1998: StarCraft was released to the world unprepared for its sheer glory. It released with much success, and is still played even today by competative gamers. Would you believe that the source code for this holy grail was actually lost? Well it was for quite a while, and it was just found.
According to Kotaku, Reddit user Khemist49 found the gold master disc labeled StarCraft Gold Master Source Code. It was in a "box of Blizzard stuff" that he bought in an auction on eBay.
He recounts the story to people on Reddit and some even asked him to upload the files online for everyone. He stated that the decision about what to do was making him "crazy."
"The CD is driving me crazy and I apologize if I came off the wrong way," he said. "People are either bashing me for owning it (I dunno why, not like I stole it) offering me money for it, calling me a douchebag for not releasing it, or threatening to tell blizzard I have it."
Eventually, Blizzard's legal team found the post and apparently reached out to the user and asked for the disc themselves, stating that it was filled with "intellectual property and trade secrets." Khemist49 sought legal counsel and decided to give the disc to Blizzard.
The story has a happy ending, however, because in return, Blizzard gave him a free copy of Overwatch, $259 in Blizzard store credit and an all-expense paid trip to BlizzCon, and even a night out for drinks.
Blizzard confirmed this, saying they, "wanted to show an appropriate level of appreciation to the player for doing the right thing, not just from Blizzard, but on behalf of the large and active community of players who still enjoy StarCraft today."
What would you have done in this situation?
