What is Diablo?

Diablo is a top down 3D isometric point and click, hack and slash, action game that totally defined/started the genre back in the late 90's.  Diablo was very well received and altough a repetitive game, its randomly generated concept almost makes sure that you discover new items or ennemies when you start over after defeating Diablo, making it a high replay value game.  Diablo instantly hooked millions of players worldwide grinding the game for unique items to complete their sets or perfecting their speedruns until Diablo II came out a couple years after and was twice as good.

From Wikipedia:

Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash video game. The player moves and interacts with the environment primarily by way of a mouse.  Other actions, such as casting a spell, are performed in response to keyboard inputs.  The player can acquire items, learn spells, defeat enemies, and interact with non-player characters (NPC)s throughout the game.

The dungeon levels are randomly generated, although they follow parameters according to their type; for instance the catacombs tend to have long corridors and closed rooms, while the caves are more non-linear. The players are assigned a random number of quests from several tiers; these quests are optional but help to level up the character and/or reveal more of the backstory. The final two quests, however, are mandatory in order to finish the game.

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Diablo has many of the features of a classic role-playing game, or RPG. So, before you start adventuring, the first order of business is to decide what type of character you will play. You have three choices: warrior, rogue, or sorcerer. The warrior can use just about any weapon. He is very strong and tough, but he lacks finesse. The rogue is the dexterous, stealthy type who can disarm traps and use a bow with deadly precision. She is neither as tough nor as strong as the warrior, however, and will be at a disadvantage in close combat. The sorcerer is the weakest of all the characters at the beginning of the game, but has the potential to become the most powerful of the three. His innate magical abilities allow him to learn spells quickly — especially those of great potency. The sorcerer is quite vulnerable in close combat, though, so be careful.

Once you have selected your character and given him or her a name, it’s time to begin your quest. In single-player mode, you alone must stop Diablo firom making evil reign supreme. The ancient monastery in Tristram, the medieval town in which the game takes place, has been overrun by Diablo and his evil minions. The once-prosperous town is quickly succumbing to this plague of diablerie. Like Dante in the Inferno, you must venture into the depths of the abysmal tunnels and catacombs beneath the desecrated monastery and destroy Diablo.

In Tristram, you can do most of the things you would expect to do in an RPG. You can buy and sell armor and weapons from the blacksmith; have the town’s sage identify strange items; heal yourself; buy healing potions from the cleric, which you can use later; and exchange certain magical items with the town’s witch. Interesting characters will occasionally ask you to perform a deed for them and reward you with something.

Once you’re outfitted with as much as your starting 100 pieces of gold will buy, you descend into the depths of the monastery. Gameplay proceeds in real time. As you walk around, monsters pop out and attack you, and you assail them as quickly as you can by clicking the mouse like crazy. You can also open chests, barrels, and sarcophagi to find goodies such as potions, scrolls, and weapons hidden inside. As you kill more demonic creatures and devifish acolytes and descend deeper into the labyrinth, your character will gain experience, which allows him or her to increase abifities. You will also begin to understand the sinister implications of what is really going on.

If you want to play with or against others, you can either use a local network or play over the Internet via Battle.net, Blizzard’s online gaming service. Using one of these methods, you can play with up to four other people at once and either cooperate to defeat Diablo or compete and fight against each other. As in other networked games, this adds a unique and enthralling aspect to the game, because you are playing with real people instead of a computer.

The long-awaited Mac version of Diablo does not disappoint. Blizzard has combined the classic RPG style with real-time action and multiplayer networking to produce an addictive game with fantastic graphics and an absorbing plot.

Albright, Wade. (August 1998). Diablo. MacAddict. (pg. 54).

Download Diablo for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.5 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Power Macintosh

At least 8MB of free RAM (recommended 16MB)

Mac OS 7.5 - Mac OS 9.2.2

Note: The HELLFIRE expansion CD is only for Windows PCs, and playability w/ a Mac is only thru Wine+Wineskin on Intel Macs!, as the expantion was never released for mac)

 

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver