50 Fun Facts About StarCraft

Daniel Barry took a copy of StarCraft with him in 1999 on which kind of journey, a first for the game?

A Space Shuttle mission carried the game into orbit: astronaut Barry flew on STS-96, the first shuttle flight to dock at the International Space Station.

Sarah Kerrigan of StarCraft was named after a star of which Olympic sport, a dig at a rival game's heroine?

Figure skating's Nancy Kerrigan was known for her feud with Tonya Harding, so the name answered Tanya Adams, a character in Westwood's Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

Which search engine added a 2012 Easter egg in which a StarCraft-style Zerg rush of letter O's destroyed the results?

Google let users fight back by clicking the attacking letters before they chewed through the whole page. The joke shows how far the swarm tactic's name had spread beyond the game.

Which branch of the United States military used StarCraft to teach newly active officers crisis planning under stress?

The Air Force built it into its Air and Space Basic Course, where the science fiction setting kept officers on tactics instead of nitpicking simulated hardware.

Which airline flew two planes painted with StarCraft II artwork of Jim Raynor to promote Wings of Liberty?

Korean Air carried the Raynor artwork on both domestic and international routes for six months under a co-marketing deal with Blizzard.

Which California university offered a student-run course on StarCraft theory and strategy in spring 2009?

UC Berkeley ran it as an introductory class taught by students, more than a decade after the game's 1998 release had turned it into a serious competitive pursuit.

Which game genre traces its roots to Aeon of Strife, a fan-made StarCraft map where each player steered one hero?

MOBA games took shape when a modder called Eul rebuilt the map in a later Blizzard title as Defense of the Ancients, the forerunner of Dota 2.

Which Battlestar Galactica actress voices Sarah Kerrigan in StarCraft II, winning a Spike Video Game Award for the role?

Tricia Helfer took over from Glynnis Talken Campbell, who had voiced Kerrigan in the 1998 original and Brood War.

Which Blizzard game supplied the engine for the first StarCraft demo, which critics mocked at E3 1996?

Warcraft II showed through so clearly that the demo was written off as the same game in space, so Blizzard overhauled the whole project around three distinct species.

Which home console received the only console port of the original StarCraft in 2000, complete with split-screen co-op?

Nintendo 64 won out after Blizzard first considered the PlayStation. The port's Brood War missions only ran with the console's memory Expansion Pak plugged in.

Which AI lab built AlphaStar, the program that reached Grandmaster rank in StarCraft II in 2019?

DeepMind had already produced AlphaGo, the Go-playing program hailed as a milestone in 2016, before it turned its self-learning software on Blizzard's strategy game.

In which Asian capital did Blizzard announce StarCraft II in May 2007, nearly a decade after the original game?

Seoul hosted the reveal at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, a nod to South Korea, where the first game had become a televised professional sport.

Which jungle planet is the Protoss homeworld, overrun by a Zerg invasion in the original StarCraft?

Aiur fell so completely that its survivors had to seek refuge on Shakuras, home of the exiled Nerazim, which began the reunion of two long-estranged Protoss societies.

Which living layer of biomass must most Zerg buildings be grown on in the StarCraft games?

Creep spreads outward around each Zerg colony, whose buildings resemble organs because every one of them is a living creature.

Which Protoss structures must be warped in to power most of the race's other StarCraft buildings?

Pylons do double duty, since they also raise the Protoss population limit, and the probe that warps one in can walk away while it arrives.

Which gas is one of the two resources, alongside minerals, that every StarCraft race must gather?

Vespene and minerals are shared by all three species, yet each one turns them into armies through a completely different production system.

Which Protoss hero sacrifices himself to kill the Zerg Overmind at the end of the original StarCraft?

Tassadar had been hunted by his own people as a heretic for working with the exiled Dark Templar before he struck the blow.

Sarah Kerrigan takes which title after the Zerg capture and infest her in the original StarCraft?

Queen of Blades is the name she gives herself; before her capture she was a Ghost, a psychic assassin and second-in-command of the rebel Sons of Korhal.

Which ancient race, whose name means Wanderers from Afar, shaped both the Protoss and the Zerg in StarCraft?

The Xel'Naga were searching for two qualities, purity of form and purity of essence, and believed they had found one in each species.

Which Zerg worker in StarCraft turns itself into a building instead of constructing one from the outside?

The drone transforms itself rather than building externally, and finished Zerg structures then slowly regrow lost health without any repairs.

What name do the Protoss of StarCraft give the communal psionic bond and creed that most of them follow?

The Khala was formulated by the mystic Khas to end long sectarian conflict between tribes, and those who refused it were exiled from the homeworld.

Which mobile Zerg creature raises the swarm's population limit in StarCraft, much as Terran depots do?

The Overlord descends from the Gargantis proximae, a spacefaring species the swarm absorbed for its sharp senses, and it also relays orders to lesser Zerg.

Which StarCraft cheat code for faster production is named after fans impatient at the game's delays?

Operation CWAL stood for Can't Wait Any Longer; its members wrote stories about stealing the beta from Blizzard's headquarters, and earned a thank-you in the credits.

Which city in South Korea drew a record 120,000 fans to watch the 2005 StarCraft Proleague final?

Busan's turnout earned the Guinness World Records title for the largest audience at a game competition, one of four records the game was awarded.

Which Blizzard writer co-created the StarCraft universe and designed Sarah Kerrigan's original look?

Chris Metzen created Kerrigan with James Phinney for a single level, but the character grew on the developers, who gave her a far greater role.

