A report coming out of South Korea states that Blizzard plans to introduce a remastered version of the original StarCraft game for the PC and Mac in September. The report arrives by way of multiple sources who claim that StarCraft will play exactly the same as it has over the last 18 years (yes, it’s been that long), but will sport better AI and of course better graphics.
Right now, the details are rather nonexistent, but additional information is expected to be provided during BlizzCon 2016 in November. Naturally, Blizzard won’t confirm the report, but there’s speculation that the company chose September as a “tease” date due to the StarCraft II World Championship Series concluding in Mexico next month.
Despite its age, the original StarCraft game is widely played in South Korea. Professional leagues still exist, with matches covered on live cable TV. Even more, stadiums can be packed full of fans watching StarCraft teams duke it out on stage, with many spectators lining up outside the night before just to get good seats. You’d think they were camping out and waiting for the latest iPhone to go on sale.
In fact, StarCraft became part of the South Korean culture not too long after the game’s release, showing up in the form of characters and related scenes all across the country. “The way in which this game has become a part of the Korean culture can only be compared to the way in which the Star Wars Phantom Menace movie became a cultural icon in America,” a South Korea character goods company spokesperson said back in 2001.
Of course, StarCraft II has been a huge hit on a global scale too. Blizzard split the game up into three installments over the course of five years: Wings of Liberty (2010), Heart of the Swarm (2013), and Legacy of the Void (2015). Now that the game is fully available, focusing on bringing the original title up-to-date using the StarCraft II engine isn’t all that surprising.
The good news here is that the StarCraft II system requirements are now geared towards the general population with average hardware configurations. The minimum requirements consist of an Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ processor, a Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT or AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card, 2GB of system memory, 30GB of storage, and a copy of Windows XP. Does your system have integrated graphics? You’ll need at least an Intel HD Graphics 3000 component or better.
That said, the system requirements are six years old. If Blizzard doesn’t enhance the StarCraft II game engine in any way, then that’s what you’ll be looking at for StarCraft HD. If the company tweaks the engine for even better graphics, consider the current recommended specifications to shift down to the minimum requirement level. But if Blizzard is using an entirely new engine, then everything is up in the air at this point.
StarCraft invaded Windows and the Mac in March of 1998, and was followed by the Brood War expansion in November of 1998. We expect Blizzard will not only cram together these two releases into a single game, but add all the wonderful multiplayer features offered in StarCraft II as well. That said, September’s anticipated announcement should be an interesting one to say the least.
