Magic The Gathering: Armageddon

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Manufacturer: Acclaim
Year: 1997
Class: Wide Release
Genre: Other
Type: Videogame

Monitor:

Orientation: Horizontal
Type: Raster: VGA Resolution
CRT: Color

Conversion Class: unique
Number of Simultaneous Players: 2
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Competitive
Control Panel Layout: Multiple Player
Controls:

Buttons: 3
Trackball: Optical

Sound: Amplified Stereo (two channel)

Magic The Gathering: Armageddon - Cabinet Image

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Description

Two wizards square off in a magical battle based on the popular trading card game. Each wizard can summon creatures or deal direct damage to their opponent. The last wizard standing wins.

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Game Introduction

Players choose one of five colors/magical disciplines: Red (fire magic, mountain creatures) White (healing/curative magic, knights/soldiers), Blue (water elements/creatures, counter magic) Green (elves, forest creatures) and Black (death magic, undead creatures) and fight another wizard on a magical playfield. Each player can summon magical creatures to do their bidding, but they can also directly attack another wizard, or they can use their magical energy for defense. Players can move around the playfield, occupying one of five spots.

Game Play

Targeting is achieved through a trackball; move the cursor to the opponent you wish to attack or to an area on the playfield where you would like to make a creature appear. The longer you hold the summon button, the more powerful the resulting creature will be, so there's a trade-off in speed for power.

The gameplay can be particulary difficult. In addition to becoming skilled with a trackball, there are lots of buttons to press as you try to create creatures to fight for you. Shifting your strategy on the fly is often necessary. You may want to create big creatures, but if your opponent is swarming you with tons of little enemies, you will have to go on the defensive.

This is an unusual game in many respects -- a mix between a strategy game and a fighting game.

Scarcity in collections (VAPS.org)

Very Rare - There is one known instance of this game owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 1 of them are original dedicated machines, 0 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards have been placed in another game cabinet, and 0 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

Of the 42,694 video games (3,154 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 2 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records.

Wanted - There is one VAPS member currently looking for this game.

Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operatos might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range.

Technical

Acclaim's arcade chipset is called Epidemic. The 3-D polygonal graphics are powered by a dual-processor Obsidian 3Dfx board.

Trivia

Acclaim's Mountain View, California-based coin-op division went out of business shortly after creating this game. It never went into full production, which is a shame, since the title had both an innovative, complex gameplay and a hot license going for it. Only a handful of units shipped (one was spotted in the Tomorrowland arcade at Walt Disney World in 1998; another showed up at Namco's WonderPark in San Jose, CA the same year), but few people even know this game exists. Multiple previews of the game appeared in GamePro magazine, as well as other enthustiast publications.

This was Acclaim's third coin-op, joining its previous titles of NBA Jam Extreme and Batman Forever. The game was not released for any home systems, and has no relation to Acclaim's "Magic The Gathering" titles for the Sony PlayStation.

eBay Listings

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Magic The Gathering: Armageddon - Title screen image

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