Diablo - All News
Sunday - June 09, 2024
Diablo - Making of - David Brevik Interview
Couchpotato spotted a David Brevik Interview about Diablo on Arcade Attack Retro Gaming Network:
The Making of Diablo - David Brevik Interview
Saturday - January 01, 2022
Diablo - Happy Birthday?
Blue's News saw that GOG was wishing a Happy Birthday to a 25-year-old Diablo. They have doubts about the date, however.
Happy Birthday Diablo
GOG.com is wishing Diablo a happy birthday, saying the classic hack-and-slash action/RPG arrived 25 years ago today on December 31, 1996. This disagrees with Wikipedia, which says the game's initial North American release came on January 3, 1997. We'd like to corroborate this in our archive, but in the earliest days of this site games that were not first-person shooters (at times specifically Quake) were still off topic. It was also much harder to pin down these things in those days as there were shipping dates and shelf dates for these things we used to call "stores." But either way, we're right onto the quarter-century mark for this seminal game. GOG.com is offering a sale on Diablo + Hellfire to celebrate. Here's word:
Diablo, the game that changed the RPG landscape forever, was released 25 years ago – on 31st December 1996. This anniversary is a great opportunity for you to find out that even after a quarter of a century this unique game still holds up to its huge legacy.
Wednesday - November 03, 2021
Diablo - DevilutionX v1.3 Released
A new version of DevilutionX (1.3) for Diablo has been released. You can read the changelog here.
What is DevilutionX
DevilutionX is a source port of Diablo and Hellfire that strives to make it simple to run the game while providing engine improvements, bugfixes, and some optional quality of life features.
Check out the manual for what features are available and how best to take advantage of them.
For a full list of changes see our changelog.
How to Install
Note: You'll need access to the data from the original game. If you don't have an original CD then you can buy Diablo from GoG.com. Alternately you can use
spawn.mpq
from the shareware version, in place ofDIABDAT.MPQ
, to play the shareware portion of the game.Download the latest DevilutionX release and extract the contents to a location of your choosing or build from source.
- Copy
DIABDAT.MPQ
from the CD or GOG-installation (or extract it from the GoG installer) to the DevilutionX folder.- To run the Diablo: Hellfire expansion you will need to also copy
hellfire.mpq
,hfmonk.mpq
,hfmusic.mpq
,hfvoice.mpq
.For more detailed instructions: Installation Instructions.
[...]
1.3.0
Features
Platforms
- Added support for Android (please leave us a review )
- Added support for the original Nintendo 3DS
- Added support for Lepus
- Added multiplayer support to Nintendo Switch
- Added multiplayer support to Nintendo 3DS
- Added multiplayer support to PlayStation Vita
- Added multiplayer support to OpenDingux
- Update macOS icon to follow Big Sur style guide
- Add launcher sound to 3DS version
Graphics / Audio
- Animations are now updated at render time for high fps visuals
- Added support for hardware cursor (solves cursor lag)
- Quests being ordered logically in the quest panel
- Quest panel now lists completed quests
- More fine grained volume slider
- Added option for pickup sound
- Shrine reveals map in a different color than your own exploration
- Automap has drop shadow for better contrast in some levels
- Added font with support for Extended Latin, Greek, Coptic, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
- Item outline color now matches rarity
- Use gold color to indicate unique items in stores
- Improved XP bar visuals
- Widescreen loading scenes
[...]
Saturday - August 22, 2020
Diablo - The Story
Ars Technica let David Brevik tell the story of Diablo:
How One Gameplay Decision Changed Diablo Forever | War Stories | Ars Technica
loading...Today on War Stories, Ars Technica is joined by Diablo lead programmer David Brevik to break down the genesis and development of a PC hack & slash masterpiece. Unbeknownst to some, the original concept for Diablo called for a traditional, turn-based RPG - a genre Brevik came of age with and was heavily influenced by. However, following a fateful vote by show of hands at the Blizzard North offices, Diablo became something new entirely and an initially reluctant David Brevik was on the cusp of creating the first entry in a legendary action role-playing series.
Thursday - March 07, 2019
Diablo - Released on GOG
Diablo has been released on GOG with high resolution support.
loading...Traveler, stay awhile and listen...
