A couple of weeks ago, l2k-Spec-Ops_X posted at SCLegacy and PGTour about a way to play the StarCraft Beta on a private Hamachi server hosted by icantwin.com. The people behind this project were 8882 and Tec27 who made a cloned beta version with the ability to play it online. After many beta tests, the once so-buggy StarCraft beta was now a platform to play full games on, despite a few bugs still. To view the article in its full content, go to » SCLegacy.com. In the bottom of the article it said "More good stuff to follow!". And, surprise surprise, the good stuff has arrived.
Thanks to l2k-Shadow and his new program SC: Beta Gate, it has become much easier to installing and playing the StarCraft Beta online. And what might be the best with this program is that you no longer need to connect to a private server; now you can use the official StarCraft Battle.Net server.
- I made this program for gamers, said Shadow. I saw the complaints all over the forums about the beta and how hard it was to get it to work and find others to game with. The gate solves this issue, it allows users to get on the official StarCraft server and game, without the need to modify and files themselves. I also did it for the learning experience and enjoyment, and because Entropy said it couldn't be done, added Shadow in an interview with Spec-Ops_X.
Programming this was not exactly a dance on roses, Shadow says in the interview.
- It was actually quite hard, mainly due to the fact that Battle.net network protocol has changed so much. I had to make a program that completely changed the way and what information is sent and received, he said. The gateway tricks Battle.Net that you are connecting with the latest version of StarCraft, which was not an easy task to program. The hardest part was to be able to create and join games mostly because it was one of the key things that were changed in the official game.
- At one point I hit a dead end with the beta joining a game, but thanks to my friend Doral@USEast who put up a private PvPGN server, I was able to packet log the beta properly and then knew what needed to be changed in order to make it work. There were also a lot of obstacles where the client doesn’t support current stages of battle.net. For example; the beta absolutely crashes if it enters a channel with a WarCraft II user; so I had to make modifications in order to make the beta think that it was actually a StarCraft user instead, admits Shadow.
- It was a fun project and a great learning experience. I really wanted to play this beta because StarCraft is a game that really is the best RTS ever made. This beta shows you how far the game has come and even what it was at one point. I wanted people, as well as myself, to be able to game the beta without the need for the private server, remarked Shadow.
As always download and play at your own risk. We think StarCraft Beta is abandonware, but are not sure, nor are we sure if Blizzard would object or not to you log in on Battle.net to play the Beta, so for practical purposes assume it is not strictly legal.
Setup StarCraft: Beta Gate1. Download the StarCraft Beta » here.
2. Beta comes in .rar you will need WinRAR or other program which can unpack Rar files. Go » here to download WinRAR.
3. Download Daemon Tools to be able to read the .mds/.mdf file format. For EXE-format press » here, and for ZIP-format press » here.
3a. Install Daemon Tools. After installation you do not need to restart your computer when it asks you to. Instead launch Daemon Tools from the icon on your desktop.
3b. Right click the icon in the tray and go to Emulation and click All Option ON.
3c. Right click the icon again and go to Virtual CD/DVD-ROM->Set number of devices and click 1 drive
3d. Right click the icon again and go to Virtual CD/DVD-Rom->Device 0: and click mount image.
3e. Go to where you unpacked the Beta and mount the .mds file.
4. Install the Beta, if an autorun does not pop-up go to the mounted drive and click SETUP.exe. You do not need a valid CD-Key to install the beta, you may use 3333-33333-3333, but you will need a valid Battle.net CD-Key to play on the official server.
5. Once installed, do not Play StarCraft, however launch the SC Beta Gate.
6. Setup the Gate, you do need a valid StarCraft CD-Key now, also remember not to put any dashes or spaces when typing it in.
7. Select a server, default is U.S. East.
8. Hit OK and click Launch Beta!
9. NOTE: The Gate only supports melee games at this time, if you create a game that is not melee, your partner will receive an "Invalid game options" error.
StarCraft Beta Screenshots
More screenshots
For more screenshots go to » SCBeta.IcyHell.net.
Ending credits
Credits
l2k-Shadow (bulk of the work)
l2k-SpecOpsX (Original news and giving Shadow the challenge)
Thanks
8882 (rallying the community and creating the interest)
Physician (re-finding beta & portalizing it, betatesting, editing this humble post)
l2k-Minosha (betatesting)
Doral (for hosting a PvPGN server for Shadow on which he could packet log the beta)
Lead (for enduring grueling hours of Shadow telling him what to do so that he could packet log the beta & set up a RDC to his computer for testing)
Links to more information & sources
» 7x.ru - Download the StarCraft Beta
» EnergyDLL.com - Download the Beta Gate
» EnergyDLL.com - Readme and FAQs
» SCLegacy.com - Article about the Beta before SC: Beta Gate
» EnergyDLL.com - The Beta Maps
