The phenomenal success of Wizards of the Coast's Magic collectible card game is unparalleled in card gaming history. Although it stands to reason that computer games based upon this property would probably be a success, an automatic assumption of accomplishment is not always warranted (see Magic: The Gathering - Battlemage). However, in the case of Magic: The Gathering for Windows, MicroProse has cast a successful spell.
Magic: Tha Gathering Desktop Themes incorporates over 50 stunning high-resolution graphic images, dozens of cursors, wallpaper, icons, fonts and over 50 new sounds to give your computer a customized look and feel. Plus, an incredible Screen Saver showcasing some of the best Magic artwork of all time! One of the best computer translation of a non-computer games ever made, MicroProse's Magic: The Gathering not only deserves a Hall of Fame status for its faithful rendition of Wizard of the Coast's blockbuster trading card game of the same name, but also for the numerous innovations that are only possible as a computer game.
The guts of this title consist of the card game itself, populated with almost 400 actual Magic cards that can be used in play. Cards are used to cast spells, and most spells are split by color: White magic enables healing and protection, Red magic is fueled by the power of fire and earth, Blue magic is drawn from the strength of air and water, Green magic is spawned from the force of nature, and Black magic is bred from the might of death and decay. Each color has a specific type of land, called Mana, which must be used to supply power of the correct color to cast any spell. There are also colorless Artifact cards, which can be powered by any color combination of Mana. The player will also find twelve special cards created especially for this product, called the Astral Set, which do not appear in printed card format.
A diverse community of players devoted to Magic: the Gathering, a trading card game ('TCG') produced by Wizards of the Coast and originally designed by Richard Garfield. Join us discussing news, tournaments, gameplay, deckbuilding, strategy, lore, fan art, cosplay, and more. 'Magic: The Gathering is a Windows 95 product. It has not been tested on Windows NT. You may continue, but some parts of the game may not work properly.' Magic: The Gathering is a video game published by MicroProse in April 1997 based on the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering.It is often referred to as Shandalar after the plane of Shandalar, where the game takes place.The player must travel the land and fight random enemies to gain cards, and defeat five wizards representing the five colors. The player must prevent one color from.
There are a couple of different varieties of gaming available in Magic: The Gathering, although they are all geared toward playing the card game itself. First, the player can simply play the card game against opponents sporting different decks. Players can duel in single-match mode against one opponent, or in a ladder-style tournament against a collection of opponents. To aid the player in building a killer deck, a Deck Builder utility is also included with the product, enabling the player to add cards to or delete cards from his deck. Decks created in this way can be saved, and tested against the decks of the AI opponents. For those of a more adventurous ilk, an RPG-like adventure game is also included. The player's responsibility is to travel the world of Shandalar, dueling creatures and wizards for control of the magical land. As play progresses, the player will discover new cards hidden on the map, as well as have the opportunity to buy those of his choosing. He will encounter dungeons and crypts populated by monsters of different varieties, each equipped with a deck of Magic cards accentuating strengths in certain types of magic. When an enemy is encountered, the player will be taken to the Duel screen to fight the battle.
Overall, this is an exceptional game with a few, very minor difficulties that do not detract from the finished product. MicroProse has done an outstanding job in translating what is a very difficult and complex game into a product that is accessible for both novices and experts alike.
Graphics: Although I have heard a few complaints about the graphics used for the adventure map of Shandalar, the average player will not spend enough time there to be concerned with this. The graphics in the Duel portion of this game are remarkable, with some cards showing a real, 3D look in 16-bit graphics mode.
Sound: The sound is occasionally scratchy, and it sounds to me as though some sounds play louder than others. However, this is a minor quibble.
Enjoyment: For anyone who enjoys the challenges of a magical, mystical world, this is an ideal product. Anyone who is already a fan of the Magic card game should absolutely adore this product.
Replay Value: Replay value is high, because of several factors. The player can select from numerous opponents to battle in tournament fashion, and the world of Shandalar is regenerated anew at the start of each new game.
The eponymous Magic: The Gathering is quite easily the best adaptation of the collectible card game you will ever play. While it adds an adventure storyline aspect to the game, it doesn't sacrifice the heart of the card game upon which it is based.
Essentially, the game features to main play modes - 'World' and 'Duel'.
Duel mode consists of a quick match or series of matches against your opponent using one of many prebuilt decks or using one of your own design. You can choose from a comprehensive collection of Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, and 4th Edition core sets, as well as the Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark expansions. Alternatively, Duel mode can be played as a sealed deck format tournament, starting with six sealed starter boxes or booster packs of your choosing.
