Starcraft Is Still Awesome

In anticipation of an updated or remastered Starcraft, Blizzard made the big news of releasing the classic version for free. Here’s the bad news: It works on newer Macs but not on older machines like my G5.

I still have both an original Starcraft disc, Brood Wars expansion disc, and original key, so using the carbon installer, I was able to get Starcraft back on my Mac and in action. And you know what? The game still rocks.

Some games do not age well, but Starcraft still feels spry, fun, and gripping. The story line is fine, but it’s the way the missions are put together and the difficulty grows bit by bit. Multiplayer is a blast, although I doubt I’ll try to find a game. The graphics actually still look good and have a ton of charm, even while the cut scenes look pretty awful by today’s standards.

I’ve been asked to toss up more games on the site, so look for me to do that in the coming weeks, including Diablo II which is another classic that still works great on our Macs.

— Nathan

Enthusiasm

One of the great Youtube links for Power Mac machines lately comes via ItsMyNaturalColor, a guy with a ton of enthusiasm and love for old Macs. He has a series about putting together the fastest Blue & White G3 tower ever, including an upgraded CPU, SSD drives, RAID drives, ATI 9200 Radeon Card, and Bluetooth. It’s a monster machine, and even if you think it is a waste of time, his enthusiasm will get you in the end.

While that is Video 5 of the series, start from the beginning if you want. It’s a fun waste of an afternoon.

As a followup, I enjoyed this video as he unboxes a G5 quad and then absolutely gets devastated when he sees what a mess it is in.

Enjoy!

— Nathan