Starcraft and Warcraft III Battle Chests

[fearedbliss]

So.. after I read @Manny's post here about getting back into Classic Starcraft, it made me reminisce about my childhood again and the times I also spent playing SC and War 3. Diablo II / Starcraft were actually the first two Blizzard game that I played and I spent a lot of time using the cheat codes in Starcraft primarily, "black sheep wall", "power overwhelming", "operation cwal", "there is no cow level" haha. Good times. Now the thing, I still have my Starcraft and Warcraft III cd keys, but I didn't have the discs anymore because like 8 years ago, when I decided to digitize my collection, I actually threw most of them out. In retrospect, my philosophy on a lot of things have changed or evolved these past 10 years so I usually try to get the physical editions of classic PC games now if I can, and I also try to get them physical if they have one available for more new games, unfortunately most newer games don't have physical releases so it would have to be DRM-free (GOG..) or no dice. I spent a few days on eBay researching different copies people were selling and also taking a look at the differences I could notice in the formats. It seems that for the older versions (at least from what I can remember or match with my old Diablo / Diablo II / Diablo II LOD discs), the old versions of Blizzard games used to display the version number of the game on the CD, it also didn't mention anything about Windows Vista or newer. The newest OS reference on my discs are of Windows XP. I individual big box versions of each Starcraft / BW, Warcraft 3 ROC / TFT were pretty expensive, and even though I love Starcraft / Warcraft, my love isn't like it is for Diablo where I need to have the big box of each individual release like that... so I decided to still be happy and economical and I was able to find a good deal on the SC and War Battle Chests. Now the good thing was that not only were they a good price, but also the discs were in pretty good condition, AND they also were the old discs that displayed the version numbers and no reference no anything newer than XP. I received them today and was able to use Alcohol 120% to back up all the discs with no issues which was my main concern after my recent experience with the Dungeon Siege II CDs I got which were scratched and corrupted (Luckily I was able to get a refund from the eBay seller and I'll be receiving a new set of DS II discs this Saturday. I'll post an update on my DS box thread after).

I've also decided to collect some of the original Starcraft and Warcraft patches that I could find. You can read more about that here.

[fearedbliss]

I was able to install everything and make a game and everything. It works great. Starcraft was able to pick up cnc-ddraw, but Warcraft III didn't. I'll be doing more testing in the future. But damn, it's bringing me back hard. I'm excited lol.

These are the screenshots from the main menu, no patches applied, just the patches that came on the CD (1.05 for Starcraft and 1.07 for Warcraft III .. Although the CD did say "1.14" so I'm guessing in this weird case, the version on the CD doesn't actual mean it's the version of the game..)

[hedgesparrow]

Nice, I never played SC or WC, probably too busy playing Doom, Quake and then Tribes . I started playing WC3 to get some of the back story to World of Warcraft, I shall have to revist it myself!

[fearedbliss]

Haha. I used to play a good amount of Warcraft 3 on battle.net back in the day. I pretty much only played the custom maps, not the actual RTS. My favorite custom maps were NotD (Night of the Dead). There were also some pretty awesome Dragonball Z maps, and also Wintermaul TD I think it was called, but my favorite TD map was Green TD. Related to NotD style of maps, was also the Resident Evil ones, they were also good but NotD omg! Haha. But yea ... I got these for the collection aspect and also I'll need to eventually actually play the War3 story line and also maybe play SC storyline without cheat codes this time haha. I'm gonna get owned. I also did play a bit of DotA (original), it was interesting for sure.. All Random .

[Manny]

Nice, I never played SC or WC, probably too busy playing Doom, Quake and then Tribes . I started playing WC3 to get some of the back story to World of Warcraft, I shall have to revist it myself!

What! Never played SC or WC?! (picks self off floor).

Were you abducted by aliens from 98-02?? Those are some of my all time favs. Alas I was a Blizzard guy through in through... before the dark times... before... Activision.

[Manny]

@fearedbliss

Um, excuse me kind sir, but you're missing the best one

Lol -- Actually I think I saw in another thread you have the D2 Collector's Edition, which is the REAL Diablo 2 battle chest. Those go for hundreds of dollars now last I checked.

BUT... I was lucky enough to pick these both up in brand-new/sealed condition this past January for about $40 each from eBay:

Spoiler

I couldn't believe I found them for that price (basically retail). The seller did have a brand-new copy of the Starcraft battle chest too, but I barely missed that auction & got sniped at the end. Now I feel the urge to complete the Trinity...

Initially I had planned to leave these both sealed up and just for display on my gaming shelf, but I couldn't resist cracking open the Diablo one... mainly because I wanted to see what I'd find in the player's guide, and it was kind of underwhelming. I actually found a few mistakes in it, and noticed that it was printed with 1.07 in mind, which is kind of neat, but mostly useless

[fearedbliss]

@Manny Don't even ask how much I spent on the D2 CE.. I bought it brand new sealed.

That's an amazing deal for both of those . I'm glad you were able to find them. Their condition looks amazing. Sometimes these battle chests are "new/sealed", but the outside packaging is wrecked lol. It's like sure, it still has the original tape seal, but a truck ran over it LOL. Definitely complete the trinity but don't break the bank lol.

This one seems good, a bit more on the expensive side (around $35 with the shipping) but it says it's a new open box, AND from what I can tell the discs look like they are the original formats that still display the version and most likely doesn't have the reference to Windows Vista. But yea double check everything on that one and see what you think.

RE: opening them up. After I bought the D2 CE, I know for sure I was never going to resell it so I opened it. It's for me enjoyment and mine alone so it doesn't matter if I just depreciated the price LOL!

[hedgesparrow]

Reminds me of when I bought WoW: Cataclysm. I came into the expansion late so had a look on eBay for a copy. I found the Collector's Edition for something stupid like £15 each. So I bought two copies, used one and kept the other sealed in a cupboard. Just checked, people are asking for £100-£200 for a sealed one now.

[Manny]

@Manny Don't even ask how much I spent on the D2 CE.. I bought it brand new sealed.

Holy Cow King... brand new sealed? That was a very lucky find, and definitely must have been expensive. I don't blame you for opening it. I would have too!

[fearedbliss]

@Manny Yup, I think it was sealed for like 13 years maybe when I got it. How you think I got a hold of the D2 1.0 files? I don't remember having those before but I made sure I included them in Cactus for everyone. I think the Cactus D2 1.0 files came directly from my discs (IIRC.. it's been many years and now this part of my memory is fuzzy). Although that probably is correct given that I released Bliss Version Switcher (and thus the Bliss Complete Collection) in 2013, which included 1.0... so that would have been 13 years later from original D2's release.