Starcraft Patch 1.15.2 includes official No-CD support

[Agentbolt]

We seem to have a "where can I find a Starcraft CD, I lost mine years ago" thread once a month around here, so this might be welcome news for some.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- patch 1.15.2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature Changes

- StarCraft and StarCraft: BroodWar no longer require the CD while playing the
game. To play without the CD, please follow the following instructions:

- Windows Users:
- Make sure you have "Hide extensions for known types" unchecked under
Explorer Folder Options.
- If you own only StarCraft, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft CD to
your StarCraft folder and rename it to "StarCraft.mpq".
- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft:
Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "BroodWar.mpq".

- Mac users:
- If you own only StarCraft, copy "StarCraft Archive" from the StarCraft CD
to your StarCraft folder.
- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "Brood War Archive" from the
StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Voila!

 

[ja1484]

lol so they hooked us up a decade after release? Thanks Blizzard

 

[Fox5]

Heh, it'd be funny if that "feature" has always worked and they just never mentioned it.

 

[I4AT]

Awesome, was that the only change?

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: Fox5
Heh, it'd be funny if that "feature" has always worked and they just never mentioned it.

That actually sounds like it is the case. I mean, who the fuck would think to name the installer .mpq?

 

[nova2]

i can't read this but it looks like in 2005 these guys may have figured it out as i see references to install.exe and broodwar.mpq
only maybe

http://www.abandonware.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?=&p=97525

 

[Ika]

The No-CD loader thing I'm using does the exact same thing, haha. Same extensions and everything. It just has its own loader program and one-time crack exe so it can read the MPQ files.

 

[tranceport]

Wish all game makers would follow this.

 

[invidia]

10 years later and they are stilling patching and putting updates for the game.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: invidia
10 years later and they are stilling patching and putting updates for the game.

Because people are still buying it. It's been out for 10 years, but it's still one of the most popular games around.

 

[Kromis]

Man, I don't want to waste 500 MB on this!

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: invidia
10 years later and they are stilling patching and putting updates for the game.

Because people are still buying it. It's been out for 10 years, but it's still one of the most popular games around.

Bet it outsold crysis

 

[John1922]

We seem to have a "where can I find a Starcraft CD, I lost mine years ago" thread once a month around here, so this might be welcome news for some.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- patch 1.15.2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature Changes

- StarCraft and StarCraft: BroodWar no longer require the CD while playing the
game. To play without the CD, please follow the following instructions:

- Windows Users:
- Make sure you have "Hide extensions for known types" unchecked under
Explorer Folder Options.
- If you own only StarCraft, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft CD to
your StarCraft folder and rename it to "StarCraft.mpq".
- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft:
Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "BroodWar.mpq".

- Mac users:
- If you own only StarCraft, copy "StarCraft Archive" from the StarCraft CD
to your StarCraft folder.
- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "Brood War Archive" from the
StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Voila!

I liked your summary for playing StarCraft and Brood War with No CD.
Unfortunately, just changing the file names did not work for me.

Are there any additional steps ??

I am playing version 1.05 with the CD and it plays perfectly on my Windows 10 64 bit PC. I did try the Remastered version and it was ok with only a few artifacts (didn't affect game play) but I perferred the CD version.

 

[Aikouka]

I am playing version 1.05 with the CD and it plays perfectly on my Windows 10 64 bit PC. I did try the Remastered version and it was ok with only a few artifacts (didn't affect game play) but I perferred the CD version.

Based upon the thread title, it sounds like you’re using the wrong patch to support No-CD play. You said that you’re on 1.05, but it requires 1.15.2 (or higher?).

 

[shortylickens]

Dude, I stopped playing Starcraft 2 FIVE YEARS AGO!

 

[John1922]

Thanks for the replies. I played SC 15-20 years ago and now that I'm retired, I wanted to revisit my older games before trying SC 2 and newer games.

I have had a lot f trouble finding patches to download as Norton has flagged most of the downloads as malware. The few patches I have found did not state which version of SC they should be applied to nor how to apply the patch properly. The CD version I have is 1.05. I have several of these CDs -- one for each PC I want to play SC on but my newest PC does not have a CD/DVD/BR drive.

I have tried using a virtual CD drive and SC worked on my PC with the CD drive but not on the PC with no CD drive (kept getting a memory fault error). All of my PCs are Windows 10 64-bit.

