Magnetic Scrolls games
on Mac OS X / macOS

NEWS

2024/01/06 - magnetiX 4.3 released. (Changes?)

Screenshots


magnetiX: A Magnetic 2.3 port for macOS
Version 4.3

Magnetic is an interpreter for the games written between 1985 and 1991 by Magnetic Scrolls, a text adventure producer based in London, England. Although they only produced seven games they have acquired legendary status for text adventures of as good quality as Infocom accompanied by exceptional graphics.

Magnetic and magnetiX are released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See the file COPYING that is included with this program for details.

Feedback? Suggestions? Bug reports?

magnetiX@maczentrisch.de, or @maczentrisch

How to get the latest version of magnetiX?

Download magnetiX 4.3 (35 MB)
Download source code (NOT necessary to play the games!)

What are the system requirements to use magnetiX?

macOS 10.13 – High Sierra, or later

A version for older systems is still available, too:
magnetiX 3.1 (Mac OS X.7 – Lion)

How to install games for magnetiX?

You need several files to play the Magnetic Scrolls games.
A good source for these is :

https://msmemorial.if-legends.org/magnetic.php

By far the easiest way is to download the "full game" archives at the bottom of that website. Do not rename them. And then just drag and drop those .zip files onto the the game select window or the app icon. (If everything works as expected, the .zip files can then be deleted.)


Game installation prior to version 4.2:

Download the files for the game(s) you want to play - uncompress them when necessary. Place them all into one folder, no subfolders.

(Start magnetiX)

Now just press the button "Locate Game Files Folder" to show magnetiX the folder where you put the files... DONE!

(As an alternative, these game files can also be installed in the Application Support folder: Create either a folder "~/Library/Application Support/magnetiX/" or "/Library/Application Support/magnetiX/" and move the files there. In both of these cases you just need to restart magnetiX.)

The Pawn
    pawn.mag (required to play this game)
    pawn.gfx (optional graphics file)
    pawn.mp3 (optional title music)
   
The Guild of Thieves
    guild.mag (required to play this game)
    guild.gfx (optional graphics file)
   
The Guild of Thieves - Magnetic Windows Version
    cguild.mag (required to play this game)
    cguild.gfx (optional graphics file)
    coll.hnt (optional hint file)
   
Jinxter
    jinxter.mag (required to play this game)
    jinxter.gfx (optional graphics file)
    jinxter.mp3 (optional title music)
   
Corruption
    corrupt.mag (required to play this game)
    corrupt.gfx (optional graphics file)
    corrupt.mp3 (optional title music)
   
Corruption - Magnetic Windows Version
    ccorrupt.mag (required to play this game)
    ccorrupt.gfx (optional graphics file)
    corrupt.mp3 (optional title music)
    coll.hnt (optional hint file)
   
Fish!
    fish.mag (required to play this game)
    fish.gfx (optional graphics file)
    fish.mp3 (optional title music)
   
Fish! - Magnetic Windows Version
    cfish.mag (required to play this game)
    cfish.gfx (optional graphics file)
    fish.mp3 (optional title music)
    coll.hnt (optional hint file)
   
Myth
    myth.mag (required to play this game)
    myth.gfx (optional graphics file)
   
Wonderland
    wonder.mag (required to play this game)
    wonder.gfx (optional graphics file)
    wonder.mp3 (optional title music)
    wonder.snd (optional in-game music scores)
    wonder.hnt (optional hint file)

What about the random events?

*** This is only important when you want to save your game as a text-script and not when saving and loading the standard way! ***

In most of the Magnetic Scrolls games there are a few random events. This can be a problem when you try to save a gaming-session as a script: When replaying this script the events might not be the same.
To avoid this you can seed the random-event-generator at the beginning of the gaming-session you want to save:

> #seed  
> 12345 // enter a number here to define the events of the game

Who made the original Magnetic interpreter?

Niclas Karlsson <nkarlsso@abo.fi>
Development of the Magnetic interpreter.

David Kinder
Magnetic 2.x development, Windows, MS-DOS (32-bit) and Amiga ports.

Stefan Meier <stefan.meier@if-legends.org>
Magnetic 2.x development, JMagnetic Java port,
magnetiX 3.0: key motivator and beta testing,
and the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial web site.


Paul David Doherty <pdd@if-legends.org>
Magnetic 2.x development, story file extraction, help and testing.

History

Version 4.3
2024/01/06
- Fixed several issues on macOS 14 – Sonoma.
Version 4.2
2021/02/18
- Simplified game installation: Games can be added by dragging the files (ideally the "full game" .zip archives) onto the game selection window or the app icon.
- In the process fixed some edge case issues with the selection interface when not every available game is installed.
- Game selection is now possible with swipe gestures. (If the system page swipe gesture is enabled.)
- Fixed possible crash when restoring saved games.
- Fixed possible display issue on the "saved games" dialog.
- Plus a few more smaller optimizations and fixes.
Version 4.1
2020/11/16
- Optimizations for macOS 11 – Big Sur: Fixed some minor problems with the user interface.
- Fixed an issue where the image could overlap the game text when a game was first launched.
- Restoring (older) saved games "externally" works again (by double-clicking or by dragging onto the app icon).
- magnetiX is now a "Universal Binary" (i.e. optimized for Apple Silicon), but it is NOT yet tested on the corresponding machines. Feedback welcome!
Version 4.0
2020/06/17
- Major interface refresh and bug fixes: magnetiX now works correctly on macOS 10.15 – Catalina.
Version 3.1
2015/06/26
- Added support for 8 bit images from the C64 releases!

(I love this option from the stunning new Magnetic web port <Magnetic Scripts/> by Stefan Meier.
Thank you for collecting all the images, and for generously sharing them early, too!)

