===========================================================

         MAGIC: THE GATHERING
             Version 1.1

             Readme File
            24 April 1997
===========================================================

Table of Contents
=================
1) Important Customer Support Note
2) FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
3) New Features
     Shandalar
     The Duel and Gauntlet
     Dueling Table
     Deck Builder
3) Card Notes
4) Tutorial Errata
     IBM ThinkPad Compatibility
5) Technical Notes
6) Additional Credits


Important Customer Support Note
===============================
Do NOT call Wizards of the Coast Customer Service with questions, 
problems, or other issues related to this computer game; contact
MicroProse Customer Support. The WotC folks will happily address 
card issues, as always, but they will not help you with issues 
specific to the computer game.


FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
================================
For further help for Magic: The Gathering, please read the Magic
FAQ included on this CD-ROM. Look for the filename MAGICFAQ.TXT.
The FAQ includes help for installation, sound cards, video cards, 
graphics, gameplay, Shandalar and specific cards. 


New Features
============

Shandalar
---------
*  You can now move your character using the mouse. Position the 
   mouse cursor in the direction you want to move, then click. You'll 
   move in that direction just as you would if you had used the 
   keyboard controls. Click on the top half of your character to 
   stop moving.

*  Right-clicking anywhere in the Big Window opens a mini-menu of 
   game functions. At this menu, you can:

   Save                Save your game             Shift-S
   Load                Load a saved game  
   Quit                Leave the game             Esc
   See/Edit Deck       View or edit your deck     F1
   See Map             Look at the maps           F2
   See City List       View the City List         F3
   See Dungeon Clues   See your dungeon clues     F4
   See Stats           Go to the Status screen    F5
   See Wiz Stats       Check on the Guild Lords   F6

*  You can load a saved game in Shandalar without having to
   exit first. Just right-click with the mouse to bring up the 
   mini-menu for saving, loading, etc.

*  You can play in Shandalar without a sound card.

*  You can now turn off the animation that runs after each duel 
   (the crystal ball scene). After you've watched it all the way 
   through at least once, right-click and toggle the animation 
   off. You'll need to redo this each time you play.

*  As described on page 138 of the manual, your deck must have a
   minimum number of cards in it to be legal for use in a duel. The
   minimum for each difficulty level has changed. The limits now are:

   Apprentice = 30   Magician = 35   Sorcerer = 40   Wizard = 40

   If you don't have enough cards, your deck size is boosted to the
   minimum with random basic lands, as described in the manual.

*  Your deck size in Shandalar is limited to 500 cards. As you approach
   the 500-card limit, the game will warn you. You can simply sell some
   cards to reduce your deck size.

The Duel and Gauntlet
---------------------
*  Ante in the Gauntlet and any time you are playing an isolated
   duel (not in Shandalar) is not true ante. That is, no cards
   change ownership after the duel. The ante cards are removed from
   players' libraries for the duration of that duel, but are
   restored to their respective decks for any further duels.

*  When you save a duel during a Gauntlet, you save only the status
   of that current duel, not your progress through the Gauntlet. So,
   when you load a saved duel, you play that duel and not the rest
   of the Gauntlet. We plan to change this in the future.

Dueling Table
-------------
A few reminders of often overlooked features:

*  If you do not put a Stop (the red marker) on a phase, play will
   bypass that phase without bothering to ask you if you want to 
   use optional effects (a Brass Man's untap or Land Tax, for 
   example). This is a handy way to prevent the duel from bogging 
   down, but if you are not careful, you could accidentally miss 
   an opportunity. Thus, if you plan to use an optional effect 
   (especially during the upkeep phase), make sure to Run To (by 
   clicking on the phase bar) or put a Stop on the phase you have 
   in mind.

*  Remember that creatures with negative power are treated as having
   a power of 0 for all purposes except raising the power. Thus,
   they are displayed during a duel as having 0 power. (This could
   change to an option in the future.)