Any ideas on where to find the correct patch and how to install it ??
Thanks

 

[Stg-Flame]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Brood Wars free now through the Blizzard client?

 

[John1922]

Yes, I believe the SC Remastered version includes Brood Wars and I have tried it but there are a few artifacts and my CD version seems to run better so my preference is to try to use the No-CD patch on my CD version. I just haven't been able to find either the right patch (1.15 or higher) nor instructions on how to install it. And I did find a 1.16 patch version and have tried several different ways to install it but they haven't worked. SC either still wants the CD or has a memory fault.

My other option is to simply use my old PC where SC with CD runs just fine. It's just not as convenient. All my PCs use Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.

Thanks

 

[Stg-Flame]

Well if you plan on playing SC2 eventually (which I do recommend since I played it recently), then you're going to need the Blizzard client. Unless you're pinching pennies, I'd say just get the remastered version through the client and play it that way. Far less headache and much safer than downloading patches from sketchy hosts. From experience trying to get a lot of older games to run on my Windows 7 machine, it's just too unreliable to find patches since companies have gone under or moved to digital clients.

 

[John1922]

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

I am no longer looking for patches for SC & Brood War.

I am disappointed that Blizzard no longer keeps patches available for SC on the understanding that users can download and use them at their own risk, that is, make them available but with no support.

That said, I do commend Blizzard for making SC Remastered available.

My options now appear to be:
1. play the Remastered version of SC on my new PC before moving on to SC 2
2. install a CD/DVD/BR drive in my new PC to play the CD version of SC
3. continue using my old PC, which has a CD drive, to play SC, or alternatively using a virtual mounted CD drive, which also works on my old PC.

Again, thanks for all the comments.
John

 

[Stg-Flame]

With the remastered version, you can switch between classic and remastered graphics, so even if you do end up going with the client version, you'll still be able to experience the game as we did back in the day.

 

[JTsyo]

My options now appear to be:
1. play the Remastered version of SC on my new PC before moving on to SC 2
2. install a CD/DVD/BR drive in my new PC to play the CD version of SC
3. continue using my old PC, which has a CD drive, to play SC, or alternatively using a virtual mounted CD drive, which also works on my old PC.

If the goal is to play the campaign missions again you can try Mass Recall for SC2. It's a remake of the missions and works with SC2 Starter Edition.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

I am no longer looking for patches for SC & Brood War.

I am disappointed that Blizzard no longer keeps patches available for SC on the understanding that users can download and use them at their own risk, that is, make them available but with no support.

That said, I do commend Blizzard for making SC Remastered available.

My options now appear to be:
1. play the Remastered version of SC on my new PC before moving on to SC 2
2. install a CD/DVD/BR drive in my new PC to play the CD version of SC
3. continue using my old PC, which has a CD drive, to play SC, or alternatively using a virtual mounted CD drive, which also works on my old PC.

Again, thanks for all the comments.
John

You missed option 4: setup a virtual DVD drive (like Virtual CloneDrive) and mount the ISO to it.

 

[John1922]

Thanks for the comments.

Regarding using "Virtual CloneDrive) and mount the ISO to it." that is what I did in my Option 3 and it did worked on my old PC. I did this on my new PC as well and the Virtual SC drive is visible but I keep getting a memory(??) fault as soon as I start SC. I will be trying this again in a compatibility mode to see if that solves the problem.

Regarding "Mass Recall for SC2" I will likely try this if I don't have any success with the above option as this would accomplish what I was trying to do.

Thanks !!

 

[blckgrffn]

Haha, if it’s worth all the trouble seems like it’s worth the $10-$20 it costs from Blizzard to get the remastered version.

I played it to ultimately beat Brood War (never did it back in the day) AND more importantly give my son (7 at the time, I think) an appreciation for how the RTS genre matured. He’s beat most of it - and all of the SC2 campaign - and is now back at finishing it since it has a different curve than SC2 difficulty wise.

That said - you also get Stukov, who is top 3 for my Coop Commanders. Super fun. It was a huge treat to discover that mode about the time lock down hit - I’d played and beat all the SC2 content way back when but had never touched it. It’s been an easy way to play with friends and not sweat PvP intensity.

Funny thing is that I think system requirements for Remastered to look decent is higher than SC2. Remastered requires 2GB vram and I was trying to play it on a 7790 1GB card and it looked horrible. Friends of mine to this day are playing SC2 with GTX 460s so 🤷‍♂️

lol, I am still boggled you don’t just buy it and be done with it 😂