Hacking the old Magic - duel of the planeswalkers?

0rion79 · Post by **0rion79** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:59 am

Hi,

I'm an old fan of Magic the gathering and I love that game, especially as it was in the first era with the rules used into the "revised" edition, untill the big change.
I know that many of you probably do play with newest game but the old game from Microprose was one of the few that had a sort of decent-or-so A.I. and it is the best solution for people like me that are always in short of time and have no time for long on-line experience.
My question is: does exist or is it possible to create an editor to add new cards to the game or to activate the ones that are hided into the game?
If the answer is "no", I would like to know the reasons behind it.
If somebody of you is able to create such an editor, I would glady use it to develop new cards and to upload them on some hosting site (probably the already famous Sorcerer's Place would do).
Thanks.

pp · Post by pp » Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:54 pm

0rion79 wrote:If somebody of you is able to create such an editor, I would glady use it to develop new cards and to upload them on some hosting site (probably the already famous Sorcerer's Place would do).
Thanks.

I think it's not that easy. The rules for each card (at least for non-Â»hill giantÂ«-cards) are shurly hard encoded into the exe. That means you need to alter the exe for new cards.

But who knows...

Patrick

0rion79 · Post by **0rion79** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:14 pm

Hm.... even if it would allow only creatured with no abilities, it would still be interesting. And honestly, I have many reasons to belive that abilities like banding or first strike should not be too difficult to code.
Anyway, I hope that some volunteer will show up.

Muldoon · Post by **Muldoon** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:40 am

Orion... Hmm, it can't be Amy Weber can it :P

On topic: Most games are "hackable" but it requires a huge amount of personal interest if you want to figure out how things work and data is stored. Anyone can learn the basic strategies for finding the data, but it's a very tedious job, especially if you want to gather enough to be able to make an editor.
Also, some games are programmed with very strict space issues, usually that goes for console games, where you might encounter serious problems if you add more data (like cards, in this case) because it's only "supposed" to have so much data in the first place.
I'm pretty sure none exists right now, but if you want to start gathering the data, it wouldn't be too hard for a programmer to whip up a very basic editor. Forget all about fancy user interfaces and click-and-drag unless you have a good hold on someone though O:-)
Oh and it might be worth checking if the source code has been released, it's a very slim chance, but it's not impossible.
Lastly, I, too, would love to add more cards to it, with the music and feeling, i love playing that game :)

0rion79 · Post by **0rion79** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:05 pm

As far as I see from this thread and others, there are still a lot of persons that have such a great interest for Microprose's MtG but, for sure, I miss even the most basic skills to do even the smallest part of the work.
Somebody more knowlegable than me, maybe... hem.... you :D would be needed for this task. If glory and fame may be enough for you, you're wellcome and I may just give you my help as playtester :)

victorcamp · Post by **victorcamp** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:19 pm

Speaking of this game, a friend of mine has been playing it recently, and complains that it won't let him do things during the Upkeep phase. It jumps immediately to Draw phase without allowing payment or other Upkeep phase abilites. Any ideas?

pp · Post by pp » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:24 pm

victorcamp wrote:Speaking of this game, a friend of mine has been playing it recently, and complains that it won't let him do things during the Upkeep phase. It jumps immediately to Draw phase without allowing payment or other Upkeep phase abilites. Any ideas?

He needs to check the upkeep phase so that the programm will stop there

Patrick

Muldoon · Post by **Muldoon** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:16 pm

Yup, there's a setting for stopping the AI for every phase, only a handful are selected for stopping at, from the start.

As for gathering the data, I don't even have the game installed right now to even get an idea of what a task it would be...
The first step would be to find out where the data for the cards is stored, in the primary .exe or in seperate file in the folder. If it's in a seperate file it would most likely be much easier.
I can't say I have the time or motivation to take on such a project though

0rion79 · Post by **0rion79** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 7:04 am

Muldoon wrote:I can't say I have the time or motivation to take on such a project though

It is really a pity. Anyway, as far I have been able to see, they are not stored into the exe but the main "concepts" like the summon cathegory and other details, are stored into a dll file, probably the rest of the card is in a dat file.
Anyway, if and when you'll have time, it would be great if you could take a look at least to the locked cards. maybe unlocking them is more easy of what it looks. Maybe they are already coded and they just need to be unlocked and made available for the players.
Anyway, thanks for making the situation a bit more clear.

0rion79 · Post by **0rion79** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 7:05 am

For new players, Mok's unofficial manalink patch is available here: http://home.comcast.net/~adonald1/magic/default.htm

The Magic Librarities

Hacking the old Magic - duel of the planeswalkers?

Hacking the old Magic - duel of the planeswalkers?

Re: Hacking the old Magic - duel of the planeswalkers?

Dual of the Planeswalkers

Re: Dual of the Planeswalkers

Re: Dual of the Planeswalkers

Who is online