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Blizzard Updates Diablo II for Windows 10

Posted: 13 Mar 2016 03:44 PM PDT

Diablo 2

What the hell? While many PC gamers are joyfully hacking away in Blizzard Entertainment's current Diablo III: Reaper of Souls expansion, the company has released a patch for the ancient second installment Diablo II, a PC game released way back in 2000. This is the first patch for the classic title since Blizzard released the Lord of Destruction v1.13d update years ago in October 2011.

Blizzard has launched patch v1.14a although the manual update currently isn't showing up on Blizzard's website. The company says the new patch addresses "glitches" caused by modern operating systems like Windows 10. The patch also includes a new installer for Apple's OS X, meaning fans can finally ditch their decrepit Mac PowerPCs, the company muses.

"There is still a large Diablo II community around the world, and we thank you for continuing to play and slay with us," Blizzard writes. "This journey starts by making Diablo II run on modern platforms, but it does not end there. See you in Sanctuary, adventurers."

The blog adds that Blizzard has started the process of improving its cheat-detection and hack-prevention services, and while there are some improvements each day, there's a lot of work that still needs to be done. Unfortunately, the blog does not include the actual Diablo II v1.14a patch notes.

Blizzard's new patch arrives after the company posted a job listing back in November 2015 that sought out a senior software engineer. This individual would help update Blizzard's older catalog of games for new operating systems, including the original StarCraft (1999), Diablo II (2000), and Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos (2001).

"Evolving operating systems, hardware, and online services have made them more difficult to be experienced by their loyal followers or reaching a new generation," the job description stated. "We're restoring them to glory, and we need your engineering talents, your passion, and your ability to get tough jobs done."

The job listing is now gone, but Polygon reported last year that this individual would be responsible for making "gameplay first again" on modern operating systems. This individual would also be responsible for fighting against hacking and fixing all the outstanding problems these games may have gathered over the years. The candidate may even be assigned to include new features into the games... like the sparkly new OS X installer offered in the v1.14a patch

As Friday's blog indicates, the "journey" starts by updating Diablo II so it can run properly on the likes of Windows 10. Additional features may be implemented in the future, but that's just an assumption for now. Meanwhile, here are the v1.14a patch notes yanked from a post on NeoGAF:

Specific Changes & Improvements

- No need to run in XP mode anymore, Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 compatibility complete
- Mac installer and compatibility for 10.10 and 10.11 has arrived
- First client run will migrate saved characters to avoid issues from Windows system admin changes

Known Issues

- Mac 10.9 and earlier are not supported

Happy (ancient) hacking!

MMORPG News

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Posted: 13 Mar 2016 03:26 AM PDT

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Posted: 13 Mar 2016 03:14 AM PDT

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Posted: 13 Mar 2016 03:06 AM PDT

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Posted: 13 Mar 2016 01:59 AM PST

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Posted: 13 Mar 2016 01:49 AM PST

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Posted: 12 Mar 2016 02:57 AM PST

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Posted: 12 Mar 2016 02:52 AM PST

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