World mode is the story campaign of the game. You find yourself in the world of Shandalar where five wizards, one from each of the governing colours of MTG, are conspiring to raise a great evil. It is up to you to prevent them from bringing destruction to the world. You start with a basic deck of one or more colours, depending on the difficulty level you choose upon starting the game. Cards are won by ante, found, earned through quests, etc.
The user interface while dueling can seem a little convoluted at first, but handles the play mechanics of the card game well - players familiar with the Magic: The Gathering card game will feel right at home once they get used to this UI. Players unfamiliar with the card game may have a slightly hard time getting into and learning the game but an interactive Tutorial has been included to facilitate this.
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Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds, Magic: The Gathering: BattleMage, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, Lord of the Rings, The: The Battle for Middle Earth II, StarCraft, Warcraft 2, Lords of The Realm 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 4
Magic: The Gathering – Arena has taken PC gaming by storm and there is a lot of buzz about the upcoming Magic: Legends action RPG for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. But, putting the tabletop collectible card game of Magic into digital form is anything but new.
In this video, we’ll be taking a brief look into the history of Magic: The Gathering in computer and video game form.
Video transcript:
In April of 1997, the very first-ever Magic: The Gathering video game ever published came out for Windows 95 PCs.
Developed and published by the now-defunct MicroProse, the Magic: The Gathering computer game (contemporarily referred to as “Shandalar”) would be the final game with the company that the famed game designer and programmer, Sid Meier, would ever help to create.
The game featured a surprisingly good deck builder along with two game modes: a duel mode and a single-player campaign mode.
Duel mode plays out very much like a traditional game of magic with a coin flip determining who goes first. After that, it’s pretty much as “old school” MTG as you can get along with additional cards from the Astral set, which is a Magic expansion exclusive to the computer game. The layout is surprisingly clean with all of the pertinent information, including life total, creature stats, and so on, clearly presented on-screen. It’s done so well, in fact, that players often pointed to Shandalar as the ideal standard for how a digital traditional game of Magic should look on screen. While games were often played single-player against an AI controlled opponent, player-versus-player was available over the modem through an add-on appropriately named 'ManaLink.'
The game’s single-player campaign introduced players to the rogue plane of Shandalar via an overhead map of the plane’s supercontinent across which the player must travel from village to village and castle to castle, discovering hidden surprises and fighting (or fleeing from) adversarial wizards and beasts along the way. In dungeons and castles, adversaries remain still rather than roaming.
Either way, encountering an enemy will typically enter combat via a modified version of the Duel mode with the player’s life tied to the number of “mana links” they’ve established throughout the game. More mana links equals more starting life. Likewise, the player’s deck is only as good as cards they’ve found in the wild, purchased from in-game vendors, or won from opponents.
Yup, you heard that right. In Shandalar, ante is the way of the game. Defeating a foe will win you some cards from their deck, though losing means they’ll take one of yours. It actually turns out to be a good system to keep players in check against bigger, badder foes and serves as a deterrent from biting off more than one can chew.
Story wise, the plane is ruled by five tyrannical mages who are each vying to be the first to cast the Spell of Dominion, which they think will allow them to rule all of Shandalar for themselves (not knowing that the spell actually breaks the plane’s protective barrier keeping extraplanar beings such as planeswalkers from entering). Should one succeed, you lose the game. But if you’re able to defeat all five mono-colored wizards, the evil planeswalker Arzakon attacks you for foiling his invasion plans. The end boss has grossly more life than you and, due to that, is considered unkillable. Rather, upon defeat he’s banished from Shandalar for an indefinite amount of time with the player’s performance in the battle becoming their final score for the campaign.
MicroProse’s Magic: The Gathering spurred two expansions: Spells of the Ancients in September of 1997 which included cards from Arabian Nights and Antiquities along with AI improvements, and Duels of the Planeswalkers in June of 1998, which was an upgraded version of the original game and included 80 new cards from the sets Legends and The Dark.
The game was considered a relative success, selling more than 400,000 units by early 1999 and received generally positive reviews by outlets such as GameSpot and PC Gamer UK.
Shandalar is considered among many long-time Magic players as the gold standard for digital magic – even in spite of Magic Online and Arena grabbing all of the headlines. Maybe it’s the nostalgia. Perhaps it’s the exploration. And maybe it’s because Sid Meier simply knew what he was doing by creating a well-made, true-to-the-source-material faithful representation of Magic: The Gathering in digital form.
Good game, Sid. /corel-videostudio-pro-x7-serial-number-and-activation-code-free.html. Good game.
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