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Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

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Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#101

Post by rocky1138 »

brailsafe wrote: post #39

Just leavin dis here https://archive.org/details/Diablo_1996_Blizzard

> According to Jurannok, a Blizzard representative on their Support Forums, the game has been discontinued and Blizzard has no current plans to update it or start selling it again.

> Sources:

> https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/13595100072#post-...

> https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/14611181553#post-...

> As far as I am concerned, that makes Diablo 1 abandonware, so feel free to download this iso, legally.

That's quite a jump of logic! Just because they don't publish it now doesn't mean they don't reserve the right to publish it in the future.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#103

Post by bitwize »

lordleft wrote: post #2

What is the legality of something like this? Really cool project!

It's super illegal. Irrespective of whether you need a commercial release of the game in order to actually play Diablo with this engine, the fact is that they're distributing a derivative work of software copyrighted and proprietary to Blizzard, which is illegal under copyright law without authorization. And that's not even getting into due diligence w.r.t. other IP concerns; there could be third-party code or trade secrets in there.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#104

Post by brobinson »

stormbrew wrote: post #30
spapas82 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember trying to play Diablo multiplayer through a 55.6 kbps modem. It was nice for like 5 minutes but then the connection lagged and I couldn't control my character. When the connection quality improved, I saw my character dead with all his (high level and very diffucult to find) gear stolen by other players. I was so frustrated I removed the cdrom from the drive and threw it on the wall; the cd broke and that w…

There's a very real possibility it wasn't your connection that was the problem. Since Diablo 1 was a peer to peer game it was super easy to just flood another player to lag them out and steal their crap. The game's public multiplayer was notoriously full of griefing like that. There were also ways to get firewalls to go on the spawn point and pvp was easy to force. It was a mess. Going into a public game was basicall…

You could make yourself invulnerable in multiplayer games using Great-BoBaFeTT's trainer.

http://www.geocities.ws/free_bobafett/main.htm

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#105

Post by Exuma »

stormbrew wrote: post #30
spapas82 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember trying to play Diablo multiplayer through a 55.6 kbps modem. It was nice for like 5 minutes but then the connection lagged and I couldn't control my character. When the connection quality improved, I saw my character dead with all his (high level and very diffucult to find) gear stolen by other players. I was so frustrated I removed the cdrom from the drive and threw it on the wall; the cd broke and that w…

There's a very real possibility it wasn't your connection that was the problem. Since Diablo 1 was a peer to peer game it was super easy to just flood another player to lag them out and steal their crap. The game's public multiplayer was notoriously full of griefing like that. There were also ways to get firewalls to go on the spawn point and pvp was easy to force. It was a mess. Going into a public game was basicall…

Obligatory genius video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1faaOrtHJ-A

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#106

Post by lloeki »

gwicks56 wrote: post #89
zackmorris wrote: post #56

I'm old enough to remember that when Diablo came out, it seemed to be running too fast. This was before 3D video cards were mainstream (which happened with the Voodoo and Quake in 1997 maybe?). I was working a lot with blitters at that point and running into speed issues on the Mac because Apple liked to release machines with half-width busses, which cut memory throughput by almost half. I'd be lucky to get 60 fps on…

I had totally forgotten about Descent, thank you for the reminder. That game seriously scared me as a 13 yo boy at the time. I loved it.

Additional check out: Sublevel Zero, a Descent game with roguelike mechanics.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#107

Post by im3w1l »

spapas82 wrote: post #14
Exuma wrote: post #9

I remember going on vacation with my parents and all I had was the Diablo game manual, because I got the game 1 hour before we left. I read the manual about 100 times in the car... good memories

I remember trying to play Diablo multiplayer through a 55.6 kbps modem. It was nice for like 5 minutes but then the connection lagged and I couldn't control my character. When the connection quality improved, I saw my character dead with all his (high level and very diffucult to find) gear stolen by other players. I was so frustrated I removed the cdrom from the drive and threw it on the wall; the cd broke and that w…

I played Diablo II on a 55.6 kbps modem. Worked fine.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#108

Post by VectorLock »

gwicks56 wrote: post #89
zackmorris wrote: post #56

I'm old enough to remember that when Diablo came out, it seemed to be running too fast. This was before 3D video cards were mainstream (which happened with the Voodoo and Quake in 1997 maybe?). I was working a lot with blitters at that point and running into speed issues on the Mac because Apple liked to release machines with half-width busses, which cut memory throughput by almost half. I'd be lucky to get 60 fps on…

I had totally forgotten about Descent, thank you for the reminder. That game seriously scared me as a 13 yo boy at the time. I loved it.

I get a little sick to my stomach just hearing the word "Descent."

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#109

Post by poizan42 »

thefreeman wrote: post #22
lordleft wrote: post #2

What is the legality of something like this? Really cool project!

I think as long as they don't include DIABDAT.MPQ or any of the content / texture files from the original game it should be ok.

There is no way this is not a derivative work of the engine of Diablo, assets or not it is blatant copyright infringement. That said I don't think Blizzard is going to make any attempts at enforcing it considering similar projects for other old Blizzard games.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#110

Post by snuxoll »

lfowles wrote: post #46
quadcore wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes, you can still use a broken cd.

I wouldn't risk it anymore. One time I received an ever so slightly cracked DVD from Netflix. Desperate to watch the show without waiting for a better copy to be mailed, I stuck it in the computer anyways. Ended up shattering and taking my DVD drive with it!

Ironically (in context of this thread) the one time I've had this happen was my Diablo II CD way back in the day, I don't know if it was damaged or if the disk just got stressed from heat but it shattered and ruined the drive in my mother's computer.

I have no love for optical media anymore.

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