Expansions and versions

PC expansions

Shortly before the release of StarCraft, Blizzard Entertainment developed a shareware game demo campaign, entitled Loomings. Comprising three missions and a tutorial, the campaign acts as a prequel to the events of StarCraft, taking place on a Confederate colony in the process of being overrun by the Zerg. In October 1999, Blizzard Entertainment made the prequel available for the full game as a custom map campaign, adding two extra missions and hosting it on Battle.net. In addition, the full release of StarCraft included a secondary campaign entitled Enslavers. Consisting of five missions played as both the Terrans and the Protoss, Enslavers is set in the second campaign in StarCraft and follows the story of a Terran smuggler who manages to take control of a Zerg cerebrate and is pursued by both the Protoss and Terran Dominion. Enslavers acts as an exemplar single-player campaign for the game’s level editor, highlighting how to use the features of the program.

StarCraft’s first expansion, Insurrection, was released for Windows on 31 July 1998. The expansion was developed by Aztech New Media and authorized by Blizzard Entertainment. Its story focused on a separate Confederate colony alluded to in the manual to StarCraft, following a group of Terran colonists and a Protoss fleet in their fight against the Zerg and a rising local insurgency. Insurrection was not received well, being criticized by reviewers for lacking the quality of the original game. Insurrection was followed within a few months by a second expansion, Retribution. Developed by Stardock, published by WizardWorks Software and authorized by Blizzard Entertainment, Retribution follows all three races attempting to seize control of a powerful crystal on a Terran Dominion colony. The expansion was not received with critical support, instead being regarded as average but at least challenging. After the release of Retribution, Blizzard Entertainment announced a new official expansion pack that would continue on the story of StarCraft. StarCraft: Brood War was consequently created, developed jointly by Blizzard Entertainment and Saffire. Brood War continues the story of StarCraft from days after its conclusion, and was released for both Windows and Mac OS to critical praise on 30 November 1998 in the US and in March 1999 in Europe.

Before Insurrection, an unauthorized expansion pack, called Stellar Forces, was published by Micro Star but was recalled weeks later when Blizzard won the court case against it. It consisted of 22 single player maps and 32 multi-player maps which are rather plain.

Nintendo 64 version

In 2000, StarCraft 64 was released for the Nintendo 64, co-developed by Blizzard Entertainment and Mass Media Inc. The game featured all of the missions from both StarCraft and the expansion Brood War, as well as some exclusive missions, such as two different tutorials and a new secret mission, Resurrection IV. Resurrection IV is set after the conclusion of Brood War, and follows Jim Raynor embarking on a mission to rescue the Brood War character Alexei Stukov, a vice admiral from Earth who has been captured by the Zerg. The Brood War missions required the use of a Nintendo 64 memory Expansion Pak to run. In addition, StarCraft 64 features a split screen cooperative mode, also requiring the expansion pak, allowing two players to control one force in-game. StarCraft 64 was not as popular as the PC version, and lacked the online multiplayer capabilities and speech in mission briefings. In addition, cut scenes were shortened. Despite this, the game maintained positive reviews. Blizzard Entertainment had previously considered a PlayStation port of the game, but it was decided that the game would instead be released on the Nintendo 64.

The PAL version of this game is also noted amongst collectors as being one of the rarest games in the N64s library. Only being released in the PAL format in Australia and limited distribution add to its overall rarity.

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