About
Diablo is Blizzard Entertainment's 1996 action role-playing game; it was last officially patched in 2001 and later succeeded by Diablo II. Devilution is a reconstructed form of Diablo's original 1996 source code, built by reverse-engineering debug symbols accidentally left on the game's Japanese PlayStation port and a hidden debug build embedded in the PC release's DIABDAT.MPQ archive. It deliberately keeps the game's original code, bugs, and design intact for documentation purposes rather than adding new features, and requires an original copy of the game's diabdat.mpq file (not included) to run.
How it differs from the original
Unlike its successor project DevilutionX, Devilution does not add new features, widescreen, or cross-platform support — it aims to reproduce the original 1996 game exactly, including its bugs.
Getting started
Devilution replaces the original Diablo.exe and requires the original game's DIABDAT.MPQ, DiabloUI.dll, SmackW32.dll, Standard.snp, and Storm.dll files (from a version patched to 1.09b) to run; the free shareware spawn.mpq can be used instead to play the shareware portion. Multiplayer works over GOG's Battle.net-compatible servers or IPX/UDP, and using StarCraft's Standard.snp file enables additional local UDP play.
History
The project's author reverse-engineered Diablo after debug symbols were accidentally left on a Japanese PlayStation port and a hidden debug build was found inside the PC release's DIABDAT.MPQ archive; the reconstructed source, credited to reverse engineer GalaXyHaXz in 2018, aims to preserve the original 1996 game exactly, including its bugs, as a base for future ports and mods.
Additional notes
- Legal note
- The project describes its own legality as a gray area under the DMCA's reverse-engineering exception for documentation and interoperability, and is licensed for non-commercial use only.