Last month, a Reddit user named Khemist49 came across a real life legendary item... a golden disc labeled StarCraft Gold Master Source Code. Of course it didn't take long for this news to get back to Blizzard Entertainment, and as expected, Khemist49 ended up handing the disc over, but what he didn't expect was what had happened next...
As you can see from the photo taken by Kotaku, Khemist49 purchased a box of old Blizzard-related stuff on eBay, which is where he found the disc. The very disc that apparently contained the source code to the original StarCraft game that GameSpot reported as being lost since 2000 — which in turn forced Blizzard to start from scratch on its massively popular real-time strategy game.
After posting about his rare drop on Reddit, Khemist49 received numerous suggestions and comments. Some told him he should store the files somewhere online for people to download and tinker with, some said he should turn it in to Blizzard, and some thought he should just save it and keep it safe.
But Khemist49 was afraid that if he did anything other than give it to Blizzard, he might face legal actions.
But before Khemist49 could make a decision, Blizzard contacted him first saying he needed to return the disc to Blizzard because it contained the company's intellectual property and trade secrets. Looking to cover all his bases, he asked for some legal advice on Reddit and eventually decided to send the disc back to Blizzard.
After weeks of silence, Khemist49 updated the world on his quest. Blizzard was so grateful to get the disc back that they sent Khemist49 a copy of Overwatch, $250 in Blizzard store credit, and a ton of Overwatch and Diablo gear. Blizzard even offered to pay for Khemist49 to come to BlizzCon this year.
But Khemist49 was afraid that if he did anything other than give it to Blizzard, he might face legal actions.
But before Khemist49 could make a decision, Blizzard contacted him first saying he needed to return the disc to Blizzard because it contained the company's intellectual property and trade secrets. Looking to cover all his bases, he asked for some legal advice on Reddit and eventually decided to send the disc back to Blizzard.
After weeks of silence, Khemist49 updated the world on his quest. Blizzard was so grateful to get the disc back that they sent Khemist49 a copy of Overwatch, $250 in Blizzard store credit, and a ton of Overwatch and Diablo gear. Blizzard even offered to pay for Khemist49 to come to BlizzCon this year.
"I returned the disc to Blizzard two weeks ago. A few days later I received a copy of Overwatch and $250 in Blizzard store credit. A week later I got another call from a Blizzard employee. He wanted to thank me for returning their disc (which was in fact stolen). He then asked me if I have ever heard of BlizzCon. I said well, yeah of course but it's impossible for me to go, I live in the east coast, and the badges are always sold out before you can refresh the page lol. He said well, the reason we are calling you is to invite you to BlizzCon, all expenses paid, and we would love to take you out for drinks. I didn't know what to say, I was shocked, I expected nothing more than the free game and the store credit... After I thanked him 1,000 times he said oh by the way you should also be receiving something in the mail! This is what I got two days later..."
I can live with that. So if you find yourself in the possession of any other golden source code disc for a Blizzard game, be sure to hand it over and you too might be rewarded.
