Master of Magic

[John D Ward]

I have two questions that I would be glad of any answers to:

1) Is there a reasonably quick and safe way of getting Master of Magic to run under Windows 98?

2) Is there any demand out there for a Master of Magic II ?

[Rex Little]

1. If there's any way at all, I'd sure like to know about it. I had no luck when I tried. I still keep a DOS machine around so I can play MOM.

2. Oh God, YES!!!

[Zkribbler]

Yeah, what Rex Little said!

I KNOW A POSSIBILITY, and I'm verrry verrry proud abouit it...

*cough* attention please, The Great Andz speaks to the nations of MOM.
By the way, I for myself prefer the High Men (or how they might be called in English), but I'm sure you want to hear the solution to your problem . OK. Ah, I forgot, that the best unit in the game (except for heroes) are paladins . Still curious about getting it to run under WIN98? OK, OK...

1. It's not as easy as it might be with any other game 'cause it's an EMS game; it's hard to play EMS-games in WIN98 (for the ones who don't know: EMS is a special kind of memory: I don't know whether E stands for expanded or extended...
2. To make it run, I opened the "properties" option of "magic.com" (the file the game is started with...)
3. I activated the "memory" button. Usually, every of the "memory"-options is set "automatic". that's the point. change the "ems"-option to the highest you can do. In my case, that was 16384. When you are able to set it higher and it doesn't work, try 16384. every other "memory"-option stays at "automatic".

If you now try to start a game (after inserting the CD), it should work. (It worked on my computer, and on my computer, usually NOTHING works, so it is worth the try.)

If it actually works, please hold in mind that you got the tip from ME, Andz.

Listen to the wise words of Clifford Lee Burton. He was able to speak them in 1988 although he died in 1986... confused?. i just say: modern technology...

------------------
"When a man lies, he murders some part of the world. These are the pale deaths, which men miscall their lives. All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home?"
Cliff Burton (1962-1986), 1988 ("To Live Is To Die")

Of course, I want a sequel, too. There is a game released, Age Of Wonders. Many people say that you can compare it with MOM, but it's not the same. It's more like Heroes of Might and Magic. I also would like a sequel to colonization.

------------------
"When a man lies, he murders some part of the world. These are the pale deaths, which men miscall their lives. All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home?"
Cliff Burton (1962-1986), 1988 ("To Live Is To Die")

[John D Ward]

Andz - I've tried your suggestion, but it didn't work. My problems seem to be with conventional memory required to run the program.

First, did you set "No MS-DOS Mode" or sth. similar? You don't have to set "Use MS-DOS Mode" in the "Program" - "Advanced" option...
confused? then forget it...

In fact, you may not use dos applications in the "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" to run MOM under Win98. When you start windows, you need (nearly) the FULL conventional memory AND this special EMS-setting I explained. I think that you have a windows-autostart and simultaneously some applications loaded like keyboard-driver, mouse-driver etc. FOR DOS. But you don't need them to run windows, you know, so kick them off. These files should be nearly empty:
-config.sys
-autoexec.bat
I think you have to configure the HIGH MEMORY (HIMEM.SYS) in them to achieve some EMS-Memory, but YOU DON'T NEED ANY DRIVERS/DEVICES for sound, keyboard and mouse, that's the most important thing.
I think that you have to go with at least WIN98 to run DOS-Progs in Windows without having loaded any DOS-Drivers/Devices. In WIN95, I believe, you need DOS-Drivers and so it won't work.
Anyway, why do you need to play MOM in Windows when you're able to configure DOS to play it? If it really doesn't work, forget it and run DOS to play it.
BTW, I'm not able to run CIV1 in Windows, it works only very slow, also when I try some Memory-changes. So I play it only in DOS.

WARNING: save both files ("config.sys" and "autoexec.bat") in another directory or filename before changing, they're important for DOS-Mode...

[Youngsun]

Andz

Is your hard drive formatted as FAT(16) or FAT32?

Even if I overcame the memeory problem this file allocation tree things always annoyed me.

