Magic Carpet is a 3D flying video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1994. Its graphics and gameplay were considered innovative and technically impressive at the time of its release.
An expansion pack, Magic Carpet: Hidden Worlds, was released for MS-DOS compatible operating systems in 1995 which added 25 levels and winter-themed graphics. A compilation package, Magic Carpet Plus, which included the main game and the expansion was used as a base for PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports that were released in 1996. A sequel was released in 1995, Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds.
Plot
The player plays a wizard on a magic carpet flying over water, mountains and other terrain while destroying monsters and rival wizards (which are controlled by the computer) and collecting "mana" which is gathered by hot air balloons and stored in the player's own castle.
The story is told in a cutscene that depicts the pages of a book being flipped. According to this back story, mana was discovered and though it initially had beneficial uses, the quest for it made the lands barren. Worse, many corrupt wizards began turning to mana for their own nefarious purposes, eventually leading to war between them. The battling wizards began using more destructive spells and summoning deadly monsters, the latter of which often turned against them. One wizard hoped to end everything with an all-powerful spell but instead only left the worlds shattered. Only his apprentice survived and his goal is to restore the worlds to equilibrium.
Gameplay
The player has to visit several small spherical "worlds" (45 in the original game [The box says 50, but levels 9, 18, 29, 34, and 40 are not actually present] and an additional 25 in the expansion). The goal in each world is to build a castle and fill it with the necessary percentage of the total mana in the current level (or "world"), restoring it to "equilibrium". The total mana level is fixed in each world. To accomplish this, the player has to possess the mana so that mana-collecting balloons bring them to the player's castle (the balloons ignore mana that are unpossessed or possessed by an enemy wizard). Mana, represented by pearls of varying sizes, may be found freely in a world but is usually released by destroying monsters and/or leveling castles of enemy wizards.
As the player expands the castle, it spawns additional balloons and armed guards that defend the castle against attacks by enemy wizards. The player character can have up to two spells equipped at a time, one for each hand. Greater amounts of mana stored in the castle allow the player to expand the castle and cast more powerful spells. Besides storing mana, the player's castle also serves as a home base for the player character where he can regain health and mana. Upon death, the player character respawns at his castle. Dying without a castle forces the player to restart the level since the game does not have a mid-level save feature. As long as the player's castle is at least partly intact, the player character cannot die.
The magic carpet can be piloted in three dimensions, similar to a helicopter, although the player cannot roll and it is impossible to crash. Instead, when the carpet approaches an obstacle, it automatically ascends to fly over the obstacle.
Development
The game was promoted with a marketing budget of $307,600.
The game supported anaglyph 3D and Autostereogram effects. 3D glasses came with the game package and VFX1 Headgear was supported.
Ports
PlayStation
The PlayStation version retains many of the PC version's spells. The map has changed slightly, and some of the monster graphics and enemy wizard graphics are slightly different. As in the PC game, one can only save at the end of the level. Enemy wizards now have a health-bar over their heads, so the player can see when they are close to death. This version does not support multiplayer, but does contain the Hidden Worlds expansion as a reward for finishing the game in "Normal" mode.
Saturn
There was also a port for the Sega Saturn console. It is largely identical to the PlayStation version, and likewise includes the Hidden Worlds expansion. Gaming journalist Ed Lomas reported the technical differences from the PlayStation version as: the sky is animated in a "sliding wallpaper" fashion (whereas it moves in 3D in the PlayStation version), the sprites are more detailed, and the shadows lack the translucency effect.