Introduction
Video Playlist
Wikipedia link
A huge cool picture of the original box foldout
The manual
After seeing the newest footage on Diablo 3, I was compelled to revisit this classic milestone from my youth. Released in late 1996, this game practically pioneered a whole genre of action (as opposed to turn-based) RPGs often called Diablo clones.
In this game, you explore a dungeon, fighting monsters and finding loot as you go ever deeper. Every once in a while you go back to town to see what the merchants are offering and you decide whether to keep or sell the things you’ve found to afford something they’ve got. You can talk to the townspeople and receive quests, usually to retrieve something in the dungeon. It’s a relatively small and self-contained game; rather than the epic acts of Diablo 2, there’s just the one town of Tristram and 16 floors of the labyrinth that transition from the dank dungeon of a cathedral to the pits of hell.
What gives the game so much replay value is the procedural generation of dungeons; the general layout of levels, what enemies, treasure and quests appear are changed each time you play. It’s well known for its multiplayer feature, which allows 4 players to cooperate. However, since it wasn’t added into the game until fairly late in development, most quests weren’t made available in multiplayer. Because of this, and simply because of the logistics of it I’ll be playing single player. I hope to show off the multiplayer in a bonus video with whoever’s interested in joining me.
Check out this cool retrospective with Diablo series footage and interviews! Contains spoilers.
If you’re trying to play the game on Windows Vista or 7, you’ll find some issues with the color palette bugging out. You can fix it using this batch script that kills explorer.exe when you launch the game (don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt anything.)
Early artwork of the 3 classes, Sorcerer, Warrior and Rogue
I’ll be playing as the Warrior because he’s the default and the best at surviving solo for most of the game. I want to show off the other classes, and I figure the multiplayer videos would be the best opportunity. I’m also going to do my best to make him well rounded; being able to use a little magic is really important in the late game.
The Music
This plays in the title screen. Pretty cool, pretty short-- of course, you're not supposed to stay in the title screen for long. That huge organ swell at the end has probably remained undiscovered by many players.
This has got to be one of the most famous tracks in video games. People hear it and immediately know "that's Tristram." I think it really outdoes a lot of what was happening in game music at the time. There's a lot in it that really qualifies it as a serious stand-alone piece of music.
The dungeon music. This is where you start to see more use of demon cries and choir and so on. Pretty much defines Diablo. It's a very cool thing to examine as a composer and think-- what is it that makes something sound creepy?
The catacombs is where you start hearing beastly guitars way down in the mix, making you feel pretty
while slaughtering demons.
The caves is where the guitar element probably peaks-- far out wah-wah and shred lines. We also start to hear a different, timpani as well as conga sort of heavy drumming.
And finally, hell. The scraping of metal and haunting choir is contrasted with a resolute flute and drumline.
Multiplayer
Hey! Let's All Play this game! I definitely want to make a few videos showing off the multiplayer mode, so please post if you'd like to join me. Add me on Skype! My name is fleshweasel.
| Intro | YouTube |
| Level 1: Getting Our Bearings | YouTube |
| Level 2: Tainted Water | YouTube |
| Level 3: Trying New Things | YouTube |
| Level 4: Talking Animals | YouTube |
| Level 5: Valor | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Levels 1 and 2 | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Levels 3 and 4 | YouTube |
| Level 6: Boners of Eternal Death | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Level 5 | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Level 6 | YouTube |
| Level 7: Goats Ain't Shit | YouTube |
| Level 8: Zhar the Mad | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Levels 7-8 | YouTube |
| Level 9: Wirt the Peg-Legged Boy | YouTube |
| Level 10: Anvil of Fury | YouTube |
| Level 11: Asses of Fire | YouTube |
| Level 12: The Tale of the Horadrim | YouTube |
| Level 13: A Soul in Search of Answers | YouTube |
| Level 14: Cleaning House | YouTube |
| Level 15 Part 1: Lazarus's Staff | YouTube |
| Level 15 Part 2: The Unholy Altar | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Levels 9-11 | YouTube |
| Level 16: Diablo | YouTube |
| Extra Quests 1: The Butcher | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Level 12 | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Level 13 | YouTube |
| Extra Quests 2: Skeleton King | YouTube |
| Extra Quests 3: Sign, Blind, Mushroom | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Level 14 | YouTube |
| Extra Quests 4: Warlord of Blood and Apocalypse | YouTube |
| Hellfire Intro | YouTube |
| Hellfire 1: The Hive or Nest or Whatever | YouTube |
| Hellfire Levels 2-3: The Hork Demon | YouTube |
| Hellfire Level 4: The Defiler | YouTube |
| Hellfire Level 5: The Crypt | YouTube |
| Hellfire Level 6: Paul McCartney's Solo Career | YouTube |
| Hellfire Level 7: Blaklok | YouTube |
| Hellfire Level 8: Na-Krul | YouTube |
| Hellfire command.txt: The Reject's Rejects | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Level 15 | YouTube |
| Multiplayer Level 16 | YouTube |
My boy Professor Booty is also doing an Ironman run, which means no buying anything except with the 100 gold you get in the very beginning. Can he manage to get all the way down and defeat Diablo?? Only one way to find out!
People these days are really busy. Who has time to watch LPs? Just watch this 3 minute speedrun instead:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/Diablo.html