StarCraft (PC)

StarCraft is a really, really successful PC real-time strategy game. It is ridiculously popular in Korea, even holding offline tournament matches for it, and had a nice Nintendo 64 port developed by Mass Media, the only time any game in the series would appear on a console.

Surprisingly, despite this success, a proper sequel wouldn't be released for 12 years. Then again, considering Blizzard's track record of developing and re-developing games for more than a decade, this is not surprising.

This page will also cover 2017's StarCraft Remastered which, outside of prettier graphics, shares both the same client and much of the same content of the original.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Bugs Unused AudioHow many audio files are out there, Dukie? Easter EggsHidden content in StarCraft.

Unused Missions#

4 additional missions are hidden inside StarCraft.mpq (renamed to INSTALL.EXE in the original StarCraft installation CD). They cannot be played in the released version of StarCraft, because they were created with a pre-release version of StarEdit (v57). In order to play them, their format must be updated by opening them with StarEdit v59 (build date Mar 26 1998; included with StarCraft v1.0), and then saved.

Biting the Bullet (terran07)#

Watch on YouTube

This mission takes place between "Norad II", mission 6, and "The Trump Card", mission 7. While "The Trump Card" is also numbered 7 in the final game, it is internally named "terran8", suggesting this was the original seventh mission before being replaced.

This mission explains why Tassadar began to assist Jim Raynor. The player starts with General Duke in a Siege Tank and Raynor in a Vulture, along with 4 SCVs and a Command Center. This is the only time General Duke appears in a Siege Tank in a main campaign, later being reused for the Precursor missions in the StarCraft shareware demo. The defined tech settings allow for a nuclear silo to be built, but Ghosts cannot be trained.

The mission is somewhat incomplete. Tassadar will not appear correctly without modifying the map due to a non-functioning trigger, among many other issues.

The map layout was partially reused for the Enslavers Campaign mission "Playing with Fire", with altered terrain, enemies, locations and story.

Operation: Silent Scream (terran10)#

Watch on YouTube

This mission takes place between "The Big Push", mission 8, and "New Gettysburg", mission 9. Despite coming before the ninth mission, if the former unused mission is counted, the mission order matches up again.

The player commands Jim Raynor in a Vulture and Sarah Kerrigan, along with a strike force made up of every Terran unit in the game minus the SCV. This mission would have been the final strike against the Confederacy. The dialog and psi-emitter plot was moved to mission 8.

This map was also refined for the Enslavers Campaign mission "The Rescue" along the same lines as "Biting the Bullet".

Protoss Tutorial (ptutorial)#

Watch on YouTube

This may originally have been the tutorial for the Protoss Campaign. The gameplay is near identical to that of the Protoss campaign's first mission, "First Strike".

The layout of the player's base is different and the tech tree is unrestricted. Fenix has different dialogue in which he mentions a race known as the "Tagal", a race that is weak individually but deadly in large numbers like the Zerg, while defending Antioch.

Zerg Tutorial (ztutorial)#

There exists a very incomplete tutorial for the Zerg campaign. Due to its incomplete nature it may have been started shortly before the idea of individual race tutorials was scrapped.

The player starts with two drones, a hatchery, and 50 minerals. There are no resources on the map. There is a single marine belonging to player 7 (white). The triggers appear to be an early version of the default triggers, as most other map properties are default as well. Defeat is triggered when a player commands 0 units, rather than buildings. Because player 7 is set to "human" in the map properties the map does not start unless edited.

Unused Terran Units#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Repair Bay#

Most likely, this building would have been used to repair mechanical units. It may have been from a point in time where they planned to use it to repair mechanical units instead of using SCVs, as seen in the retail version. This unit is not functional and will crash the game if viewed.

Gerard Dugalle#

The UED flagship Battlecruiser Aleksander piloted by Gerard DuGalle. He uses Edmund Duke's voice-overs but retains his portrait.

Curiously, in the original StarEdit, when selecting Gerard Dugalle's portrait for briefings and triggers, the editor tagged him as a Ghost even if the actual unit is a Battlecruiser.

Arcturus Mengsk#

The Terran Dominion flagship Battlecruiser Leviathan, piloted by Arcturus Mengsk. Once again, Duke's voiceovers are used but Mengsk retains his portrait. His unit lacks a wireframe.

