Magic Online

Requirements:

  • Windows 95, 98, NT (Service Pack 4), 2000, or XP
  • PII 333 or faster
  • 64 Megs of RAM
  • Mouse
  • SVGA, High-Color (16bit)
  • 4x CD ROM
  • 600 MB of hard drive space
  • Internet connection (56k or faster)

Pyramid Pick

Magic: The Gathering Online

Published by Wizards of the Coast

CDROM ($14.95); Download (Free, 196.5 MB)
Other Costs: Account -- $9.99 (or free with CD-ROM; no monthly fees); Cards -- varies ($9.99 worth of free cards with account)

Back in 1992 (or 1993?) while I was serving at the 32nd Street Naval station in San Diego, I was in my friendly local game store over in El Cajon. I had gone there to pick up a copy of Knights: Strategies in Motion, a Primal Order book from a little company called Wizards of the Coast. While there, the owner asked me if I had seen this new card game called Magic: The Gathering.

They were out of starter decks that day, so I picked up a booster out of curiosity. After all, they were cheap -- even if I never used the cards, I was not out much. Although I had no rule book and understood none of the numbers or the terms, looking over my 15 cards and the beautiful artwork I concluded that this was a game that I wanted to play.

I presented my new cards to a friend. He asked a few others over to look. Before we knew it, we had a group of about a dozen or so people buying cards. Within two weeks, it managed to take over about a third of our gaming time, nudging out our regular favorite of Star Fleet Battles. Within a month, it was over half . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: September 6, 2002

Copyright © 2002 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.