Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   by Steve Watts, Nov 04, 2013 7:30am PST
   Related Topics – Blizzard, PC

   The name "Blizzard" doesn't tend to make one think of 16-bit platformers, but in the mid-90s that's exactly what they made. Blackthorne certainly isn't what you expect from the developer more known for hardcore PC genres like MMOs and RTS, but Blizzard is acknowledging its youthful experimentation by releasing it for free.

   Blackthorne has you play as Kyle, a shotgun-wielding 90s stereotype seeking revenge. It saw its share of ports throughout the 90s to various game consoles, but Blizzard last acknowledged it in 2010 with a cheeky April Fool's gag. If you have a Battle.net account you can pick it up now for free, as reported by Joystiq. Once you've downloaded it, it will stay in your library for keeps. This only goes for US accounts, apparently, so those of you pining for nostalgia in other countries are out of luck.

   article

   Posted 11 years ago #
2. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   Blizzard’s Blackthorne Back On Battlenet

   By Craig Pearson on November 5th, 2013 at 8:00 am.
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   The last time anyone ever said the word “Blackthorne” aloud was in 1994: a young man went into a games shop and asked the teller for the “new Blizzard game”. The helpful shop assistant handed the customer Blackthorne, who looked at and then said: “I actually wanted Warcraft”. And thus the 2D platformer was consigned to history and a bit of Wikipedia. Well, it looks like a Blizzard employee found it’s Wikipedia entry and decided to make Blackthorne work on modern systems via DosBox. The cheeky scamp also uploaded it to Battle.Net, and it’s free to download.

   Almost none of the above is true, apart from Blizzard re-releasing Blackthorne for free on Battle.net. But it’s an old game that’s new to me, so I had to come up with something. It’s also been lovingly created: the manual opens with a 20 page short-story setting up the shotgunning anti-hero’s tale of going commando on an alien world. I spent a few minutes playing it: the controls are a bit awkward, and there’s no pace at all, but the reverse shotgun blast more than makes up for that. 10/10.

   More intriguingly is it installs into a folder called “Blizzard Classics”, which suggests that this won’t be the only game from their back catalogue to receive some spit and polish. What other 2D platformer could I possibly be talking about, readers?

   Thanks, PCG.

   article plus 2 hour gameplay

   Posted 11 years ago #
3. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Boo!

   Only in the US; why only there?

   Posted 11 years ago #
4. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   Only the Shadow knows. It was on my battlenet page when I logged on so I downloaded the game. The article speculated that more may be forthcoming. I put in for the beta of Hearthstone a week ago but no luck but the closed beta is supposed to be open soon. Some people got keys in a few days. Why not me? Only the Shadow knows. (:)

   Posted 11 years ago #
5. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   :)

   Posted 11 years ago #

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