Darkness stirs beneath Tristram. An ancient evil sweeps across the land, plunging it into civil war and terrorizing the populace. A mad king, his missing son, and a mysterious archbishop are all pieces of the puzzle you need to hack through. You have journeyed to the source of this evil. The town of Tristram - now inhabited only by a handful of survivors, broken and twisted by the madness that has befallen them. A cathedral stands there, built over the ruins of an ancient monastery. Eerie lights and ungodly sounds are heard echoing through its abandoned halls, and that is where you shall venture.
Embark, if you dare, on a quest to destroy The Prime Evil…
- Experience the legendary action/RPG that influenced an entire genre.
- Storm Diablo's halls as either a Warrior, a Sorcerer or a Rogue - each with unique skills and abilities.
- Unite to destroy Diablo - up to 4 players can band together via Internet, or play head-to-head via direct IP.
- Unprecedented replayability - over 200 different monsters inhabit Diablo's ever-changing labyrinth. Equip epic items to conquer fearsome bosses and their minions.
- A spine-chilling story - experience the horror of a world held in the grasp of The Lord of Terror.
Ahhh, fresh meat!
Travelers looking for the authentic Diablo experience can play the game as it was in 1996, with period-appropriate 20 FPS SVGA graphics, and the ability to matchmake through the classic version of Blizzard’s Battle.net® online-gaming service.
For those wanting something a bit more modern, Blizzard and GOG.COM have collaborated on an updated version of the game tuned for today’s gaming PCs, which includes out-of-the-box Windows 10 compatibility, a host of bug fixes and high-resolution support.
- The most voted game on the GOG.com wishlist, finally trapped in a DRM-free soulstone!
- Return to the beginning of this dark saga, now in digital format for the first time ever.
- Better value than Wirt's wares, guaranteed.
Thursday - June 21, 2018
Diablo - Source Code Reverse Engineered
PC Gamer reports that the Diablo source code has been reverse engineered.
A coder who goes by the name of GalaxyHaxz has uploaded a reverse-engineered version of the original Diablo source code. According to this GitHub post, it took them over 1,200 hours over the course of "6-12 months", in bid to ensure "that everything is preserved."
Devilution, as the project is known, doesn't contain any of the original game's assets so don't expect a free copy of the classic action slasher. Do however expect an accessible project that aims to make things "much easier" to support and maintain into the future.
[...]
Thursday - December 29, 2016
Diablo - 20 Years old
Blizzard celebrates 20 years of Diablo:
As we approach the original game’s release anniversary on December 31, Blizzard Entertainment is thrilled to commemorate twenty years of Diablo. We’re ready to celebrate our passion for the world of Sanctuary and the brave heroes who inhabit it!
Starting soon, you can experience special in-game events and goodies in Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft to celebrate a few of the things we love about Diablo. These events and items will only be available for a limited time, so be sure to check them all out before they’re gone.
A small taste of each tribute is below—keep an eye out for more details about these celebrations. . . and thank you, all of you, for allowing us to continue adventuring in the world of Sanctuary. Here’s to twenty years of loot!
Sunday - October 16, 2016
Diablo - New Game in the Works?
@PCInvasion they report on a tweet made by David Brevik that confirms a new arpg game is in the works by Blizzard. David calls it a Diablo-like game meaning it could be anything.
There's big news this afternoon for anyone following the recent Diablo rumours. David Brevik appears to have been hired by Blizzard as an advisor for a new ARPG which is in the works at Blizzard.
The news comes via a tweet from Brevik in the early hours which is also accompanied by a picture of the constellation of Libra. Brevik said, "For 20 years, Diablo-like games have evolved & surprised us. I'm proud to be the adviser for the game that pushes this genre to new heights."
For 20 years, Diablo-like games have evolved & surprised us. I'm proud to be the adviser for the game that pushes this genre to new heights. pic.twitter.com/LIT3i0UwJv
- David Brevik (@davidbrevik) October 16, 2016
Fans are now trying to figure out what this image could mean. Is it a new Diablo game? A reworking of Diablo 2? The message does suggest that it could be a completely new ARPG.
Wednesday - September 28, 2016
Diablo 4 - Wishlist @Gameranx
Gameranx list the things they want from a hypothetical Diablo 4.
Intelligent Stash Management
The stash in Diablo III is an unpleasant holdover from the first game in the series. It's has limited space, a hassle to manage, and discourages players from hoarding too many items. It's been derided as "inventory Tetris" for a reason.
Tabs and multiple containers partially solve the problem, but it's still impossible to automatically sort the inventory or find specific items. The addition of filters and a search function would be a godsend.