*  Casting creatures and enchantments after combat (during the Main
   Post-Combat sub-phase) instead of before (during Main Pre-Combat)
   is one way to speed up the duel. Of course, this won't always be 
   appropriate to your strategy.

*  Remember that all of the floating windows -- including the Ante 
   and Mulligan displays, both hands, and the Situation Bar (but not 
   the Spell Chain and Combat windows) -- are movable. Just click 
   and drag them out of the way when necessary.

*  You can minimize both the Spell Chain and Combat windows. Just 
   click anywhere on the title bar of the window to do so. To 
   restore the Spell Chain window to full size, click on the star 
   icon on the phase bar. To restore the Combat window to full size, 
   click on the sword icon on the phase bar.

*  Hold the mouse over a particular thing (a card, part of the 
   dueling table, or an ability marker, for instance) to find out 
   what it is.

*  Right-click on things for a mini-menu of useful functions.

*  Click on things to use them. Double-click to auto-use; that is, to 
   have mana drawn from lands automatically (and indiscriminately).

Deck Builder
------------
*  The manual states that saved decks must have a valid DOS filename,
   (8 characters followed by a .dck extension). Actually, the saved
   deck filenames just need to be valid Windows 95 filenames. The
   program will automatically append the .dck extension to the name
   you type in.

*  Moving multiple copies of a card into and out of your deck can 
   be a pain. Instead of moving one copy at a time, now you can move 
   as many as you need, all in one step. Hold down the Shift key 
   and double-click on the card. Enter the number you want moved. 

*  You can now right-click on the area in between the sets of Filter
   Buttons to open a mini-menu. This menu has only one option: the
   Main Buttons toggle. If you choose to toggle the Main Menu Buttons
   On, all of the filters EXCEPT the Other Filters become active (are
   turned on). If you toggle Main Menu Buttons Off, all of the Set
   Filters, Color Filters, and Type Filters are inactivated (switched
   off).

*  When you're traveling in Shandalar, you can also right-click on 
   the background area behind the cards in your deck to get another 
   mini-menu. This one has two options that let you to move cards 
   according to their color. Use Move By Color Into Deck to put all 
   the cards of the colors you choose from the inventory into the 
   current deck, and Move By Color Out Of Deck to move cards from 
   your deck into your inventory. You're prompted to choose which of 
   the five colors, plus "artifacts" (not "colorless"), you want 
   moved. Note that the basic lands that correspond to the colors 
   you choose also move. (No lands move with artifacts, however.)

*  The Deck Builder considers basic lands as having the same color 
   as the color of mana they produce for the purpose of deck stats. 
   (For example, 5 Islands count as 5 Blue cards.)


Card Notes
==========
*  A display issue: The name of artist Brian Snoddy should always
   have a line over the 'o'. (Sorry, Brian.)

*  In some places in the game, the name of El-Hajjaj is displayed
   incorrectly. There should always be an accent circumflex (caret)
   over the final 'a'.


Tutorial Errata
===============
*  Any time one of the wizards in the Tutorial mentions "points," he
   or she is being informal. There are actually no "points" in the 
   game of Magic: The Gathering. Thus:

   - In Chapters 4, 6, 8, 9 and anywhere else, when the wizards refer
     to "points of damage," they mean simply "damage."

   - In Chapter 4 (and anywhere else), when they speak of "points of
     mana," they really mean "mana."

   - In Chapter 8, one of them says, "...the ogre does two points
     against the knight's two points of toughness." That should be
     "...the ogre does two damage against the knight's two toughness."

   - In Chapters 4 and 7, the wizards talk of "life points." They 
     mean "life total."

*  In Chapter 7, the wizard mentions the "Heal Phase." Obviously, 
   his information is out-of-date. Under the 5th Edition rules, the 
   Heal Phase no longer exists. It has been replaced by the Cleanup 
   Phase.

*  In Chapter 8, the wizard says, "...other special powers include 
   regeneration, flight, and many more..." He means "...regeneration, 
   FLYING, and many more."


