Diablo (Windows, Mac OS Classic)/Hellfire

This is a sub-page of Diablo (Windows, Mac OS Classic).

Hellfire was the first and only expansion for Diablo, developed by Synergistic Software and published by Sierra in 1998. Despite Blizzard having a heavy influence over its development (including, strangely, the requirement that multiplayer not ship with the game), it is generally not considered canon and is rarely included in game bundles. Until Diablo became available on GOG.com, it was impossible to purchase through legitimate means.

Notably had its source code leaked on the Internet Archive on June 29, 2019. See the Development page for more.

Command.txt

By adding a file called command.txt to the game's working directory, several pieces of otherwise-unused content and/or Easter eggs can be unlocked. This is not documented in the Readme file or anywhere else.

The file itself should contain options delimited by a semicolon (;), with no semicolon at the start or end of the file. For example, to enable all of the secret options, the file's contents should be as follows:

cowquest;theoquest;bardtest;multitest;barbariantest;nestart;cryptart

cowquest

Adding this option to the command.txt will cause Lester the Farmer (NPC located in town) to be transformed into Complete Nut. The Complete Nut is a character wearing a cow suit and he gives out a unique The Jersey's Jersey quest. This quest tasks the player with recovering The Complete Nut's brown suit, which is located within the Hive levels. By talking to the Complete Nut a few times, the player is given a Rune Bomb to open up the Hive.

In the unaltered game, Lester the Farmer is a minor NPC that handles the Farmer's Orchard quest, and gives the player a Rune Bomb that allows them to access the Hive levels. After clearing the dungeon, the player is given an Auric Amulet.

Additionally, having this option in place will change Na-Krul's dialogue to something a bit...out of character.

theoquest

Adding this option adds a new NPC to Tristram, named Celia. Celia gives the player the Little Girl quest, where they are tasked with killing the Hork Demon and giving her back her teddy bear. David Brevik did not want this quest in the game, so it became an optional Easter egg item.

bardtest

Adding this option adds a new character class to the game: the Bard. The Bard uses Rogue graphics and has the unique ability to dual-wield weapons and hit multiple tiles at a time. In addition, the Bard can identify items for free.

Unfortunately, no new graphics were added for the Bard's dual wielding, so it appears as if the player is only wielding one weapon. In addition, there are several issues with dual-wielding.

multitest

Without a hacked hellfrui.dll, this option is useless. With one, multiplayer is enabled in the game.

barbariantest

Adding this option adds a new character class to the game: the Barbarian. The Barbarian uses Warrior graphics and has several unique properties:

• The Barbarian has a Magic level capped at 0, and it cannot be increased without items. This effectively means that the Barbarian cannot use magic at all without very specific gear.
• The Barbarian can wield a two-handed weapon with a shield.
• When striking with a two-handed weapon (without a shield), the attack extends past the monster a few tiles, allowing for multiple enemies to be hit at a time.
• The Barbarian is resistant to stunning effects and has a harder time getting stunlocked.
• The Barbarian can attack faster with maces and axes than other classes can.
• The Barbarian has a whopping +50 Vitality, and points towards Vitality increase weapon damage the same way that Strength does.
• The Barbarian receives extra Armor Class every 4th level up, and an extra point of resistance towards magic, fire and lightning with each level up.

The Barbarian has access to a unique skill called Rage. When this skill is activated, the Barbarian gains additional Vitality, Strength and Dexterity for 12 seconds. When this effect wears off, the Barbarian becomes temporarily vulernable - the player has lower Vitality, Strength and Dexterity before the skill was activated, and no resistances.

The Rage skill uses the unused Blood Boil skill icon from Diablo, and some unused sound effects as well.

nestart=

The palette of the Hive levels is altered.

cryptart

The palette of the Crypt levels is altered.

Unused Graphics

Unused Item Graphics

All of the inventory graphics added for Hellfire can be found in HELLFIRE.mpq/data/inv/Objcurs2.CEL. Of them, the following frames go unused. Notably, the back of the expansion's box indicated that a lot of these items could be found in the game, but they can't. False advertising?

Source Code Name	Frame #	Item Graphic
ITEM_MANARING	1
ITEM_NECMAGIC	3
ITEM_NECHEALTH	4
ITEM_RINGGROUND	6
ITEM_AMULPROT	7
ITEM_NECTRUTH	10
ITEM_RINGCOPPER	14
ITEM_NECPURIFY	17
ITEM_SWORDGLAM	33
ITEM_SWORDSERR	34
ITEM_STAFJESTER	39
ITEM_STAFMANA	40
ITEM_AXEANCIENT	43
ITEM_CLUBCARNAG	44
ITEM_MACEDARK	45
ITEM_CLUBDECAY	46
ITEM_AXEDECAY	47
ITEM_SWRDDECAY	48
ITEM_MACEDECAY	49
ITEM_STAFDECAY	50
ITEM_CLUBOUCH	52
ITEM_SWRDDEVAST	53
ITEM_AXEDEVAST	54
ITEM_MORNDEVAST	55
ITEM_MACEDEVAST	56

Wandering Trader

This is a cut character. Other references to this character exist in the code, but it's fairly stubbed out. Graphics for it can be found in towners/trader.

Idle	Walking

Donald Tsang, the lead programmer for the expansion, had this to say about it in a usenet post:

From: (Donald Tsang)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Alternate Turning System
Hong Ooi wrote:
(Donald Tsang) wrote:
>>[some game programming history]
>Okay, working on Diablo cancels out Birthright. I no longer have to kill you. :)

Technically, Hellfire. Blizzard (North) didn't have the developertime to write an expansion, as they were busy with the sequel, so they let us do it (at the time, Blizzard and Sierra were owned by the same large company). They wouldn't let us do multiplayer, though (not that we didn't ship a version with multiple easter eggs, including LAN multiplayer support).

(Reminiscing now) We had a cool feature designed: a wandering trader (the initial artistic concept was a gnome-like guy with a backpack taller than he was, with pots and pans hanging off of it) who would sing you a ditty, describing what he was looking for (a nonmagical piece of equipment, like a helm, a shield, or a sword) then wait for awhile (until you left the level or traded with him). If you traded with him, he'd toss you something magical in return, probably at the same "goodness level" as a "pack-leader" monster would yield. I think the sound engineer still has a recording of me warbling the "placeholder" music for that..."blackmail material", I think he called it.(sadly only the entry 'trader1.wav' found it's way into the hellfire-code, so we'll never know, how they've imagined the Trader's voice.) (end reminiscence)

...but if you've done all this stuff, how come you're posting from the undergrad server at Berkeley? Finally getting that piece of paper you neglected the first time round? Nah, I got that piece of paper in '89. I post from here because Cal has good Usenet service (I was once an officer of the student organization that runs this box, so as a courtesy they continue to allow me an account; the PlayStation 2 I donated a couple of years ago probably didn't hurt, either... :) Donald