Weapons Worth Keeping
Weapons and armor in Diablo III are disposable. Players replace their gear at a constant pace-finding new loot and equipping it is what defines the game's itemization treadmill. But what if there was an incentive to keep your weapons and have them level up with you? This would only come into play in the end-game when you have the most powerful weapons.
The system could be similar to the Urshi-type Greater Rift system recently introduced in an update to Reaper of Souls. Instead of gems, you could also upgrade weapons. Items have always been a core component to the Diablo experience and Diablo 4 should bring that back.
Whatever the case, the system would have to complement existing leveling and progression systems and not introduce any degree of complexity to the casual experience, and it's doubtful that Blizzard has any intentions of turning Diablo into Path of Exile.
The Gift of Giving
For many, trading was an unpleasant aspect of Diablo II that forced the most hard-core players to spend time bartering for the best equipment instead of playing the game. The marketplace became the endgame, and players would have to spend countless hours farming-not for the "best in slot" items they wanted, but for the currency they needed to acquire these items from players who already had them. Diablo III took trading in a different direction, encouraging players to spend real money on upgrades. Just as before, the marketplace felt more important than the game itself.
...
Thursday - June 23, 2016
Diablo - Postmortem by David Brevik
Diablo is a seminal game and designer David Brevik takes us back to its creation in this postmortem video from GDC.
loading...
Diablo developer David Brevik returns to the GDC stage to give a classic post-mortem on Blizzard's action RPG hit Diablo in this 2016 talk. Brevik shares key takeaways from the experience and sheds light on how the game went from a single-player, turn-based claymation DOS game to the genre-defining classic it became.
Tuesday - March 22, 2016
Diablo - Original Design Pitch
In an article on Gamasutra about the original design documents for Diablo that were used to pitch the game, we learn that in that original pitch Diablo was described as a turn-based role-playing game with randomly-created dungeons at its heart and that is was heavily inspired by games like Nethack and Rogue.
Over the weekend game designer David Brevik published a scan of the original 1994 design proposal Condor, Inc. (which would later become Blizzard North) used to pitch Diablo to potential publishers.
Brevik made a promise to publish the document online after referencing it in his Diablo classic game postmortem at GDC last week, and it's worth perusing to get an understanding of how one of the most influential action-RPGs of the '90s was originally conceived.
Wednesday - January 07, 2015
Diablo - A Night With the Devil @ Gamasutra
Gamasutra is hosting a new article From Radek Koncewicz about the Diablo games.
Diablo is one of the most critically and commercially acclaimed videogame franchises of all time. It has spawned numerous "clones," and its gameplay conventions have been adapted across multiple genres. The latest entry in the series, Diablo III, boasts the honour of being the fastest selling PC game of all time and the best selling PC game of all time.
So what makes the series so special? Almost to a fault, Diablo games are described as being incredibly addictive. That's a fairly vague assertion, though, so I figured it'd be interesting to take a closer look at the original game and get a little closer to nailing down its je ne sais quois.
Thursday - September 25, 2014
Diablo - Belzebub HD Mod
While browsing the internet I came across a new mod for Diablo called Beelzebub. The mod provides a bunch of fixes, and hd textures for the game. Here are some the details.
Project code name: Belzebub
Belzebub is code name of modification project, which will probably be most advanced Diablo 1 mod. For now project is in open beta phase (single player). Below there is short demonstration that presents some of the game features.
Features:
- Increased resolution and support for panoramic screens
- Fully integrated with new windows systems
- Many user interface improvements
- New hero classes Barbarian and Assassin
- All quests which were missing from original game are now implemented
- Four difficulty levels available in single player
- New locations
- New special and randomly generated bosses
- New spells
- New character skills
- New item types and affixes
- 204 unique items
- 28 sets with 105 set items
- 170 crafting recipes
- Great number of minor gameplay changes
- And many more...
Installation
In order to run mod, copy all files from archive to Diablo 1 game folder. Modification requires openAL library installed which is included in the archive. To start game run Belzebub.exe file. Remember that mod requires mounted Diablo 1 cd in virtual drive or diabdat.mpq copied to it's root folder
Source: GameBanshee
Monday - September 08, 2014
Diablo - Retrospective @ Continue Play
Joe Yang of Continue Play has posted a new retrospective article for Diablo.
Diablo had the basic formula of a generic role-playing game twisted just that little bit darker. The isometric game wasn’t complex in its story: there’s a missing Prince and you have to find that Prince. Along the way, if you could kill the traitorous Archbishop Lazarus, that’d also be totes cool. It’s not a complex story. For 99 percent of the game, it’s really simple and straightforward.