IBM ThinkPad Compatibility
--------------------------
*  Those of you installing this game on a ThinkPad might experience a
   problem when viewing the Tutorial videos. This is caused by the 
   video software attempting to use an incorrect driver. We've included 
   a program on the CD-ROM that corrects this problem.

   Run this file:

   autoplay\setindeo.exe

   and the Tutorial should work just fine.


Technical Notes
===============
*  Don't forget to take a look at the Magic FAQ (MAGICFAQ.TXT) on the
   program disc for further help with troubleshooting any problems.

*  Some players might experience compatibility problems. Our tests
   lead us to believe that the most common cause of these problems
   is not the game itself, but out-of-date device drivers installed
   on the computer. If you experience compatibility problems, please
   make sure that you are using the most recent drivers provided for
   your hardware. If you have the correct drivers and the problem
   persists, call Customer Support.

*  If you experience problems with any part of this game after you
   install new hardware or software, you might have updated a sound
   driver, video driver, DirectX driver or Indeo Video driver to a
   version that is not compatible with the game. To fix this, you can 
   reinstall the DirectX drivers from the Magic: The Gathering CD-ROM.

*  We stongly suggest that you play this game in High Color (16-bit)
   video mode or better. If you are playing in a lesser mode (that is, 
   you are using 256 colors or less), you might experience transitory 
   graphic oddities. These are superficial and should not have any 
   lasting effect on the game.

*  This game is designed to work with the standard issue Windows 95.
   We do NOT support ANY of the beta upgrades to Windows 95.

*  If you experience problems with flickering video in Shandalar, it's
   likely you need to update your video drivers. Most vendors now
   supply Windows 95 versions of their video drivers. You can normally 
   download these drivers from the vendor's BBS or Web site.

*  If you do not hear the sound effects in the game, you might not
   have selected to install the DirectX drivers. Rerun the install
   program, but do not select ANY game components to install. Allow
   the new DirectX drivers to be installed.

*  If you have the new Sound Blaster 16/AWE-32 driver for Windows 95
   (Revision 7), you may experience problems running this game. The
   new Sound Blaster driver updates the Audio Drive Component to 
   version 4.33.00.0012. This version causes the game to crash 
   with a fatal exception error in VXD VMM(01) and terminates the 
   application. Reinstall the DirectX drivers (as in the previous 
   paragraph). The DirectX Audio Drive Component is version 
   4.31.00.0068, which functions correctly. Creative Labs also 
   has a new driver, version 4.33.00.0014, which does not cause 
   the problem.

*  Our testers have experienced problems using the Creative Labs
   Graphics Blaster MA 302 (Revision 1). The drivers for this video
   card apparently are not completely compatible with DirectX 3.0.
   In order for this card to function correctly with the game, you
   MUST reinstall the DirectX drivers supplied with the game.

*  If you try to manually delete this game using Windows Explorer,
   you might experience problems. (We suggest you ALWAYS use the
   Uninstall feature instead.) When you run the game, some game files
   temporarily become part of the Windows 95 system resources. These
   files cannot be used or deleted if they are currently being used
   by your system. If you experience this type of problem, you can
   reboot your computer to free the affected files. You should then be
   able to delete the files.

*  The Uninstall feature removes only those files installed by the
   Install Shield program. Any files created by the game, such as
   saved games, will be left on the system after you run uninstall.


Additional Credits
==================
*  Since the credits in the manual and the game were finalized, a few
   more people have become involved in the production of this game:

-Even More Additional Testers-

Gary Tomlinson
Larry S. Webber
Matt Bittman
Anthony Rubbo
Jeff Bostic
Eleanor Crawley

-Compatibility Testing-

Hoi Nguyen
William Hom

-Special Thanks-

Rene Flores
Lenny Raymond
Jesper Myrfors

-We Couldn't Have Done It Without You-

Gayle Keidel
