StarCraft: 4 Open Source Clones Compared
Magnetar and Stargus reach StarCraft compatibility differently: Magnetar loads the original StarCraft.exe into memory and layers its own code and assets on top of it, while Stargus instead asks for a StarCraft installation only to extract data for use with the separate, from-scratch Stratagus RTS engine. OpenBW and SCSharp have no further documented details beyond their listed dev status.
Comparison table
Availability
- Status
- Unplayable
- Platforms
- None
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 1mo ago
- Stars
- 239
- Contributors
- 3
- License
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- —
Availability
- Status
- Semi-playable
- Platforms
- Windows, Linux, OSX
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Sporadic
- Last updated
- 9mo ago
- Stars
- 156
- Contributors
- 12
- License
- GPL-2.0
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesUpon first launch, the game asks for your Starcraft installation to extract the data needed to work with Stargus.
Availability
- Status
- Unplayable
- Platforms
- Windows
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Halted
- Last updated
- 5y ago
- Stars
- 73
- Contributors
- 5
- License
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- —
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Windows
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Halted
- Last updated
- 2y ago
- Stars
- 28
- Contributors
- 1
- License
- MIT
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesRequires StarCraft 1.16.1 installation to be installed and detected during setup.
| Title | OpenBW | Stargus | SCSharp | Magnetar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Unplayable | Semi-playable | Unplayable | Playable |
| Platforms | None | Windows, Linux, OSX | Windows | Windows |
| Play in browser | No | No | No | No |
| Mobile | No | No | No | No |
| Project health | ||||
| Development status | Active | Sporadic | Halted | Halted |
| Last updated | 1mo ago | 9mo ago | 5y ago | 2y ago |
| Stars | 239 | 156 | 73 | 28 |
| Contributors | 3 | 12 | 5 | 1 |
| License | — | GPL-2.0 | — | MIT |
| Compatibility | ||||
| Requires original assets | — | YesUpon first launch, the game asks for your Starcraft installation to extract the data needed to work with Stargus. | — | YesRequires StarCraft 1.16.1 installation to be installed and detected during setup. |
| Preview | |
Frequently asked questions
Are the StarCraft clones on this page open source?
Yes — every clone catalogued here is an open-source project. Availability, license, and development-status details for each one are listed in the comparison table above.
What license do these StarCraft clones use?
Stargus (GPL-2.0); Magnetar (MIT).
Do I need to own the original StarCraft to play these clones?
Stargus and Magnetar require original game assets to play.
Which StarCraft clone is the most actively maintained?
OpenBW is currently under active development, based on recent commit activity. See the "Development status" row above for every clone's current status.
See the full write-up for each clone, or go back to StarCraft.