Collectible Card Game Headquarters

Forgive a newbie a stupid question, but what is manalink? I'm familiar with Magic the Gathering but have never heard of microprose. I'm assuming it is a MtG video game, is it based off of Shandalar or is it something else entirely?

from the beginning microprose was the developer but they are no longer. Manalink was the program that linked games over the net but when it was abandoned by the developer Mok took over and renamed it manalink most likely to not have any cease and desist letters from wotc.

Well, the original game was just called "Magic: The Gathering", so it was a bit ambiguous. Handy Wikipedia article.

Microprose were AMAZING! The first game I played from them was Gunship 2000 which still today is the best flight sim I've played, just because it was so fun.

At some point they made this Magic The Gathering game. Shandalaar is a weird kind of free roaming map where you wander around getting in to fights with other wandering AI, and all the battles are with MTG cards that you collect along the way. And there are dungeons you can raid to get even better cards. It's really cool although I think I completed it in a few days or something. I only played it once.

But the same game also had a basic duel mode which works more or less like the modern MTG games they release for PC and Xbox. It's just MTG against an AI, and the game takes care of all the health totals and you can click the cards to tap for mana and stuff so its really easy and fast just like playing official Magic Online. Also the AI is really good.

Manalink is basically a mod of that game. People have hacked it to bits, updated all the old graphics, and have filled it with almost every real card ever released. So you can now make your own decks with (almost) any card, and then play it against the AI who can use any deck as well, and puts up a really good fight.

The AI is not perfect, but it's surprisingly good. I'd say it works like an 'average' player. It's better than newbies to MTG, but not as good as an experienced player. But considering you can make any deck you want and play it for free, it's pretty amazing. I'm not sure who worked on manalink originally but there are several people here who still work on it. Stassy moderates the forum and contributes to the game, and then there are a few programmers working, so we get an update once per month or two which brings a bunch of new cards and updates and bugfixes. And there are people working on artwork and stuff too.