• long running

[PC] Classic Blizzard Games for Free: Blackthorne, Lost Vikings, Rock N' Roll Racing @ Blizzard

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Blizzard has made available some classic games for free for WIndows and Mac OS.

Refer to the article below from PC Mag for details.

https://au.pcmag.com/gaming-4/68019/the-best-free-pc-and-con…

"Some require you to connect with Battle.net and set up an account with Blizzard, while others may simply download to your computer and play locally. Here are the classic Blizzard games you can now play for free:

  • Blackthorne

  • The Lost Vikings

  • Rock N' Roll Racing"

PC Mag article doesnt seem correct as only the games above are free to play

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Blizzard Entertainment

Comments

  • +5

    Diablo 2, et al! Awesome

    • +3

      I loved playing Diablo II in the past.One of my favorite old games years ago. Once I've done downloading Warcraft III I'll try and and if I have time I'll try and download and test others.

    • +2

      Add the median XL Ultimative mod to it, and it's a PROPER challenge, and very interesting. Many more mobs, items, spells, rune words. It's incredible.

  • +8

    I thought they killed Warcraft 3 with that bizarre re-release that ruined it?

    • indeed the executable file being downloaded is the Reforged version. rejoice!

      edit: actually if you scroll down further the classic version is still there.

      • What is the difference? I had the original W3 from when it came out on CD (or was it DVD) plus the expansion so I'm curious.

        • +9

          They killed custom maps was what made me mad.

          But as per Reddit:

          In 2018, Blizzard announced the development of Reforged, an improved edition of Warcraft 3 that retained the original gameplay while adding new features including a re-haul of the game's visuals. Their multitude unfulfilled of promises include:

          Improved Visuals and New Animations- There are no new animations, and the new visuals are not much of an upgrade. In addition, to get most of the cool new multiplayer models, you have to buy the more expensive edition.

          4 Hours of Reforged Cutscenes- Only minor improvements were made to the cutscenes. In fact, Blizzard went as far as to remove a premade cutscene shown at Blizzcon 2018 from the Reforged release version.

          Updated UI: Undelivered

          Balance Changes: Undelivered

          Matchmaking Ladder System: Undelivered

          Quality of Life Improvements (such as selecting more than 1 page of units in campaign): Undelivered

          As if it wasn't bad enough that Blizzard basically scammed some of its oldest fans who had waited 2 years for the release of Reforged, there are a number of things that are objectively worse than they are in the original. I'd like to preface this by noting that Blizzard removed the option to download the Classic client from Battle.net, and forced owners of Classic to update to the Reforged client. Here's a couple of other things that Blizzard broke:

          Matchmaking no longer works half the time. Games are found but not started, forcing a client restart; game wins are occasionally not recorded.

          Campaign missions will occasionally not load, immediately give the player a 'defeat' upon loading, or delete savefiles from Classic completely.

          Custom games seem to be broken, with people unable to create lobbies, and games randomly disconnecting quite often.

          For what it's worth, the forced update removed the Classic Frozen Throne title screen, which upset a lot of people.

          The great thing about the new title screen is that the background process for the title screen, which seems to be continually running, takes up >300mb of RAM and uses more than 5% of an i7's cpu load, completely ruining performance on older computers.

          Speaking of performance, it seems they tried to improve it by completely removing shadows from the game for people who don't own the Reforged 'upgrade.'

          • +3

            @Telios: Oh, wow! Have they fixed anything at all yet? This is so unlike the Blizzard of old.

            • +6

              @snackerjoe: They've slowly been adding things the past few patches however it still doesn't feel like a finished product. Rumors are that a team of <5 are working on the game which would be quite sad… Blizzard has unfortunately left this game and its community in the dirt due to their greed. What's even more saddening is that one community member was ability to deliver a quality matchmaking ladder system few months after release which Blizzard is yet to deliver (9 months after release…). If you still want to get back into it, Patch 1.33 is very close to release and should finally introduce a whole bunch of features including a functional ladder system and clans.

            • +2

              @snackerjoe: So true, Blizzard of old is long gone since SC2 got released circa 2010.

              • +1

                @w37hsyea: Bliz has been getting worse and worse since Vivendi sold them off to Activision in 2007.

          • +5

            @Telios: https://www.warcraft3refunded.com/

            ^ This explains so much :)

            • @xecutor: Yeah I just realised I've actually deleted my blizzard account so lol can't even login to see how bad it is

              • +1

                @Telios: Thanks everyone for the replies. Blizzard used to be the industry standard, "we'll release when it's ready", so sad to see how far they've fallen.

          • @Telios: I bought this, played it once, had a nightmare of a time trying to setup up multiplayer with some mates. One week later I went through their support and they refunded me through an automatic process. They obviously got a lot of 'returns' on that one.

  • Ah the good old days!

  • +18

    I miss WC3, playing on Bored Aussies Server.

    Pretty sure i ended up with close to 1000 custom maps in my folder, (Including updated versions)

    • +5

      Ahhhh good old BA servers <3

      • The days of abusing BA bot and getting jailed

    • +3

      All them tags, arenas, mazes and TD maps in between Dota games..

      • +6

        Pudge Wars, Tree Tag, Green Circle TD, Uther Party, Ice Escape, Vampirism Fire & many more… classic custom maps.

        • +2

          Good times, don't forget Dark Deeds and NOTD :)

    • +1

      What ever happened to Bored Aussie?

      • +3

        Dota 2

  • +2

    Diablo II is 1.49 GB.

    Lightweight game downloader executable that will eventually download the entire game. Will update this comment for the size of Lord of Destruction when I start it.

