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Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

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(Redirected from Majesty)
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim cover
Developers
Cyberlore Studios
Linux Linux Game Publishing
Publishers
2000 MicroProse
2000 Hasbro Interactive
2001-2003 Infogrames
2003 Atari
2008-present Paradox Interactive
Mac OS (Classic) MacPlay
Linux Linux Game Publishing
Release dates
Windows March 21, 2000
Mac OS (Classic) December 13, 2000
Linux April 25, 2003
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls Point and select
Genres Building
Themes Fantasy
Series Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim on HowLongToBeat
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim on MobyGames
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim on Wikipedia
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim 2000
Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim 2009
Defenders of Ardania 2012
Majesty: Gold HD 2012

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric building game in the Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim series.

The game was expanded with The Northern Expansion in March 2001, and received several patches and downloadable missions for both the base game and expansion pack. The Gold Edition began distribution in 2002, containing both, and was ported to Linux. In 2009, the Gold Edition started being sold on Steam.

On March 21, 2012, the Gold HD Edition was released, with native widescreen support and bug fixes. From 2015 to 2018, the HD Edition received a series of patches which fixed compatibility issues with Windows 7 (mostly slow performance), new multiplayer infrastructure on Steamworks and GOG Galaxy with a DirectPlay-based LAN remaining as a fallback in the configuration file, DirectX 9 rendering instead of DirectDraw, modding tools and the unique demo mission being brought to the core game for the first time.

As of 2023, the fully updated HD Edition remains the definitive way of playing the game due to the absence of outstanding compatibility issues, while the retail version requiring command line arguments to properly run.

General information

Official developer site
Majesty Gold HD Support Forum
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc DRM[Note 1].
Windows
Mac OS
Linux
Publisher website
Icon overlay.png
Gold HD Edition
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Gold HD Edition
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Gold HD Edition
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Gold HD Edition (includes Gold Edition).
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
Free demo versions with a unique mission are available from GameFront: Windows, Mac OS.

Version differences

Majesty: Gold Edition includes the base game and The Northern Expansion.
Majesty Gold HD is an enhanced re-release of the Gold Edition, combined in a single executable. It has improved compatibility for newer systems, high resolution support. As of the most recent updates, it also includes the demo mission, all previously downloadable quests and Steamworks/Galaxy multiplayer.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
The Northern Expansion Included in Gold and Gold HD editions. Not available separately for Linux.
Windows
Linux

Essential improvements

Patches

Patches are available for Windows and Mac OS. The Gold Edition is already patched.

Use newer SDL version (Linux)

Will replace OSS with ALSA in terms of sound output and add additional features.
Requires 32 bit version of recent SDL 1.2 library.

Run the software with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib32 on at the beginning. If using a 32-bit system use /usr/lib path instead.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\MajestyHD\MajXPrefs
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux $HOME/.lgp/majx/majxprefs
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/25990/pfx/[Note 2]
This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\MajestyHD\
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/25990/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics settings menu (HD)
Graphics settings menu (HD)

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Native in Majesty Gold HD.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
Interface elements not scaled properly.
4K Ultra HD
Interface elements not scaled properly.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
With use of the -w command line argument. Native in Majesty Gold HD.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Use SRWE.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
VSYNC when in Fullscreen defaults to 60 FPS with no way to change, unless you use Windowed mode, then use SWRE to borderless fullscreen at desktop refresh rate
60 FPS
Default refresh set by DDraw and D3D9.
120+ FPS
See VSYNC above.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Performance settings menu (HD)
Performance settings menu (HD)

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

Audio settings menu (HD)
Audio settings menu (HD)

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, sound effects, voice
Surround sound
Subtitles
Hero chatter not subtitled.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
German
Retail only.
Italian
Retail only.
Polish
Retail only; download for HD release (partial fan-made re-implementation). Details
Russian
Retail only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
4 Requires DirectPlay; disabled by default in Majesty Gold HD and requires an edit of the configuration file by adding <EnableDirectPlay>1</EnableDirectPlay>, which will in turn disable Steamworks/Galaxy multiplayer.
Online play
4 The official GameSpy service has been shut down; the Gold HD Edition can connect to Steamworks or GOG Galaxy service instead.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Requires DirectPlay; disabled by default in Majesty Gold HD and requires an edit of the configuration file by adding <EnableDirectPlay>1</EnableDirectPlay>, which will in turn disable Steamworks/Galaxy multiplayer.

