The Evolution of StarCraft

Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog links to a piece chock full of gaming history. The StarCraft Legacy site offers up a historical record of the evolution of StarCraft . Written back in 2004, it is still relevant today. A game title that, lo these many years later, not only has an avid cult following but may be the most popular sport in South Korea is something you want to keep in mind. We may even hear word of a sequel this year. The piece runs down the numerous changes the game underwent, from the ugly alpha days through to the upheaval of Brood War (damned Lurkers). Tidbits like this make the article well worth checking out: "The game made a weak first impression at [E3], and it received much criticism. There were many remarks that the game looked too much like 'Orcs in space.' When Blizzard came back from E3 that year, they decided to scrap the idea. Their decision? 'Let's step it up a little more, let's revamp the engine, let's do more than what we're showing. We can't do Orcs in space.' Thus, StarCraft was reborn. The basics of the Warcraft II engine were still used, but more work was being put into the design and programming."

Fun stuff

[ShadowsHawk]

Starcraft was a blast and continues to be at LAN parties, but I'm looking forward to Supreme Commander. As balanced as Starcraft was, I found Total Annihilation to be a far better game.

Re:just wondering.

[Virak]

evolution [reference.com]
-noun
1. any process of formation or growth; development: the evolution of a language; the evolution of the airplane.

Welcome to the English language. You must be new here.

Re:Slowest. Newsday. Ever.

[EvanED]

Total Annihilation was a great game too, though I did tend to prefer StarCraft, probably out of familiarity.

StarCraft: high terrain serves only to create choke points and barriers to units. It is completely ignored for anything but restricting movement.

This isn't true. Units on low terrain next to high terrain had (I know) restricted sightlines and units on high terrain next to low terrain (I think) had extended sightlines as compared to the unit on flat terrain. I think it also affected the probability of hitting another unit when firing too (or maybe did less damage), but I'm less sure on that.

StarCraft: Units either move or they fight. Not both.

The Terran Siege Tank can fire while in motion.

Re:Yes, but will there be a Wii version of StarCra

[maxmo55]

Just to clarify, there was a version of StarCraft for the Mac. It came out a little later, but I definitely spent a good deal of time my freshman year of college playing SC versus my PC using buddies.

It will be interesting to see if they end up releasing any new SC game for the consoles eventually (though I suppose them releasing it at all would be a good start), but I personally don't have much interest in playing an RTS without a keyboard.