| designer = Chris Metzen
James Phinney | composer = Derek Duke
Jason Hayes
Glenn Stafford | version = 1.16.1
(21 January 2009)

| released =Windows
31 March 1998
Mac OS
March 1999
Nintendo 64

| series= StarCraft | genre = Real-time strategy | engine = Warcraft II engine | modes = Single-player, multiplayer | ratings = | platforms = Windows, Mac OS, Nintendo 64 | requirements = 90 MHz processor
16 MB RAM
640x480 8-bit display | media = CD-ROM, download,
Nintendo 64 cartridge | input = Keyboard and mouse, Nintendo 64 gamepad }}

StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than nine million copies sold worldwide as of 21 May 2007, it is one of the best-selling games for the personal computer. A Mac OS version was released in March 1999, and a Nintendo 64 adaptation co-developed with Mass Media Interactive Entertainment was released on 13 June 2000. With its storyline adapted and expanded through a series of novels, StarCraft has three

Set in the 26th century, the game revolves around three species—the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth adept at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoids in pursuit of genetic perfection obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg—fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy. The game has been praised for pioneering the use of unique factions in real-time strategy gameplay and for a compelling story.

Many of the industry's journalists have praised StarCraft as one of the best and most important video games of all time, and for having raised the bar for developing real-time strategy games. StarCraft s multiplayer is particularly popular in South Korea, where professional players and teams participate in matches, earn sponsorships, and compete in televised tournaments.

Gameplay

StarCraft features artificial intelligence which scales in difficulty, although the player cannot change the difficulty level in the single-player campaigns. Each campaign starts with enemy factions running easy AI modes, scaling through the course of the campaign to the hardest AI modes. In the level editor provided with the game, a designer has access to four levels of AI difficulties: "easy", "medium", "hard" and "insane", each setting differing in the units and technologies allowed to an AI faction and the extent of the AI's tactical and strategic planning. The single-player campaign consists of thirty missions, split into ten for each race.