I was given an old unused copy of battlechest containing Diablo and diablo 2 but i cant get them to run

I tried searching but no matter what i do i get past the first two logo screens blizzard and then blizzard north and i get a chime and a black screen.

I think it's compatability mode (right-click > properties > compatability for XP Service Pack 3) and resolution settings you need to adjust... assuming you are trying to play on windows 7.

I'm not sure about diablo 1, but for diablo 2 you can link the key to a battle.net account then download an updated version that will run just fine in windows 7. That only really helps if you want a battle.net account though.