Starcraft Patch 1.15.2 includes official No-CD support

[blckgrffn]

Dude, I stopped playing Starcraft 2 FIVE YEARS AGO!

Missing out on Coop and crazy, unsolicited political commentary in the chat, my friend!

 

[John1922]

I do appreciate your comments.

Initially, this started out as a transition to my new PC (no CD drive). Simply move my applications over. Of course, SC requires a CD to be played. It has been 15-20 years since I last played SC so I thought I would redo the campaign "to get up to speed" before moving on to other RTS games including SC 2.

First tried patches to remove CD requirement but too many have malware and the few I found created memory(?) faults (probably not applied correctly but couldn't find clear instructions for applying the patches I did find).

Then I tried the SC Remastered but did not like the requirements to login every time, and look at the ads and other features cluttering the screen .... more tedious than anything .... using SC with a CD is much more direct and without problems (on my old PC).

Next I tried using an ISO image and SC refused to load (although the ISO approach worked perfectly on my old PC). Now I'm trying to figure out why ??

All my PCs run Windows 10 Pro 64-bit and my new PC is 10 years newer and much more capable ..... so why the problem ????

Currently, I am playing SC (with CD) on my old PC and the Remastered version on my new PC (with an odd idiosyncrasy ... the mouse cursor randomly jumps across the map about once an hour .... probably due to it being a wireless mouse).

My new PC:
MB: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON MAX WIFI (3.7GHz)
CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 5 3400G with Radeon™ RX Vega 11 Graphics (2GB)
Other: 32GB DDR4 3200 memory, 500GB Samsung 860 Solid State Drive,
wireless Logitech mouse & keyboard,
SilverStone GD09 PC Case

And congrats !!! on introducing your son to RTS games.

Thanks
John

 

[Stg-Flame]

Then I tried the SC Remastered but did not like the requirements to login every time, and look at the ads and other features cluttering the screen .... more tedious than anything .... using SC with a CD is much more direct and without problems (on my old PC).

You can have the launcher remember your credentials so you don't have to log in every single time. Not sure what you're talking about for the rest as once you launch the game (literally on the first screen when BNet launches), there are no ads. As for the ISO, a lot of older games don't play nice with Windows 7 or Windows 10. I did look around and I found an old batch file I wrote when I was unable to launch Starcraft, so that might be your problem as well (though I am on Win7 and you're on Win10).

Here's the script I wrote. Just wrote it in notepad and saved it as Starcraft.bat:
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
Start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Starcraft\StarCraft.exe"
Pause
Start explorer.exe

Glad you got it working though.

 

[TheELF]

Last patch is 1.16.1 and the patches-scrolls site has proven to be pretty clean, for me at least.

The Patches Scrolls | Patch | Starcraft | patch 1.16.1 | Download

The Patches Scrolls - 20 years of gaming, Patches, Demos & others downloads readily available and for free

www.patches-scrolls.de

Broodwar is another patch

The Patches Scrolls | Patch | Starcraft: Brood War

The Patches Scrolls - 20 years of gaming, Patches, Demos & others downloads readily available and for free

www.patches-scrolls.de

 

[John1922]

The Elf: Thanks for the download links !!!

Sta-Flame: I did reply to your comments earlier but I don't see it online .... ??

So, thanks for the suggestion to have the launcher remember my credentials
and for the StarCraft.BAT script, which I will try (eventually ... I am taking time off to install 2 new 8TB drives and I need to add more bays to one of my old PCs to complete the installation).

What I am puzzled about with SC now is that my 2 old PCs (with CD drives) run SC just fine with either the CD or with a mounted ISO CD.

However, my new PC (with no CD drive) immediately faults (no error message) whenever I launch SC (using a mounted ISO CD). Why ?? And I have tried to launch it with different commapitility options but always the same result -- a fault with no error message

All 3 PCs have Windows 10 Pro 64-bit and run SC Remastered just fine.

I will not be spending a lot more time trying to figure out the SC fault problem with my new PC as SC Remastered does work, and this type of trouble shooting is a bit beyond me.

Thanks to everyone for all the comments and suggestions.

John

 

[Shmee]

After all these years of playing Broodwar and SC2, I just came across Mass Recall. Really neat project, I cannot believe it had eluded me for so long. Anyway, I successfully installed it, and so far it really fun.

 

[VirtualLarry]

However, my new PC (with no CD drive) immediately faults (no error message) whenever I launch SC (using a mounted ISO CD). Why ??

That happens on some/all Blizzard games, when they are run on a new, fresh system, without all of the MS VC runtimes installed.

An easy way to get up to date is to use the "MSVCRT AIO" found on TechPowerUp.com.

 

[aigomorla]

Just add your cdkey to battle.net and use its downloader instead.
I can't think of any modern game today which still uses a physical form outside consoles, and even then, more console games are now digital library you download onto the HDD.

I remember also loading the .ISO for Starcraft, and Diablo2 as they were notorious for burning out optical drives from the constant spinning it required, so it was far faster on load and also life of your optical to use damon-tools + load a .ISO, then have the actual cd in the PC.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Odd thread to necro after a whole year, but I remember my original Diablo 2 disc completely shattering in our CD drive. The drive sounded like a jet engine trying to take off and then the game just locked up and when I opened the CD tray, the disc was in millions of pieces as if the centrifugal force tore it apart.