Matt Chat - Retrospective: The Magic Candle

[Silver]

Matt Chat took a look back at The Magic Candle.

More information.

 

[Xian]

This was a series I am hoping will come to GOG someday. I played Magic Candle 3 and Bloodstone: An Epic Dwarven Tale but never the predecessors. They reminded me of the early Ultima games but they never got the recognition that it did.

 

[Carnifex]

Same here, it would be a day one purchase for me if it ever shows up at great old games.

 

[EvilManagedCare]

This is my absolute favorite RPG from the 80's, if not all time. You could split your party, make money by assigning party members to jobs while in town, no random encounters in the overland map, respawns only after a certain amount of game time, and a very unique end game sequence. Loved it. MC2 & 3 were good as well. Also, the C64 version of MC1 is way superior to this crappy Apple II version

This was one of the first games where the publisher sent replacement disks containing patches. Good thing I registered it. IIRC failing to apply them meant you couldn't finish the game. I remember calling up the Mindcraft hint line because I was stuck and the person answering it was Ali Atabek himself. I was starstruck, gushing about how much I loved the game and he sounded pretty gracious.

 

[epithumia]

A series I've always regretted not being able to play. I have been hoping for years that it would show up on GOG some day, but since that hasn't happened I assume the rights are lost in some legal Limbo.

 

[Avantre]

A series I've always regretted not being able to play. I have been hoping for years that it would show up on GOG some day, but since that hasn't happened I assume the rights are lost in some legal Limbo.

You got me curious so I had a quick look around. According to others who checked beforehand, Ali retained the rights to the series when his company folded (and it was never owned by Interplay when he joined them afterwards), and he left the gaming arena in 1997 for other software jobs. I found sites for at least 3 people who'd tried to contact him over the years to ask him if the game was abandoned, but none of them seemed to ever get a response.

 

[epithumia]

I guess my first assumption was that no person or company could turn down both having a new audience for the game and free money. But that's been shown to be erroneous multiple times in the past so I really shouldn't be surprised. After all, he might just not care. I guess it's even possible he's embarrassed by the whole thing and wishes he'd never made those games, though I certainly would hope that's not the case.

 

[Carnifex]

I'd also hope he has no regrets over the games, I quite enjoyed them and have great memories of playing them to this day.