Which online service powers StarCraft's multiplayer and, by Blizzard's count, grew 800 percent after launch?

Battle.net let up to eight players meet in one match, and a single product key could support eight spawned installs limited to multiplayer.

Which StarCraft player, nicknamed The Terran Emperor, built a fan club of more than half a million people?

BoxeR, real name Lim Yo-hwan, became a pop culture icon in South Korea, where top players are media celebrities with television contracts and sponsors.

Which Confederate capital does Arcturus Mengsk lure the Zerg onto in StarCraft, sacrificing Kerrigan there?

Tarsonis fell to the swarm, and Mengsk gathered what was left of the Terran population into a new Dominion with himself crowned emperor.

In the original StarCraft's Zerg campaign, the player takes which role, a commander serving the Overmind?

A cerebrate cannot be killed by conventional means in the story, which is why the Protoss came to need the powers of the outcast dark templar.

Which rival tied with StarCraft for PC Strategy Game of the Year at the first Interactive Achievement Awards?

Age of Empires shared the strategy prize, but Blizzard's game also took Computer Entertainment Title of the Year at the ceremony now called the D.I.C.E. Awards.

Which studio behind the StarCrafts parody cartoons gave StarCraft: Remastered a cartoon graphics pack?

Carbot Animations' overhaul, sold as StarCraft: Cartooned, redraws every game mode and menu in the style of its long-running web series.

Which chapter concludes the StarCraft II trilogy by handing players the Protoss campaign?

Legacy of the Void follows the Protoss leader Artanis, who commands from an arkship called the Spear of Adun as he tries to reunite his scattered people.

Which ex-convict marine, an old comrade of Jim Raynor, joins his crew in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty?

Tychus Findlay earned his voice actor Neil Kaplan a nomination for Outstanding Character Performance from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

Which battlecruiser is Jim Raynor's flagship and explorable mission hub in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty?

Hyperion replaced the original game's static briefing room with a ship players can explore between missions, captained by Raynor's second-in-command Matt Horner.

Which psychic agent was to star in the cancelled StarCraft: Ghost before leading her own StarCraft II missions?

Nova Terra's console game was put on indefinite hold in 2006 and only confirmed cancelled in 2014, though her backstory survived in a tie-in novel.

Which suicidal StarCraft II unit, morphed from a Zergling, blows itself up to deal splash damage?

The Baneling can even detonate while burrowed, so a Zerg player can bury a few in an army's path and use them like the Spider Mines of the first game.

Serral, the first StarCraft II world champion from outside South Korea, comes from which country?

Finland's president later invited Serral, a Zerg player whose real name is Joona Sotala, to the Independence Day reception at the Presidential Palace.

In which California city did BlizzCon host the grand finals of the StarCraft II World Championship Series?

Anaheim staged every grand final except the first, which was played in Shanghai, before the season's last event moved to IEM Katowice.

Which evolution master helps Kerrigan upgrade her units in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm?

Abathur was created from numerous Zerg species and prizes efficiency so highly that he drops pronouns and connecting words from his speech.

Which three-letter measure of a player's speed began in the StarCraft community before spreading to other games?

APM, short for actions per minute, counts every selection and order a player makes, and StarCraft II later built the counter into its own interface.

What do the letters SCV stand for in the name of the Terran worker unit in StarCraft?

Space Construction Vehicle is apt: unlike the other races' workers, it must stay at a building site until the job is done, and it can repair machines afterwards.

Jim Raynor is introduced in the original StarCraft holding which post on the frontier colony of Mar Sara?

Marshal Raynor is arrested by his own government for destroying one of its outposts, even though the Zerg had infested it, and so he joins the rebels.

Which ability lets certain Terran base buildings in StarCraft relocate to a new site without being rebuilt?

Lifting off to fly is slow, and it is no cure for neglect: a badly damaged Terran building catches fire and burns down unless a worker repairs it.

Which Zerg structure in StarCraft generates the larvae that develop into the swarm's different unit types?

The hatchery lets a Zerg player change an army's make-up quickly, because all of its larvae can become whichever unit is needed at that moment.

Which rogue being is the overarching villain of StarCraft II, seeking to remake all life to his own design?

Amon had already bound the Zerg to a single will through the Overmind, and his shapeshifting servant Narud bred Protoss-Zerg hybrids for his cause.

Which militaristic Protoss faction in StarCraft II lets members rise by defeating those above them?

The Tal'darim call this ladder the chain of ascension; Alarak climbed it to supplant highlord Ma'lash, then turned much of the faction against its old master.

On which planet does a new Overmind grow in StarCraft: Brood War before Kerrigan seizes control of the Zerg?

Char's young Overmind is killed by Zeratul, whom Kerrigan blackmails by abducting the matriarch Raszagal, and its death leaves every brood under her command.

Which outside studio co-developed StarCraft: Brood War with Blizzard, working on levels, visuals and audio?

Saffire's expansion was the official continuation of the story, unlike Insurrection and Retribution, two add-ons that Blizzard authorized but did not develop.

Which trophy was reserved for StarCraft players who won the Ongamenet Starleague three times?

The Golden Mouse went first to NaDa after his third title in 2006, and only July, Jaedong and Flash ever matched him.

StarCraft: Remastered held its 2017 global launch event at the headquarters of which streaming platform?

Twitch hosted retired professionals from outside South Korea for a two-day exhibition, after that country's PC bangs had been given the game two weeks early.