Magic Carpet (Playstation)
Original dev: Bullfrog
Playstation: Krysalis
Distributor: Electronic Arts


Magic Carpet, a port of the PC game of the same name, is an intense-
action 3D shooting game.  Fly your magic carpet over fractal-generated
landscapes, fight evil creatures and other carpet-fliers, and gather
some pretty amazing spells.  This game may have the most value of any
Playstation game.  The game contains 70 levels, which take from 10
minutes to who knows how many hours to complete (Level 11 took me
about 2 hours the first time); 20-30 (estimated) different enemies; and
about 20 spells.  If you don't play for sheer fun of blasting, or
for the intricate evolution of the world as you play, you can play
to acquire the next spell, because some of them are pretty amazing.

THE GAME

On arrival on a particular level (world), play first consists of downing
a few baddies, taking possession of the golden balls of manna that result,
and building a castle to hold your manna.  Your castle comes complete
with a hot-air balloon, which flies about collecting manna and depositing
it back in your castle.  All you have to do to complete the level is
find a certain anount of manna (shown on your castle manna indicator) and
possess it so that the balloon can carry it back to your castle.

You begin with three spells - fireball, possess, and castle.  The third
spell is acquired on the first level.  Fireball throws a single fireball;
possess is used for taking possession of manna or communities; castle
is for building and enlarging your castle.  Various indicators are shown
at the top of the screen to give health and manna status.  The more manna
you have, the faster your spells replenish, and the faster you can dish
out major hurt.

Fireballs home in somewhat on the nearest enemy, making the game less
of a target shooting game and more of a game about which enemies to
attack, when to run, and where to place the castle.  On the other hand,
this is one intense shooter.  Action can get
very intense when your castle is small and 40 birds are attacking it from
overhead.  Not only do you have to bring down each bird, but you also
need to grab the falling manna.  Also, other creatures are attracted by
your weak condition, and will also come attack your castle.  Other wizards
come to steal manna (and help out destroy creatures, but if your castle
should happen to get in the way, they're not shy about fireballing it
as well).

Gameplay is rich.  Birds, giant worms, giant flying worms, and a host of
other creatures exhibit semi-intelligent behavior and some operate in groups.
Manna rolls down hills into valleys.  Strategic dispatching of a worm
can land the manna right next to your castle.  Communities can be possessed
and will grow an army, which does its best to help you out.  Hordes of undead
march toward your castle, attacking your communities and adding the killed
to their ranks.  Your castle may even have to be moved (use L1+L2 to downgrade
and eventually erase your castle size so it can be rebuilt elsewhere).
You can wither the landscape with fireball spells, and set trees on fire,
which will kill creatures who wander into them.  And in general, flying and
fighting around the varied fractal landscapes can be a lot of fun.  Because
you can fly sideways, you can do many maneuvers, such as encircling enemies as
you blast them.  This makes for some really nice visuals, as you circle around
your castle or an interesting mountain.

Then there are your interactions with the other wizards, which basically
wander around doing the same things you do.  How you interact with them
(stealing, attacking balloons/castles, cooperation, etc) affects how they
interact with you.

What awaits you later in the game?  Varied terrain, new enemies, smarter
wizards, interesting puzzles, and some pretty amazing spells, with which
to wreak havoc on creaturedom (and any area of land that may happen to be
in the vicinity at the time).

Graphics are very good.  Although only 256-color, the fractal-generated
land formations are varied and look really nice.  Castle graphics and
community buildings are also good.  Animation is also really good; castles
morph as you enlarge them, and the land deforms to accomodate them.  Some
powerful spells cause volcanos to sprout up from the ground.

Sound is also good.  Background sounds of wind or water (depending on
whether you're flying over land or sea) help set the mood.


THE PORT

Krysalis ported this game to the Playstation from the PC.  The looks and
sounds are mostly identical.  The same 256-color (or less -- some colors
are dither patterns on the Playstation) graphics, the same clipped horizon,
and the same bitmap scaling for enemies mar otherwise excellent visuals.
Sound is pretty much the same as in the original, very good.  The original
music seems to have been rearranged (unless I remember only the 8-bit version);
the original had better modulation (as in chord changes).

The PC had a variety of effects, such as reflections and a high-resolution
mode.  These two effects are not in the Playstation version.  Objects
cast shadows, but no reflections are shown over the water.  Effects that
have stayed from the PC version: fog, lighting, and shadows.  Krysalis added
a gouraud-shaded polygon sky, which sometimes looks fabulous,
and sometimes looks like a polygon sky.  It warps and scales in proper perspective,
like the rest of the scenery, enhancing the 3D effect.

The frame rate is low, and varies quite a bit.  The median rate is perhaps
15, which is quite choppy.  Often it reaches 20, and may top out at 30 occasionally.

This game makes the best use of the Playstation memory card of any Playstation
game.  You can hot-insert cards at any time into either slot, because it checks
for cards before each operation.  Saves are very fast.

The thing that amazes me is how they fit the entire level, which contributed
to the 8 MB memory requirement on the PC, into 3 MB of memory.

Overall this is a fairly good port of an outstanding game.  The game has good
looks, rich gameplay, high play value, and some amazing spells.

Mike W.