Master of Magic

Still playing, and playing...

from GalCiv2 Forums
Just a thought about game replayability. I got Master of Magic shortly after it was released. Up until I installed Win XP it was on every machine that I owned starting with my 486 DX 50. Recently I was able to get it to run on XP with a combination of DOSbox and D-Fend. So lately I've been playing it yet again. This is even after I just got a Geforce 6800 CS/OC 256MB vid card.

The graphics are, shall we say, less than state of the art. But that game is probably my favorite strategy game of all times.

From what I've read about GalCiv2 it has all of the things that could make it another classic strategy game. Anybody else have a really old game that they still play, or would (if they could get it to run)?
47,115 views 36 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Well I really hate XP for the reason of Dos Box but I don't have the blue screens of death I had with Win ME.

My favorite place to check out old games - http://www.the-underdogs.org/

I liked Alien Legacy a lot. Replayability ain't much, but I did want to play it again for old time's sake.
Dune.. any dune fans of the RTS game (either dune 2 or dune 2000 ) ? How about some Starflight I or II ?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Star Control 2.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Star Control 2


Indeed. Guess I'll hit Supreme Shogun's link for that. Assuming it's in the database and downloadable. I have that as a bookmark. Go figure.

In fact I downloaded the music to SC2 a while back just to listen to. Some great techno there. My favorite sound, in game, is the "heavy breathing" in the ship transit parts IIRC.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Star Control II is available in very very loyal remake form as The Ur-Quan Masters.

Ironically enough, I've been playing it for the last week to distract me from lusting after Galciv2.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Well... I guess I'll be googling a bit. Thanks for the heads up.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
No need to google for Star Control 2. Here's the link:
URL: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Found it, thanks.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
It's a very loyal remake by the people who made star-control 2.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Now I would preffer such remake of Master of Magic and first MOO
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Hmm i am not sure that i can know star controll it has the same name in Germany?) i hear about MoM but i realy don't remember it anyway i say it on a ather place (thred) here in my opinon MoO2 was till now the best roundbase- SF Strategie-Game MoO3 destroy the sieres complet but i think STARDOCK will make Gamehistorie with GC2 it is that was MoO3 had shut be but it was a disaster i hopefully see in the future (to march when it will be in german in germany)
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
The Ur-Quan Masters is more a port of the 3DO version, which was open-sourced (and very pretty), than a remake. The most significant changes that were made were to get it to work on Windows, add some scalar options to reduce the low-res look, and put in the PC intro, outro, and options for the PC-style menus and other interface objects. And they fixed a crash that would occur if you reached a certain point in the game without ever visiting the starbase, and made it possible to complete the game that way. People have done it. Seriously.

Myself, I ordered Wing Commander 2-4, Freespace, and Magic Carpet 2 a few weeks ago, and I've been playing through those. Gotta save up my 4X powers for the actual release, and I've wanted to add these games to my collection.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Well imagine yourself what Stardock could make out Master of Magic.

Master of Orion 3 unfinished (crappy) game but a huge sucess intially due to the name alone...

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I only would want:


Running on Windows / Good AI / true to the original but perhaps slight improvents.

Would be one of the few games where I would preorder the game as soon

as stardock announces the beta or the development of the game itself
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
I have a strange feeling about Stardock and MoM when thinking about Frogboy's point of view on tactical batlle
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Now, Darklands!!!

There was a GREAT game.... http://www.darklands.net/
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
I have a strange feeling about Stardock and MoM when thinking about Frogboy's point of view on tactical batlle

There's three ways how to deal with that:
a) Make it multiplayer only (no AI) - not really a viable option.
b) Leave out tactical combat like GalCiv - The problem here is that MoM with its fantasy setting is much more unit centered than a space 4x game (just think about heros). There are so many different unit abilities (not forgetting spell magic) that this solution would eradicate a central part of the original game.
c) Write a good AI for tactical combat - hard and probably very time consuming.

