Windows Me (not a grand solution, but that is what MS would have told you at the time). Win 2K is not a major installed base for Blizzard users. So, no, it isn't pressing. Sorry. Same reason for the OS X installer. OS X has been around for three years at this point.

XP, obviously, is different. Now, not being a Windows user, I have no idea when the patch you mentioned came out in conjunction with XP's release. But, keep in mind, that most of the SC and Diablo players are probably still running 98SE or Me. I'm not defending their decisions to do so... but, as someone who runs a help desk, I can tell you that the Win 98/Me installs at home dwarf 2K and exceed XP.

Re:Is there a market for this?

[drinkypoo]

A DirectX game which runs on Windows 98 which does not run on Windows 2000 is by definition poorly programmed. If you want to optimize everything, write console games. If you're going to produce PC games, you have to accept that the PC is a moving target, and you have to target the API and not the PC.

In general I have been very happy with Blizzard but if they had games which don't work on 2k then clearly they did something wrong. (The only Blizzard game I ever played on 2k was the original Diablo.)

Re:Is there a market for this?

[gamgee5273]

Let's step in the way-back machine for a moment, Sherman:

It's the April after Windows 98 has been released and Microsoft, quietly, announces "The Death of DOS." DOS is over. DOS is done. The next consumer release of Windows will be NT-based.

Suddenly, less than nine months later, MS announces Windows Me. Which is DOS-based (granted, it doesn't look like it, but that's another story).

Why?

Because the game manufacturers screamed bloody murder as they were not ready for that large of a move. Thus, because the manufacturers dug their heels in and told Microsoft not to release only an NT-based OS. Thus, they didn't.

I don't disagree that it is sloppy on the manuafacturer's part. But, if your buyers are going to be overwhelmingly 98/Me installs, are you going to put compatibility with 2K (an OS that MS was actively saying was for business, not home) on the front burner? No, you aren't.

As a Mac user and an avid gamer, I can say that I wait, and choose to wait, for games because of the same principle: the manufacturer is looking at who their largest possible customer base is first. I'm comfortable with that... it's a fact of life, and the reason I also have a Windows 98SE machine. :)

Re:Sure its an installer...

[Anonymous Coward]

If its just the installer, I'll still have to load up Classic to play it.

Diablo II has had an OS X native version for a few years now. IIRC, Blizzard ported both Starcraft and DII to OS X within about 3-4 months of the first release of 10.0. This is finally a native installer for the game...

PC/Mac LAN Gaming

[Puggs]

Can you play Diablo II multiplayer over a lan with a pc?

If it doesnt I dont care.

Im fed up of games that are ported to the mac, but not compatible with the same game on a PC played over a direct LAN connection. Im not a programmer (I know, I know...), but it seems to me that it shouldnt be that difficult, im presumably theyve come from the same codebase so they should be reasonably compatible.

Re:PC/Mac LAN Gaming

[jahndm]

Yes. I use a PowerBook and play with my two PC friends over the Internet (using TCP/IP, not the Blizzard servers). We use LOD 1.10.

Re:PC/Mac LAN Gaming

[NaugaHunter]

The number one reason ported games do not have compatible networking is the original maker used MS's proprietary networking code instead of open standards or their own code. MS has not ported these to the Mac. While a development team could probably reverse engineer it, you can bet MS would lay the smackdown on them.

I've seen desperate game news before

[hambonewilkins]

But really, PlanetDiablo has a set of screenshots of the installer in action.

Though I welcome the news of Blizzard working to port games to OSX, this is such a sad little bit... screenshots of an installer?

I want to see screenshots of Doom III's desktop icon! Or Half-Life 2's ISBN number!

Re:I've seen desperate game news before

[DLWormwood]

this is such a sad little bit... screenshots of an installer?

Since the game was ported first, most OS X users already did the old jury-rigged install process. So they may be curious as to what artwork Blizzard used for installer screens, since they are unlikely to see them. Blizzard tends to make even their installers a little high on the "eye candy" scale compared with most companies.