In the distant past (early 2000s) there was a member of Blizzforums who went by the name “Siegest”. He wrote a short story about “Pykie the Probe”. I’m not sure who did the artwork, and only recently came across it while searching my backups for something else, but I thought that it would be worth it to upload it again. I figured it would serve well as one of the first Fan Fictions of the new Starcraft.org!
What did you think of Pykie?
The life of a probe is a lonesome one. You mine; you build; yet you get no gratitude, no recognition or pride. You are just a peon. Disregarded when nothing needs mining. Sitting on a patch of minerals fighting over who gets what, and sometimes, even waiting in line. The life of a probe is ongoing with the same pale procedure. Everyone looks the same and everyone acts the same.
Well, almost everyone…
Pykie is peculiar, he is made without the CHEBE4.5 Chip or in other words without a brain…
Pykie watched as the various probes jittered about, gathering minerals. Not a sound was heard besides the high-pitched slicing of ore. Everyone seemed so glum as Pykie sat there his eyes glaring out, with a big mechanical smirk on his face.
“I be probe”, shrieked the little yellow unit.
“I can remember the time I be made!” I be made in a place called nexus. I be laying there in pieces, and they put me together.
“I be probe!”
There was a dead silence, and nothing changed. No one beeped a word. Pykie was confused, after all life was great and there were endless things to do. Pykie hovered across the cold stale ground over to a interesting building. He looked about in great amazement.
“What be this?” Wondered Pykie.
He then saw a tall slender figure with long sharp knife like glowing blades. Pykie moved along to this odd unit and exclaimed, “I be…”
“Get back to work you worthless peon!” Growled the Zealot.
Pykie was shocked, and scared at the same time. His mechanical parts shook all over, and aqueous oil like matter, trickled down his face. How could man be so mean?
Pykie slowly hovered over to the mineral field. He sliced at the ore and took off a small chunk.
“Where does this go?” Thought Pykie.
“Oh yes! It be nexus, it be nexus that this go!”
As Pykie began to go to the nexus, a large aircraft flew overhead and said get in! Get in! We are expanding! Him along with a few other probes, and a tall seemingly blurry figure were eventually crammed into the shuttle. Pykie sat there for quite some time as they flew over various terrains and waters. They were almost there, Pykie could see the blue ore and said, and “It be expansion!” The shuttle then came to a quick halt. Apparently the expansion was inhabited by icky purple goo.
What shall we do! Exclaimed the man known as Dark Templar. There seems to be spore colony there and I presume there are some lurkers in the premises.
“I be probe!” Said Pykie. “I will kill the spore colony and let you by!”
“Shut up, your useless!” Screamed the Templar.
” Bbbut, but, but I be probe.” Said Pykie.
“Of course you’re a probe, now shut up!” Yelled the Templar.”
“I be probe, I be probe!” Yelled Pykie as he jumped out of the Shuttle and headed for the spore.
“Noooo!” Said the Templar. “You will do nothing!”
But Pykie was hard at work. He took out his small blades and slashed at the spore colony with all his might! He did it harder and harder, faster and faster! Then all of a sudden a trail of long brown spikes came his way.
“The Lurkers!” Yelped the Templar in a low-pitched voice.
The spikes ripped into his body tearing him apart, but Pykie kept at it. He seemed not to be affected by it. He was not powered by a Chip or Brain. He was rather, by some almighty power. Pykie attacked and attacked and blood started gushing out the side of the spore. The spikes kept coming and coming. With one final blow of his blades, the spore colony was gone, and he was victorious, and defeated at the same time. The lurker kept at him, bashing and bashing at his mechanical body.
Out of fury and sympathy for this poor probe, the Dark Templar rushed out and ran at the lurker. With one mighty blow the Templar destroyed the Lurker. Even yet, it was still to late. The probe was done for. The Templar put on a smile of sadness and pride as he held the probe up with his blades.
I be probe, said Pykie. “I be probe…
His green glowing eyes fluttered then slowly faded out.
This was originally written by Siegest.
At Major League Gaming’s Spring Championship (June 8th-10th) attendees will be able to play a beta of Heart of the Swarm! Tickets are only $35 to the event which is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center outside LA, California. There will be some kiosks out on the floor offering folks a chance to play the beta. At this point no one knows if this is the same build we saw at Blizzcon or a more recent one.
A recent Dev Update explains that they’ve changed a lot, maybe we’ll see these changes at the MLG Spring event?
Which new unit are you most interested in?
Google has a new easter egg, all you have to do is search for zerg rush!
Tip: click on them! How high of a score can you get?!
Back in the early 2000s Starcraft.org presented the StarCraft community with a campaign from JudasCloud, named “The Shifters”. It’s not a technically advanced campaign, the only fancy modifcations are some portrait swaps and using custom music in various places. Throughout the years The Shifters has floated around Starcraft.org, at one point the EXE was even updated for 1.10, but after that point it was forgotten… until now!
There are many cool campaigns for StarCraft/BW, but The Shifters has always intrigued me. The premise is simple: Disaffected humans finding themselves allying with the Zerg, throw in a love interest, some good writing, and you’ve got yourself a way to waste an evening on a cool story.
How has it aged? Well I would say that any negatives surround the use of Starcraft as the medium. After 14 year there are many technical issues that might pop up with the game. I took awhile to figure out how to update the old EXE to work with the most recent version of Starcraft, luckily it doesn’t require you to downgrade or anything.
Download The Shifters (76mb, zip archive)
If you prefer to play Starcraft/BW through different means (via a launcher to play in window mode for instance) you can skip using the exe, it’s a simple mod that switches some portraits around (Zheng = Raynor without the patch, otherwise he uses the Vulture portrait).
There is an early mission where you are supposed to clear out a number of zerg enemies, please do not treat it as a standard campaign mission of “turtle up, build stuff, roll over”, the Zerg have access to every unit, and will go air heavy, your best bet is to push early, do not wait (I found abusing Goliaths and Tanks worked well).
Aside from the mission I mentioned, the campaign’s difficulty is mostly easy, you can tell that JudasCloud preferred to tell a story, so it might feel as if you’re watching a movie in a few places, that’s intended.
What did you think of The Shifters? Is it how you remembered? Are you playing it for the first time? Let us know what you think!
Pykie the Probe