Magic: The Gathering (MicroProse)

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Magic: The Gathering
Developer(s)	Atari
Publisher(s)	MicroProse
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date	March 6, 1997
Genre(s)	Card Battle, RPG

Magic: The Gathering is a computer game published by MicroProse in April 1997 based on the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering.

The game takes place in the plane of Shandalar, where 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 gaining too much power, and defeat the planeswalker Arzakon, who has a deck of all five colors. Adventure game and role-playing game elements are present, including inventory, gold, towns, dungeons, random battles, and character progression in the form of new abilities and a higher life point total. An oversized version of Aswan Jaguar was included in the game box.

1 Development
2 Spells of the Ancients
3 Duels of the Planeswalkers
4 Astral set
5 Manalink 2.0
6 Requirements
7 References

[edit] Development

The project to make Magic: The Gathering came during turbulent and troubled times at MicroProse, as it had recently lost a large amount of money pursuing unprofitable ventures (such as an arcade game business).^[1] A corresponding flight of personnel was happening as well. Sensing trouble with the Magic project, the famous and marquee Sid Meier was assigned to it. This game would be the last that Meier would ever work on with MicroProse, as he went on to found his own studio, Firaxis Games, shortly afterward.

[edit] Spells of the Ancients

This expansion pack was released on September 1, 1997. It included an upgrade of the game engine and interface, improved AI, and a sealed-deck tournament feature. It also added cards from older editions of the base set, the expansion sets Arabian Nights and Antiquities.

[edit] Duels of the Planeswalkers

This was an upgraded version of the original game released on January 14, 1998. Owners of the original game were eligible for a mail-in rebate. It included the original game, all of the upgrades included in Spells of the Ancients, and 80 new cards from the expansion sets Legends and The Dark.

[edit] Astral set

Astral
Expansion symbol	star with a trail
Release date	April 1997
Mechanics	randomness
Size	12 cards
Expansion code	none
Development codename	none
Magic: The Gathering Chronology

Twelve unique cards, constituting the Astral set, were exclusive to this computer game and not printed on paper (with the exception of the oversized Aswan Jaguar included in the box) They used completely randomized effects that would be difficult to represent on actual Magic cards. (The Goblin Polka Band played a spritely tune when used.):

Card name	Casting cost	Card type	Description	Illustration
Aswan Jaguar	1GG	Creature - Jaguar	When Aswan Jaguar comes into play, choose a random creature type from those in target opponent's library. GG,T: Destroy target creature of the chosen type. It can't be regenerated.	Pat Morrissey
Call from the Grave	2B	Sorcery	Return target creature card chosen at random in the graveyard to play under your control. Call from the Grave deals to you damage equal to that creature's casting cost.	Quinton Hoover
Faerie Dragon	2GG	Creature - Dragon	Flying 1GG: Play a random effect. (1/3)	NèNè Thomas
Gem Bazaar	–	Land	As Gem Bazaar comes into play, choose a color at random. T: Add one mana to your mana pool of the color last chosen. Choose a color at random.	Liz Danforth
Goblin Polka Band	RR	Creature - Goblin	X2,T: Tap X target creatures chosen at random. Spend only red mana on X. Goblins tapped this way do not untap during their controllers' next untap phases. (1/1)	Quinton Hoover
Necropolis of Azar	2BB	Enchantment	Whenever a non-black creature is put into a graveyard from play, put a husk counter on Necropolis of Azar. 5, Remove a husk counter from Necropolis of Azar: Put a black Spawn creature token with swampwalk named Spawn of Azar into play. That token has power from 1 to 3 chosen at random and toughness from 1 to 3 chosen at random.	Rob Alexander
Orcish Catapult	XRR	Instant	Randomly distribute X -0/-1 counters among a random number of random target creatures.	Melissa Benson
Pandora's Box	5	Artifact	3,T: Each player reveals his/her library. Choose a random creature card from each library revealed this way. For each player, flip a coin. If heads, put a token into play that is a copy of that player's revealed card. Then each player shuffles his/her library.	Amy Weber
Power Struggle	2UUU	Enchantment	At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player exchanges control of random target artifact, creature or land he or she controls, for control of random target permanent of the same type that a random opponent controls.	Mark Tedin
Prismatic Dragon	2WW	Creature - Dragon	Flying At the beginning of your upkeep, Prismatic Dragon becomes a random color. 2: Prismatic Dragon becomes a random color. (2/3)	Amy Weber
Rainbow Knights	WW	Creature - Knight	When Rainbow Knights comes into play, it gains protection from a random color permanently. 1: Rainbow Knights gains first strike until end of turn. WW: Rainbow Knights gets +0/+0, +1/+0, or +2/+0 until end of turn, chosen at random. (2/1)	Douglas Shuler
Whimsy	XUU	Sorcery	Play X random fast effects.	Anson Maddocks

[edit] Manalink 2.0

On December 2007 a user-created patch from 2005 was made available for the original game that includes missing cards from The Dark and Legends (notably gold cards). In addition to the missing cards, a majority of the cards from 8th Edition were coded in. These newer additions are not available in the Shandalar version of the game, but can be used for deck creation, gauntlet, and sealed deck play. In addition, the game engine was debugged, making game play faster and more intuitive.^[2]

[edit] Requirements

Magic: The Gathering was released for Microsoft Windows 95. While most games released for Windows required at least Windows 95, a bug in the installer for this game required the user be running precisely Windows 95. Not even a later version of Windows would work, however, in versions of Windows with the compatibility mode feature, running the installer under Windows 95 compatibility mode will allow the game to install. In subsequent versions, the problem with the installer is fixed. The game runs on Windows 95 and will run on XP.