The new 1.18a patch to Starcraft: Brood War makes the game free-as-in-beer and remasters the pixel art as well as campaign assets:
For one, it will be preceded by a patch to the 19-year-old StarCraft: Brood War client, and this new 1.18a client will reportedly not change the mechanics of the game. To prove that out, this patched version will still be able to connect to players using the existing 1.16 patch (which came out all the way back in 2009). Among other tweaks, like better compatibility with newer versions of Windows, the new patch will include two important updates: the ability to connect to and play against owners of the upcoming remastered version, and the change to a wholly free product. Once the patch goes live, the original StarCraft Anthology will be free-as-in-beer to download and play in both single- and multiplayer modes.
Also at VentureBeat.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Zinho on Tuesday March 28 2017, @04:11PM
Yes, but not until March 30. It's listed under "classic games" now, indicated as "sold out"; that will presumably change when the update is pushed and the price is changed to "free".
I'm looking forward to this; we've been trying and failing to get Starcraft classic running on the Windows 7 boxes at my house, and constantly run into a bad graphics bug that seems pretty common. I really hope that the new patch will fix that glitch and I can get it going again.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin