In 1994 Bullfrog Productions Limited released arguably one of their best games to date. Combining stunning graphics and superb gameplay Magic Carpet was set to be a winner. A year down the line, Magic Carpet is still going as strong as ever and the only threat to its unique position is the upcoming release of Magic Carpet II. In this page you will find a comprehensive set of tips for players of all abilities, news of related releases, some frequently asked questions and news of the spectacular sequel to Magic Carpet, Magic Carpet II. news of the spectacular sequel to Magic Carpet, Magic Carpet II. Current Contents: * The Ultimate Tip Collection. * Hidden Worlds. * All you wanted to know, and more. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ULTIMATE TIP COLLECTION General Tips for the Novice: One of the great features of Magic Carpet is that a million different players can adopt a million different strategies, but can still all be victorious. Magic Carpet is a game of such freedom that there is no real definite way to finish the game, the method of completion being entirely up to the player. Experimentation with stratergies and play methods can pay off in a big way, but there is no substitute for a skilled mouse handler with a bloody fast finger! In the beginning........ The first ten levels of Magic Carpet have a solid learning curve that a smart player will take immediate advantage of. The first five levels should be used as a sort of contrived training ground for would-be wizards. These levels are perfect for honing your skills as a master Carpet flyer and you should remember that being skilled on the carpet is the most important skill you can have, above even spell casting. Use these easy introductory levels to train yourself in flying, and play them again and again if need be so that you should be able to despatch any nasties in levels 1-10 with ease. You should also concentrate on learning to switch spells as fast as possible, it may save your life! Flying Tips In Magic Carpet, learning to use your carpet well is imperative to a successful game. For this reason you should practice using the following guidelines. Learn to use the left and right strafing keys properly and they can become invaluable assets. They can be used in conjunction with the backward and forward keys to pull off some amazing moves during play. When attacking a castle always use the left and right arrow keys to fly sideways around the castle whilst shooting offensive spells at it. This prevents the castles' archers from targeting you with any accuracy. Secret Tip: If you are in a tight spot and don't have enough mana to cast Accelerate, quickly turn yourself left to a 45 degree angle from where you want to fly and hold down the forward key and right strafe key and you will actually fly there quicker than if you flew in a straight line! (this also works vice-versa, i.e. turn right and press forward and left strafe.) For extremely quick turning left, use the right arrow key and the backwards arrow key in conjunction. For turning right, press the left arrow key and the backwards arrow key. This gives you a big advantage! If you have someone on your tail shooting you in the back, don't turn around and face him directly. A better idea is to reverse as quickly as possible so you are behind him. If you have the accelerate backwards spell, all the better! Learn to use the the landscape to your advantage and you can gain quite a lead over other players. For instance, if a rivals castle is positioned at the foot of a mountain, hide behind the mountain and take pot-shots at it. His Archers won't be able to hit you with their arrows, and the only way the rival can get rid of you is to leave his castle and fight you in the open, on equal terms. If ever you find a spell or some mana down a crater that is too steep to fly down, use the carpet like a skateboard and fly in a downward spiral around the walls of the crater and you should get to the bottom of the crater no problem. Sometimes you will come accross deep pits in the land that just aren't wide enough to fly down. If you wish to get to the bottom of these pits for a spell (or whatever), just come to a complete stop over the pit. When you are totally motionless you will then begin to sink downwards. Use the arrow keys to position yourself properly and you will eventually reach the bottom of the pit and whatever was in it. NOTE: If you are sinking down the pit be VERY careful using the forward and back arrow keys, because if you hit any of the pit walls while moving forwards or backwards you will shoot up and back out of the pit, wasting all of your work! The Game Proper....... By the time of, say, level 11, you should have a solid flying ability and a nice base of spells to work with. It is around this level that things start to hot up,with your abilities being tested quite thoroughly, and some new creatures to battle. Here are the main points that Bullfrog players would consider to be the most important to your overall strategy. If you find yourself short of mana, fly around the level possessing all the buildings you can. This can sometimes yield you huge amounts of mana to play with, as most wizards tend to ignore buildings. Never build your castle close to a wall or to another players castle. Ideally your castle should always be built with expansion in mind so always have enough space around your first-stage castle for the next six stages, regardless of whether you think you will be powerful enough to build it to such a size. Walls are permanent fixtures and cannot be really moved unless you have enough mana for (and have collected) the crater spell. You should learn to use the potential of your castle spell. the spell can be used in ways you might not have thought of, and indeed can become a powerful spell in its own right. For instance, if you find yourself in the midst of a a full scale Giant Bee attack, a well placed castle spell in the middle of the group can be devastating and can garner you huge groups of mana. Your castle may well be destroyed in the process but build it again and again until all the bees are destroyed, then possess the mana at your leisure. Because the mana is centred around your castle, your balloons can collect it very quickly which can leave you very powerful very quickly! This tactic works with almost all creatures but work especially well with swarming nasties such as Skeleton Armies, Archers, Vultures, Griffins and Giant Bees. Always assign your spells to their key spaces, No.'s 1-10 on the keyboard. It can be time consuming learning the process, but if you always assign the same spells to the same keys, in time it will become second nature and will be a definite advantage during fast paced play. If you find yourself in what we at Bullfrog call a "click-fest", that is fighting over a pool of mana with a multitude of other wizards. These "click-fests" only really happen if there is but one pool of mana on the level, but there is a sly tactic that can sometimes work very well. As the other wizards fight over the mana pool, use your Accelerate spell to the nearest creature and destroy it. Then possess its mana and accelerate back to the original mana pool. If the tactic has worked, some or even all of the other wizards will move away to the other newly formed, smaller pool, leaving you to lap up all the mana yourself! During the game you will sometimes find a large pool of rival wizards' mana with the enemy wizard hovering above it. On possessing the mana you find that he immediately re-possesses it as his own, with the end result that your balloons are never attracted to the mana. The best way to work around this is to concentrate on one mana ball and if he possesses it again, fire possess indiscriminately around the pool and while he moves around repossesing, you once again concentrate on the same mana ball. Repeat the process until your balloon eventually arrives and then go mad and possess everything in the pool as quickly as possible until your balloon is full, or there is no mana left. If you are a skilled player, you can also try to fend off any enemy balloons that arrive, though this can be difficult. If you are up against a particularly tough opponent (and you invariably will be!) whose castle is much more advanced than your own, it is imperative that you reduce his castle as much as possible. An efficient method to achieve this end is to lure other creatures into his castle, and have them destroy it. First of all, wait until a particularly dangerous creature, or even better a group of dangerous creatures such as Griffins, are near his castle. Hover in and around the enemy fortress and open fire on one of the griffins, then retreat to the centre of the enemy castle. The griffins should follow and attack both you and the enemy castle will be levelled in seconds! Wait until the griffins disperse and then go back and mop up the mana! If you are ever attacked by creatures hiding in a forest, instead of attack- ing them directly just let loose at the trees. This will start a forest fire that could wipe them all out without you firing another shot! This is very effective with Skeleton Armies and Archer groups. Effectively, once you start the fire you could fly off to deal with more pressing matters and return to find nothing but mana! Whenever your castle is under attack by creatures who seem relentless, press shift-L to level your castle. It may seem stupid but this leaves you free to create another castle directly underneath them which will, depending on the creature, destroy them utterly. Assuming you have more than two castles just after the creatures have destroyed a stage, which has the same effect but leaves you with an intact castle! But beware that other wizards don't take advantage of this by possessing your mana while you're desperately trying to rebuild your castle.... The Creatures & How To Tackle Them: APES and TROLLS: These creatures are very similar in strength and attack in the same manner, except that Trolls can regenerate quite quickly, and if they are grouped together they can be very dangerous. Don't wade into them blasting, the best bet is to keep your distance, attacking them one at a time. You should also keep moving as they are slow to target and aren't very accurate to begin with. VULTURES: Vultures do not pose much of a threat at all, even in groups, and therefore you can wade into their ranks, shooting as you go. What does make them bothersome is the fact that they are so hard to hit. Initially, vultures will not attack you unless you hit them first. If and when they do attack you, lead them to your castle and let them attack it(don't worry, they do minimal damage to it). They will form a swirling spiral around your castles' flag, and then you should move back and start blasting. Because of their attack formation, they should now be sitting,em,vultures. CRABS: Crabs are initially a doddle when they first appear. Because of their chitinous skin, they are quite tough to kill, yet they yield less mana than other creatures in the game. For this reason, a lot of players don't bother with them and just leave them be. BAD idea! Crabs are potentially the toughest creature in the entire Magic Carpet world, and should be obliterated on sight! If a crab is left to his own devices, in time he may turn from a pathetic fireball dribbling gnat into a continent-spanning behe- moth who spits meteors, all the while consuming any mana(including yours) that it comes across. When they are tiny, a few well placed fireballs should despatch them. However, when they are medium-sized, you need a combination of fireball and lightning. When they are full sized, avoid them! Unless you are very powerful and have at least the Meteor spell at your disposal, flee to the nearest castle. If you do have meteor, or enough mana for a long stream of lightning, then tackle them from behind and keep moving around them in circles. NOTE: Always remember that crabs REGENERATE at a very fast rate, regardless of their size. So when you attack them, have your mana bar at full and attack relentlessly! DRAGONS and WORMS: These blokes are easy, just don't wade into a big group of them or you may well regret it. The one thing to note is that when you are attacking them, fire at their heads as it causes more damage to them. Also, try to keep them from your castle as they like nothing better than the sound of crumbling bricks and mortar and Dragons especially are a dab hand at levelling your beloved home. ARCHERS and EMU RIDERS: These chaps are also low on the danger scale, and because they are humans they don't generally attack unless provoked. Treat them like the Apes and keep your distance while attacking. SKELETONS: Ah, the hated Skeletons. Now THESE guys can be utterly ruinous to your castle unless dealt with severely. Lightning should kill them off quickly enough. They are more or less the same, power wise, to the Archers, except these guys BREED! if a Skeleton comes into contact with a human, be it a Builder, Townie, Merchant or Archer, that human is will instantly die and join the ranks of the walking undead as a warrior. Unlike Archers, Skeletons' one and only purpose is death is to crush castles, and they are masters at their craft. As soon as they are raised from they are masters at their craft. As soon as they are raised from the ground, they immediately head towards the nearest castle, so check their direction to see if they are heading towards your castle or an enemies. You are better off leaving them be if they are going towards an enemies' as they'll do untold damage to his castle when they get there. GENIES: Genies, as the manual states, are real pains. Don't bother with trying to shoot them out of the sky with fireballs or lightning as they'll merely teleport away and regenerate. You need a very powerful spell to kill these guys. Launch a couple of meteors as quickly as possible at them to blow them out of the sky, or open a crater beneath them. If that doesn't work, catch them over your castle and upgrade it a stage to see them off. It is worth pressing shift-L to level your castle and then rebuild it under- neath them as GENIES give a massive amount of mana when killed. GRIFFINS: Again, griffins will not attack until provoked, but when they are they are extremely dangerous. Do not attack them with anything other than lightning or Lightning Storm as they will