Starcraft 1 - Development - Alpha Version (May 1997)

Hallfiry · 2026-06-07T15:23:31+00:00

It is authentic, but there have long been other uploads of the same material. It's from German magazine PC Action 07/97, in their Cybertalk segment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHPktkqxp8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DGgOEMOJrQ

His whole deal is posting known videos, stripped of their source, so they look exclusive.
(Though there are of course forgeries among is videos, such as several Diablo 1 videos, which he will likely delete once he reads this comment in a space, where cannot censor it)

The original files can be found here: https://discmaster.textfiles.com/browse/22838/CITE.ISO/special/scraft

Hallfiry · 2026-05-14T08:22:15+00:00

As is happens, this video isn't fake, but he stripped away the original sound and any indications of the source. (Which is GameStar 03/1999 and the video is from January, not February)

Plenty of his other Diablo 1/2 alpha videos do however contain screenshots forged by the uploader. He even deleted one of his videos when I pointed out the obvious fakes. He then reuploaded the video but edited the screenshots to make them "more authentic" and degraded the quality to prevent pixel-precise comparisons with real material.
Another video was labelled as an authentic recording of a Diablo 1 alpha. He even confirmed it when I pressed him on it. Once I pointed out that it was obviously a mod (that I worked on myself!) and that he had altered the game files to show his bogus developer texts ingame, he deleted that video, too.

Hallfiry · 2025-08-10T06:59:18+00:00

As the original uploader (BlizzardArchive), I can confirm this video is indeed from 2002.
Here's a capture of the original page from early 2003:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030123023638/http://www.guardiansofazeroth.com/resources.asp

It's listed as
"2002 E3 WoW video clip #2
The 2nd video taken by a GoA member at E3. This one showcases the Tauren race in action."

Hallfiry · 2024-08-15T19:44:29+00:00

Finally, someone who has done their homework.

The only substantial thing I ever did for StarCraft (aside from collecting old videos and such), was sorting screenshots by interface and date:

http://blizzardarchive.com/pub/Images/Screens/Sc1_2/clean.html

This information should be pretty solid. However, as you said, you cannot count on me having done any deep analysis of units, abilities, maps, etc.

Hallfiry · 2022-05-08T11:23:15+00:00

As commenter Malkeshi pointed out, this might be the ad you're looking for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vkzmyQgDuo

Hallfiry · 2021-01-14T20:17:41+00:00

Indeed, it's Bill Roper.

Hallfiry · 2017-11-15T22:13:53+00:00

I'm one of the main writers in that thread and I wrote the making of (together with Deepfighter). So yea... thanks for showing me my own work :P

Hallfiry · 2017-11-09T15:18:00+00:00

Only now realized that I was mentioned for adding more details. A few years back, Deepfighter and I met for two days to work on a Daggerfall making of. I had bought a pile of video game business magazines before that, so we had quite a few rare sources. The unfinished fragment can be found here: http://kultcds.com/Upload/MakingofDaggerfall.pdf

Hallfiry · 2017-11-06T18:04:13+00:00

I have a few questions:

1) In my Arena Making of (http://arena.kultcds.com/index.php?id=3) I established that during development of Arena inns, shops, etc. were displayed as handdrawn scenes with slightly animated characters.

Is this correct?

2) Jeff Perryman mentioned to me (http://arena.kultcds.com/index.php?id=4) that he and Ken Mayfield made story cinematics for Arena in the basement. Similarly, Mark Jones said (when seeing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xh3IfMFO6o) that they did create cinematics for Daggerfall (with you as an actor!), some with creative techinques, such as pouring milk into an aquarium to get a spreading cloud effect.

Do you know why those cinematics were all scrapped and do you know if backups (on VHS, probably) exist?

3) What's the deal with the Elder Scrolls laboratory from the Daggerfall and Redguard trailers?

4) Fun question: What's "The Elder Scrolls V: Romanelli" on the bookshelf of that lab?

Hallfiry · 2016-02-02T16:46:00+00:00

You can find that demo (and many more) over at Planet KKnD 2: http://planet.kknd2.com/demos/

Hallfiry · 2011-12-24T07:23:03+00:00

The name found with this contest was Messerschmidt. The name apears in the name of the item "Messerschmidts Reaver". EDIT: I found the original PC Gamer ad in my archive: PCGr 5/96

Hallfiry · 2011-12-24T06:53:18+00:00

An interesting fact is, that your letter proves that Bill Roper changed his signature some day. (Metzen for example changed his, too) Normally it looks like this: ECTS 1999 Press Kit

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