Magic: The Gathering video games

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Several video games based on the Magic: The Gathering franchise exist for multiple systems. Some have attempted to translate the card game to electronic play nearly exactly; others have taken more liberties and drawn more from the setting than the actual rules of the card game. Benefits of successful video game versions of the card game include convenience, practice, and challenge. However, artificial intelligence for a game such as Magic is an extremely hard problem, and such software usually must be continuously updated to stay current with recently released card sets. Video game versions often expand on artwork, and may include unique cards that rely on randomness, effects which would be difficult or annoying to duplicate in real life.

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Magic: The Gathering

Named after the game itself, Magic: The Gathering was published by MicroProse in February 1997. 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 any 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. Two expansion packs were published, Spells of the Ancients and Duels of the Planeswalkers.

The game is notable as being the last game Sid Meier ( Civilization , Railroad Tycoon ) worked on while employed by MicroProse, though his involvement was short. Meier left before development was complete to found Firaxis Games.[ citation needed ]

Magic: The Gathering: BattleMage

Magic: The Gathering: BattleMage is a real time strategy game published in January 1997 by Acclaim for both PCs and PlayStation. It was also in development for the Sega Saturn, but this version was cancelled in mid-1997. [1] In addition to the real time strategy game, BattleMage has a head-to-head mode. [2] It is set on the continent of Corondor, where a planeswalker named Ravidel forces the most powerful mages to fight each other, so that he can eventually destroy them and conquer the land.

Magic: The Gathering: Armageddon

Magic: The Gathering: Armageddon is an extremely rare arcade game published by Acclaim in 1997, somewhat similar to BattleMage. It is possible that as few as four machines were made. Acclaim's Mountain View, California-based coin-op division went out of business shortly after creating the game, so it never went into full production. [3] GamePro reported that Armageddon was shown to their editors behind the scenes at the 1997 ASI show in Las Vegas, but did not appear on the show floor. [4] The arcade board used 3dfx components and included 600 MB of RAM. [5]

Gameplay is a cross between real time combat and strategy, with characters representing one of the five colors. White had healing and soldiers; Blue countermagic and water creatures; Black death and undead creatures; Red fire and mountain creatures; and Green elves and forest magic. The game was controlled with a trackball, and supported up to two players. [6] Players could summon creatures to the arena as well as attack the opposing wizard directly. [7]

Magic: The Gathering (Sega)

Magic: The Gathering is a Dreamcast game published and released by Sega in June 2001, though in Japan only. It takes place in the town of Magic Heart, the surrounding areas of Murg, Camat Island, Lydar Forest, Yeluk, Tornell, and The Balance Tower. It includes cards from 6th edition, Alliances, and Tempest. The game included 10 cards unique to it, generally utilizing random mechanics that would be difficult to implement in real-life card play.

Magic: The Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia

The Magic: The Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia is an application and database of cards released by Wizards of the Coast. At its time of release, it contained up to the Mercadian Masques expansion; its database was updatable over the Internet, and continued to be updated by Wizards until the release of Judgment and Magic Online, which Wizards considered as superseding the Interactive Encyclopedia.

The encyclopedia includes a strategy information section and deck builder with pricing. It also included a free online play mode, albeit one lacking rules enforcement.

Magic: The Gathering Online

Magic: The Gathering Online is a 2002 game developed by Leaping Lizard Software and maintained by Wizards of the Coast itself since version 2.0 in 2004. It focuses purely on gameplay, and includes no additional storyline. Included are cards from all expansions starting with Mirage with the exception of the sets Unhinged , Unglued , and Magic: The Gathering Conspiracy which would not easily translate to computer play. Updates become available as new sets are printed. Games are held in chatroom-style sessions, and virtual cards can be won or purchased with real money. Magic Online offers a variety of both casual games in which players can use cards they own for fun, and competitive online tournaments in which players use purchased/traded tickets and booster packs to enter into events, both Limited (decks built with cards opened from boosters) and Constructed (decks built from a player's collection).

Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds

Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds is a game released in 2003 for both the PC and Xbox platforms, published by Atari. It was another attempt to do a real-time battling game, with wizards frantically running around casting spells. The Xbox version of the game offered downloadable creatures, arenas, and enchantments, though the PC version did not.

Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers is a 2009 game for Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft Windows, and PS3 developed by Stainless Games Ltd and published by Wizards of the Coast. It was released first on XBLA June 17, 2009, with a PC version released shortly after. It was announced on February 18, 2008, by way of a press release. [8] Three expansion packs have been released on XBLA. A PS3 version was made available on the PlayStation Network in November 2010. [9] Players are given pre-made decks they can play against an AI or against other humans online; new cards for these decks can be unlocked through play.

Magic: The Gathering - Tactics

Magic: The Gathering - Tactics was an online turn-based strategy video game for the PC based on the card game that includes elements of positioning and map control. Tactics was developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment. [10] The game was released for PC on January 18, 2011, and shut down on March 28, 2014.

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a follow-up to the 2009 Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. It was released on June 15, 2011. [11] It features a campaign mode with light story and a variety of pre-made decks for which additional cards can be unlocked through play. Like the original Duels of the Planeswalkers, the decks are made such that complicated timing windows are unnecessary and the choice of land tapping is generally irrelevant; this keeps the gameplay faster than Magic Online, which allows full deck customization.

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is a followup to both previous Duels of the Planeswalkers titles, released June 20, 2012. In addition to Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, the game was also made available on iPad for the first time. [12]

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 is the fourth installment in the Duels of the Planeswalkers series, released June 26, 2013. It introduced a new feature, "Sealed Play", which allows players to open virtual booster packs and build their own decks. [13]

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 is the fifth installment in the Duels of the Planeswalkers series.

Magic Duels

Magic Duels, originally titled Magic Duels: Origins, is the follow-up to Duels of the Planeswalkers. It includes a new model for monetization; unlike the earlier games, it is free to play. Unlike Magic: The Gathering Online, it is possible to earn cards via "grinding" rather than paying money. Origins was released on July 29, 2015.

Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest

Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest is a mobile game based on the Puzzle Quest series of match-3 games, originally developed by Hibernum but taken over by Oktagon Games. It was first released in 2015. The player competes against computer-run opponents (either premade decks set by the game, or decks created by other players), matching tiles on a game board to generate mana that allows them to summon creatures and cast spells, with many of the game's other mechanics changed to be performed automatically by the game. Players can earn in-game rewards to get new cards or can acquire these through microtransactions.

Magic: The Gathering Arena

Magic: The Gathering Arena is a free to play version of MtG[ citation needed ], streamlined for quick online play and to be easily used for live streaming. It initially supported Constructed Deck play (using cards earned from boosters by winning games or through microtransactions) and Draft play. It was developed by Wizards' in-house studio, Magic Digital Studio. Arena is aimed to stay concurrent with the physical card game, with plans to release new expansions on the same day they are released physically. The game was extended to be also supported on MacOS June 2020.

Magic: Legends

Magic: Legends is a free-to-play action role-playing game that was under development by Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment, [14] but was canceled in June 2021. [15] The game was previously billed as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). [16] Instead, as an action role-playing game, players control a Planeswalker using abilities that are drawn randomly from an arsenal based on Magic cards, with players able to gain access to new cards through completing quests or through microtransactions. The game launched an open beta preview version for Microsoft Windows in March 2021. While formal releases on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One were planned later in 2021, [17] this did not come to fruition after negative feedback on the open beta, and the game was canceled. It became unavailable to players in October 2021 when the servers were closed.

Related Research Articles

<i>Magic: The Gathering</i> Collectible card game

Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and had approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duel Masters Trading Card Game</span>

The Duel Masters Trading Card Game is a two-player or two vs. two team collectible card game (CCG) jointly developed by Wizards of the Coast and Takara Tomy. The card game is part of the Duel Masters franchise.

The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published seven expansion sets from 1993–1995, and one compilation set. These sets contained new cards that "expanded" on the base sets of Magic with their own mechanical theme and setting; these new cards could be played on their own, or mixed in with decks created from cards in the base sets. With Magic's runaway success, many of the printings of these early sets were too small to satisfy the rapidly growing fanbase. Cards from them became rare, hard to find, and expensive. It was not until Fallen Empires and Homelands that Wizards of the Coast was able to print enough cards to meet demand; additionally, Wizards of the Coast published Chronicles, a reprint set that helped fix many of the scarcity issues with the earliest sets.

