Apparently already unsupported in Perl 5.14:

$ perl -E '$*=1;'
$* is no longer supported at -e line 1.

$ perl -v

This is perl 5, version 14, subversion 4 (v5.14.4) built for cygwin-th
+read-multi
(with 7 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

Copyright 1987-2013, Larry Wall

Perl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License
+ or the
GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5 source ki
+t.

Complete documentation for Perl, including FAQ lists, should be found 
+on
this system using "man perl" or "perldoc perl".  If you have access to
+ the
Internet, point your browser at http://www.perl.org/, the Perl Home Pa
+ge.
[download]