Magic Carpet

User Summary:

Magic Carpet is a unique first-person flyer game. The player takes the role of a mage standing on a magic carpet that can fly rapidly in all directions. The object of the game is to collect golden mana spheres that are required to a) build your castle and b) "heal" the world. There are 50 world-levels, each of which consists of an oceanic planet upon which are found various islands. Monsters and other mages serve as obstacles in gathering the mana; getting past them often involves engaging in visually spectacular magical flying combat in which a variety of fireball, lightning and other spells are cast.

Published in 1994 by Bullfrog Productions, Magic Carpet was an unusual and innovative game that was never imitated. An expansion pack called Hidden Worlds was released later, as well as a sequel, Magic Carpet 2, that appeared in 1995. Magic Carpet was based on a voxel technology engine, which allowed for attractive graphics and very large environments for the time, but the technology was rapidly bypassed by the popularity of hardware-enhanced 3D graphics engines. According to Jon Rennie, who worked at Bullfrog from 1996 to 1999, Magic Carpet 2 was rushed into release by Electronic Arts and the quality suffered as a result. He also mentions that initial work was begun on an engine for Magic Carpet 3, but the game was never completed or released.