Remember the halcyon days of dial-up modems and CRT monitors? If you don’t, let us fill you in: There was a time when gaming was a desktop-only affair. Enter the original Diablo.
Released in the late ’90s, this action RPG was a genre-defining revelation. Its blend of real-time combat, atmospheric lore, and addictive loot grind was unlike anything gamers had seen before. Procedurally generated dungeons and a devilishly simple control scheme hooked players instantly, propelling Diablo to over a million copies sold in its debut year.
We vividly recall being a pre-teen, too young to own a gaming rig, but desperate to delve into the dark world of Tristram. The local gaming guru’s PC was our portal to hell. Fast forward a couple of decades, and here we are, slaughtering demons and freeing Tristram from Hell-spawned evil on a budget-friendly smartphone like the TECNO Spark 20 Pro 5G, which we reviewed recently. It’s a mind-boggling leap in technological progress, and a stark reminder of just how far the industry has come — and how old we are!
SEE ALSO: Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred expansion coming Oct 8. Preorders now live
Yes, a resurgence of Diablo nostalgia is upon us, and this time it arrives in the form of a playable web port. Thanks to the devilution team’s reconstructed source code, you can now fire up the original Diablo in your browser, either by uploading your own game files or playing the free shareware version. The latter lets you vanquish evil through the first two areas of the game’s dungeon, but you’ll be limited to the Warrior class.
Owning a copy of Diablo is still a prerequisite for the full experience, as you’ll need to extract a specific file to play the complete game. If you’re not sure where to look, GOG.com and Steam offer Diablo at budget-friendly prices. While the web port allows you to play on entry-level phones, it’s not recommended due to the control scheme’s complexity.
Android users have a better option: Downloading the DevilutionX port on the Play Store will let you play Diablo using a touchscreen or a physical controller, but you’ll still need to own the game, of course.
So, fire up your browser, dust off those memories of clicky keyboards, the Windows 95 startup sound, and flickering CRT monitors, and prepare to revisit a classic — if you haven’t already. This web port may not be the pinnacle of accessibility, but for those yearning for a quick descent into the depths of Tristram, it’s a testament to the enduring power of the original Diablo and the ingenuity of the gaming community it influenced greatly.
Someone did a source port of the first Diablo making it completely playable from a browser! pic.twitter.com/TJ0MBAdkqh
— Shane Lynch (@iequalshane) August 13, 2024
Where we got the tip — the reason we’re currently playing Diablo 1 on our smartphone, as can be seen in the main image we use for this article
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