And through experiencing the game, you get a feel for its depth, its complexity. It’s difficult to describe Diablo in a positive other than “it has a good atmosphere” because its story is perfunctory. Instead, it’s more of a cobweb of mini-tales. The darkness is peppered with varying evils, falls from grace, and corruptions more twisted and tragic than its simplistic main quest suggests.
It’s an anthology in videogame format, and the dungeons are its pages. You traverse through them, coming across the monsters that call its vile lairs home, and each one tells a little bit more about the world they live in. And like the Butcher, these tales are relentless, seemingly unstoppable, and refuse to let you go.
Sunday - November 03, 2013
Matt Chat - Diablo History Video
Matt Chat is back with a new video that takes a look at the history of the Diablo franchise with guest game historian David Craddock.
This week, I'm joined by fellow author and game historian David Craddock, who has recently published the first volume of his extensive history of Diablo. You can get his book in a variety of e-formats here: http://dm-press.com/books/
Saturday - October 26, 2013
Diablo - Retrospective @ Venturebeat
Venturebeat posted a retrospective about the Diablo games about how it fascinated millions, and helped make Blizzard famous.
Click, click, click. That’s the sound of millions playing the famous action role-playing game Diablo. Now picture skeletons, demons, and dark, gothic architecture, with little piles of gold and loot spilling everywhere after a successful slaughter.
What you probably don’t think about as often are the faces — the people behind Diablo and the story of how they created a legend from a relentless, unforgiving love of gaming. Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire, the first volume in a new series on Blizzard’s history from Digital Monument Press, gives voice to both.
Author David L. Craddock focuses on the rise of Blizzard North (formerly known as Condor) and the birth of Diablo. He also dabbles in the origins of Blizzard Entertainment (previously called Silicon & Synapse and later Chaos Studios) and the first Warcraft game. This section appears in the middle of the book, and it’s a necessary distraction. You can’t fully appreciate one studio without the other
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/24/stay-awhile-and-listen-book-1-review/#c2zWbIm7BfuPV46W.99
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/24/stay-awhile-and-listen-book-1-review/#c2zWbIm7BfuPV46W.99
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/24/stay-awhile-and-listen-book-1-review/#c2zWbIm7BfuPV46W.99
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/24/stay-awhile-and-listen-book-1-review/#c2zWbIm7BfuPV46W.99
Saturday - September 28, 2013
Destructoid - The Origin of Diablo
Destructoid has posted a new article about the orgin of Diablo with quotes from ex-Blizzard members.
Recently, I've been making my way through Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire - Book 1. Considering the game's humble beginnings at Condor, it blows my mind to think about the success the franchise has gone on to have -- to say nothing of its impact on action-role-playing games and our poor fingers.
Ahead of the book's release next month, author David L. Craddock has shared an excerpt with Destructoid that delves into some behind-the-scenes design tidbits. He interviewed 80-plus developers connected to Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard North for his three-book series. This passage covers quotes from co-founder David Brevik, composer Matt Uelmen, and more.
Wednesday - May 01, 2013
Diablo - Fan Film Launches Crowdsourcing
BlizzPlanet has news of a Crowdsourcing Diablo film. Well this could be either good news or bad news. At least a certain german director isn't touching this one.
Remember that spectacular French-based Diablo Fan Film production we mentioned a few weeks ago? It is still moving forward. The director, Michael Shaack, reached us to inform he launched the equivalent of Kickstarter in a french website named Ulule to fund the production of the film from pre-production to completion. Here is the crowdsourcing page. Watch the videos at the bottom of this page.
The fan-made Diablo film’s script is based on the novel titled Diablo: Legacy of Blood by New York Times Bestselling author Richard A. Knaak. The film script adaptation is written by J. Heska.
This project will only be funded if at least $17,726 are collected before July 5, 2013.
“Since time immemorial, the forces of light and darkness collide in a no thank you struggle for possession of the earthly world. Angels, Demons, Men. A precarious balance. But now, the fate of all is into the hands of a mercenary.”
SYNOPSIS
Norrec Vizharan is not a lucky man. Born into a peasant family, he escaped the fate of high-ground by combining his talents lean muscles with two robbers ruins. Eking rapine in old Donj ons already visited by more seasoned competitors, his fate suddenly changes when he discovers the forgotten armor of Bartuc, the Warlord of Blood.
