Magic The Gathering Gold Version

by **blueskirt** » 21 Jul 2014, 03:41

A long time ago I saw on various websites that there was a gold version of Magic the Gathering, which was apparently a bundle of the base game, both expansions, and more than a hundred new cards and some features in the game. The following years I tried to find a copy of the gold version but never could.

Anyone here knows if this version actually existed?

And if it did, if the Manalink and Shandalar offered here, or the fan made MtG: Duels of the Planewalkers 2009/2010 were based on the Gold version?

by **Aswan jaguar** » 21 Jul 2014, 20:13

The Gold version you mention looks like Manalink1.32 or the following Manalink2.0 and both are the base where Manalink3.0 is based on.

by **blueskirt** » 21 Jul 2014, 21:38

Were Manalink v1.32 or v2.0 made by Microprose/Hasbro? Because this Gold Edition I am referring to was a bundle that was showcased at E3 in 1999:

Excerpt from an E3 1999 coverage:
"Magic the Gathering:Gold Edition - based on the successful card game, Magic the Gathering: Gold Edition includes all the cards and features from the three Magic computer games. The game also comes with over 140 new cards drawn from the card game's Legends and The Dark expansion sets, and new features, such as sideboarding, to open up new strategies in both single-player and multi-player games. Magic the Gathering: Gold Edition will ship in the Fall 1999."

We first heard about this back in 2001, my friend and I tried hard to get that version of the game back then, both legally or not, and we were both unsuccessful in our quest, and every time we had that urge to replay Shandalar over the last twelve years, it was the same old story with the same result and the same deception as we settled for the vanilla release with both expansions.

by **Sonic** » 22 Jul 2014, 00:43

blueskirt wrote:Excerpt from an E3 1999 coverage:
"Magic the Gathering:Gold Edition - based on the successful card game, Magic the Gathering: Gold Edition includes all the cards and features from the three Magic computer games. The game also comes with over 140 new cards drawn from the card game's Legends and The Dark expansion sets, and new features, such as sideboarding, to open up new strategies in both single-player and multi-player games. Magic the Gathering: Gold Edition will ship in the Fall 1999."

The last official version of the game was released in early 1998 - it ceased development not long after that. Microprose were in deep financial trouble at the time and Sid Meier who had been called in to sort the original version of the games release in 1997 had walked out.

It could be what's being referred to in the E3 1999 coverage was a later development version which never actually made release.