The Diablo Gallery
Two games, two borders, two opposite cover stories.
The first Diablo was redrawn for Japan: the PlayStation face on the Japanese box is the American PC painting, pulled out of the shadows and cropped to fill the cover. Diablo II crossed the same border four years later and changed nothing but its dressing. This shelf holds both pairs, with the histories and the questions behind them.
Every cover below is a door. Behind it sits the game's history, how Blizzard North made it and how its own era received it, and behind that, the questions its fans still ask. Start anywhere. The doors all open.
DIABLO
Blizzard North · PC and PlayStation · 1996
America · PC · 1996
The origin of the Japanese face: Diablo looming out of near-black shadow, eyes and fangs barely lit, the flaming title beneath.
Japan · PlayStation · 1998
Japan's first Diablo cover: the same face, brightened and cropped to fill the box, because there was no Japanese PC edition to carry it.
The History
How Diablo was made, and how it was received: Condor Games, Battle.net, the Hellfire expansion Blizzard never wanted, and a 94 on Metacritic.
The Covers
How do the Japanese and American Diablo covers compare? The first game was redrawn for Japan. The sequels were not.
The Japanese Release
How was Diablo released in Japan? The PC game never crossed over. The PlayStation port became Japan's Diablo.
The Original Design
What was Diablo originally designed to be? Turn-based, permadeath, clay figures: the design that almost shipped.
Hellfire
Who actually made Diablo's expansion, Hellfire? Not Blizzard North. A sister studio, over their protests.
The Inspiration
What inspired Diablo? A mountain, a high school daydream, and the roguelikes, per David Brevik.
DIABLO II
Blizzard North · PC · 2000
Japan · PC · 2000
The identical painting, dressed for Japan: a white plate naming the Japanese edition and its systems, plus a yellow sticker promising Japanese chat. Capcom published it.
America · PC · 2000
Gerald Brom's Dark Wanderer: a flaming skull inside a border of carved runes, with the free internet play fold at the corner.
The History
The fastest-selling computer game ever sold in its day: three years of work, a year and a half of crunch, Lord of Destruction, and 4 million copies in a year.
The Covers
How do the Japanese and American Diablo covers compare? For Diablo II the art stopped changing at the border.
The Japanese Release
How was Diablo released in Japan? Capcom's two-step Diablo II release, English first, then fully in Japanese.