The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering has released compilation sets, reprint sets, and box sets over its history. These are distinct from core sets and expansion sets, the most heavily marketed sources of new cards. With the exception of Chronicles, reprint sets generally do not affect tournament legality in supported formats; for example, cards reprinted in the Modern Masters reprint set, while legal for tournament play, did not necessarily cause the card to be included in the "Standard" environment.

<i>Magic: The Gathering</i> (1997 video game) 1997 virtual card game

Magic: The Gathering is a video game published by MicroProse in March 1997 based on the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. It is often referred to as Shandalar after the plane of Shandalar, where the game takes place. 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 and role-playing 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.

<i>Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers</i> 2009 virtual card game

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, published by Wizards of the Coast. It was released on June 17, 2009.

The Zendikar block is a Magic: The Gathering block consisting of the sets Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi. The eponymous setting is a vast, untamed wilderness, whose few bastions of civilization exist primarily for outfitting treasure-seeking expeditions to distant locales. Colossal ancient octahedral stones called "hedrons" float in the sky. A phenomenon known as "the Roil" causes frequent geological upheaval as it sweeps across the land. Unlike the previous two blocks, there is no multicolored theme. Instead, the themes Zendikar and Worldwake revolve around lands, and a theme of an adventure or quest. Rise of the Eldrazi, while part of the Zendikar block creatively and for the sake of constructed tournament rules, is unique mechanically and is designed to be drafted on its own. Drafts in the Zendikar block are either ZEN-ZEN-WWK or ROE-ROE-ROE.

<i>Magic: The Gathering – Tactics</i> 2011 video game

Magic: The Gathering – Tactics was an online turn-based strategy game developed by Sony Online Entertainment, and based on the Magic: The Gathering trading card game series. First announced on November 2, 2009. The game was released January 18, 2011, for the PC, February 3, 2012, on Steam,. It is presumed that a previously announced PlayStation 3 version of the game was canceled due to the game being shut down on March 28, 2014.

The rules of Magic: The Gathering were originally developed by the game's creator, Richard Garfield, and accompanied the first version of the game in 1993. The rules of Magic have been changed frequently over the years by the manufacturer, Wizards of the Coast, mostly in minor ways. However, major rules overhauls have also been done a few times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collectible card game</span> Game played using specialized playing cards

A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with Magic: The Gathering in 1993.

<i>Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012</i> 2011 virtual card game

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, published by Wizards of the Coast. It was released on June 15, 2011. The game is a follow-up to the highly popular Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers, which was released in 2009. An expansion for the game, called Ascend into Darkness, was released on September 14, 2011. The sequel, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, was released in 2012.

<i>Magic: The Gathering Commander</i> Series of supplemental Magic: the Gathering card game products

Commander is a series of supplemental Magic: the Gathering card game products. Its mechanics are derived from a fan-created format known as "Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH)". The official Commander format is "the only sanctioned format maintained by an outside entity" other than Wizards of the Coast.

<i>Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013</i> 2012 virtual card game

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, first published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game was released on June 20, 2012, via Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and iPad, and is the third game in the Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers series. The gameplay follows that of the original card game, however within a more restrained framework. It received mainly positive reviews and was number one in the PlayStation Network sales for June. The sequel, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014, was released in 2013.

<i>Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014</i> 2013 virtual card game

Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, first published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game was released on 26 June 2013 on PC (Steam), Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPad (iTunes), and Android devices. It is the fourth game in the Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers series. The gameplay follows that of the original card game, however within a more restrained framework. It includes a new feature, "Sealed Play", which allows players to open virtual booster packs and build their own decks. These decks can be used in the special Sealed campaign, and also in multiplayer. The game, like all the previous installments, is priced $10.00 on all platforms. Additional slots for custom made decks can be purchased separately for $1.99. The sequel, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015, was released in 2014.

<i>Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015</i> 2014 virtual card game

Magic 2015 – Duels of the Planeswalkers is a video game based on the collectible card game of the same name, first published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game was released in July 2014 on PC (Steam), Xbox 360, iPad (iTunes), and Android devices. An Xbox One version was released in November 2014. It is the fifth game in the Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers series. The gameplay follows that of the original card game, however within a more restrained framework. The game, like all the previous installments, is priced $10 on most platforms. On the iPad, the game is free for the first realm but has in-app purchases for the remaining realms, more cards and additional features.

