Diablo (computer game)

Diablo screenshot

Diablo is a point and click action computer role-playing game released by Blizzard Entertainment and developed by Blizzard North, released in late 1996. In it, players fight against evil demons attempting to conquer the world. The central goal in Diablo is to slay the demons threatening the small town of Tristram while collecting weapons, armor and magical items. Each new edition of the game extends the gameplay through additions such as new character classes, monsters, and items. The latest installment, the expansion pack for Diablo II, Diablo II Lord of Destruction has a huge online gaming community, complete with a primitive economy. Diablo in many ways resembles roguelike games, the main differences being the vastly more realistic graphics and the fact the game is in real time, rather than being turn based.

Classes

The three character classes of Diablo are the warrior, rogue, and sorcerer. Each character, following typical role-playing conventions, has his or her own particular traits. The warrior possesses physical strength, the rogue is very dexterous, and the sorcerer is oriented toward magic.

Monsters

The monsters of Diablo are spawned from Hell. As the player progresses, he passes through four discrete areas: the church, the catacombs, the caves, and hell. Each area contains monsters that are tougher and stronger than ones from previous areas. When the player kills a monster, the monster may randomly drop an item.

Items

Items are dropped from monsters or sold by the vendors. Items are cursed, normal, magic, or unique. The unique items are typically stronger than their normal counterparts and may have special qualities.

Story

The story of Diablo is based on the premise of a war between heaven and hell. The town of Tristram is under attack by demons, and the player must save the town. As the player delves into the underworld, he discovers more about the demon Diablo. Eventually, the player reaches the lair of Diablo and must kill him.

Online play

Diablo can be played with others over the Internet via Battle.net. Unfortunately, the game lacked the rigorous anti-cheating methods of Blizzard's later games and as a result, many characters online are hacked. In general, a fair game may be found by playing with legitimate characters. The use of trainers (which modify memory locations while the game is running in order to cheat) and character editors is often used to give incredible statistics to even newly-created characters.

Expansion packs

The only official expansion pack made for Diablo was called Hellfire and was produced by Sierra Entertainment rather than an in-house development team in 1997. The game featured two additional dungeon segments located within the main storyline and several new items.

Secrets and hidden files

Like a great majority of games, Diablo has many files hidden on its CD that were never used. Some files are:

• Spells that were never made into the final game. The original game was supposed to have six spellbook pages (this can be checked on Diablo's manual, page #18, in a screenshot where the spellbook has six pages), unlike the four in the final, and the spells "left" in the cd are: Invisibility (whose icon graphic was reused for the Teleport Spell in Diablo 2), Blood Boil, Blood Ritual, Armageddon, Doom Serpent, Etherealize and Sentinel. Most of these spells are disabled, but some, like Etherealize, can be enable with the help of hacks.

• Enemies that don't appear in the final game. Some of their sprites are hidden within the CD files.

• Two cutscenes that don't appear in the game. One of them is a video you are supposed to see when you enter the Butcher's lair, and the other one is a different video of Diablo dying.

• Many item graphics never used in the final game, including the Map of the Stars, which was hacked many times into the game and spread over the Battle.net. It was supposed to be a key item needed to finish the game, but its quest was removed for unknown reasons.

System requirements

• Pentium-60
• 8 MB RAM
• Windows 95/98/NT
• SVGA video card
• Microsoft compatible mouse
• Double speed CD-ROM

Relative Topics

• Diablo II

External links

• Blizzard's official Diablo site (http://www.blizzard.com/diablo/)
• Diablo 2 Guide (http://www.diablo2guide.com/) - Provides informative look on D2
• Diablo 2 Top 200 (http://www.gamesites200.com/diablo/) - Large listing of D2 fansites and clans.
• Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire, an in-depth strategy guide for the game and its expansion (http://www.lurkerlounge.com/jarulf/index.shtml)

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