This is a FAQ for the new Bullfrog game, Magic Carpet.
Contents:
1. What is Magic Carpet?
2. Where is it available?
3. OK, I have the demo. What do I do?
4. What are the key controls?
5. What spells and monsters are there?
6. What's the framerate like?
7. Any known bugs?
8. Strategies?
9. How does net play wor?
All comments to robj@netcom.com; it seems I'll be reading comp.sys.ibm.pc.
games.action avidly for a few weeks, too.
-------------------------------------------------
1. What is Magic Carpet?
From my first post about the game:
"There's a certain feeling I get from playing a really good game, one
which is good in a _new_ way. It's that "instant classic" buzz. I
got it in spades with Doom, as did millions of others. And I get it
almost _more_ powerfully from Magic Carpet.
"This game feels like flying in a dream. When I dream about flying, I
am generally able to just float above the ground, rising up through
trees or flying around houses or whatever. Low-level, slow, almost
like walking through the air. That is what flight in Magic Carpet is
like. It's a very different experience from any game I've seen.You
just float up off the ground, and drift (or race, with the right
spell) over the hills and the ocean.
"You also find yourself hurling fireballs and lightning bolts, putting
tents and houses under your control, igniting trees (don't get too
close!--you can hear the fire burning), cutting the earth in two,
raising volcanoes, and getting attacked by worms, dragons, undead
soldiers, and a lot of other creatures, including other players (yes,
net play). The combat reminds me a lot of Doom, except you are flying
over free-form texture-mapped terrain. There is definitely that
adrenalin rush when something sneaks up on you, or when you hear the
wailing of the fire worms.... You can only see so far before the
world vanishes in fog--but, unlike Strike Commander, it works here.
The world appears eerily out of the mist around you....
"This game is like Populous (it's from Bullfrog) plus Doom plus a new
way to fly with a computer."
2. Where is it available?
Shipping worldwide now, ads far as I know, on CD-ROM only. The demo
is available from ftp.ea.com.
3. OK, I have the demo. What do I do?
The demo's excuse for documentation is laughable. It explains nothing
about the gameplay. Here's the scoop.
You are on a magic carpet. You are seeking to collect magic energy,
"mana." You can either find mana lying around, or kill creatures to
release it. You can "possess" mana by casting a possession spell at
it (much like you toast monsters by firing fireball spells at them).
The more mana you have, the more spells you can cast. Collect enough
mana, and you will get the option to go on to the next level.
You can't contain all this mana. So you need a castle to hold it.
You get a castle by shooting a "castle" spell at a patch of ground.
As you possess mana, this nice balloon floats from your castle and
picks it up. Once it's in your castle, it gives you regenerative
power. As your castle fills up, you will need to cast more "castle"
spells to watch it grow.
There are magic spells lying around, which look like pink urns. Fly
through them to collect the spell. When you start the demo, you are
right in front of three of them: fireball, possession, and castle.
Fly through them. Then hit ENTER.
You are now on the map screen. You can mouse-click on one of the spell
icons in the lower right of the screen, and that spell will get assigned
to te button you clicked with. I like fireball in my left hand and
possession in my right, so I can waste something and then grab the mana
before it hits the ground. But don't do that yet. Left-click on the
castle icon and hit ENTER.
Back in the game, click left button while looking towards the ground.
Presto, your castle. Now go back and get your spells set up, and
prepare to blow things up. Due south of you are some bumblebees,
which are hard to cope with; try flying north, casting possession on
the buildings. Note they get your flag; you now have their mana.
Their archers will attack other sorcerors, too.
Now you just kill lots of things, grow your castle, watch out for the
other wizard, avoid getting your castle drowned in skeletons, and try
to collect all the power in the world!
When you play, the top of the screen has a mini-map, then a series of
three little readouts. The readouts are for your castle, balloon(s),
and you yourself; each top bar is health, and each lower bar is mana
level (white is current; gray is maximum). In the upper right is an
icon for each spell you have selected to use; the tiny white dots are
the number of times you can cast that spell at your current mana
level, and the gray bar is how close your current mana level is to
giving you a new spell. It seems that your personal mana is used up
rapidly by spellcasting but then replenished rather rapidly depending
on how much mana you have in your castle.
4. What are the key controls?
Easiest controls (for me) are mouse in one hand, for turning or
pointing up or down, and arrows in the other hand, for
forward/backward speed and for strafing. You can also use a gamepad
but (as with Doom) it's very important to be able to walk in a circle
shooting at something, and this is awkward with a gamepad.
