Recap: Diablo landed on December 31, 1996, for Windows PC before finding its way to Mac OS and PlayStation in 1998. A sequel, fittingly named Diablo II, launched in mid-2000 but it'd be another 12 years before Diablo III's arrival. The original managed to sell two million copies but its sequels would prove far more successful with Blizzard selling six million and 20 million copies of Diablo II and Diablo III, respectively.
Diablo, the beloved action role-playing game from Blizzard, is now available to play in your web browser courtesy of RivSoft.
Essentially the shareware version, the browser game (dubbed Devilution) is reconstructed from the original Diablo source code - complete with bugs and poorly written code. Should you own Diablo, you can use its main data file to unlock the full version in your browser. If not, you can grab a copy over on GOG for $9.99 which includes the Hellfire expansion.
If you're like me, you're probably wondering if this is even legal. According to the development team, they aren't really sure.
Under the DMCA, reverse-engineering has exceptions for the purpose of documentation and interoperability. Devilution provides the necessary documentation needed to achieve the latter. However, it falls into an entirely gray area. The real question is whether or not Blizzard deems it necessary to take action.
Here's to hoping Blizzard doesn't take action.