Digging through old archive files, I ran across the .lha file containing my old Wizards of the Coast stuff. Now, it’s quite possible that I am the only human being left alive who finds this stuff interesting. However, I suspect not. Tales of “the good old days” still draw the occasional interested ear at game conventions now and then.
To the best of my knowledge, material I post here was either written by me, or posted to a public forum. It is all stupendously out of date, so don’t try to actually play Magic this way! Well, maybe if you’re trying for a historical re-enactment. If you have a question or comment, send email to “magic” @ this domain.
Some of the terms and design decisions that are all my fault.
Do you people have any idea what I went through to make the Magic cards you all wanted so badly? Well, you’re about to find out. Plus, some follow up information about the set.
Revised had both Arabian Nights and Antiquities cards sprinkled in. But that was the second version of the revision, not the one originally planned...
What qualities were ascribed to the colors of the Magic rainbow? This file, timestamped two months before the release of the game itself, lays it out.
The true story of the rarely-seen, near mythical Proposal magic card.
Wherein my secret identity as a necromancer comes to light.
A translation from Legalingo into English of the key components of Wizards of the Coast’s patent on trading card games.
What were the burning issues back before Arabian Nights?
Advice on Twiddle, Illusionary Mask, Jade Statue, and the like.
A never-produced (and never illustrated) little card that existed just to make sure the typesetting system was working correctly.
A collector asks me about something I apparently said back in 1993.
Various bulletins and news items I sent out as part of my job as Cyberspace Liaison.
Once upon a time, finding out what cards were in a set was part of the fun. None of this numbering right on the card nonsense, no sirree! But we were releasing card lists even that very first year. Just a lot more after the fact.
Everything you needed to know to get a complete set of Magic cards. Well, so we thought at the time.
Our first expansion.
Our second expansion.
I’ll put interesting tidbits related to well-known people in the Magic community here.
So one day I got this email message . . .
A friend of mine complained one day to me that she had all these old cards, but had no idea which sets they might have come from, or what vintage they were. I had, a few years before, seen a brilliant card identification flow chart, but it had apparently vanished from the web. So, I constructed a replacement, which you can see by downloading the pdf file that contains it.
I’ve taken the liberty of copying this version of the FAQ from the first newsgroup dedicated to MtG (after having completely swamped poor rec.games.board) from David Bedno’s web site, just in case his copy (or the site it’s on) disappears. (Update: and indeed, that’s exactly what happened.) Note that this is an FAQ for the newsgroup, not for Magic itself.
What I remember, fifteen years later, from my weekend in Rochester, NY.