Prerelease:Magic Carpet (DOS)

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Magic Carpet (DOS).

Magic Carpet was an important game for Bullfrog as the resulting game engine underpinned most of their later titles, being as it was their first step into 3D graphics.

Development Timeline

1992

What became the game's 3D engine was started by Glenn Corpes following completion of Populous 2. The engine apparently originated from Populous code, with some of the pseudo texture mapping features of Powermonger included. It was built for various experiments in 3D rendering rather than a specific game. The idea to move towards texture mapping reportedly came from seeing Ultima: Underworld, and the inspiration to create a flying game came from seeing the technology behind games such as Novalogic's Commanche. However, Bullfrog were determined not to make a straightforward flight simulator as they were not fans of the genre, finding them overly complex, with Corpes stating specifically that he didn't like the distant impersonal nature of modern combat reflected in flight simulators, and wanted a game based around closer, more intense action. The resulting engine was also not really suitable for a classic flight simulation game, and as a result Bullfrog's Peter Molyneux suggested making a game based around a flying carpet.

1993

The initial build intended for Magic Carpet was designed as a "vertical scanning voxelish engine", but was rewritten by the end of the project to be an affine texture mapper.

An early version of the engine was reportedly very sluggish, and temporarily featured blue terrain to assist with Gouraud Shaded lighting effects. Peter Molyneux is said to have seen this version running and remarked to Corpes the game should be set under water. This observation and the sluggish controls led to a revamp of the long-languishing Creation project into a first-person submarine game. As the engine improved in responsiveness, it was then branched off again to be used for Magic Carpet.

May
A preview article in The One reveals that the game did not yet have a name, and was provisionally titled "Populous Village" (probably due to re-using the tree graphics from that game). The game ran from a first-person perspective, and while it's said the intention was to create an Arabian Nights-inspired game, the magic carpet idea was only mooted as one part of a larger whole, rather than the focus of the title.

November
The game is now seen from a third-person Space Harrier-like perspective with the player character visible on-screen on their carpet. The earliest screenshots of this design iteration seem to have had a more naïve cartoony graphic design style, although this was mainly reflected in the main character's sprite, so possibly this was just an early placeholder graphic. By the end of the year, a more realistically-shaded player sprite was in use in the game. The basic gameplay is now recognizably in place.

1994

February
Coverage in CU Amiga magazine reveals the game had a very different original concept to its final direction, as a kind of open-world adventure game. The game is now 100% about flying on the carpet, and it's not just a sub-game. Early concept art and descriptions of the game suggest something of an inspiration from Disney's take on Aladdin, an angle which would quickly disappear as the project developed.

March
Sean Cooper takes over main development of the game following completion of the Syndicate: The American Revolt expansion. According to Corpes, the game was quickly reshaped from more of a technical exercise into an actual game by Cooper's involvement.

June
A video of an early build of the game running on the "voxelish" engine is included in the game Theme Park and can be seen if the player chooses to ride the Flight Simulator. According to Corpes, this iteration of the engine had some advantages such as a further draw distance.

August
PC Gamer magazine covers the game transitioning to the final game engine. At this point, the game has minimal storyline and zero adventure elements, and is unrecognizable from the early Aladdin-inspired concept. The final game engine also has a shorter draw distance than the original one.

September

Series 3 Episode 3 of the British video games show Bad Influence featured a preview of Magic Carpet, with Bullfrog's Peter Molyneux demonstrating various old builds of the game, including a very old post-Populous flat shaded polygon engine full of blocky buildings, the "blue" build of the Creation engine, and very early actual Magic Carpet builds, with placeholder textures of trees from the original Populous.

November
The CD version of the final game was released.

Theme Park Preview

If viewed via the take a ride button, the video played for the flight simulator ride in the earlier Bullfrog game Theme Park is in fact an early build of Magic Carpet, presented as simply "Carpet" in-game. According to Glenn Corpes there were two main builds of the game's engine, an earlier "voxelish" engine, and the final texture mapping engine. What is seen here was confirmed by him as the former, and is the only known video footage of this early build of the game. Visible are the early form of what presumably became the final game dragon enemies, the early 2D texture mapped buildings (cut instead for the final polygon based designs), and a glimpse of an early rival magician.

It's also notable the music for the Snakes and Ladders ride in Theme Park is very similar to that of Magic Carpet.

Press Kit

As with their their other games of the time, Bullfrog released official press kit images of Magic Carpet to magazines that were published on various magazine coverdisks as well as printed in the magazines themselves. The Magic Carpet kit consisted of late game build images that mostly show scenes and content identical to the final game. However, two images show baobab style tree graphics that did not make it to the final.

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Magazine Coverage

The One

Issue 56 from May 1993 contains a large preview of what is ostensibly about Syndicate, but also contains several screenshots of a new game tentatively titled "Populous Village". Closer inspection shows this is clearly the early build of Magic Carpet shown on Bad Influence. The game is said to be inspired by Arabian Nights, but at this point only part of the game is proposed to be set on a magic carpet. Interestingly there is a cursor/reticle invisible on-screen in some of the screenshots, and the game runs from a first person perspective.

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Amiga Computing

Issue 66 from November 1993 has an early but very sparse preview that includes screenshots of what seem to be the earliest known build of the game from a third person perspective. At this point in development the radar/map is located at the top right of the screen, where it would stay until the final builds in around August 1994.

