Magic Carpet flies onto GOG

Bullfrog's much-loved Magic Carpet has landed on Good Old Games, priced at $6. It spells the end to the digital distributor's first batch of vintage EA games.

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The final title from Good Old Games' first batch of vintage Electronic Arts games, Bullfrog's classic wizard simulator Magic Carpet, has arrived on the digital distributor. It's available now for $5.99.

Magic Carpet hails from 1994, back when Peter Molyneux games inspired gasps of wonder and awe rather than cynical Internet comments. Playing as a wizard on a very snazzy flying carpet, players take on monsters and rival mages to collect mana and restore balance to the world. Wizards are armed with a hefty arsenal of spells, from your basic fireball and healing spells to summoning skeletal forces and earthquakes.

Certain spells deform the terrain, which was jolly impressive in full 3D for 1994. You never forget your first fiery death-raining volcano.

GOG's EA releases are going on hiatus for the summer now, but another twenty or so unknown games are still in the pipeline. Unfortunately there are legal hurdles surrounded the much-desired System Shock series, but GOG hopes to one day offer the Looking Glass Studios masterpieces.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 17, 2011 7:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Magic Carpet flies onto GOG.

    Bullfrog's much-loved Magic Carpet has landed on Good Old Games, priced at $6. It spells the end to the digital distributor's first batch of vintage EA games.

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      June 17, 2011 7:44 AM

      I can only imagine how much fun a Magic Carpet game with the From Dust engine would be.

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        June 17, 2011 4:34 PM

        imagine it on the Just Cause 2 engine (Avalanche i think its called?)

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      June 17, 2011 7:47 AM

      I love GOG, oh so much.

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      June 17, 2011 8:11 AM

      I had this game as a kid and I didn't get it at all. "What, you just fly around on a magic carpet?" Of course, my machine sucked at the time.

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        June 17, 2011 8:14 AM

        I always thought that the idea of the game was better than the execution.

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        June 17, 2011 11:07 AM

        Same here. Totally confused every time I started it up.

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        June 18, 2011 12:52 AM

        It's funny... I remember playing the game for a bit and just being blown away by how great it looked and how cool it was.. but I really don't think I could have spent more than 6 hours actually playing the game. As cool as it all was at the time, it didn't hold up for long play sessions (at least for me).

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      June 17, 2011 8:11 AM

      I loved this and a magic carpet 2.

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      June 17, 2011 8:14 AM

      AWESOME. Dungeon keeper 2 pls :O!

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      June 17, 2011 8:43 AM

      Anyone else agree with me that the price point is a little high? Old games are fun in thought, then you play them. Last five minutes, if that.

      • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        June 17, 2011 8:50 AM

        Yes, $6 is a bit steep for a game this old, this outdated (nostalgia aside), and that has already had a full and profitable run.

        I think $3 is a more appropriate pricepoint. Certainly less than $5.

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          June 17, 2011 8:57 AM

          Majority of the stuff on GOG is either $5 or $10. It adds up, but isn't too much for individual purchases.

          • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            June 17, 2011 9:28 AM

            I definitely disagree. This is the kind of thing you'd expect to find in a retail package in the value bin at Wal-mart for $5 or less.

            I loved Magic Carpet back in the day, but no way is it worth more than I just paid for Nimbus on Steam.

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              June 17, 2011 10:01 AM

              I'm seeing Nimbus as a $10 game atm, maybe it was on sale? I think that's the issue, Steam and whatnot have sales so often that it feels like those prices are standard retail sometimes. Regardless, I too feel that Nimbus is worth more than MC is now, and it's current pricing reflects that, but I also think a lot of the better indy games are underpriced.

              • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                June 17, 2011 10:09 AM

                Yea, it was on sale.

                Definitely agree on modern indie games being underpriced. But it's hard to sell at your value when people don't know about you.

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                  June 17, 2011 10:13 AM

                  The entire $15 - $25 market is under represented and it's difficult to do so until you start making a name for yourself I agree.

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                June 17, 2011 10:16 AM

                I don't think I'd pay more than $20 for most indie games, especially considering the value there is in older games that you can get for

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                  June 17, 2011 10:27 AM

                  Most indy games suck though, the good ones could easily go for $20-$30 if they came from a known studio though.

                  • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                    June 17, 2011 11:23 AM

                    Nimbus is easily worth $15, maybe $20. It's a really good game.

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          June 17, 2011 4:06 PM

          No, at least compared to old classics on Steam, the ones on GOG are actually playable. I want to reward GOG for that.

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        June 17, 2011 9:31 AM

        not always. some of them hold up and depending on your nostalgic memories, might be worth playing through

        others, yeah, i agree, you play for a bit or load up every few months just to relive the memories. more than replaying itself just booting up a childhood favorite seems to bring back that rush of happy feelings. you don't necessarily need to play much to get the nostalgia benefit. in fact, playing too much of an old game might ruin the memories.

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          June 17, 2011 1:27 PM

          i have my copy of dungeon keeper 2 still somewhere in my library. I want to install but I fear to because of this exact reason.

          . . .Your nocturnal perserverance has earned you a hidden gaming tip, GO TO BED!

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        June 17, 2011 1:38 PM

        I've put a couple hundred hours into games I bought on GoG.

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        June 17, 2011 5:09 PM

        Six dollars is high? Isn't that like couch change money?

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      June 17, 2011 9:31 AM

      I still have the 3D glasses that came with the original. Does the GOG version have 3D?

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      June 17, 2011 11:22 AM

      [deleted]

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        June 17, 2011 1:31 PM

        Most of them are just the original game with dosbox wrappers. They do tweak settings for the individual title and sort of guarantee compatibility with modern Windows.

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        June 17, 2011 4:33 PM

        magic carpet is a monster to get to work on modern hardware with dosbox. 6$ is worth it for a working config alone to be honest.

        magic carpet is one of those games that would sync its screen updates to your CPU clock, therefore even if you get it working on dosbox, it will run at one hundred and ninety three billion frames per second, literally. you have to tweak down your CPU speed, which is mildly irritating.

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      June 17, 2011 4:55 PM

      I loved this game so much :(

      ... as you may be able to tell ...

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      June 18, 2011 1:22 AM

      Syndicate next Plz

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