There are several video games from the 90s that I hold near and dear to my heart. Street Fighter II is an obvious choice. Mario Kart and Worms are high on that list too. But for many of my friends, RTS reigned supreme and it didn’t get much better than the original StarCraft. And now you can download it for free, including the Brood War expansion pack.
Remember expansion packs?
As you likely recall, the original StarCraft used a modified version of the Warcraft II game engine (a game that I played much more than StarCraft, but I digress), taking us on an epic battle of galactic proportions. Choose to lead the protoss, the terrans or the zerg, all with their respective strengths and weaknesses. The single-player story consists of 58 missions with some of the best cutscenes in the history of gaming.
This isn’t just a regular old re-release that you’re getting for free either. Blizzard has patched the game to improve compatibility with Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The online mode has also been improved with more anti-cheat features. You will need to “run as admin” when you patch it. The idea is playing the OG StarCraft will tie you over until you pick up Starcraft Remastered later this year.
You can find the free download links for both the PC and Mac versions of StarCraft on Battle.net. You will need a Blizzard account, plus Battle.net Classic registration if you want multiplayer.