Well this one came unexpected… GOG and Blizzard have partnered up and for their first game released Diablo exclusively on GOG (news item on GOG)

I still remember playing the game originally on my 486 back in the days… even though the hardware requirements stated a Pentium. (To be fair, they were right on that, to have the “real” experience, that Pentium was required. But at the time it was all I had, so I couldn’t compare) I was just happy that the game ran and was enjoyable. Once I ran it on a more powerful computer years later, I noticed the difference: The game was significantly slower on my old PC. Interestingly, instead of the usual experience of having low FPS and thus a stuttering game, it just slows down everything on the visual side. So you and all enemies walk/attack slower, but all things like dialog, music, sound effects were regular speed.

After some years, with Diablo 2 out, people moved on to that and the first Diablo was just “retired”. Now, a long time since then, the game is available again for purchase with support for current systems. The game itself hasn’t really changed, but now you can easily run it on Windows 10 without any workarounds, choose from a long list of resolutions, fullscreen/windowed mode… for the price of a little under 10 bucks (8.89€ in my region).

To be fair, of course the game shows its age, but the atmosphere still works nicely in its favor. The soundtrack hasn’t lost its quality, especially if you play with headphones and enter the cathedral for the first time… just great. Don’t know how far I’ll play this time around, but clearing out the first level was fun enough.

Additionally at some later date, GOG will also be releasing Warcraft 1 and 2, this has been announced by Blizzard in their FAQ that accompanied the Diablo announcement