UCSC Slug "Starbash" Legacy Page

This little corner of the internet is dedicated to "Starbash", which ran for a couple of years at UCSC.

Back before Blizzard cracked down on independent Battle.Net servers, a gang of my college friends and I ran our own, based on an open-source program called FSGS. We used it to enhance the games we played in the labs - group chat, win and loss tracking, that sort of thing.

We combined it onto a CD with a cracked, modded, repacked version of Starcraft Broodwar, containing voice samples and extra maps. When inserted, the CD would auto-launch a program that killed the Windows NT password-protected screensaver on the lab computers, then run our custom installer, from which the game could be deployed.

Yes, it was highly illegal, but we were already Starcraft fans, with the game installed on our personal machines. We just couldn't play in the labs without the custom installer. The lab computers were image-wiped every couple of days, so without the installer we'd have spent hours every time, installing first Starcraft, then Broodwar, then applying our mods, etc. This way, with everyone wielding a CD, it was about 10 minutes from entrance to first game.

  • I saved the final version of the stats page, which used to be recompiled every Saturday at midnight.

  • We also had a small collection of screen shots...

  • ...As well as a reel of old chat logs, generated as we waited for games to begin.

  • The installer displayed this puerile screed instead of a proper license agreement.

  • And if you see this coming at you, feel free to panic.

Here's a gallery of the art we created, preserved for a larf:

This is the splash screen we used for the installer. I no longer remember what I stole the picture from, but the quote in the middle is from Ken. He had a special affection for his Zerglings - gave them names and personalities. We even re-recorded the Zergling speech pack with Ken's (heavily filtered) voice.
This picture, like the ones that follow, is a "banner ad" that rotates around in the chat window of the Battle.Net server. We made a bunch of 'em to keep ourselves amused while waiting between games. The lab attendants disallowed all games, but we ignored the rule and showed up late at night to an empty lab, and took it over. We could have played on our home or dorm computers, but the face-to-face nature of the lab made the games ten times more fun.
Ten years ago, "976" numbers were what you dialed with your home phone in order to access pay-per-minute message board services. They usually promised "hot talk with sexy women" and other titillating rewards. I don't know what that number actually goes to if you call it.
Clip-art stolen from a circa-1988 newspaper design program for the Apple II, called "The Newsroom". It liveth on.
A jab at the TV ads of the era, which had a habit of declaring totally incongruous crap as "a breath of fresh air".
Everybody loves hentai!
A reference to a 1980's arcade game called Gauntlet II, a novelty at the time because it had FM-synthesized speech, and four people could play simultaneously on one machine.
The first of Breakpoint's parody ads for the Terran Marines. The small clip-art was stolen from the Apple II port of Ms. Pac-Man.
Breakpoint's second parody ad.
Breakpoint's third ad, based on a famous photograph of deer standing in a creek bed while a forest fire blazes on all sides.
Breakpoint's fourth. 'Nuff said.
Breakpoint's last. It's an army recruitment jab, a reference to a movie, and a Star-Trek reference all at once!