    • 508 MB…. something could be wrong here…

  • Diablo 2 still says $12.95?

  • +2

    Are these free permanently?

  • +11

    Dota All stars anyone? -APEM!!

    • +3

      Pros Only

      • Godlike only

    • Best

    • Come join our discord for warcraft 3! Plenty of Aus dota players (we also play legends of dota, the ability draft of dota 2)

      https://discord.gg/nJBwsjd

      • Haven't touched dota for 8 years, I miss those days

      • +4

        Yeah but nothing will ever be as great as playing DotA on LAN with your mates and talking shit with no concept of whats "meta" or what "role" or "position" you are supposed to be playing

    • +2

      -wtf
      -aremdmom

      is where it's at!

    • 5.84b

  • +3

    Beware, last time I tried, D2/LOD are not playable on the latest MacOS (Catalina) as they are 32bit.

  • +3

    Are these actually free? Just finished the Diablo 2 1.49GB download and now it's asking for a CD key.

    • Not sure what's happened there with Diablo II hopefully its corrected as according to the article they are free. I'm almost done downloading Warcraft III

      • Did you manage to run the game?

    • same here.

      installation asking for cd key

  • +8

    I think these are just installers. It still ask you to enter CD KEY.

    • Same here, asking for CD key. Only the download is free, game isn't :-P

    • Haha ok wtf, anyone get anything working yet?

    • Well Blackthorne works, so that one at least lol

  • +1

    any of these work on Catalina OS? ie 64bit

    • +1

      No go for me, needs to be 32-bit it seems, at least for Diablo II anyway. Battle.net installed, Diablo III installing…

  • +4

    I can hear the diablo 2 background music still, this is gonna bring back memories to life!

    • +1

      That, followed up by clicking on the barbarian and hearing "HARUGHH!" and sharpening axe sound.

    • I like the Diablo 2 music. I have it in lossless quality to listen it it occasionally. I might mod it into Skyrim (there are mods that let you add music into various categories for Bethesda RPGs).

  • +14

    these are just blizz installers. doesnt give you the ownership of the game =b
    don't waste your time

  • +1

    which ones are added to your b.net account?

  • -1

    No Star Craft???

    • +2

      Starcraft has been free for over 3 years already, you no longer need a CD key to install or play and you can download it on battle net

  • Yes - same here - Diablo II is asking for a CD Key.

    Makes sense considering they're still selling it on GOG.

    • GOG only sells Diablo 1. Blizzard sells Diablo 2 themselves (technically only the cd key, the installer is freely available which is why people are mistaking this for a freebie).

      • And then posting pirated CD keys.

  • +1

    Don’t forget Starcraft 2 the Terran campaign is free to play also:

    https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/27568

    • Can also play any of the custom game maps in SC2 arcade for free. Great value.

  • +3

    Blizzard use to be one of the best developers.
    After Activision merge they went ……

  • +1

    Lmao Diablo 2 still prompting for a cd-key once downloaded, won't let you go any further.

    edit: and further on this, it's asking for a 26 character cd-key - I have my original D2 case with cd-key in front of me and it's a 16 character key (mine obviously won't work). Good work Blizzard.

    • Read above on how to convert it

      • I just used the cd-keys another user had mentioned and they seemed to work fine, time to take a trip down memory lane!

  • Blackthorne installed and didn't ask for a key.

    • +1

      is the game playable?

      • +1

        Seems to be, but it's nearly 30 years old!

  • +9

    LOST VIKING!!!!! love that game

  • Ew what are all these hoops you have to jump through now to play WC3

    I used to click the icon and play Tides of blood, why do they want me to hate them?

  • +6

    I installed Warcraft III and found it plays but after the intro gets to a screen where I'm then presented with an Error. Not sure what's up there

    • Yup, same exact issue.

    • +4

      Warcraft III classic free is not yet free as far as I'm concerned. They'd announce this in the WC3 United discord first thing if that was to happen. The reason you're getting an error is because you don't have a classic WC3 CD-Key linked to your account, an issue my whole clan experienced during the launch of Reforged.

  • +7

    Sounds like the author of the article just stumbled upon the classic game installers, which have always been there.

  • +4

    Lost Vikings and Rock n' Roll Racing! They were some of the first games from 1992-93.
    I remember playing it on Super Nintendo. Blizzard takes a long time to get games out but they do create some of the best.

    Overwatch, Starcraft and Warcraft fan here!

  • +1

    I read up and it appears the error I received whilst trying to run Warcraft III is due to not having a CD key. Diablo 2 has the same issue. Has anyone had success with any of the games listed? Otherwise it may be an error in the article as Lokieasy suggested.

  • I believe the article is just in error and they have provided an easy to find page for grabbing game installers, you still have to own the games.

  • I can't find this being announced anywhere online. Does this author have inside knowledge or is he a sham?

  • Blackthorne works, although graphics are from the 90's. It runs standalone

  • Rock and Roll Racing is a nice 20 minute distraction, but that's about it.

    • Agreed, it was only a 3 lap version.
      My memory was triggered about Rock and Roll Racing the other day by some other retro top down racer on steam and came looking for it.
      Found the same article, but didn't realise that the article was so new.

      i loved the cross over in the original game, you could doing a code at the start-up screen and have Olaf from the vikings as playable character.

  • Lost Vikings works too, however again simple graphics

  • +1

    Also asking for CD keys…

  • OP has been updated to reflect the real situation.

  • if it was free it'd be through battle net, not like this

  • +7

    In high school, on my ~33 MF Barbarian, I killed Pindle and they dropped a Grandfather.

    Life has been downhill ever since.

    • +1

      Managed to get a perfect windforce using pindlebot. Good times.

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