Blizzard Brings Blackthorne Bonanza to Battle.net

[Andy Chalk]

Blizzard Brings Blackthorne Bonanza to Battle.net

The old Blizzard platformer Blackthorne is now a freebie on Battle.net.

Psst! Hey, kid. Ya like free games? Here's one for you: Blackthorne, an action-platformer released by Blizzard in 1994, virtually side-by-side with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, the game that would eventually propel the studio into the big-time and probably the reason why most people have never heard of Blackthorne.

It was actually a pretty decent game for its time, with powerful echoes of Prince of Persia but set on an alien world and featuring a muscular, Fabio-like hero armed with a shotgun; in fact, PC Gamer described it as "Prince of Persia with a shotgun and a bad attitude." And while it's pretty seriously dated at this point, it's also pretty seriously free, which makes up for an awful lot.

If you want it (and hey, why wouldn't you?) just pop over to Battle.net and scroll down to the "Classic Games" section at the bottom. Click the Blackthorne link to download it, then run the installer when it's done. Ka-blammo! You're Blackthorne-ing! It seems that Blizzard has put some work into making it compatible with modern PCs, as the installer and the game both run flawlessly on Windows 7 and the launch screen is emblazoned with the phrase "Classic Arcade" in big, blocky white letters.

It's a surprisingly painless process - you don't even have to be logged into your Battle.net account to download the game - and hey, free is free. Get it while it's hot at Battle.net [https://us.battle.net/account/download/].


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[Eric the Orange]

I wanna see them release rock and roll racing. Love that game.

 

[KingWein22]

Loved this game when it first came out on the SNES.

 

[RJ 17]

On a semi-related note, I heard that Blink 182 is going to be playing at BlizzCon this year.

Seriously...didn't even know those fuckers were still around...

OT:

Spoiler: This is what I immediately thought when I saw the line At Last We Meet, Whelp!

 

[AldUK]

I'd really love a re-release of Warcraft 2 with modern PC support, including resolutions and mouse acceleration. Surely some bright spark at Blizzard could do this and the game is old enough that it's basically freeware at this point.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Blackthorne actually was a decent enough platformer (at least the SNES version that I rented) though some of the jumping sections were a pain in the neck. And hey, you can't beat free.

 

[WeepingAngels]

It doesn't appear to have support for my wired 360 controller.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Awesome, this was the first PC Blizzard game I owned, followed closely by Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. Got them both in a bargain bin during an electronics superstore's closing days. Bought Blackthorne and played it, loved it and went back for that other game I saw with the same company logo two days later. Been a Blizz addict ever since.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Oh here we go! Blizz just needs to put F2P elements into everything! Bring back Vanilla Blackthorne and maybe I'll consider playing your "game" again.

Kidding.

I remember really liking Blackthorne when I was a little Diddy_Mao. I may clear out some HDD space and pick this up.

 

[Rariow]

Great! This was always one of those games that I wish got more attention. Really fantastic. Happy to see Blizz letting it get some love.

 

[NoeL]

I quite like this game, though I never finished it. Seeing this gives me the urge to give it another go.

I wanna see them release rock and roll racing. Love that game.

Wasn't that by Interplay? EDIT: Nevermind, it was developed by Blizzard and published by Interplay.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It doesn't appear to have support for my wired 360 controller.

If it doesn't, the controls are simple enough that you should be able to map them to it with Joy2Key.

OT: Cool game, but why does the installer want to modify my anti-virus? Also, why does it only run in a postage stamp sized window, instead of letting it scale in full screen?

 

[RandV80]

Yeah I beat this back in the day, pretty good game. While they're all about Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo, Blizzard had some pretty good 16-bit games back in the day. From what I recall they had Blackthorne, The Lost Vikings, and Rock & Roll Racing... not sure if there was anything else. While I'm not a fan of the company anymore with these retro-style games becoming popular again it makes you wish Blizzard would devote some of it's time to make some more.

 

[Fireprufe15]

I can't seem to find it. Is it not available in Europe?

 

[babinro]

I'd gladly pay them a small fee for the classic games that are current PC compatible.
Especially Warcraft 2 which I've been wanting to play through for a few months now.

I wonder if we'll see Rock n Roll Racing or the Lost Vikings in the future. I know of Blackthorne but I never had the good fortune to play it. No look 1-handed behind the back shotgun blasts FTW!

Edit: Canadian's don't get this game either. At least it's not anywhere on site that I could find.