Multiplayer was added to the game in a later expansion, but focusing on the single player allowed for card collection, that being a large portion of player motivation in CCGs, and also a more developed AI. Apparently dropping multiplayer and adding the adventure game setting were both at his direction, and they were both good moves. Some people might attribute this to the involvement of Sid Meier: though he doesn’t appear in the credits, Shandalar was the last project which he worked on at Microprose before leaving to start Firaxis. It’s now more than twenty years later and there have been quite a few other efforts but they have all been either unable or unwilling to match what Microprose did back then. Shandalar was released in 1997 and, it’s sad to say, is still the best video game based on Magic. That got confusing really quickly and fans adopted their own name for the video game: “Shandalar”, named after the world in which it takes place. Many adaptations in fact, but the first was simply titled “Magic: The Gathering” – the same as the physical card game. It seemed natural that a video game adaptation would follow, and so it did. It kicked off the massive popularity of collectible card games which continues even now (was it the first CCG? it might have been the first), and made an enormous amount of money. Magic: The Gathering is a real-world collectible card game which came out in 1993 and made a huge impact on gamers at the time. The game will not tell you these things, you need to know them. Also, the minimum deck sizes are: 30 for Apprentice difficulty, 35 for Magician, and 40 for Sorcerer and Wizard. The Duels of the Planeswalkers series has better tutorials (though Shandalar’s tutorials are wonderfully campy), just pick whatever game from that series is current.Īdditionally, a couple of important notes: by default, your upkeep phase is skipped and all non-mandatory upkeeps will automatically go unpaid unless you set the game to pause during your upkeep phase. If you’ve never played Magic, starting with Shadalar might be confusing. Relevant links: Shandalar (requires Bittorrent), 2012 version, Manalink
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