Questions related to Starcraft

So.. Buying and installing Starcraft(and the expansion pack and latest patch) has not only allowed my to play a great game that's new to me(although it's a very old game), but has also raised quite a few questions in my mind. I have searched for the answers with both google and on Blizzards website but haven't found anything that really answers my questions. So here we go.

I have Windows Vista, btw. I figured you'll probably want to know that.

First.. After installing the game and opening it for the first time I see that the graphics appear very messed up, at least on the main menu. So I get out of the game, right click on my desktop, go to personalize, then I go to display, and then I change the "Color" setting from "highest (32 bit)" to "Medium (16 bit)". Then I start the game again and the graphics work fine. But then I got tired of the way changing that setting effected everything else, and I figured out that in-game the graphics didn't mess up near as bad as they did in the main menu, so I'd just tough it out in the menu, and I changed it back. Now here comes the questions about this... Sometimes, at seemingly random times, the graphics in both the menu and in game work completely normal. Also, sometimes down in the taskbar icons(not the quick launch icons) appear as they did when I changed the color to 16 bit. I haven't actually taken note, but the icons may only appear like that right after I exit the game. I wish I knew why.

Another question(s) related to Starcraft... I know there are ways to allow/make Starcraft run on a computer without the cd in the drive, but I wish I knew more about how that works and also if there are any legal issues with it. I can see why there might be, but really it would be almost just like the "spawn" version which comes with the game. The reason I'd like to be able to run the game on several computers at once is to play multi-player together with the expansion pack via LAN. The spawn version of the game apparently doesn't allow you to play multiplayer with the expansion pack.

Thanks in advance.

 

What video card do you have? If it's integrated, that would explain the graphical issues.

As for running without the CD, I think there's a legit way that involves copying MPQ files off the CD (since the game just reads them off the CD to load, after that it doesn't need it), but I can't remember the specifics.

 

So if I have an intergrated graphics card it will work sometimes, but not others?

I believe the card is an NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE. At least, that's what it's supposed to have. Integrated means it's part of the motherboard, correct? If that's the case, then being as it's an NVIDIA card and an HP computer(which means it's probably an HP motherboard?) I'd venture to guess it is not integrated.

On a side note, this computer was supposed to come with 1024 MBs of memory, but if I check the system specs by right clicking on my computer and selecting properties it says I have 894 mb ram. Should I make a seperate thread about this or can it just be answered here?

About copying the files from the CD. If those files are the ones that the game needs to run, is it just a matter of copying them onto the drive, or do I have to do something else? It seems to me like the program would still be looking for them in the disk drive and would still give an error if they weren't there, even if they were on the hard drive. Of course, what do I know, you guys are the experts. That's why I'm here. rolleyes

 

Well, it is possible that HP bought the GPU (video card processor) from Nvidia for use on their motherboard. Your RAM seems to confirm this suspicion, as integrated video cards will use system memory as opposed to their own. It's likely your GPU taking a chunk out of your 1 GB total.

As for your other question, I run Starcraft off of my hard drive, and I LOVE it! It's SO fast.

I used Alcohol 52% to do it. First, I ripped a .ISO image of the disc. Then, again using Alcohol, I mount this image as a virtual CD-ROM drive.

Note that this may require reinstallation of the game, but if it does, it'll be quick, I assure you!

Running from the hard drive in itself isn't illegal, but having it running on more than one computer likely is. You'd need a license for each.