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Master of Magic

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original 1994 game. For the remake, see Master of Magic (2022).

Master of Magic
Master of Magic cover
Developers
Simtex
Publishers
1994-1999 MicroProse
1999-2003 Infogrames
2003-2020 Atari
2020-present Slitherine
Japan Locus Company
Release dates
DOS September 1, 1994
Windows December 12, 1997
Windows (DOSBox) April 27, 2010[1]
Linux (DOSBox) May 12, 2015[2]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Turn-based
Perspectives Bird's-eye view, Top-down view, Isometric
Genres RPG, TBS
Themes Fantasy
Series Master of Magic
Master of Magic on HowLongToBeat
Master of Magic guide on StrategyWiki
Master of Magic on MobyGames
Master of Magic on Wikipedia
Master of Magic
Master of Magic 1994
Master of Magic (2022) 2022

Master of Magic is a singleplayer bird's-eye view, top-down view and isometric RPG and TBS game in the Master of Magic series.

General information

Renamed to Master of Magic Classic on digital releases prior to the release of Master of Magic (2022).
Official forums
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
DRM details are not known
Windows version was only released in Japan.[3]
DOS
Windows
Publisher website
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[4] Also includes a separate installation with a community patch and a launcher by Slitherine.
Windows
Linux
Steam
Icon overlay.png
DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox. Also includes a separate installation with a community patch and a launcher by Slitherine.
Windows
GamersGate (unavailable)
DRM-free after installation (requires an internet connection during installation)
Windows
A free demo version is available from Archive.org.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Caster of Magic
Windows
Caster of Magic for Windows Separate from original Caster of Magic release, with its own set of features
Windows

Essential improvements

Unofficial patch

  • There is also an unofficial, community-driven patch, pushing the game version to 2.0. It's solely game-balancing and therefore is recommended for experienced players. You can find it here.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\MAGIC.SET
Windows
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1146370/pfx/[Note 2]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVE*.GAM
Windows
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1146370/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Separate on/off controls for sounds, background music and event music, but no volume controls.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
Neither version of Caster of Magic is localized.
German
Neither version of Caster of Magic is localized.

Issues fixed

Poor performance

Change video settings[citation needed]

The game runs at standard VGA resolution and being a turn-based strategy, doesn't really require lots of horsepower. However, you may want to speed up its execution by trying out the following:

  1. Enable frameskip -- values of 1 or 2 should be perfectly acceptable.
  2. Disable Expanding Help option under Game -> Settings.
  3. Disable Movement Animations option under Game -> Settings.
Disable music[citation needed]
  1. Choose Game -> Settings and uncheck Background music and Event music.
  2. If that doesn't help, try running installation program and choosing No Sound for music playback device.

Notes

The in-game music management is rather poor -- not every track is being used and it quickly becomes repetitive. If you want to listen to a soundtrack while playing the game, it can be easily obtained from the Internet in the MIDI format. Try playing it in the background using your favourite music player. This way you'll be able to listen to tracks, you'd normally wouldn't hear and your game will perform better.

Other information

The game is rather poorly written. Even with the latest patch (1.31) it may unexpectedly crash.

Furthermore, the game may slow all by itself if there are many units on the map. This may lead to the game being unstable, so if you encounter such condition try killing enemy units (massively) and saving often. The game saves your progress by itself every turn, upon pressing the Next turn button. However, you can force it to save anytime by pushing F10.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes VGA
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 5.0
Processor (CPU) Intel 386SX
System memory (RAM) 4 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) VGA
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 8, 10
Processor (CPU) 1 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 220 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD)


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).
  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>/1146370/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1146370) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References