Screenshot courtesy of CNET. That's a hydra, which made it's appearance in
Magic Carpet II. It was a pain in the ass to kill, by the way.
Magic Carpet
The Magic Carpet series (which included Magic Carpet and Magic Carpet II, and some expansion packs) was an outstanding, innovative game that could most easily be described as a '3D shooter' -- but it shattered the mold for that genre in many ways.
Magic Carpet was released in 1994 by Bullfrog software -- a company founded in 1987 by a man named Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux. Bullfrog was responsible for many stellar PC titles, but the company was ultimately bought, absorbed, and essentially dissolved courtesy of Electronic Arts in 2004.
Magic Carpet put you in the role of a wizard riding the titular magic carpet. You commanded a wide array of spells, from humble fireballs and lightning bolts to magics that created fire-spewing volcanoes -- all of which was rendered in real time, terrain-morphing goodness.
Critical success, commercial failure
Magic Carpet's graphics may look primitive now, but for its time, it was considered a very advanced game -- graphically and otherwise. The minimum system requirement was a computer with a 486 processor -- and a Pentium was recommended -- but both were considered high-end and expensive. The game also featured multiplayer via ethernet, and required a CDROM drive (gasp!) -- both items considered expensive luxuries in 1994. Unfortunately, such high system requirements would also keep Magic Carpet from the success it so richly deserved.
Through the course of each level you would cruise around on your carpet doing battle with all kinds of monsters and demons -- some land-based and some air-based -- so combat required plenty of aerial agility. As you blasted foes, you collected and absorbed their mana, which in turn you would use to create a castle and store more mana to increase the power of your spells. The goal of each level was (generally) to gather a certain percentage of the total mana for the level, which, in addition to blasting all the monsters to bits, also required you to defeat one or more rival wizards.
What a revival could do...
Magic Carpet's gameplay is still unique -- no games in recent history have quite melded the same game play elements that made it so innovative. In addition -- modern graphics cards, processors, and game engines (Valve's Source, the Unreal engines, etc.) could make a modern-day Magic Carpet game something truly glorious to behold.
Flying around through realistic terrain and weather and wielding world-shaking magic could be realized in ways the original game could never have hoped to achieve. Toss in Internet play for some truly spectacular multiplayer gaming, and I think a new, re-envisioned, re-vitalized Magic Carpet game would be a critical and commercial success on PC and console platforms.
Learn More:
- Read the Magic Carpet Wikipedia entry
- Read the Magic Carpet 2 Wikipedia entry
- Read the Bullfrog Software Wikipedia entry
Comments
i love u for this
I have been saying the same thing for ages - this game was awesome - and would be incredible to play this in multiplayer mode over the net with modern technology.
No doubt about it.
Good article.
I agree, this was an awesome game. A remake with modern technology would be a must see.
I agree 100%. This game is unlike any other.
i also agree. if i could put hours and hours into this game way back when, i ABSOLUTELY would do it all over again!
I loved this game, the spiders and dragons and moon beast were awesome! I wish somebody would make a new version, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
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