Master of Magic

Master of Magic is a single player, fantasy turn-based strategy computer game created by Simtex and published by MicroProse in 1994. The player controls a wizard attempting to rule two worlds. From a small settlement, the player must grow an empire and banish all the other wizards by military might or casting the Spell of Mastery. To do this, the player must manage resources, build cities and armies, and research spells. Master of Magic's early versions had many bugs, and were heavily criticized by reviewers.

Master of Magic falls among the games which pioneered the 4X game genre. A new game world is randomly generated with every new game. The player can customize some aspects of generation (land mass size, strength of magic, etc.). The player can also customize the skills, spell choices, and appearance of the player's wizard, as well as choosing one of fourteen races for the wizard's starting city.

The player must build an empire from a single starting city. The player sends out units to explore its surroundings, thereby revealing areas covered by the fog of war, finding suitable sites for new settlements, and ruins and lairs containing treasures claimed by defeating their guardians. Players require ships to transport units across oceans, unless they are able to fly or swim. Units travel via Towers of Wizardry or spells between the planes, called Arcanus and Myrror.