SCFreak takes a look at the history of Starcraft, and shares with you, some things that came from Diablo.

There Is No Cow Level

One of the more infamous aspects of Diablo was something that didn’t actually exist. It was a rumor started on the Internet about a secret level, which (according to many forum posts) supposedly contained ridiculously powerful items, incredibly dangerous enemies, and was headed up by a boss who was stronger than Diablo himself. The manner of accessing this level varied from report to report, but the most popular involved clicking on one of the cows in Tristram more than fifty times in a row. As such, it eventually became known as the “Cow Level”. Of course, it did not really exist; no matter how many times you clicked on the cow, it would only ever cause the cow to moo at you (and cause some humorous comments from the hero). Internet forums were awash with increasingly grandiose stories by players who claimed to have been to the cow level, along with the various items they found and monsters they fought.

Later in the rumour’s life, players new to the idea became confused by the ‘cow level’ name, and described the level as being full of cow monsters: one popular version of the rumor stated that the cow level contained ‘cow’ variants on every type of monster in the game, for example, an acid spitter with a bell round its neck, a white and black skin pattern, and a milk spraying attack. The boss in this version of the cow level rumor was a monstrous creature called the Cow King, who was indeed supposedly stronger than Diablo.

Although the cow level was nothing but a fantasy and a lie, badly edited screenshots and detailed stories kept it alive for years, to the point where Blizzard, who’d been receiving ‘how do I get to the cow level’ emails for a long time, put a cheat code in Starcraft: ‘there is no cow level.’ Typing this caused instant victory. The Hellfire expansion also mocks this rumor – the first new dungeon segment is accessed by speaking to one of the townsfolk, who’s dressed in a cow-suit (Reason: clothes stolen).

As a personal bit of fan service, Blizzard actually did put a cow level in Diablo II, although it was merely a very large area full of monsters called ‘Hell Bovines’ who were cows walking upright and carrying halberds. All of their sound files were different ways of saying ‘moo’. Netlore has it that the ridiculously bad voices of the cows were created by recording various Blizzard employees saying “moo.” The Cow King did make an appearance, but only as a unique Hell Bovine, nowhere near as strong as Diablo is in either game.

In recent years, since the real cow level was discovered, the cow level is rarely brought up other than as a joke, for example, World of Warcraft players who tell each other about a cow level that can be accessed from Mulgore, the homeland of the Tauren, who are a race of anthropomorphic bulls and cows. A recent update to the game also introduced tips on loading screens, one of which appears as “TIP: There is no cow level”.

Unit’s Speech

The Protoss Arbiter and Observer units are heard to repeat Adria’s greeting line, ‘I sense a soul in search of answers.’.

The observer will play a line of Griswold’s, namely the line he speaks as he gets overenthusiastic about the large mushroom.

Other References In WarCraft

In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, if players click on Illidan enough times, he will eventually say, “Wings, horns, hoofs… what are we saying, is this Diablo?”

In the last Human level of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, one of the hostile units is the Butcher. As he attacks the player’s units, he even greets them the same way he greets the player in Diablo: “Ahhh, fresh meat!”

In Diablo II, a weapon called Wirt’s Leg can be obtained and used to open the Secret Cow Level. This item is a reference to the character Wirt, a teenager who lost his leg to demons and wears a peg leg. In the same Warcraft III level mentioned above, there is an item near The Butcher called Wirt’s Other Leg, which is found after defeating the Butcher in the Alliance Campaign of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Also, one of the items that can be found in Blizzard’s MMORPG, World of Warcraft, is called Wirt’s Third Leg.

Diablo Easter Eggs

Many of the people, items and places in Diablo II are named after Blizzard employees and their loved ones. Examples of item names that are anagrams of developer names:

• Nokozan Relic = Karin Colenzo
• (The) Mahim-Oak Curio = Michio Okamura
• Bverrit Keep = Peter Brevik
• Rusthandle = (Mark) Sutherland
• Rixot’s Keen = Erik Sexton
• Skewer (of) Krintiz = Kris Renkewitz

Examples of monster names taken from the development team:

• Colenzo the Annihilator = Karin Colenzo
• Lord de Seis = Rick Seis
• Shenk the Overseer = Phil Shenk
• Sexton (Act III monster) = Erik Sexton

Examples of item names taken from the developer team:

• Civerb’s set = surnames of David and Peter Brevik, spelled backwards (and replacing the ‘k’ with a ‘c’)
• Schaefer’s Hammer = Erich/Max Schaefer

Examples of locations taken from development team:

• The Halls of Vaught = Fredrick Vaught

Additionally, other items are references to movies or books. A good example here is a small dagger, or Dirk, called The Diggler, which is based on the main character of the movie Boogie Nights called Dirk Diggler.