StarCraft turns another year older on the upcoming March 31, and while in many countries it's already old enough to buy (and drink) beer, entire legions of players remain glued to this RTS as if it had been released yesterday. Over the years, StarCraft has become harder to run on modern operating systems, but its fans never gave up. Now, the folks at Blizzard drop two bombs on us: there will be a remastered edition of StarCraft with 4K graphics, and the original version will be free.
If you have a 4K monitor and try to open StarCraft, it will likely look as small as a postage stamp. Obviously we can't blame it, because when it arrived on our hard drives we were still on Windows 95 (Windows 98 debuted three months later). On the flip side, StarCraft can be run even by a gas pump. If you want to use a computer with a K6-2 or Pentium processor for retro gaming, StarCraft and its expansion Brood War should not be missing from your catalog. Fans have developed all kinds of patches and tricks to adapt it to modern platforms, while struggling with the validation of their serial numbers on Battle.net. That said, there are two high-impact pieces of news in the StarCraft universe. One had already been anticipated to some extent, but the other took us by surprise.
Let's start with the surprise: the original StarCraft will be free once its new patch 1.18a is published on the web. Blizzard said the patch will not make any major changes to the game mechanics, but players will find new features such as key remapping, enhancements for anti-cheat systems, improved compatibility on modern versions of Windows (7, 8.x and 10), and an official "observer mode". It will also guarantee connectivity with those versions of the game that have remained on patch 1.16. The free availability of StarCraft is not limited to the action of the patch on existing installations: if you've never had a copy, you can download the StarCraft Anthology for free through the Blizzard store (its old price was $15).
Finally, we come to the second piece of news, and that is that after multiple rumors, StarCraft will have a high-definition remaster. The first data was leaked last August, and indicated a formal announcement for September, but Blizzard decided to move the needle six months. The official video reveals 4K support and the ability to zoom, however, we have no idea if that will be allowed in multiplayer matches, and another big unknown is the cutscenes (they are not that many, so I estimate they will have been made from scratch). StarCraft Remastered will be available for Windows and Mac, maintaining online multiplayer compatibility with the original StarCraft via Blizzard App (ex Battle.net). The patch can be downloaded from March 30, and we'll see the remaster "in the summer", which I imagine will be declared a national holiday in South Korea.