Option c) is probably the one most of the MoM fans will want to be chosen. Personally I'd buy a new version if it just had updated graphics, and a little bit better strategic and tactical AI than the original.

On the strategic level I don't see too much a problem there since the team has already proven to deliver in that area. But to write a good tactical AI that stands the high quality standards that Draginol expects from themselves would probably the greatest challenge. We'll see if they take it on - I sure wish for it since the original MoM was my most-looked-forward-to-game up to now.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
I have to admit that Fantasy General was a guilty pleasure of mine...
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I appreciate all of the replies to this thread. It seems that a lot of people remember the quality that was/is MoM. I too would love to see a revamp of the game with up to date graphics and a few tweaks to the AI. The funny thing is, that I believe that MoM would be as big a seller as GalCiv2.

While there are only a few posts here about it , I think it would be big for two reasons:

1. This kind of TBS game obviously has fans. And there are a lot more people out there who aren't on this forum for one reason or another. People who wouldn't be interested in a space based TBS game would be interested in a fantasy genre TBS game. Maybe more than a space based game.

2. If anyone could make it a hit it would be the guys that made GalCiv 1 and 2. It's obvious to me that the devs here really love the games that they design. And the level of TLC that goes into the production of a game can make or break it.

Just a subtle hint. Hmmm... Who here is a fan of MoM and is working on GalCiv? His name is on the tip of my tongue...
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Btw if you want to get any classic games from The Underdogs, make sure you aren't using any download accelerators. I just got banned from downloading off that site for a week, and all I tried to do was download Darklands while browsing with Firefox. Got banned in about 2 seconds.

edit: I'm fairly clueless as to networking and such, but using netstat -n it appears that when i first begin to download a file it will open a crapload of connections, then once it's established the optimal one (I guess), it switches to just using the one; so, that's probably why The Underdogs banned me for my accidental misbehavior. Though, not a problem, googled 'Darklands abandonware' and found a few other sites that had it, such as Abandonia.

Oh and for the record I'd love to see a Master of Magic remake too. A fantasy empire TBS with RPG elements just hasn't been done to the same degree since, there was just such a remarkable number of features that nothing exactly compares. However, it was lacking a lot of automation features (build queues for starters), the town advancement was relatively limited, and it didn't feel to me like each game 'felt' different from the last; in other words I felt the replay value wasn't quite what it could've been. All these things are things Stardock could surely remedy. On second thought it's really not the replay value it was lacking, since your spell choices, race and perk picks could make a big difference, I think it goes back to the lack of automation makes it feel repetitive to me if I go back and play it now.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
I have been playing a turn-based fantasy strategy game called "Westnoth". It is free, has six different races (udead, humans, orcs, elves, dwarves and some reptile guys). It plays simply, controlling villages gains revenue, has AI, and several campaign cames as well as random maps and regular scenarios. Find it at:

http://www.wesnoth.org/

It is not nearly on the same level as MoM, but plays quick. You can set it up everyone for themselves or team play. I'll play it quite a bit up until Feb. 22... then I'll be busy with another game coming out.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
best site for old games: http://www.abandonia.com

(has MoM, Pirates, even X-Wing and TIE-Fighter. and lots more)

edit:
and agree with poster above. Wesnoth is pretty fun too for it beeing free. especially for a quick multiplayer skirmish.
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
Just downloaded and ran Wesnoth. Got through the tutorial. Looks like fun. Thanks for the link. It won't kill the craving for GalCiv2 but it might quiet the craving a bit.
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
XCOM: UFOD

This game needs to be remade properly. All attempts at making a similar game have been less than successful.
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
If you loved MoM I would Highly recommend Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. A top notch game! Pretty much has everything MoM had ...

Dano
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Birth of the federation


Ah, a man after my own heart! The last couple months, I've been playing it more than I have in a good while. The impending release of GalCiv 2 has been giving me that itch for space 4x games again, and BotF is the best way for me scratch it a bit--at least for the moment.