Magic Carpet Plus
DOS - 1995
Also released on: SEGA Saturn
Description of Magic Carpet Plus
One of the most original games ever made, Bullfrog's Magic Carpet is a classic action/strategy hybrid that remains eminently playable years after its release. Magic Carpet Plus is a re-release of the game that contains both the original Magic Carpet and Hidden Worlds add-on that adds dozens of new levels and spells.
The game's originality shines right from when you first learn of the plot. An evil wizard harnessed all his powers to shatter the (very Arabian Nights-inspired) world, thus distributing the land's supply of mana to the beasts, turning them into powerful, menacing creatures. The burden falls on you, an apprentice wizard, to establish equilibrium to these shattered worlds by collecting mana, whether it belongs to deadly monsters, competing wizards, or to nobody at all. The mana is represented in the game as color bubbles scattered throughout the land, and you must continually collect them to cast powerful spells. You win each level (i.e. island) by destroying the castles of enemy wizards.
What makes Magic Carpet a blast to play is the great gameplay dynamics, combined with jaw-dropping 3D graphics that was well ahead of its time. You will build up a repertoire of powerful spells, up to around 30, and each level typically contains at least one new spell you can discover. Enemy wizards learn from your strategies, and will even battle amongst themselves when you are too weak, too strong, or too far away.
As Brent Sampson observes in his comprehensive Games Domain review: "gameplay [in Magic Carpet] is a balance of offense and defense, where actual strategy is required to be successful. All too often, for example, your success depends upon choices made in the heat of battle. Should you protect your castle (which stores your mana) from an attacking wizard, or should you venture out to gather more mana so your castle (and you) will be stronger? Or is the best defense a good offense; should you attack the wizard's castle to draw him away from attacking yours? What is successful at one point in the game might not necessarily be successful the second time. And this is the aspect of Magic Carpet that makes it so thrilling."
Aside from extremely addictive gameplay that perfectly combines action and strategy, Magic Carpet also deserves mention as the very first PC game to effectively represent dramatic terrain changes in real time-- and this is but one of the game's strong points. For example, you can cast a volcano spell and watch as a volcano magically rises out of the terrain in front of you, in real-time, and stays there for the duration of the game. Or cast an earthquake spell to split an entire island in two, and then fly through your newly created canyon. The possibilities, it seems, are almost endless.
The only complaint I can think of about this classic is the fact that you can quickly bump into the many hidden "monster triggers" that call forth dozens of nasty beasts. When that happens, it's almost impossible to win the island, as you'll be busy fighting both the monsters AND enemy wizards. Some of the game's extra features don't work very well-- the 3D mode (meant for use with 3D glasses included in the game box), and stereogram mode are nearly unplayable.
Regardless, sheer ingenuity and addictiveness of the game more than outweigh these points. With 50 islands and at least that many more in the Hidden Worlds add-on, Magic Carpet Plus will keep you up nights for months to come. Highly recommended!
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
Iggy 2017-01-09 -1 point
How do i save a game? every time i go back into it it has forgotten my saved game!
Orcrist 2016-10-26 0 point
With the high-res mode turned on, this is actually still a beautiful game. Sure, the models are a little blocky, but everything can be destroyed. A First for any game of this type I believe. I agree that a modern remake could be awesome.
MagicManRed 2016-03-15 0 point
instead of thie ctrl+f11 thing to slow it down... just press the letter R in-game. It doubles the resolution.
Then tap the F4, F5, F6, F7 and F8 keys to toggle shadows, blur, soften, reflections, sky, maps, etc... you'll find a sweet spot on how it runs.
I run with everything on except for soften and blur. (high res of course). I can't see how anyone can play it in anything other than high res.
I actually have the original CD of this. It doesn't crash at all compared do this download. I feel like the crack is what's crashing it... Strangely enough, even when I make an image of the CD and use the mount command so that DosBox sees the image as a CD so that I don't have to keep taking out the CD to play... it still crashes in the game after some length of play.
And I totally agree... this game is easily the most underrated. And easily my favorite (tied with Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo) which I also have the CD of (Better music tracks). For that game, creating an image of it worked great. Thank god I don't need to take out the CD to get the brilliant CD audio tracks for each fighting stage. The MIDI version is sub-par compared to the full music port.
guy 2014-09-11 0 point DOS version
ctrl + F11 didn't work for me, Still ridiculously fast and can't get the sound working
Pink Floyd 2014-05-21 0 point DOS version
Criminally underrated game. Stunningly original game. Nothing like it before, than, or since except for its sequel. An absolute classic. First Person Shooter meet Simulation meets I don't know what you call it. Did not get lots of attention but the game critics loved it and gave it very high ratings. The 90s were full of great games and this was one of them.
indstr 2014-02-12 1 point DOS version
I love Magic Carpet. Not sure what the difference is between regular & Plus versions though...
GoodOleDays 2013-11-10 0 point DOS version
For running Magic Carpet in DOSBox, after you start your game ensure your slow down the emulation (CTRL+F11), I was playing the game at 26% ... this will solve the insane speed issue but it will cause a minor amount of choppyness... adjust the speed to your computer. CTRL+F12 speeds up the emulation.
I did crash the game fairly easily just by getting into a big fight and casting a lot of spells. So save often and fight small...
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Buy Magic Carpet Plus
Magic Carpet Plus is available for a small price on the following website, and is no longer abandonware. GOG.com provides the best release and does not include DRM, please buy from them! You can read our online store guide .
Other Releases
Magic Carpet Plus was also released on the following systems:
SEGA Saturn
- Year: 1996
- Publisher: Electronic Arts, Inc.
- Developer: Bullfrog Productions, Ltd.
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