Steel panther(Dos)
Steel panhterII(Dos)
Conquest of New World(dos)
Machiavelli the Prince(Dos)
Civilization(Dos)
Master of Magic(Dos)

They all runned perfectly under my windows95,98 as long as I had my hard drive as FAT(16) but since I changed the format for FAT32 it simply would not work for the games!. Thank god! I had another hard drive which was formatted as FAT(16) so I still can enjoy those games now under windows OS.

The problem is that once you change the format as FAT32 you can't get it back to FAT(16) so be careful folks!.

My HD is definitely in FAT32 and MOM works but not CIV.

I think we should ask anyone who's skilled better than us (in this connection...)?!

Anyway, let's start a discussion about the game! I for myself prefer the Humans (or High Men or similar). Which race do you prefer? Why are my heroes so weak, even at the highst level?...

[monolith94]

Uh, maybe somebody could ICQ file me Master of Magic or whatever? I never had it. . .

Would it work with a 90 mhz. Pentium 1?

Master of Mygic is very old. It should even work on a 386...

[John D Ward]

Andz - I am pleased to say that, following your suggestions about the minimal requirements in the config.sys and autoexec.bat files, I have now got the game running in DOS mode.

Anyone else still having problems might care to try the following procedure:

These instructions assume that your version is version 1.2 on a CD.

1. Install the game (to directory C:\MAGIC).

2. If installing from a CD, copy the GAME directory from the CD to C:\MAGIC. You now have the game fully installed on your hard drive, and will be able to run it without the CD drive.

3. Download the patch for version 1.3.1 from the Internet, (many sites have this), and extract it to C:\MAGIC\GAME

4. Create a boot disk on a floppy disk in Windows 98.

5. Edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files on the boot disk. Don't worry about the other files on the boot disk.

Config.sys should only contain the following:

DEVICEHIGH=HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM=OFF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM

FILES=40
BUFFERS=25
DOS=HIGH,UMB
STACKS=9,256

Autoexec.bat should only contain the following:

SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T2
SET SNDSCAPE=C:\WINDOWS
C:\REALMODE\MOUSE.EXE
C:\SBPCI\APINIT

The last two lines are for the mouse and soundcard.

6. Shut down your PC and reboot from the boot disk. Change directory to C:\MAGIC\GAME. Run MAGIC

Many thanks for your help on this.


[This message has been edited by John D Ward (edited April 06, 2000).]

[Jaakko]

I have MoM, but I haven't tested it on my new machine yet.

However, I can get a lot of old DOS games to work, by using this great slowdown program Mo'Slo.
Just shell to DOS and run it, and if the slowdown rate is set right, many games should run like a dream.

Here's the URL for Mo'Slo:
http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/

[Youngsun]

Paladins unit rules! That's one of my reasons why I choose High men as my starting race.

Draconians are not bad too.

My favourite heros/Champions are "The Chosen one","Chaos Warrior",The Magician",The Pristess",etc.

Andz

Though my Civilisation worked under win95 it was quite slow with lousy sound so I used to run the game with my all-round booting disk. Same goes with Colonisation!.
[This message has been edited by Youngsun (edited April 03, 2000).]

My prefered sphere of magic is chaos because of it's nice attacking spells (lightning, yeah ). My favourite magical setting is:
5 books chaos
2 books sorcery
2 books nature

so I should be able to raise th enemy (chaos), improve my roads to "railroads" (sorcery) and change the terrain after my will (nature). The rest of the books (should be 2) I distribute on Master of Chaos (right English name? :confused and ruling of power-nodes (double magic from them etc.)

I always play "hard" games on a big map with three enemies, my face is Tauron's one (so I won't have to play against him )

Yes, the dracoids are very nice, but I'm not really able to play with the myrrans, because I have many starting-problems with them (esp. growth and "barabarian" creatures). Yes, in the beginning, Myrror really sucks. But later, when I enter it with great paladin armies, many riches wait for me . In fact, I also prepare the Chaos Warrior ("Warrax"), the Magician ("Malleus", I think) and also the Golden ("Aureus").

Could you give me:

Youngsun:
1. the standard names of "the chosen one" and "the priestess" ?
John D Ward:
2. an URL to get a patch do MOM V.1.3.1

Now I remember, the standard name of the chosen one should be "Torin", right?
And you only get him with life's magic (It's a summon-spell, I think)
But what about the priestess? hmm

[Youngsun]

http://underdogs.gamingdepot.com/

Go to "special collection" then find "Simtex collection" or try the search engine then type "Master of magic".

It's not only the patch file but the whole game files(1.3.1)you can find so little bit inconvinient.

Yea you're right to summon Torin we need to research "incarnation" first and he consumes mana rather than money.

I usually choose Myrran and the remaining slot for all Chaos books. I just love "Armageddon" spell. If my books are not enough for the spell I begin to clean up all the remained monsters(strong ones)then sometimes I get 2~3spell books(The harder level you choose the better war booties you get).

Life books are also good. "Invulnerability","Lion Heart" can be good enhancement for your heroes' artifacts.

The Golden one? He sucks! I don't like him.
I rather choose the witch! I don't also remember the name of the Priestess(I used to customise my heroes' name so I don't remember most of their names)

Malleus is certainly deadly even if he is not one of the champions.

Thanx for the URL, let's see what I can make of...

You think the Golden One sucks? Well, he might not be one of the strongest, but he's definitely coooool , because he's golden...

Hey, were have you all gone?
I thought we were talking about MoM?!

We were playing MOM. The golden boy is is a real cutie!

I have the problem that a patched version crashes, an unpatched version has a "disappearing money/no income" problem. Too bad, any ideas (I got the german version, but I couldn't find a german patch).

[Rex Little]

A couple of other bugs I discovered with v1.31:

1. If an enemy wizard has been banished (but not defeated yet) and has no cities remaining but does have an outpost, the game will crash if you take the outpost. To avoid this, leave it alone until it grows into a hamlet.

2. In one game, my galleys showed up with all kinds of enchantments on them (invisibility, weapons immunity, God knows what-all) that I hadn't cast. Didn't affect gameplay, as I never used them to fight.

[Lazlo]

At the beginning I though that Chaos was the best of all magic spheres (Armageddon was really cool), then I started to mix it with Nature (so you destroy enemy territory and improve yours) and sometimes with life (it did have some good spells for combats).
Now I am changing my strategy completely. I allocate everything to Sorcery. yes, at the beginning it can be somewhat weak compared with other spheres, but I think that Sorcery has the most powerful Overland enchantments.
Suppress Magic and Time Stop are something to take into account.

I hate Spell of Mastery. You should be allowed to turn it off (I think it is possible with a multiplayer patch).

KarstenWilli: I also use a German version, but it's on 1.31, without any bugs. Try to get the English version 1.31 for HD, it's nearly bugfree and works without the CD...

Why nearly bugfree?
Well, I have some problems with that spell to be used to counter enemy global enchantments. My computer gets a total crash when i try to cast it...

I don't know whether this is a bug, but when you ban a sorcerer without destroying him, his cities will be empty and you can take them all until he reappears in one of his cities. This works at least in the German 1.31 version

[Rex Little]

I agree with Lazlo that sorcery rules. The best spell in the game, in terms of cost-effectiveness, might just be Confusion. It's cheap to research and to cast, you generally get it early in the game, and it can just devastate the computer player. Send one fast unit in against 9 slow ones, cast Confusion on a couple of them, and just play keep-away while they fight among themselves.

Andz83: if the computer player's cities are empty after he's banished, it could be that they were filled with summoned creatures, which disappeared when the summoning wizard did. Normal units stay around when their owner is banished (or at least they're supposed to; if they don't, it's a bug).

check out the Master of Magic hints thread, folks!

I wonder where all the MoM-players have gone! it seems that Shadowstrike and me are the only Apolytoners playing it although there used to be more, like the ones who posted in this or another threads on this topic...