Unused Protoss Units#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Aldaris#

Aldaris was originally intended to be a Hero unit. However, his actual unit goes unused, even in the Brood War mission "The Insurgent". In said mission, Tassadar's unit is used instead, but through some clever use of triggers, it's made to look like it's actually Aldaris (this technique is used for a number of "non-existant heroes" in Brood War, such as Raszagal. This illusion can easily be seen if they're selected right before the mission ends). Tassadar and Aldaris share stats, so if one is modified the other is affected as well. Like Tassadar, Aldaris has an attack but unlike Tassadar, he has no abilities and lacks voiceovers.

Raszagal#

Raszagal is a largely incomplete Hero unit. Although appearing inside Brood War along the same lines as Aldaris, she exists as a unique unit, uses the Corsair's sprites but is much weaker and has a Dark Templar unit's wireframe. She uses the same weapon as the Corsair.

Unused Independent/Fourth Race Units#

To do: Can we convert .smk to .png?

Hidden inside the game files are many units that are all listed as "Independent Buildings", "Independent Units", or "Independent Heroes". These suggest that there was a fourth race in development, which may not have even been able to be player controlled. It's possible that it was only meant to appear in the campaign and/or custom maps.

They even have their own Advisor listed in the game: "NAdvisor". While this portrait is assigned to some of the Independent buildings, the portrait value points to the Marine and thus displays the Marine's portrait. The actual Independent Advisor was recycled for the Terran Science Vessel. The Civilian is also listed in the Independent category, hinting that he also may have once been an Independent Unit before being turned into a Terran Hero unit.

Additionally, if one opens any map or creates a new map in SCMDraft 2 (a third-party map editor), when looking at the options for players 'Independent' is listed in the Race selection for every player. This is probably the most concrete evidence supporting the fact there was originally a fourth race in development. It can be used by an AI opponent, but the game will crash if it is assigned as the Player's primary race, likely due to missing assets.

Only the Cargo ship, the Raider, and the Independent Starport can be placed in the game. They appear as an oddly static version of the Protoss Scout, all the other unused units listed here will crash the game. The graphics for these can be found in the Starcraft Battle.net Prototype.

Gunship#

Gunships were once Terran vessels meant to be used in conjunction with capital ships, such as the Battlecruiser. Small, dynamic, high-speed fighters such as the Wraith were developed instead. However, it was found that the Wraith could deal out a similar amount of damage to capital ships while evading most defensive battery attacks. After that, the Gunship became only used by the cut race "Independents" as they used the old outdated Terran technology. There was one Gunship hero unit known as Greedo, which is a reference to the Star Wars character. This unit will crash the game if viewed.

Cargo Ship#

Not much is known about the Cargo Ship. One hero named Sally was intended to be for the Cargo Ship. It's possible that this unit was the Terran's Battlecruiser, until a more powerful version was created. The developers made the Independents use the remaining obsolete versions instead. What currently remains in the game is an empty unit with an alternate sprite of the Scout using the Cargo Ship's wireframe. This unit is safe to place and use.

Raider#

An Independent unit of unclear purpose. Two hero Raiders, Boskk, another Star Wars reference, and Peter had been created for this unit. Its .grp was altered and turned into the Terran Valkyrie for StarCraft: Brood War. It's also notably bigger than the Valkyrie as well. What currently remains in the game is an empty unit with an alternate sprite of the Scout using the Raider's wireframe. This unit is safe to place and use.

Merc Biker#

The Merc Biker is a mysterious units of which little is known. A character named Grom was intended to be a Merc Biker hero. This name was likely a reference to Grom Hellscream, a character from Blizzard's earlier game, Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, who later appeared in Warcraft III. A closer look into the data files reveals that a Vulture wireframe is near the Cargo Ship's, Raider's, and Merc Biker's wireframes. This could hint at the fact that the Vulture's graphics may have originally belonged to the Merc Biker. Unlike a majority of the units listed here, the Merc Biker's portrait graphics do exist in the retail release, but it is a repeated still image.

Independent Starport/Starbase#

An Independent structure that was cut from the final version. There is a name mix-up in the game files; it is listed as Independent Starport in DatEdit, but the picture in neutral is listed as "starbase.grp". The picture is definitely for this unit. In-game, the Starbase has the appearance of a Scout, caused by this mix-up, but with a very large placement circle. It has the portrait of a Marine (NAdvisor as listed in DatEdit) and an undefined, non-functional weapon. A graphic entry for the Starbase can be found in the retail game. It is located under the "Neutral" files, alongside the other Campaign-only buildings, suggesting it was for a Campaign mission. The graphics themselves are however missing but can be found in the prototype like the rest. It is likely that the Independents would have used this to construct Raiders, Cargo Ships, and Gunships. This unit also features an unused attack that does nothing.

