Magic: The PC Gaming
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by Brian Van Wyk
Small Tidbits Unfortunately, the playable demo is approximately 200 MB... making for one lengthy download... Sid Meier, who is also working on the game, is leaving Microprose after the project is done.
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Surely you've all heard about the upcoming Magic the Gathering PC game by
now. Not surprisingly, there is a large variety of information available on
the web about the game. I've found two sites with large amounts of info,
and they both provided me with some quite interesting "facts"...
Back in 1994, Microprose signed a license with WotC to make a game for the PC, hoping that it could be made easily with a large profit. This turned out to be almost the exact opposite of what happened. The development team was plagued with delays (the game was originally supposed to be released October 1995). After months of delays, Microprose fired the entire team, and brought in a new one to start a windows version for CD-ROM. Then E3 (the big, hyped up video game conference) comes around. At this conference, Microprose had a working demo with 12 "astral" cards; They look pretty good for the ones I've seen. Astral cards are special "PC only" cards which will only work with the computer game. Then, about three weeks ago, a playable demo was released to selected magazines to show how it was going along, but I haven't heard too much about this... There is supposed to be 2 releases of the game. The initial release will be for only one player, and includes the 4th edition cards, 26 power cards, and the 12 card Astral Set. The expansions (Arabian Nights, Legends, Dark, etc..) will be released later. Later on, after they have finished with the initial release, Microprose will release a free "patch" for the game. This new release will include the CCG-RPG and the Duel. In the CCG-RPG you search for cards to build/improve your deck. There are 5 main wizards, representative of the 5 colors of magic, that you must beat. The screen shots I've seen look better than that of Civilization 2. The Duel allows players to play Magic with someone else over the Internet. I've heard many different versions of the release date, varying from September 15 to late winter, although it seems that Microprose wants to get the game out in time for the Christmas season. I can't wait! |
Copyright © 1996 Beyond Dominia.
Magic: the Gathering is a Registered Trademark of Wizards of the Coast
