Master of Magic (MicroProse, 1994)

Another game from the classic era (1990s) that I played a lot back then.  "Master of Magic" by Microprose.  There is a version available from gog.com for $2.99 which comes nicely packaged with a launcher app called "Gog Galaxy" that knows how to setup DOSBox behind the scenes so the game just came up full screen, ready to play.

Of course, considering the anticipation, I got one of the worst starts I have ever seen.  I was stuck on a tiny island no more than 5x5 hexes.  Nowhere to build a new settlement, and the few pieces I did build ran out of money quickly due to bad location of my only town.  But it was nice to see those old familiar screens again.



This was a clone of the original Civilization (which I also played for hours on end), except that your generals are wizards who have spells that can affect the battles.  There are also power nodes of various elements, and a whole other dimension you can expand into.  Instead of the usual troop types and tanks (etc), you play a variety of high fantasy races and meet a huge range of creatures.

The only time I had two functional units, I sent them through the nature node a few blocks from home, and there were killed by those shadow soldiers, or whatever those little blue stick people were supposed to be.  I did go back (after my only unit of settlers starved) and beat the one remaining unit, and got 30 gold.  As I recall you can also get scrolls and items that you can give to your units for various boosts.

The GOG site has a variety of extra material, including a full PDF manual, PDF strategy guide, and a few community add-ons.  That all sounds like fun to explore.

I should start a new game, hoping for a better spawn, and get more screenshots to talk about.



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