Starcraft may be the game by which almost all other real-time strategy games are inspired by, but that's not to say that it doesn't pull its inspiration from other sources. The Starcraft series has quite a bit of background, and even inspired some additions to the material which it pulled from! With such strong gameplay and setting inspirations, it's hard to see Starcraft as anything but amazing. Once again, much like last week's Diablo feature, the background will be on the Starcraft series as a whole, rather than on Starcraft II in particular. After all, a game is most similar to its direct predecessor in most cases.

Starcraft's gameplay is pulled from a competing developer, interestingly enough. The main aspect of the gameplay that was praised, the three unique (and balanced) races, was very similar to another influential real-time strategy game by Blizzard's direct rivals: Westwood. The game in question is none other than Red Alert, which incorporated two distinct factions that played very, very differently from each other. Whether or not one inspired the other is up for argument, considering that Red Alert only came out two years before Starcraft. The level of variation between the two factions in Red Alert is very high, though, and definitely resembles the uniqueness of Starcraft's races.

Along with the similarities to Red Alert, Starcraft is also a continuation of the -craft mechanics, but in space. Much like Warcraft, there are two resources, one of which is infinite and the other of which is finite. In Warcraft, they are (respectively) gold and wood, and in Starcraft they are gas and minerals. Interestingly enough, minerals are the primary resource, not gas, which makes a game of attrition a much more valid tactic as you will only be able to build so many units thanks to running out of resources. It also forces the player to expand quickly to make sure their income stays steady.

The setting of Starcraft is interesting in that it is a continuation of Warcraft in space. But that's not all. Warcraft is very similar to a tabletop game called Warhammer, which also created a space-based version known as Warhammer 40,000. Warhammer 40k is arguably more successful than the main Warhammer universe, as it has led to several successful games such as Dawn of War and Space Hulk. In its own way, Starcraft is very similar to Warhammer 40k, and even has several unit and behavioral similarities. But they differ in many important ways.

The Terrans of Starcraft are much like the Space Marines in Warhammer 40k. Hard-boiled, drug-pumping criminals, they bear a great resemblance to the original depiction of Space Marines in Rogue Trader. In a similar fashion, the Zerg resemble the more independent Tyranids of Rogue Trader rather than the hive-mind of later incarnations, although the hive mind is definitely present in Starcraft as the Overmind. The organizations and individual units are portrayed much differently, however. The Zerg are split into many different groups under a cerebrate, and they can rebel against the hive mind. Likewise, the Terrans are not a group of religious fanatics that seek to follow every word of their emperor.

The Protoss in Starcraft are an anomaly. They do not resemble any particular race in Warcraft or the Warhammer 40k of the time. Chances are they were added as a balance to the Zerg's rush tactics and the Terran's flexibility and general balance. Very technologically and biologically advanced, they fight to preserve the galaxy from annihilation, or if you prefer, the greater good. Funnily enough, a while after Starcraft was released, the Tau hit the Warhammer 40k tabletop game with much the same features. While their technology has more in common with Japanese mecha than the more alien-looking technology of the Protoss, it's an easy connection to make between the two.