StarCraft (video game)

StarCraft is a 1998 military science fiction real-time strategy game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. The game spawned the StarCraft franchise, and became the first game of the video game series. A Classic Mac OS version was released in 1999, and a Nintendo 64 adaptation, co-developed with Mass Media, was released in 2000.
Blizzard started work on the game shortly after Warcraft II, another real-time strategy game, was released in 1995. The first incarnation debuted at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo, where it was unfavorably compared to Warcraft II. As a result, the project was entirely overhauled before being showcased to the public in early 1997, at which time it received a far more positive response. The game's multiplayer is particularly popular in South Korea, where players and teams participate in professional competitions, earn sponsorships, and compete in televised tournaments.
Set in a fictitious future timeline during the 25th century AD in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector, the game revolves around three intelligent species fighting for dominance: the Terrans are humans exiled from Earth who are now skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg are a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection and obsessed with assimilating other races; the Protoss are a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities who are attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophy about their way of life from the Zerg.
Many journalists of the video game industry have praised StarCraft as one of the most important, and one of the greatest video games of all time. The game is also said to have raised the bar for developing real-time strategy (RTS) games. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide by February 2009, StarCraft became one of the best-selling games for the personal computer. It has been praised for pioneering the use of unique factions in RTS gameplay, and for having a compelling story.
StarCraft has had its storyline adapted and expanded through a series of novels published between 2000 and 2016, the expansion pack StarCraft: Brood War, and two officially authorized add-ons, Insurrection and Retribution. A sequel, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, was released in July 2010, along with two expansion packs and a campaign pack between 2013 and 2016, while a remastered edition of the original and its expansion pack was released in August 2017. The original game, along with the expansion, was released for free in April 2017.
Category:Video Games