Armor that proves more powerful than it seems, and that wakes ambitions buried deep in his mind. But dreams of greatness, Norrec, will be difficult to achieve. Becoming the object of desire, it will face mysterious opponents servicing powerful forces, cross continents and oceans and sink into the depths of the underworld to fulfill his destiny.
Unless his greatest enemy is the armor itself, which seems to pursue its own ends
Monday - April 29, 2013
Edge-Online - The Making Of Diablo
Edge-Online has a retrospective article on the original Diablo. The article contains excerpts from ex-Blizzard devs such as Max Schaefer and David Breivik.
Simple, as it happens, would be the operative word for Diablo. “Back then, RPGs were so overwrought with statistics that the genre had shrunk to a tiny audience,” says Erich’s brother and Condor’s co-founder, Max Schaefer. “We wanted to do an RPG how we’d played Dungeons & Dragons as kids: hit monsters and gain loot. Our mission was that we wanted the minimum amount of time between when you started the game up to when you were clubbing a skeleton.”
Condor, the company that would create Diablo, was founded in 1993, and hit a quirky seam of good luck early on. “We were just starting out with Dave Brevik and my brother Erich,” says Max. “We were in Brevik’s house and he’d just quit his job with Iguana Entertainment. We’re having our first meeting: what’s our company going to work on, how are we going to make money? The phone rings, and it’s someone from SunSoft who heard Dave was free and had some projects. So on our first meeting we ended up getting our first job. We looked at each other and said: ‘Is this real?’”
“For me, the most direct influence was X-COM: UFO Defense,” suggests Erich. “The size of the characters, the camera angle and the tile-based random maps. I felt like it would make a great dungeon crawl.” Blizzard agreed, and Condor soon had a contract.
The game’s central concept – loot and monsters without the waiting – was never in question, but that doesn’t mean it emerged fully formed. Surprisingly, the ultimate action-RPG was originally turn-based. “At first we had it so that you would take a step and then the monsters would,” says Erich. “You would swing your sword and then the monsters got their chance. I think this was based on the Nethack or Rogue-style of game that Brevik liked a lot.”
Tuesday - January 24, 2012
Diablo - How it Saved the Computer RPG
A debatable topic if there ever was one but 1Up has a piece titled How Diablo Saved the Computer RPG, looking back at market at the time, the release of Diablo and why it was successful (with some dodgy assertions). From the opening:
It's safe to say that by 1995, the computer role-playing game was dying. RPGs were losing traction to the wave of games modeled after two recently innovative titles: 1992's Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty and 1993's Doom. After the success of those two titles, the computer game industry as a whole shifted to producing more real-time strategy games and first-person shooters. The dwindling audience that enjoyed turn-based role-playing games full of mechanics, simulations, and obscure details were then being swayed by turn-based strategy games like Civilization II.
By this time, traditional first or third-person RPGs were still being released, but pretty much no one except Europeans bought them. One of the bigger successes in the genre came from a small studio in Maryland: The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall from Bethesda Softworks. Yet that was more of an anomaly -- Bethesda saw better traction from shooters like Terminator: Future Shock and its sequel SkyNET. Even the stalwart Ultima series -- Lord British's saga of isometric RPGs in a fully fleshed-out fantasy universe -- abandoned its core principles in pursuit of the action-driven market. Ultima fans generally felt betrayed when Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle -- a party-based RPG with a vast world -- was followed up with Ultima VIII: Pagan -- which featured a lone hero in a much smaller setting that bizarrely featured platforming elements (most likely in pursuit of luring action and even console gamers to the Ultima series).
Thursday - January 05, 2012
Diablo - 15 Year Anniversary, D3 "almost done"
Blizzard is celebrating the 15 Year Anniversary of Diablo (do you feel old now?) with a subsite that offers a retrospective video and video interviews with Jay Wilson and Chris Metzen. Among other things, Jay says Diablo III is "almost done", although that could still mean anything with Blizzard.
Saturday - December 30, 2006
Diablo - and Battle.net: Ten-Year Anniversaries
10 years ago, in the last week of 1996, Blizzard has released one of the most important titles in the history of Action-RPGs as Diablo has seen the light of day then. In the meantime Diablo 2 has been released (in the year 2000 IIRC) and there's been and still will be plenty of Diablo inspired titles. To celebrate the 10th anniversay of Diablo (& the battle.net), Blizzard has opened a website looking back at these past 10 years, their games in this period and more...take a look!
Source: Gamestar