rebound any missile you throw, such as meteor, fireball or Rapid Fireball. Invisibility will not work on Griffins, so the only method of killing them, bar Volcano and Earthquake, is a full attack with lightning. Make sure your mana bar is on full when you attack these babies, as Griffin will stick together and if you attack one Griffin, every other Griffin on the level will hunt you down remorselessly! KRAKENS: The unique power that Krakens have makes them into formidable foes yet they can successfully be taken out with fireballs. Just fire as many Fireballs as possible at them, all the while keeping your distance. Krakens power lies in the fact that they have an extremely powerful Duel spell which not only clamps you to them but pulls you towards them. If you get caught in a Krakens Duel spell, wait until it pulls you towards him and then let off Fireballs(or Lightning) as quick as you can. A Meteor will also kill a Kraken but only if it hits.....Krakens can blow Meteors up with their lightning! WYVERNS: These are the ultimate creature in Magic Carpet. Wyverns are supremely powerful and should always be avoided. However, if you are powerful enough, here is how to kill them. Wyverns are immune to Fireballs, and Meteors do minimal damage so you have to hit them with about 10 meteors in succession to kill them. Alternately, open about four or five Craters underneath them amd that should polish them off. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- HIDDEN WORLDS Some people are never satisfied and that includes a lot of people who bought and enjoyed Magic Carpet. And since Magic Carpet was December's top selling PC CD title, that's a hell of a lot of people. So didn't they enjoy it? Of course they did! But they are now demanding more. So to satisfy that demand Bullfrog have released Hidden Worlds, an add on data disk containing another 25 levels. Hidden Worlds starts where the original finishes. After completing the Herculean task of restoring the world to order it seems that there are hidden worlds where chaos still reigns. So get back up on that carpet and prepare to face your toughest challenge yet. Hidden Worlds is set in landscapes which are just as hauntingly beautiful as those seen in Magic Carpet. The hidden worlds are remote icy winterlands which means that snow glaciers and ice replace the arid landscapes seen in Magic Carpet. Plus the buildings and castles in Hidden Worlds have been redrawn to complement their arctic surroundings. Hidden Worlds features the same awesome range of spells which wrought such havoc and devastation in Magic Carpet but tougher opponents and monsters have meant that Hidden Worlds will also feature a lethal new spell, the Homing Meteor. Hidden Worlds - The Magic Carpet data disk was released in March and is priced at £19.99. Hidden Worlds is currently available on PC CD and needs the original program to run. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Is it possible to complete level 50 or even complete the game? Due to an error, level 50 cannot be completed. We have though got a Patch to fix it. Unzip the file and copy LEVELS.DAT and LEVELS.TAB to C:\CARPET.CD\LEVELS. This patch reduces the manna needed from 98% to around the 90% level! Are there any add ons to Magic Carpet? Yes, the Hidden Worlds (Magic Carpet Data disk) was released in April of this year and needs the original game to run. Why doesn't Magic Carpet work on my machine? Well lets do a check list: 1. You require more than 3MB of free extended or expanded memory and over 450K of conventional. 2. You have a hard disk on C: 3. You have at least 5MB free disk space on drive C: Why doesn't Magic Carpet support the Gravis UltraSound? This is because of the sound drivers used in Magic Carpet, the Gravis UltraSound didn't complete the configuration test so it was excluded from the product. It will work as a SoundBlaster compatible, but you need to run a TSR supplied on your Gravis UltraSound installation disks. Why can't I copy the game to my hard disk and play it from there? Due to piracy, we had to make Magic Carpet CD-ROM only, this allows us to keep the price as low as possible. The more piracy, the less we sell. I haven't got a CD-ROM drive so how can I play it? Well, we released a floppy version of Magic Carpet in June, so you should be able to find it in your local store. What is the ultimate system for playing Magic Carpet? Machine: An Intel Pentium 90Mhz (or above). Disk Size: A 500 megabyte hard disk drive. Other Disks: 1.44 meg Floppy drive, Quad speed CD-ROM drive. Memory: 16 megabytes of RAM. Sound Card: Sound Blaster AWE32 with 8 megabytes on the card. Graphics Card: GENOA - Phantom 321. Monitor: Large screen colour monitor. Joypad: Gravis Joypad. But don't worry, if you only have one of these your system is cool enough!