Diablo.gif
The original Diablo box cover, no longer available in stores.
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. However, unlike modern class-based games, character's abilities are not unique; a warrior can use spells and a sorcerer can use a bow.
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.
 A warrior prepares to enter a portal to Tristram. 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, through large tomes that are read aloud by the character. 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. It is difficult to play a fair online game of Diablo, as hacks and duplicated items are common. 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. This expansion pack never achieved the fame of the original, and is hard to obtain today.
Secrets and hidden files
Like a great majority of games, Diablo has many files hidden on its CD that were never used. Some of these "loose ends" are:
- There are some secret doors in the catacombs and monastery levels that are hidden at first, but become visible once clicked and open into rooms containing special rewards.
- Some spells never made it into the final game. The original game was supposed to have six spellbook pages (this can be checked in Diablo's manual, page 18, in a screenshot where the spellbook has six pages), unlike the four in the final, and the spells left on 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 enabled with the help of hacks, and Doom Serpent's graphics can still be extracted from the game's main data file.
- Some enemies don't appear in the final game, such as the Unraveler (which is now a monster found in Act 2 of Diablo 2), Goat Lord, Incinerator, Bone Demon, Invisible Lord, The Arch Litch Malignus, and Devil Kin Brute. Their images can still be viewed in sprite form (.cl2) in the game's main data file.
- A towner named Tremain the Priest does not appear in the final game, but there are sound files of his speech in the game's main data file. He was suppose to travel in and out of Tristram. He was also supposed to be the trigger of the "Fleshdoom, Wielder of Shadowfang" quest, which also never made it into the game's final stage. In that quest, when you return the ancient demonblade named Shadowfang to Tremain he becomes consumed with hellfire, disappears, and does not seem to return for the rest of the game. He was also said to have been supposed to guide you through the "Archbishop Lazarus" quest, instead of Cain; your reward in that quest is a mace called Lightforge.
- Many hints for quests that never made it into the final game can still be viewed on the game's main data file. These include "Izual, the Fallen Angel," in which the player talks to Gillian the Barmaid and receives a quest to find and destroy Izual to release his tormented soul. The reward of this quest was likely Azurewrath, a unique sword which can be found in Diablo 2.
- Two cutscenes appear on the CD but not 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 were never used in the final game, including the Map of the Stars, which was hacked many times into the game and spread over Battle.net. When the stars become aligned, Diablo will become "all but invincible," so you had to complete this quest on time or you "may never have a chance to rid the world of his evil ever again." This is the only quest of the whole lot which was ever officially recognized by Blizzard. They said that it was turned off because it "changed the way you played Diablo."
- A sound file of the game's namesake, apparently speaking in tongues, is played when entering a certain area in the game. It can be extracted from the game's main data file and, when played backwards, produces "Eat your vegetables and brush after every meal." The file is named lvl16int.wav; it is in the directory sfx/misc in the MPQ file named DIABDAT located on the Diablo CD.
PC System requirements
- Pentium-60
- 8 MB RAM
- Windows 95/98/NT
- SVGA video card
- Microsoft compatible mouse
- Double speed CD-ROM
Macintosh System requirements
- PowerPC processor
- 16 MB RAM (32 recommended)
- System 7.5 through 9.x
- One or Two button mouse
- Double speed CD-ROM
Console System requirements
A Sony Playstation video game system (version released in 1998)
Relative Topics
External links
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