StarCraft is a military science fiction video game that came on the market in 1998 from Blizzard Entertainment. Since its creation, it has become one of the best-selling computer games with more than 9 million copies sold throughout the world. It's competition has a distant lead though: the kid-friendly "Sims" has over 50 million copies sold!



Starcraft has raised the bar for the development of future video games. Based on the success of this game, Starcraft mods have also been developed by hackers who want to cash in on this success and make money on their own.

Hackers have it a bit easy: many of the custom modifications you get when you purchase the StarCraft game use the same editor. In other words, it's not hard to modify the game.

However, with some of the newer games you have to make a few custom hacks changes to be able to get around the restrictions of the existing editor. Some of the mod creators even record their own sound effects and voices, but for the most part they still exhibit the same polished integrated structure as the original game. This is because it is relatively easy to break the balancing and produce artwork that fits in with the original creation.

There are custom mods for the StarCraft game that do have changes made in the programming. This gives these mods their own unique take on the game. Hackers that create these mods can adapt the StarCratft files and have different sounds and graphics. Some of the mods are even more intense than the original game providing for single players. Others have made extensive changes to the sound and graphics and even the action of the game itself.

There are many different mods of the StarCraft game, some of which vary little from the original. They include:

- Aliens vs. Predator: Retribution TC - this is a German speaking version of the game with total conversion

- Brutkrieg's TC pack - This German version of the game features a collection of homemade add-on packs and TC's. They are bundled together and sold as one package.

- Gundam Century - This was originally called GundamCraft that replaced the StarCraft graphics with the manga mecha characters of Gundam and their robotic vehicles. The game also replaced two of the StarCraft races - Federation replaced Terrans and Neo Zion replaced Protoss. The site was shut down for a while, but is now live again. However production of new mods has not resumed.

- NeoTech - This mod features an upgrade to all the Terran forces with most of the units replaced by units that look more spectacular.

- Open Rebellion - This is a total conversion of the Brood War that very closely resembles the original version.

- Robotech: Enemy Frontier - This is a total conversion of the Robotech game of the 1980's.

- StarCraft Sickel Add-On - This is a fan built extension kit for the Brood War game. It adds to the existing line of units and allows for the addition of new units. There are two new Terran tanks, a new Zerg unit and several capital classes of Protoss.

- StarCraft Team Fortress - This mod totally changes the game so that it is somewhat like the Half-Life Team Fortress.

No matter the modification of Starcraft, odds are it will be fun!