No optical drive on that MacBook Air, eh? No worries, after a little bit of setup, you can still rock some classic Blizzard gaming goodness—no disc necessary.
Few games are updated eight years after their release, but few games are as timeless as Blizzard’s classics. StarCraft, Diablo II, and WarCraft III all run on current Macs, even though all but WarCraft III launched before Mac OS X. You don’t even need to keep a pesky CD in the drive to play, making these low-system-requirement titles great for the drive-free MacBook Air. You can download new copies of the games from www.blizzard.com/store ($14.99 for StarCraft; $19.99 for Diablo II or WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos), or follow these steps to get your original game discs running on a current system--even when you don’t have the discs around.
Difficulty: Easy
What You Need:
>> Original CDs for StarCraft ($9.99 on Amazon), Diablo II ($17.99), or WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos ($20.99)
>> Internet connection
1. Download the Installer
Diablo II and StarCraft need a Mac OS X installer to extract the files from their discs. Visit www.blizzard.com/us/patches/ and click one of those two games. Download the Mac OS X installer (for the original game) on the following page.
Step 1: You can't install Diablo II on your modern Mac without grabbing the Mac OS X-compatible installer first. (Click to embiggen.)
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2. Install the Game
Run the installer you downloaded, or open the original, Mac OS X–native installer for WarCraft III. Have the original discs handy, and insert them when needed. If you’re on a MacBook Air, connect to a USB or networked drive.
Step 2: Diablo II, locked and loaded.
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3. Download the Patch
You’ve installed a classic game, but don’t bother trying to run it yet, since it’s exceptionally out of date. Visit the game’s page again at www.blizzard.com/us/patches/ to download the latest Mac OS X patch. Choose the full patch option, and be sure that the update says it’ll work on all versions and not just the most recent release.
Step 3: Click the link for Diablo II and grab the Mac OS X patch. (Click to embiggen!)
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4. Patch the Game
Run the update patch to make the game compatible with current Mac hardware and software. In addition to bug fixes, your game won’t check for the disc before launching, making these games great for portable players.
Step 4: Here’s the Diablo II patch in our Finder. After running this, we won’t need the disc to run the game.
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5. Copy Final Files
For StarCraft and Diablo II, you’ll need to save certain files off of the original discs before putting them in storage. With Diablo II, copy the D2MUSIC.MPQ or Diablo II Music file into your Diablo II folder on your hard drive. If yours has the former name, rename the file as “Diablo II Music”. In StarCraft, copy the StarCraft Archive from the CD into your StarCraft folder.
Step 5: Copy this Diablo II Music file from the game disc to Applications/Diablo II.
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Next: Playing these Blizzard games if you don't even have the discs available for the setup above. Plus, running non-Blizzard games without the game discs—sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...
hanah
August 13, 2009 at 7:11am
Windows Users:
- Make sure you have "Hide extensions for known types" unchecked. To do this please use the following steps:
- Click Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer
- Click on Tools -> Folder options (Windows Vista users may have to press the Alt key to see the tools option at the top of the window)
- Click on the View Tab In the list, look for the "Hide extensions for known file types" option, and make sure that it is unchecked.
- Click OK to save the changes.
- Now you will need to copy some files from the Game CDs- If you own only StarCraft, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "StarCraft.mpq".
- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "BroodWar.mpq". If you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy and rename the install file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as listed directly above.
Mac users:
- If you own only StarCraft, copy "StarCraft Archive" from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder.
- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "Brood War Archive" from the StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder. If you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy the Starcraft Archive file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as listed directly above.cheap wow gold
