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[pepecarpet]

Hello !

Historically, there have been a few attempts to remake the 1994 Bullfrog classic, Magic Carpet (see this video for a quick look at the original game).

EA owns the IP, and hinted in this article that a remake of the game may not be as good regarding today's standards.

Maybe there is some truth here. In particular, I find the whole experience revolved a lot on grinding mana, or holding areas waiting for you balloons to come. On the other hand, you were incarnating a wizard, casting earth-shattering spells while flying over land and sea !

So I ask you, clever designers : How would you remake it ? What would you keep, what would you change ?

On a side note, I'm aware some guy on these forums is developping his own vision , and I'm curious how it will turn out.

[rek]

Disclaimer: I bought a copy of Magic Carpet at Expo 93 in Taejon, played it (or "played" it) twice and never thought about it again. I just didn't get it. The box and manual was in Korean so that probably didn't help. So my idea may be completely at odds with the nature of the game, like remaking Sonic as a top-down RTS with a lot of detail paid to resource management.

That said, I would remake it as a Pilot Wings-like magic carpet flight sim/kart racer type game, with combat/magic. Emphasize flight control with lots of fast and tight race-like levels – zipping around minarets and under archways and bridges, through open windows and doors, narrow desert canyons, etc. You race other wizards (two or three at a time) and collect mana according to how you place, how you execute tricks, secrets revealled, etc. Mana allows for combat and terrain-reshaping magic.

[C.A. Sinner]

seeing as magic carpet was 5 billion years ahead of its time when it came out i wouldn't change all that much. modernize the gfx and controls, speed gameplay up a little, make the terrain deformation more detailed. the only major thing i would change is that i'd shift the focus to the multiplayer mode.

[Mattivc]

Thanks for posting this! Magic Carped was one of the first PC games i ever played as a kid. Hadn't tough about it in years.

I think it would be hard to do a proper remake of it today. As a lot of what made the game so great was being ahead of the times.

[forwardresent]

I never understood this game at all. I got it free with the first PC I bought and just couldn't get the hang of it. Still remember it though.

It would be pretty neat to have as a multiplayer thing.

[eyeliner]

I would go tower defense style. You'd go around, placing magic entrapments to impede the incoming assaults, while taking part in aerial combat.

Wait, wasn't that the premisse of the game? 

Looks fine by me. Just a graphics overhaul, fine tune gameplay, and that's it.