Unlike many of the cut units, this one is safe to place and use. Unlike the Cargo Ship and Raider, this one is classified as a building, so the Scout will always face north.

Cantina#

An Independent structure that was cut during development. Its purpose is unknown, though it may have been used to construct Merc Bikers. It uses the portrait of a Marine (NAdvisor as listed in DatEdit), making it not a Terran building. This unit will crash the game if viewed.

Independent Command Center#

This unit will crash the game if attempted to be viewed in-game, due to it missing an image file and coding. It is an Independent version of the Terran Command Center with a different appearance. It is unclear whether or not the actual .grp for the unit still exists somewhere. It most likely would have been used as the Independent's resource gathering building. It uses the portrait of a Marine (NAdvisor as listed in DatEdit).

Independent Jump Gate#

This unit will also crash the game if attempted to be viewed. The Jump Gate may have been the Independent version of the Protoss' Warp Gate. It uses the portrait of a Marine (NAdvisor as listed in DatEdit).

Mining Platform#

It could've been an automated, unit-less way of mining for the Independents. It's unlikely that it was a Doodad, due to it being listed as a unit. It also uses the portrait of a Marine (NAdvisor as listed in DatEdit) making it clear it was not a Terran building. This unit will crash the game if viewed.

Unused Power Plant#

This unit seems to be a power plant. The purpose of it remains unknown. This unit will crash the game if viewed.

Unused Resource Units#

To do: Add wireframes.

During development workers would drop any resources they held, just like the Psi Emitter or Young Chrysalis. Resources would remain on the map until destroyed or picked up by another worker. Each pickup has a wireframe, portrait, and 800 health. In the release version resources carried by workers are destroyed immediately, so these pickups and their portraits are inaccessible during normal gameplay but can be placed using third party editors like ScmDraft2. They may be carried like standard "powerups" but cannot be collected at the command center/hatchery/nexus, nor does the worker's Return Cargo option appear. Their portraits were updated for StarCraft: Remastered but wireframes were not and are broken in some cases.

Unused Doodad Units#

Hatch#

This Hatch was originally meant for the Installation tileset. It can be placed using third party map editors. It can be opened and closed using triggers. Larger static doodad versions of this exist in opened and closed states but cannot be toggled between states. Since it can be placed on any tileset the palette will sometimes mess up. This is also the case with the floor turret and wall trap doodads.

Unused Graphics#

Alternate Devourer Cocoon#

The Zerg Devourer unit originally had a different cocoon. In the final game, it uses the same Cocoon graphic as the Zerg Guardian. The old Cocoon is stored alongside the rest of the Devourer birth graphics.

Unused Wireframes#

Unused unit wireframes for the Cargo Ship, the Raider, and the Repair Bay building can still be found in the original game's files. They are used by their respective unused units. Although the Battle.net prototype reveals that the Cargo Ship and the Raider had their wireframe swapped at some point.

Unused Protoss warp flash for units#

Inside the final game, Protoss buildings use a "warp flash" effect when built, but units don't.

However, the images.dat entries exist specifically for each and every Protoss buildable unit in the base game to have a warp flashing animation as well. Their iscript entries also mentions them: Units such as the Zealots were supposed to "warp in" not only when built, but also whenever deployed from a transport. The unworking nature of these animations seems to be entirely due to hardcoding issues.

Crashing Flags and Unused Players#

There is a flag that is inaccessible from StarEdit, the original map editor, but is used in some multiplayer maps. This can be spawned in-game using triggers, but will crash the game when clicked. Uniquely among units, the flag uses a different portrait for each player to determine the color of the flag seen on the portrait.

Looking at the portdata.dat file from BrooDat.mpq shows that there are the standard 8 flag color portraits from 82 to 89, but at 106 to 109, there is additional flag portrait data for Players 9 to 12 (9 being Green, 10 being Bright Yellow, 11 being Tan, and 12 being "Blue", which is actually Light Blue, the color used by Neutral/World). It is unknown what portdata.dat in StarDat.mpq, but portdata.tbl only shows lines for Flag1 to Flag8.

