The History of StarCraft

If you were a PC gamer in the mid to late ’90s, you probably spent some time playing real-time strategy games. The real-time strategy genre, also known as RTS, offered a wide range of games during this era, including Command and Conquer, Dune 2, and Total Annihilation, just to name a few.

But there was one that ruled them all: StarCraft. Today on Arcadology, we’re going to talk about StarCraft’s rise to the top. More broadly, the history of Blizzard and RTS. Welcome to Arcadology, the story of StarCraft.

The Founding of Blizzard: Silicon and Synapse

In 1990, Frank Pierce, Mike Morheim, and Allen Adham graduated from UCLA. They were college friends and graduates of the engineering program. After college, Adham received a $10,000 gift from his parents to fund a trip to Europe. But instead of a European vacation, Adham had big plans with the money.

He spent the next year convincing Morheim to join him. At the time, Mike was working on chip designs for Western Digital. Months passed, and Adham’s proposal finally convinced Morheim. Mike was to receive $10,000 from his parents as an investment in the company. Frank Pierce rounded out the trio with the right investment, and Silicon and Synapse were born. Though the three are listed together as co-founders, Pierce said in an interview with Polygon that Adham was the “founder” of Blizzard.

The first commission was from Interplay, whose president, Brian Fargo, had known Allen Adham for over a decade. Adham had experience doing contract work for game studios in high school and college, and the Interplay deal gave Silicon and Synapse the boost every young studio needs.

The name “Silicon and Synapse” graced the covers of their early work, including titles like puzzle platformer “The Lost Viokings” and “Rock ‘n Roll Racing.”

Sale to Davidson and Associates

In early 1994, the company’s name was changed to Chaos Studios, Inc. Allen Adham said in a video celebrating Blizzard’s 20th anniversary that the reason for the name change was that “(Silicon and Synapse) were kind of confusing, and nobody really knew what it meant.” In March 1994, Morheim, Adham, and Pierce sold the company to Davidson and Associates for $6.75 million. The deal gave Chaos the autonomy it needed to continue its creative endeavors.

A few months later, in May, the studio changed its name again. The reasons for the final change were twofold. First, to strengthen cooperation with Davidson; second, a New York holding company already owned the name, and licensing it would have been too expensive.
The company continued to exist under the banner of Blizzard Entertainment. Meanwhile, development on the studio’s first blockbuster had begun.

The story of StarCraft begins with the Xel’Naga

Before we get to the first StarCraft game, we have to go way back. The oldest beings in the StarCraft universe are called the Xel’Naga. They’re often mentioned, but it takes time for them to actually show up. What exactly are the Xel’Naga, aside from beings that both the Protoss and Zerg seem to know well?

They are essentially the ancients of StarCraft. Believing that the universe follows a cyclical pattern, the Xel’Naga have influenced two different races to embody two different virtues: “purity of form” and “purity of essence”. Eventually, these races will merge as a hybrid race, creating a new version of the Xel’Naga (with both of these traits) and the cycle may begin again.

The Xel’naga are considered the architects of the universe in a sense. They influence other creatures to build their own survival and ideology. They will appear again later in the story. Don’t forget about them.

The Protoss descend into the Aeon of Strife

The Protoss were the race chosen by the Xel’naga as the one who best embodied the “pure form”. Their spiritual connection and superior physical traits made them a strong choice, and they eventually came to lead them directly to the Protoss homeworld. The Protoss worshipped them like gods.

However, the Protoss eventually began to question the Xel’naga’s motives for helping them. Some began to resist their psychic link with one another, seeing it as a way for the Xel’naga to control them. The Protoss eventually drove the Xel’naga from their homeworld of Aiur, even destroying several of their transports in the process.

With the Xel’naga no longer leading them, their advance slowed and the various tribes began to hate each other. They soon found themselves embroiled in a massive civil war, the so-called Age of Strife, one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts in the history of the universe.

The Zerg terrorize the galaxy

Another chosen race of the Xel’naga, the Zerg, were once a minor worm-like species from the hostile planet Zerth. However, there were several factors that attracted the Xel’naga, who found this race a perfect example of “purity of essence”. The Xel’naga began to influence the Zerg, who, with their help, became the dominant species on Zerth.

When the Zerg took control of Zerth, the Xel’naga wanted to avoid the mistakes they believed the Protoss had made. They created the Overmind, an immortal embodiment of the Zerg instincts. While some Zerg were able to hide from the Overmind’s control, most were dominated by this unique power.

Soon fighting began between the Xel’naga, and an entity named Amon turned the Zerg against the other Xel’naga. As the Zerg assimilated living beings, they learned of the Xel’naga’s plans and their manipulation of their species. The Overmind freed himself from Amon and the remaining Xel’naga and led the Zerg hordes to the stars, assimilating the entire universe.

Humanity enters the story as the Terrans

Finally, we arrive at Terran. In the StarCraft universe, Earth was under a powerful dictatorship called the United Powers League. In an attempt to advance humanity and increase its power, the UPL rounded up a group of genetically undesirable humans, put them in cryosleep, and sent them into space.

One of these ships arrived on the planet Tarsonis. The people aboard this ship formed a new society and soon began to spread to other nearby worlds. This group called themselves the Terran Confederacy.

As Terran power grew, rivalries and hostility began to arise. Arcturus Mengsk used his influence and power to create the Sons of Korhal, and eventually seize control of the Terran government. Ironically, Mengsk and his government began imprisoning dissidents and people they perceived as a threat to their ideology, following the very cycle that originally led to the Terrans being expelled from Earth.

What brought them all together? – StarCraft

As the Zerg grew stronger, they faced a significant obstacle to their dominance of space. The Swarm had no answers for how to counter the powerful psionic abilities of the Protoss. They needed to find a race with untapped mental potential that they could assimilate, and that is what they found in the Terrans.

The Zerg invaded the planet Chau Sara and attacked the Terrans stationed there, quickly overpowering them. As the Zerg threat grew, the Protoss followed suit, following their orders: “Destroy all worlds infested by this menace to the universe.”

The Protoss destroyed Chau Sara, despite Terran propaganda portraying the Protoss, not the Zerg, as the real threat. All three races came into direct conflict. The powerful Protoss Templar Tassadar began to question his orders to destroy entire worlds, but the damage was already done. The Great War had begun.