From arausch@aklm.com Tue Sep 17 09:17:06 1996
Path: netnews.worldnet.att.net!arclight.uoregon.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in3.uu.net!aklm.com!arausch
From: arausch@aklm.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg
Subject: Acclaim's Magic: The Gathering-Battlemage (FAQ part1)
Message-ID: <9g0612p217@aklm.com>
Date: 17 Sep 1996 12:17:06 EDT
Organization: Acclaim Entertainment Inc.
Lines: 120

Hi again folks.

I’ve received a lot of e-mail from my first post about Magic: The 
Gathering - Battlemage,  which is very gratifying.  So much e-mail, in 
fact, that I can’t respond to all of it personally (though I’m trying!).

Rather than try to be all things to all people, I’ll try to respond to 
the most frequently asked general questions in a general post (I’ll put 
up the name of the first person who asked the question) and specific 
detailed questions by e-mail.  Forgive me if I don’t get to your 
questions right away, I’ll try to catch them on the next round.

Question 1: Hmmm is this for real? (you being an Acclaim rep)?
(ajkko@dimensional.com)
Yes, I really do work for Acclaim (at least that’s what it says on the 
paycheck.)  I’m doing this on my own time because:
a.  I’m proud of this game, I want to let people know about it.
b.  Consumer feedback is valuable at all stages of a product’s 
development. You folks aren’t stupid, you know what makes a good game. 
You can help us make this game and the ones that follow as good as they 
can be.

Question 2: When is your game going to be out? (dhollis@cisco.com)
The release date is November for Win95, Playstation and Saturn(shortly 
after). 

Question 3: Is there a Macintosh version planned? (rosen@FranceNet)
At this time there is no Macintosh SKU planned. (Of course if it’s a big 
seller

Question 4: Does this allow a player to customize against a computer 
opponent who does likewise? (nbrown5158@aol.com)

While there are no cards or decks the player can use the Build utility 
to select an arsenal of Lands, creatures, artifacts, etc. to take with 
him into battle. Certain units and spells will enhance one another and 
work well together, others will not.  With 220 spells to choose from (in 
the initial release, booster packs are a-comin’) I’m sure strategies 
will start to develop very quickly.  The real-time and spatial aspects 
of the game, however, will alter familiar strategies in surprising 
ways.  For example, in addition to the spell Bloodlust’s usual effect of 
pumping up a creature’s power, it also makes a creature move faster. 
Something to consider when selecting spells to take into battle.

(hint: always send 4 Mon’s Goblin Raiders out with the Lord of The Pit.  
Every so often he eats one of your creatures (his choice), and if 
there’s nothing for him to eat, he’ll come after you.  Therefore it pays 
to send out something cheap and fast as a walking smorgasbord. There’s 
nothing more frightening than a Lord of the Pit marching down the field 
at you because you forgot to summon lunch.)

The computer can either build a library based on the personalities of 
whichever of the seven available characters it’s playing at the time, or 
build one from scratch.  The computer also has pre-made decks.  Ex. 
Tevesh Szat uses Blue and Black spells, Jared Carthalion, the Shadowmage 
uses spells in all five flavors.  The player must pick a character to 
represent him or her on the battlefield, and each character comes with a 
number of pre-built libraries, but you can always build a spellbook of 
your own.

Question 5: Where can we see screen shots of the game? 
(druegar@earthlink.net)
I’ve placed eight screen shots along with some preliminary information 
about the game on the Acclaim/Nation site.  Enjoy!

Question 6: Do you have a free playable demo? (robb713@aol.com)
Unfortunately, not yet.  A demo is in the works (along with all sorts of 
interesting ways of distributing it).  When it’s ready, you can be sure 
I’ll let you know about it, along with what magazines and stores will be 
carrying it.

Question 7: I’m concerned about the interface - is it going to be easy 
and fast to use (real-time, resource management etc.)? (mnorton@netcom.com)

Yes, when you take a look at the screen shots you’ll be able to see 
why.  The brass strip on top of the screen contains your resource 
information in symbolic form.  On this strip from left to right are a 
rectangular hole , six vertical bars, and another rectangular hole. 
Below this bar are horizontal dots representing your life points and 
those of your opponent. Below the dots is the battlefield where you can 
see your planeswalker, his creatures, and his spells. This is where 
you’ll give them orders to mo ve and attack..

Spells in your armory and the units you select to move are represented 
on this brass strip by the familiar art from the original Magic: The 
Gathering game, i.e. when you want to summon a Hurloon minotaur unit or 
cast Armageddon you won’t have any trouble recognizing it. The left hole 
displays the art from the unit you have currently selected (when you 
want to use a creature’s special ability like tapping a Llanowar Elf 
unit for green mana, you’ll click here) The six bars represent the pool 
of mana you can use to cast spells with. When you cast a Land, these 
little bars will fill up with energy in the proper mana color (bronze 
represents colorless). The 7 spells in your armory are neatly stacked in 
the right hole and can be spread out for viewing.  You merely rotate the 
art around until the proper spell comes up (a little banner tells you 
it’s name, casting cost, and power and toughness) click on it and watch 
the effect on the battlefield!

Three examples:
1.  I cast a Fireball, click my red mana bar four times (+4) and watch 
it streak across the screen at my enemy, Tevesh Szat. Four of Tevesh’s 
little dots (life points) disappear. (last time I tried this on the 
computer, though, it had just enough time to cast a Circle of Protection 
- Red and block it.)
2.  I summon a Shivan Dragon and watch it appear from nowhere.  After 
overcoming it’s summoning sickness, the Dragon is ready to be given 
orders to move out onto whatever section of the battlefield I choose to 
send it.  (Maybe I need it to guard a tight mountain pass or take out 
those pesky Mon’s Goblin Raiders hiding in the swamp, or just maybe the 
Dragon is big enough to barbecue Leshrac once and for all!)
3.  I summon the Sunglasses of Urza (little rotating sunglasses appear 
by my planeswalker) and the useless white mana bar that I filled up 
earlier in the game can be used as red mana to summon 3 Crimson Manticores.

Whew! I hope that makes things a little clearer, although I know I’ve 
just opened the door to a million more questions.  Still, that’s what 
makes this business fun.

Talk to you later!