Looking inside StarDat.mpq in portraits with a proper listfile shows there are no portraits for 9 to 12; looking in BrooDat.mpq shows that they were added in Brood War. This doesn't show much related to the problem, but that is because only looking at the data does not show everything. Loading into SCMDraft 2 and looking at the Map Properties for a new or opened map, there will be the standard 8 player slots, as well as 4 extra player slots that are missing the option to change color; the latter do not work properly and are useless as player slots. If the color options are inspected, there will be not 8, nor 12, but 17 colors that can be chosen from, with Dark Aqua, Pale Green, Bluish Grey, Pale Yellow, and Cyan being added.

StarCraft was intended for 8-player multiplayer, given that most multiplayer and skirmish maps only go up to 8 player slots, but Brood War was going to add at least 3 new Player slots (Player 9-11) and 1 Neutral slot (Player 12). While there are maps in Brood War in which up to 11 players can play, players 9 to 11 currently only act as Computer slots, meaning that they only have the Owner and Race selections, which don't seem to change anything, and that they are unable to count as actual slots in-game; the game still will only show 8, so human players can never occupy those slots. They seem to act as hostile computers, but further investigation is needed to see if there is anything different about them. They are set to "Unused, Inactive" by default.

Player 12 exists exactly as it should, since it is a Neutral slot, and instead of being set to "Unused, Inactive" it is set to "Unused, Neutral" by default to act as the controller of resource units.

The five extra selectable colors point towards Blizzard planning to have 16 player slots (Player 1 to 16) and 1 neutral slot (Player 17).

The cause of the crashes are four of those extra colors. Choosing them as a player color for any player causes the game to use one of 4 strange color palettes that do not have proper flag portraits, so clicking on their flag causes the game to crash because Flag13 to Flag17 don't exist anywhere in the .mpqs, and the data that would link the flag to the appropriate portrait (Flag 13-17) more than likely doesn't exist either. However, Dark Aqua acts as Light Blue (what Portdata refers to as "Blue") and will not crash the game when it is used as a player color and its flag is clicked on.

Oddly, though, SCMDraft2 displays their palettes exactly as they should look.

Standard Flags (as seen in SCMDraft 2)
Extra Player Color Flags in SCMDraft 2 (within the red lines)

Unused Text#

Campaign Names and Descriptions#

Every campaign mission includes a title and description that are left unused (the mission names come from a different file).

Disabled Triggers#

Desperate Alliance (terran03)#

This level has two disabled triggers. The first would have played an unused transmission when a Zerg building was killed before the last two minutes of the level. If the Zerg hatchery is later killed, the second trigger will spawn Dropships in another location and the level will end as a victory.

 CONDITIONS:
 - Colonial Militia kills at least 1 buildings.
 - Countdown timer is at least 120 game seconds.
 ACTIONS:
 - Pause the game.
 - Mute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.
 - Send transmission to current player from Terran Command Center at 'Anywhere'.
   Play 'T3M60tad.wav'.
   Modify transmission duration: Subtract 0 milliseconds.
   Display the following text:
          ADVISOR
               Magistrate, analysis shows that it may be 
               possible to break through the Zerg's 
               defenses and reach Mengsk's transports.
 - Unmute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.
 - Unpause the game.
 - Set Mission Objectives to:
   - Survive for 30 minutes
   OR
   - Destroy the Zerg Hatchery
 - Wait for 2000 milliseconds.
 - Play 'ComBeep0.wav'
 - Display for current player:
   MISSION OBJECTIVES:
   - Survive for 30 minutes
   OR
   - Destroy the Zerg Hatchery 
 - Set 'Switch 2'.

