While the original Starcraft and its Brood War expansion goes free, the Remastered edition will be here shortly.

Quoting the press release, „StarCraft: Remastered adds modern conveniences to the original StarCraft experience while maintaining the same gameplay that has captivated a passionate community of gamers for almost two decades. It’s also fully compatible with the existing version of StarCraft, meaning that those who purchase the upgrade can play with those who already have StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. Updates and new features include:

• Full graphical upgrade of the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion
• Widescreen UHD support for up to 4K resolution
• New matchmaking and leaderboards
• Player profiles that track individual statistics
• Cloud saving for campaign progress, hotkeys, and replays
• Higher fidelity music and sound
• Switch between Remastered and the original StarCraft with the click of a button!”

The game will launch on August 14 for 15 dollars on PC and Mac. Preordering will get you three skins (Char Hive, Korhal Command Center, Auir Nexus), and Starcraft II-related items (Alexei Stukov, three portraits). You’ll also be required to own Starcraft: Anthology, but that includes just the original and its expansion, so no other spending is involved. Brood War is getting a patch to 1.18 (bug fixes, ability to reset keys, observer mode, „modern anti-trap measures,” and more).

Remastered will support multiplayer with the original and vice versa. You can buy the game here.