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  A very early more cartoony (and seemingly short-lived) Dragon design

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  A cut skeleton graphic

Joystick

Joystick issue 42 included a two page feature on the game. This includes screenshots from what appear to be two different builds; an earlier version with a much more cartoony looking main character, and a later build with a more realistic looking design for the player sprite. At this point in development, the game took place from a third person perspective with the main character visible levitating on their carpet in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Sega's Space Harrier, only with full freedom of movement. Clearly visible in both builds is the fact that all buildings are 2D texture maps rather than the simple 3D buildings and castles of the final game. There's also some interesting concept art that seems to show various characters, including what are likely male and female main character designs, and a storyboard for what was probably an early version of a planned 3D intro. This again seems very Aladdin-esque as per the plot outline described in the later CU Amiga coverage.

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  Character concept art, with what seems like a cut female protagonist design visible at the top

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  A storyboard for what seems to have been an early intro for the game showing the protagonist arriving on his carpet

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  The very early cartoon main character design but the slightly later more realistic looking Dragon redesign, showing the two design periods overlapped

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  The later more realistic looking main character design and some odd markings on the ground in the distance

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  An interesting picture of an early and totally different in-game map

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  The very early protagonist design with early building and civilian graphics

CU Amiga

The February 1994 issue of CU Amiga has a preview that outlines a very different and rather Aladdin-esque plot for the game. In this iteration, the player could play as either a male or female character and would be attempting to woo the heir to the throne, who would be the opposite sex. To achieve this the player would set out to make their fortune using the eponymous carpet.

At this point it seems the game would have been more of an open world adventure game. The game is said to be "mission based", with examples given including "flying to a certain location to kill a nest of dragons, or delivering a package". It's also noted that at this point in time that "the maps are enormous, taking five minutes to fly from one side to the other" - a very different approach from the twitch action-based design of the final game and its deliberately small wrap-around maps designed to keep the game intense.

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  What seems to be a later cut Dragon design, and debug text at the top of the screen

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  Odd looking cut flying enemies that appear throughout early coverage

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  More strange cut flying enemies and early buildings

Génération 4

The April 1994 issue of the French Génération 4 magazine includes many of the same images printed elsewhere of the later stages of the early build. What's most interesting is a screenshot showing what seems to be an early design of the Wyvern enemy.

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PC Gamer

Volume 1 issue 9 of PC Gamer (UK) from August 1994 had a nine page preview feature that captured the game in transition from the earlier game engine to the final one. Interestingly most graphics are said to be early placeholder versions of the final designs, which is born out by the screenshots. There's also a thick white fog limiting visibility that's confirmed to be a place holder until the sky effect was finished. It's stated there would be a "Pentium" version of the game for higher performance machines that would support screen resolutions of up to 1280 x 800 pixels and how the player could choose this resolution (experiments with other Bullfrog games derived from the same engine like Syndicate Wars demonstrate they did indeed support this resolution natively, it just could not be chosen by the player). By this stage it seems the game finally switched from third person to first person perspective.

The game's spells are discussed, and it's said that volcanoes would stay active for the length of the level periodically erupting - something clearly not the case in the final game. Duel is also referred to by its early name of "rubber band". Other proposed spells that didn't make the final game are listed: stun, geysers, temporary blindness, and cloud of darkness. Sean Cooper also states the player would be able to "possess some monsters and form a force to protect your base". This mechanic would only be implemented in the sequel via the Alliance spell, but this article and the cut levels defined in ALL.INF shipped with the final game show the ability must have been considered (and was likely working) for the original game until late on in development.

The cut weather effects are also mentioned, with whirlwinds and lightning storms listed as examples of dangers they would create.

An interview with engine programmer Glenn Corpes also explains the move away from the earlier mission-based adventure premise explained in the CU Amiga article - as with most Bullfrog games, the final design came from competitive multiplayer games and this concentration on pure mechanics led to abandoning a more scripted kind of game.

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  An early screenshot of the final iteration of the game's engine. Rough redesigns of the main character can be seen, as well as distant Griffins. The landscape is also darker looking than the final game

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  A WIP image of a volcano on the final game engine, along with debug text listing the player's weapons and current mana state. The radar is now finally visible at the top left of the screen as it is in the final

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  A close up of a rough version of the final game Griffin design

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  Very different looking giant bees

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  The map editor

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  Another screenshot of the game's editor showing how terrain was manipulated

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  An example workflow of how the in-game sprites were pre-rendered and then hand edited

Cancelled Ports to Other Systems

Unlike most Bullfrog games, Magic Carpet did receive a port to both the PlayStation and Sega Saturn games consoles. However, press coverage suggested it would be released for other systems too.

Amiga/CD32

Magic Carpet received preview coverage in many Amiga magazines, as did Genewars and Creation. However, a post from Bullfrog's Glenn Corpes on the English Amiga board revealed in fact none of these games were ever going to be ported to the platform, and no Amiga version was even started .

Atari Jaguar

Atari attempted to do an in-house port of the game to the Jaguar CD, but it was never released and it's unknown how far the project got (if at all). However, Bullfrog's Mike Diskett looked into porting the game himself during his spare time at Bullfrog, but found the console's hardware unsuitable for the game and believed it to be impossible to port.