<i>Magic Duels</i> 2015 video game

Magic Duels is a video game based on the popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Magic Duels is a successor to Stainless Games' Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers and its annual sequels, released from 2009 through 2014. The free-to-play title was released on July 29, 2015, shortly following the physical release of the Magic Origins core set.

<i>Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest</i> 2015 mobile puzzle video game

Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest is a puzzle video game that combines the gem-matching concept in Puzzle Quest and its sequels, with the collectible card game aspects of Magic: The Gathering. It was released for mobile systems in December 2015.

<i>Magic: The Gathering Arena</i> Video game

Magic: The Gathering Arena or MTG Arena is a free-to-play digital collectible card game developed and published by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). The game is a digital adaption based on the Magic: The Gathering (MTG) card game, allowing players to gain cards through booster packs, in-game achievements or microtransaction purchases, and build their own decks to challenge other players. The game was released in a beta state in November 2017, and was fully released for Microsoft Windows users in September 2019, and a macOS version on June 25, 2020. Mobile device versions were released in March 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital collectible card game</span> Video game that emulates collectible card games

A digital collectible card game (DCCG) or online collectible card game (OCCG) is a computer or video game that emulates collectible card games (CCG) and is typically played online or occasionally as a standalone video game. Many DCCGs are types of digital tabletop games and follow traditional card game-style rules, while some DCCGs use alternatives for cards and gameboards, such as icons, dice and avatars. Originally, DCCGs started out as replications of a CCG's physical counterpart, but many DCCGs have foregone a physical version and exclusively release as a video game, such as with Hearthstone.

<i>Magic: Legends</i> 2021 video game

Magic: Legends was an action role-playing video game based on the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. It was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment. The game began an open beta for Microsoft Windows in March 2021, with plans for open release later that year as a free-to-play title on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. On June 29, 2021, it was announced that development would cease. The servers were shut down on October 31, 2021.

References

  1. ↑ "Acclaim Back Away from Sega". Sega Saturn Magazine . No. 22. Emap International Limited. August 1997. p. 15. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Magic the Gathering: BattleMage: Beyond the Card Game". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 89. Ziff Davis. December 1996. p. 297.
  3. ↑ Jindra, Mark (April 5, 2008). "Ask Wizards". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  4. ↑ Johnny Ballgame; Major Mike (June 1997). "Armageddon". GamePro . No. 105. IDG. p. 33.
  5. ↑ Webb, Marcus (August 1997). "Acclaim's Armageddon: Awesome!". Next Generation . No. 32. Imagine Media. p. 28.
  6. ↑ "Magic The Gathering: Armageddon" . Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  7. ↑ Johnny Ballgame (November 1997). "Hot at the Arcades: Armageddon". GamePro . No. 110. IDG. p. 116.
  8. ↑ "WIZARDS OF THE COAST EXTENDS ITS MAGIC: THE GATHERING IP TO MULTIPLE PLATFORMS". February 18, 2008. Archived from the original on February 28, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers - Games - Games & Media - PlayStation.com" . Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Announcing Magic: The Gathering Tactics". November 2, 2009. Archived from the original on November 5, 2009. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
  11. ↑ "Magic: The Gathering Duels 2012 Launches". IGN. Archived from the original on June 21, 2011. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  12. ↑ "Magic: The Gathering — Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 Now On iPad For Free | Cult of Mac".
  13. ↑ "Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 breaks down the game's complications". Polygon. May 12, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Cryptic's Magic: Legends is an isometric RPG and not an MMORPG because of earth elemental butt". Massively Overpowered. January 9, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  15. ↑ "Magic: Legends is closing down permanently in October". PC Gamer . June 29, 2021. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Magic: Legends is an MMO set in the Magic: The Gathering universe". PC Gamer . December 12, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  17. ↑ Hall, Charlie (March 18, 2021). "Magic: The Gathering goes Diablo, but with classic cards — and it's free". Polygon . Retrieved March 21, 2021.
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