Move carpet forward/back: up/down arrows
Slide carpet left/right: left/right arrows
Turn carpet left/right/up/down: mouse
Cast spell: Left or right mouse button
Select left assigned spell: Press 1-0
Select right assigned spell: Press Ctrl + 1-0
Open spells screen: Enter or left+right together
Toggle resolution VGA/SVGA: R (requires 16 meg for SVGA)
Destroy your own castle: Shift-L (if you're up against a cliff and
can't expand, for instance)
Quit to main menu, abort current level: Esc
Quit to DOS- Shift-Q
Restart current level: Shift-R
Pause game: P (P again to unpause)
F1: Sound fx on/off
F2: Music on/off
F3: Time acceleration
F4: Image softening on/off
F5: Reflections on/off
F6: Sky on/off
F7: Shadows on/off
F8: Icons and map on/off
F9: Speed blur on/off
F10: Toggle between 3D, stereogram, and normal mode
(If anyone can actually play in stereogram mode, please let me
know.)
5. What spells and monsters are there?
In the full game:
Fireball: obvious.
Possession: possess mana or buildings.
Castle: create/expand castle.
Accelerate (forwards): Zoom.
Accellerate (backwards): .mooZ
Heal: convert mana into health
Shield: absorb damage
Rapid Fireball: autofire.
Beyond Sight: see other players anywhere on minimap.
Mana Magnet: make local mana glom together.
Lightning Bolt: ZAP! (The Krakens have this. You meet them on demo level 2.)
Meteor: One big flaming rock. (Someone described it as
BFG, eat your heart out.)
Invisible: No see 'um until you cast a spell.
Rebound: I am rubber, you are glue...
Steal Mana: yep.
Duel: Basically a tractor beam. Use accelerate to escape.
Wall of Fire: SHABOOM!
Teleport: to your castle.
Crater: why not:
Undead Army: Raise a lot of skeletons.
Earthquake: Rend the land asunder. (Literally.)
Lightning Storm: oh yes.
Volcano: of course, this is Populous.
Global Death: The BFG of Magic Carpet.
In the demo, you can get (at least) fireball, possess, castle,
accelerate forward & backward, heal, and rapid fireball. I think.
Monsters:
Apes: Rock-hurling beefy guys.
Bees: Fast. Sting you up close. Dangerous in groups.
Crabs: When they hatch, they have fireballs. As they eat mana
they get lightning bolts, then meteors. (ugh!!) They lay eggs when
they get big.
Dragons: Airborne firebreathers. Spectacular.
Emu Riders: Quick arrow-shooters.
Genie: Teleporting mana-stealing fireball-casters.
Griffins: Shoots lightning, can see invisible, never shoots first.
Krakens: Nasty! They shoot lightning and snag you with the Duel spell.
Skeletons: Shoot flaming arrows at you & your castle. Reproduce when
they kill civilians.
Trolls: Like apes, but smaller.
Vultures: Slower bees. Good target practice.
Worms: Ugly critters, shooting fireballs and making God-awful noises.
Wyvern: BFDragon.
I haven't seen most of this yet.
6. What machine is required? What's the framerate like?
Requirements: DOS 5 or higher, 8MB RAM (though some people have
apparently gotten it to work fine, minus the odd sound effect in 4MB),
486/33 or higher, VGA, 2MB HD space, mouse with MS-compatible driver.
SVGA mode requires 16MB RAM and VESA-compliant card with driver
installed. Supports Soundblaster & compatibles, AWE32, WaveBlaster,
Ad Lib, Pro Audio Spectrum, Roland MT32, GenMIDI. Supports joystick,
gamepad. Can run with Forte VFX-1 HMD or with red/blue goggles
(included).
On 486/33s or 486/66s, VGA framerate is apparently very good, somewhat
slower than Doom but still playable with proper options tweaking.
There is no way to get Magic Carpet to report its framerate, and net.
estimates vary widely, but 15 FPS on a 66 is roughly right. On my
P90, SVGA with all detail options on is around 10 FPS (I guess) unless
lots and lots is happening, when it bogs down somewhat. Many people
seem to think it is very playable, which is really the most important
thing. (Forget about SVGA if you don't have a Pentium 66+ with PCI
video, though.)
7. Any known bugs?
You can't save in the middle of a level, only between levels.
You can't go back to old levels or skip forward if a certain level is
just too tough.
On level 6 of the full version or level 1 of the demo, if you wait too
long to deal with the skeletons, they will kill all the archers and
there will be so many of them they will bog down the game. Kill them
early to avoid the bog-down.
Occasionally the mini-map or the icons at the top of the screen may
become corrupted glitchy lines of garbage). Switching resolutions
twice is reported to cure it.
(More bug reports are solicited!)
8. Strategies?
I like fireball + accelerate backwards when fighting bumblebees.
Computer opponents seem to like castles far out at sea. Stick your
castle inland near big mana supplies, so your balloon can grab it all
pronto.
In the full game, the other computer player isn't worth killing early
unless you know he (they) has a spell you want. Wait, then go get his
castle.
What are your favorite strategies?
9. How does net play work?
It says it requires Netbios. I don't know the details.
--
Rob Jellinghaus robj@netcom.com uunet!netcom!robj
