New Diablo II patch lets you play without disc

43 Comments by Ross Miller Jun 19th 2008 1:30PM
Filed under: Mac, PC, RPGs

While the rumor mill is perpetually abuzz for Diablo III, let's go back one iteration to a game that's actually available. Blizzard has released patch 1.12 for Diablo II,

which allows you to run the full game without the disc in the tray, provided you have all the required .MPQ files. According to BlizzPlanet, that either requires a full re-installation or copy-and-pasting the proper files onto the computer.

The patch also fixes some compatibility with Intel Macs and resets the online rankings. Our friends at BigDownload speculate this might be preliminary steps to putting the game on Blizzard's digital download store. Blizzard, known for patching games years after their release, updated Starcraft as recently as 2007.

[Via BigDownload]

Tags: blizzard, diablo, diablo-2, diablo-ii, patch

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

LordChimp: Jun 19th 2008; 1:35PM

I feel like the only man in the world that has not played Diablo II. :|

Intentless: Jun 19th 2008; 1:38PM

As you should... as... you... should...

PeterF: Jun 19th 2008; 1:39PM

no, I haven't.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award): Jun 19th 2008; 2:02PM

maaaan.. yur pretty.

Hwuh!

Jakka: Jun 19th 2008; 2:50PM

I have it on my HDD but I'm only half-way through Act 1.

A Pissed-off English Gamer: Jun 19th 2008; 4:03PM

Then you each fail. :-)

AoE: Jun 19th 2008; 4:14PM

After Diablo I, I had no interest. I realize I'm almost entirely alone in my lack of care for the franchise though.

McWeen: Jun 19th 2008; 1:36PM

Cool

Zertoss: Jun 19th 2008; 1:40PM

Blizzard and Valve are my heroes.

A Pissed-off English Gamer: Jun 19th 2008; 4:04PM

Wow, me too! High five!

Mode~7: Jun 19th 2008; 1:44PM

That's nice of 'em and all but how about they just put the full game on fileplanet or something? They not making enough money? id software have released the actual sourcecode for games newer than this.

Tom: Jun 19th 2008; 2:13PM

They put the source code, not the game media files. You can't play the game with the source code.

Mode~7: Jun 19th 2008; 4:22PM

Yeah, I'm aware of that. My point is that the source code is of a potentially much higher value than Diablo 2 at this point, and would usually be the last thing to be given away for free.

dabamf: Jun 19th 2008; 1:50PM

I think I'll have a Diablo martini. It gives you a devil of a good time.

jimmy: Jun 19th 2008; 3:35PM

Let me have a diablo sandwich, a dr pepper and make it fast i'm in a god damn hurry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udp1o3PTkjY

Deric Lee: Jun 19th 2008; 1:53PM

Am I mistaken or did this game come out last mellinia?

coyotej: Jun 19th 2008; 2:01PM

not quite, it was released Jun 29, 2000. And it got an expansion pack one year later (which was quite good, IMO).

DLow28: Jun 19th 2008; 2:06PM

and its still great!

CyberKnight: Jun 19th 2008; 3:18PM

Insert "There Was No Year Zero" argument here.

FSK405K: Jun 19th 2008; 4:07PM

June 2000 WAS last millenium.

FSK405K: Jun 19th 2008; 4:08PM

June 2000 WAS last millenium.

Dirty: Jun 19th 2008; 1:53PM

I hope they announce something this year for diablo 3.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award): Jun 19th 2008; 2:04PM

I consider this a "good riddance" step. I find it 100% ridiculous that I install entire games but still need to pull the disc from my rack when I want to play. Company of Heroes got so much play-time thanks to this feature being removed.

joevill: Jun 19th 2008; 2:30PM

wow... 8 years later how cool is that! Does anyone have any spare SOJs ?

A Pissed-off English Gamer: Jun 19th 2008; 4:06PM

Ladder reset. Everyone's gonna have lowbies for a little while.

Nietha: Jun 19th 2008; 2:31PM

This makes me want to start playing again.

Farseer (GDI): Jun 19th 2008; 3:16PM

ditto

whymog: Jun 19th 2008; 2:50PM

My proudest moment was when my friend put a Zod rune into a socketed ethereal Diggler, which is a unique dirk. It just goes to show how much we overplayed that game.

(Side note: If you don't get the Diggler reference, then you were too young to be playing the game when it came out. Shame on you!)

Jhongerkong: Jun 19th 2008; 2:53PM

This is nice, although there are no-cd patches for EVERY PC game ever made.

CyberKnight: Jun 19th 2008; 3:16PM

Yeah, but it's nice to have an "official" "no-cd" patch, finally.

WiNG [Life in a Game]: Jun 19th 2008; 2:57PM

It would be nice if they made Blessed Hammer not pwn every monster in the game in

Seifer: Jun 19th 2008; 3:39PM

"Stay a while, and listen!"

CyberKnight: Jun 19th 2008; 4:41PM

"Good to see you!"

DemonGSides: Jun 19th 2008; 3:41PM

The 'Stiq does know that Starcraft was also patched in 2008, right?

Powerlord: Jun 20th 2008; 11:04PM

Not only that, but it was pretty much the same patch... to remove the CD requirement.

FSK405K: Jun 19th 2008; 4:09PM

Reset online rankings....NNNNOOOOOO! But my top-level rogue was ranked 14000th! OMG, those Blizzard bastards!

(sarcasm)

FSK405K: Jun 19th 2008; 4:10PM

comments system a little buggy today, isn't it?

chispito: Jun 19th 2008; 4:16PM

How about a patch that adds depth?

CyberKnight: Jun 19th 2008; 4:42PM

Sorry, afraid it's the same shallow characters you're used to.

Wait, what?

Mikeymike: Jun 19th 2008; 6:01PM

"Can't a farmer get some peace!?"
Farmham the drunk

or whatever his name was...

Justin: Jun 19th 2008; 7:59PM

This was done years ago (unofficially).

drun: Jun 19th 2008; 9:04PM

oh, guess I'll install it again. I really wanna go back to battle.net but my former group members all moved to WOW :(

and...will they add bigger resolution and widescreen support?

marek: Jul 18th 2008; 4:43PM

its super

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