This feature can be enabled in the template settings or with the image context-menu. With fresh preferences the "Sixtyfour" template will use it by default.
- Plus a few more smaller optimizations, tweaks and fixes.
Version 3.0.2
2014/11/24
- The hints panel had some visual problems on Yosemite since the last release.
Version 3.0.1
2014/10/17
- Fixed a crash on Mac OS X.10 – Yosemite (when trying to play an MW-game with "Images = OFF").
- Other very minor tweaks.
Version 3.0
2014/02/06
- Sometimes you are just totally blind to the shortcomings of your own work. But with the help of some very useful feedback, I came to the realisation that the old textbox was little more than a provisional workaround. It did not feel that great and was not "historically accurate", either. And the new optional positioning in version 2 (on a border or above the text view) made no real difference: still wrong.
So ... I removed all this and added "true" inline text entry! This really is the way it was intended to be.

(Very special thanks to Stefan Meier! ... The whole update and this feature in particular would not have happened without his continuous input. It made v3.0 MUCH better.)

- Added "History Feature" (i.e. greatly improved state restoration) when saving/loading the games: Complete game session history, including all texts, player input and graphics, is restored (with new save files)!
Just scrolling around the game text updates the image and status bar accordingly. (An alternative is cmd-clicking the text, e.g. to redisplay the topmost sections that might be unreachable to the scroll trigger.)
- Finally: magnetiX manages the saved game files on its own, now with added preview image and text. (The files are stored in a subfolder in "~/Library/Application Support/magnetiX/"). Old save files can still be used by dragging them on the app icon or by simply double clicking them.
- Optimized graphics quality: No more low contrast "washed out" images, especially in Guild of Thieves and Jinxter. Tweaked contrast and saturation settings a bit, and several images are very slightly cropped to get rid of the annoying black border pixel rows. Added context menu option to disable "Image Smoothing".
- Simplified image preference options: Image drag-resizing is now always possible. If its resized to its current maximum it will autoresize with the window. Removed the "fixed" presets.
- And to simplify the menus, too: Loading and saving as a script is now a more hidden option (hold additional alt-key). That seems appropriate for this "debug feature".
- Fixed several glitches and bugs.
Version 2.0
2013/10/10
- Modernized (and practically redid) the UI and optimized it for larger window and screen sizes. This finally allows a great fullscreen experience, too.
- Maximum game width and image sizes are fully customizable. (The lower image part is draggable when "Custom" image size is selected.)
- Added "<More>"-feature to correctly skim through longer texts. (Due to the potentially large images this was a necessity, now.)
- Added preference templates so its possible to quickly change between different settings (e.g. fullscreen width / windowed width, different fonts for different games, whatever). Use "View" menu for quick selection.
- Game covers and icons are now available in much higher resolution: great on retina displays, and improved for standard displays, too.
- Added hint files for the non magnetic windows games. (If you prefer to enter the cryptic texts yourself: Just remove them from the gamefiles folder in the app bundle). And yes, the hints drawer is gone for good. Added a new panel instead.
- Drag exporting images is possible, again. The images are now saved as GIFs. (Including animations: The system chosen color palettes seem to be ok, at least most of the time...)
- Games can be selected with the cursor keys. Theme music plays/stops on "Space".
- Added option to turn off the Wonderland in-game sound scores.
- Saving and loading a game always uses the file dialog sheets, even if you type "save" or "load" in non magnetic windows games.
- Added more text customization options: line and/or character spacing can be adjusted.
- The Wonderland "bird animation" can now be played correctly more than once per session.
- And a few more minor changes ...
Version 1.4
2011/07/24
  Quick Lion-fixes:
- Fixed optical issues with overlay scrollers and elastic scrolling.
- Double-clicking a saved game to launch magnetiX works again as expected.
- Other very minor fixes.
Version 1.3
2009/06/08
- Updated magnetiX to use magnetic 2.3: Wonderland titlemusic and in-game sound scores are now supported.

(Thank you Stefan, for the quick help with the last "misbehaving" song!)

- Other very minor fixes.
Version 1.2
2006/09/28
- magnetiX is now a universal binary.
- Simplified installation: it's now possible to use a user-defined game file folder.
- Other very minor fixes.
Version 1.1.1
2005/10/09
- Fixed issues with the font-panel: Changing the game font is more reliable.
Version 1.1
2005/09/05
- Fixed a few consistency issues in the UI.
- Fixed a visual glitch when changing preferences.
- Fixed a visual glitch when resizing the game window.
- Finally fixed the small black artefacts in the first frame of some animations.
- A few other small fixes.
- It's now possible to export images with drag & drop.
- Moved the source to Xcode 2.1 in preparation for a future universal binary release. (Building this is possible already but totally untested.)
Version 1.0.2
2005/05/21
  Small Tiger-fixes:
- It's possible again to double-click a saved game to launch magnetiX.
- It's possible again to drag & drop a saved game to the magnetiX icon.
Version 1.0.1
2004/12/16
- In some situations magnetiX would not quit correctly.

(Thanks, John)

- Added another possible location for the gamefiles: "~/Library/Application Support/magnetiX/".
Version 1.0
2004/12/12
- Initial public release.

Known Issues?

Unoptimized, inefficient and uncommented spaghetti-code ... I am sorry about this, but magnetiX is my first (cocoa)-app ever ... it can only get better over time! :-)

 

Magnetic Scrolls games
on Mac OS X / macOS

NEWS

2024/01/06 - magnetiX 4.3 released. (Changes?)

Screenshots


© 2004-2024 maczentrisch.de - magnetiX was written by Jan-Sebastian Schliemann