I can remember it like it was twenty years ago in which Blizzard released their third Windows release; Diablo. Little did I know that the flagship “click-the-s**t-out-of-your-roller-ball-mouse” RPG would quickly become the center of my just-out-of-diapers world (with Space Cadet Pinball in a close second)...
In this article, I want to share the milestone events that are most prominent in my memories for each release of the series.
TL;DR - It was so frustratingly bad ass.
Diablo
The first release was a gift to me from my uncle. Typical gift for a 4 year old in 1996, right? Diablo is the keeper of all sort of [nerdy virginity innuendos] that set a foundation of all expectations that I would drag throughout my gaming future.
It's graphics were unlike anything I had seen, the gameplay was simple, and I was later introduced to the “helmet hack” and “duping hack”. At that age it was cool to play games with cheats, as supported by games such as Grand Theft Auto, but nothing was better than finally beating Diablo…. In one shot. Hell yeah.
Diablo II & Lord of Destruction
I'm sure I can speak for all fans when I say that dissolving hordes of Fallen with the Necromancer was a feeling of intense kick-assery. Not only was Diablo II and incredible release, but its expansion was uninterrupted by any other Blizzard release and given to us a short year after.
The best memory I have with D2 is purchasing the game about 6 times before the release of Diablo 3. I could never get enough of it, and would always recruit my cousin to playing through the first few acts during a school night in an all-nighter. Bringing all of the characters from 'rags to riches' and looking completely decked out was always my goal.
Diablo 3
This one is the real treat… Take a sit down, Mr, Ms, or Mx reading human.
It all started when I preordered the game 6 years in advance, and then refunded the pre-order three or four times in that waiting period as Blizzard pushed back the release date.
We've all heard it before...
"Soon." TM
“I’LL TAKE MY $60 SOMEWHERE ELSE, THEN, BLIZZARD.” Was the attitude I had. Like a child that's mad at their parents… If their parents were billionaire game developers.
2012 brought wonderful things! Or so I thought.
I made a few friends during the midnight release, during which, I waited impatiently as the EB Games (GameStop) employees worked hard to organize the very pathway I would soon take to receive my copy of D3. Cue: Angels Singing.
Finally, I had my copy in my hands. I sped home in my PJ pants and put the disk in to my Toshiba Satellite and like the 8th wonder of the world of which is was, indeed, the splash screen of Diablo popped up. I even pre-downloaded it the night before so that it'd be ready to go.
“OH MY FUUUUUU******** THIS IS IT!!!!”
The only thing I needed to do was click out if the windows prompt that popped up over the splash graphic. I should have read it intently the first time, however, because it was trying to tell me something very important…
My video card (or lack of) meant that I could not play D3 on that computer.
So I spent my whole night and morning looking up fixes and hoping a patch would release allowing my potato to run the game.
Never did that happen - so I picked up 13 straight shifts of driving a zamboni and broke down to buy a new laptop out of anger. Never in my life had I worked so many hours and sweat so much at work in order to pull the hours to afford that laptop.
I'm sure I'm not the only one with this situation, and if you were one of them, know that you are my people and we beat it. It's over now. Wipe your tears, child, it's over… ssshhhhhh.
I'm sure many of you share those same experiences and had the opportunity to make your own in the game. If so, I want to hear about them.
Lastly - thank you, David Brevik, the God King of ARPGs.
Nate
