Last month, Blizzard confirmed not only that StarCraft will make a glorious comeback with a remastered version, but also that the original release and its expansion, Brood War, would become available for free. Starting today, it's possible to get the classic RTS for free.
Both StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War can now be downloaded for free from Blizzard's official website. The 1.18 patch, which introduces a variety of new features, has also been made available. You can check out the full patch notes below.
General
Added windowed fullscreen or windowed mode; use Alt+Enter to switch between.
Added UTF-8 support.
Added cursor clamping in-game while windowed; unclamped in menus.
Added Popular Maps to streamline finding games or game types.
Added options to display actions per minute.
Added Observer mode.
Added opponent information when joining a game lobby.
Added autosaving for replays.
Added an option to display the game timer.
Added UPnP support.
Updated to a new OpenGL backend.
Improved gameplay responsiveness during multiplayer by increasing turn rate to match LAN speeds over Battle.net.
Improved UI layout in Battle.net sections.
Improved behavior of available lobbies within the ‘Join Game’ section.
Improved compatibility with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10.
Improved anticheat capabilities.
Improved installation and patching performance.
Mac Beta support now available for 10.11 and up.
Bug Fixes
Fixed palette issues to correct rainbow water, 80s Kerrigan face in the loading screen, and other graphic glitches.
Fixed problems with LAN game discovery.
Fixed IME support and other text artifacts in Battle.net menus.
LAN and Legacy Battle.net fixes.
Known Issues
The profile section is currently unavailable.
StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War are now available for free. The remastered version of the popular RTS will launch this Summer.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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