Issues fixed

General

Fast scrolling

On older versions of Majesty, faster computers could cause the game to scroll excessively fast.
Change ScrollSpeed in registry (Windows)[citation needed]
  1. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyberlore\Majesty (base game) or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyberlore\Majesty Expansion (The Northern Expansion).
  2. Open ScrollSpeed and change it appropriately.
Edit the configuration file (Linux)[citation needed]

Open up the configuration file and add <ScrollSpeed>#</ScrollSpeed>. Replace # with a number.

Windows

Majesty on modern systems (pre-HD)

The original versions of Majesty will run on modern operating systems, however the game will be unstable and might crash frequently.

Command lines[citation needed]
  • Run majesty.exe or majx.exe with the following command lines: -nothreadedcursor -useglblit

Gold HD Edition not responding

On some systems (particularly those with Intel graphics), Majesty Gold HD may not work properly. On loading the game there may be a blank screen, or after the opening movie, the menu appears unresponsive (although it is actually working, but the screen is updating).

Command lines[citation needed]
  • Run majesty.exe or majx.exe with the following command lines: -useddblit -blitmovietobackground

Linux

No sound

SDL library that is included with the game is set to use OSS for sound only.
General[citation needed]
The software is not updated frequently.

Install the osspd package (Some distros like ArchLinux refers the package as ossp) and enable/start the osspd/osspd.service service.

If using PulseAudio[citation needed]

Run the game with padsp command (It is included with main PulseAudio package, if not, look for pulseaudio-utils)

If using ALSA[citation needed]
  1. Install alsa-oss package
  2. Load the following kernel modules as root with modprobe command:
  • snd-seq-oss
  • snd-pcm-oss
  • snd-mixer-oss

Run the game with aoss -32 (On 32 bit system just use aoss)

Fullscreen issue with multiple monitors

Run the game in windowed mode using -w command line. However, due to the fact that the windowed mode is at fixed 800x600 resolution, you may need to use the resolution scaling using xrandr command, if on 1080p or 4K resolution.

The mouse isn't captured in windowed mode

Compile libjail.so[citation needed]
The multilibrary version of GCC and 32-bit version of SDL is required for 64 bit system.
  1. Create a text file and name it jail.c
  2. Copy and paste the content of this script
  3. In Terminal run gcc -m32 -fPIC -shared -o libjail.so jail.c -ldl (If on 32 bit system remove the -m32 argument)
  4. Once compiled, move libjail.so to the main game folder
  5. Point out the file to use before running the game using LD_PRELOAD= command at the beginning.Example:
LD_PRELOAD=$HOME/games/majesty/libjail.so $HOME/games/majesty/majx -w

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9 Supported in the HD edition. A later update added a "DirectX 9" toggle option in the settings.[3]
DirectDraw
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
Linux
PowerPC support is on the first release only.
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio OSS Linux only.
Interface SDL SDL is Linux only
Cutscenes Bink Video
Multiplayer GameSpy, Steamworks, GOG Galaxy

System requirements

Majesty (Original Version)

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 166 MHz (or equivalent)
System memory (RAM) 32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 314 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
Mac OS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 8.6
Processor (CPU) PowerPC 233 MHz
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 314 MB
Video card (GPU) 16-bit Display at 800x600

Majesty Gold Linux Version

Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS) Linux Kernel 2.2
Processor (CPU) 166 MHz
System memory (RAM) 48 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 410 MB
Video card (GPU) 8 MB of VRAM

Majesty Gold HD

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP
Processor (CPU) 800 MHz Pentium III or equivalent
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 8 compatible


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/25990/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (25990) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  2. Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  3. Verified by User:Eddmanx on 2022-12-07
    The option seems to be switching between D3D9 and DDraw modes.