 CONDITIONS:
 - Zerg Swarm commands at most 0 Zerg Hatchery.
 - 'Switch 2' is set.
 - Countdown timer is at least 1 game seconds.
 ACTIONS:
 - Send transmission to current player from Terran Command Center at 'Attack Drop(1)'.
   Play 'T3M80tad.wav'.
   Modify transmission duration: Subtract 0 milliseconds.
   Display the following text:
          ADVISOR
               We've broken through to the dropships.
 - Create 1 Terran Dropship at 'Attack Drop(1)' for Sons of Korhal.
   Apply properties.
 - Create 1 Terran Dropship at 'Attack Drop(2)' for Sons of Korhal.
   Apply properties.
 - Create 1 Terran Dropship at 'Attack Drop(3)' for Sons of Korhal.
   Apply properties.
 - Create 1 Terran Dropship at 'Attack Drop(4)' for Sons of Korhal.
   Apply properties.
 - Create 1 Terran Dropship at 'Attack Drop(5)' for Sons of Korhal.
   Apply properties.
 - Create 1 Map Revealer at 'Attack Drop(1)' for Colonial Militia.
   Apply properties.
 - Wait for 500 milliseconds.
 - Center view for current player at 'Attack Drop(1)'.
 - Pause the game.
 - Wait for 2000 milliseconds.
 - Mute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.
 - Send transmission to current player from Terran Dropship at 'Attack Drop(1)'.
   Play 'TDrYes04.wav'.
   Modify transmission duration: Subtract 0 milliseconds.
   Display the following text:
          DROPSHIP PILOT
               Strap yourselves in, boys.
 - Wait for 3000 milliseconds.
 - Unmute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.
 - End scenario in victory for current player.

The Big Push (terran09)#

A trigger is disabled early in the game.

 CONDITIONS:
 - Elapsed scenario time is at least 1 game seconds.
 - Current player commands at least 1 men.
 ACTIONS:
 - Mute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.
 - Send transmission to current player from Jim Raynor (Vulture) at 'Anywhere'.
   Play 'T9M00ura.wav'.
   Modify transmission duration: Subtract 0 milliseconds.
 Display the following text:  
          RAYNOR
               All right, kids. Let's find a spot to park
               these bad boys.
 - Unmute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.

Into the Darkness (protoss06)#

The mission briefing has a lot of unused content. Raynor was supposed to be included as Tassadar reaffirmed his commitment to recovering the Dark Templar. This scene may have been removed since Kerrigan does not appear during the mission. This cut section of the briefing does appear in the StarCraft 64 version of the mission, albeit without the audio.

 - Show portrait of Jim Raynor (Marine) in slot Slot 3.
 - Pause for 1000 milliseconds.
 - Show speaking animation for Slot 3.
   Play 'P6B01ura.wav'.
   Modify transmission duration: Subtract 0 milliseconds.
   Display the following text:
   That won't be easy, man. That's Kerrigan down there leading those Zerg. She won't let us
   go without a fight.
 - Show speaking animation for Slot 4.
   Play 'P6B02uta.wav'.
   Modify transmission duration: Subtract 0 milliseconds.
   Display the following text:
   I know, my friend. With all due respect to you, and to the feelings you once had for her,
   you must know that I will not hesitate to destroy her should she pose a threat to us.
   Nothing shall prevent me from delivering the Dark Templar to Aiur.
 
   Nothing.
 - Pause for 1000 milliseconds.
 - Hide portrait in slot Slot 3.

Unused Triggers#

Boot Camp (tutorial)#

Switch 2 is never set in-game, leaving this trigger unused.

 CONDITIONS:
 - 'Switch 1' is set.
 - 'Switch 2' is set.
 - 'Switch 7' is cleared.
 ACTIONS:
 - Set 'Switch 7'
 - Center view for current player at 'Minerals'
 - Create 1 Map Revealer at 'Minerals' for Player 2.
   Apply properties.
 - Mute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.
 - Send transmission to current player from Terran Barracks at 'Anywhere'.
   Play 'T0M04tad.wav'.
   Modify transmission duration: Subtract 100 milliseconds.
 Display the following text:  
          ADVISOR
               It is these blue crystals that are the source 
               of minerals. Use your SCV's to gather
               additional minerals.
 - Unmute all non-trigger unit sounds for current player.
 - Clear 'Switch 7'.
 - Wait for 2000 milliseconds.
 - Kill all Map Revealer for Player 2.

StarCraft: Remastered#

In 2017, Blizzard released a newly updated Brood War client with remastered graphics and other QOL updates. This new client was made compatible with modern versions of Windows and macOS.

Command-Line Switches#

There are a number of undocumented command-line switches.

Evolution of the Installer#

To do: Replace the low-quality 2017 image with a better one.

Original Installer	Brood War installer	2017 Installer

With the StarCraft Remastered patch, the installer also changed. The Preview that was available to see is gone, and so is the Options button; they were both replaced with a "Tech Support" button.

StarEdit#

StarEdit was also added to StarCraft: Remastered in a patch that was implemented after the game's release. It was announced on May 14, 2019 that due to more viable third-party alternatives, Blizzard would no longer support StarEdit, and that it would not ship with future releases.