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StarCraft Is Now Free, Nearly 20 Years After Its Release (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Nearly two decades after its 1998 release, StarCraft is now free. Legally! Blizzard has just released the original game -- plus the Brood War expansion -- for free for both PC and Mac. You can find it here. Up until a few weeks ago, getting the game with its expansion would've cost $10-15 bucks. The company says they've also used this opportunity to improve the game's anti-cheat system, add "improved compatibility" with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, and fix a few long lasting bugs. So why now? The company is about to release a remastered version of the game in just a few months, its graphics/audio overhauled for modern systems. Once that version hits, the original will probably look a bit ancient by comparison -- so they might as well use it to win over a few new fans, right?
Why? They are still planning on using portions of the code for the updated version, plus they are under no obligation to do so. They've already given away the game for free. Asking for the source now, just after they've released it for free, is pushing an agenda too far. Calm your crusade for a few hours, at least. Sheesh.
I'm a little less jazzed to find that it installs Bonjour, without telling you, and it doesn't provide a visible uninstall option unless you do some research and learn that there's a command line uninstall. My system's performance dropped sharply and only recovered once i'd managed to pry Bonjour out of it.
Two things:
1. The PC version doesn't install Bonjour. Maybe the Mac version does, but the PC version doesn't (yes I know they should have used "Windows" instead of "PC", but that ship has sailed just like the "hacking" vs "cracking" linguistic saga)
2. Let the installer download and unpack the game files and archive the installation directory. The game itself is not dependent on any remote server and seems to be completely portable, so as long as you have the archive available, you don't need to worry. Installer stubs are becoming more and more common these days - getting riled up about such things is not worth your blood pressure.