14 DAY TRIAL // A video shows the real time strategy title Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty played on 3M Multi-Touch Display, with the two players handling all input via finger presses and with the game fully playable without any modifications made to the source code of the game.
The official description for the video says that “Eric McCann of the UMass Lowell Robotics Lab has made it possible for Blizzard's Starcraft 2 to be played using a 3M Multi-Touch Display. This video demonstrates two players using the low-cost 22" 3M Multi-Touch Displays to play a game of Starcraft 2 over Battle.net. Gestures for camera control such as pinch and 2-finger drag have been implemented, as well as pressing and holding to right-click.”
The video is pretty impressive and if the port to the multi touch display has been made without making actual modifications to the source code of Starcraft 2 it pretty much means that other video games can also be ported without major modifications.
Of course, multi touch displays are still pretty expensive which means that some time needs to pass before they become alternatives to playing Starcraft 2 on the good old PC platform.
Another problem with moving Starcraft 2 to the multi touch is that the speed that a lot of gamers interested in multiplayer aim to achieve might be more elusive, due to the unique nature of the device on which the real time strategy game is played.
Blizzard is working on two more installments in the Starcraft 2 saga, one focused on the Zerg and titled Heart of the Swarm and another focused on the Protoss.
Given the fact that the two titles will probably arrive no sooner than 2012 there's enough time for the developers to include native support for multi touch into their game.
Here's a full video of Starcraft in action on a multi touch display: