Apprentice
Apprentice is a freeware program that can be used to play Magic: The Gathering online, and also maintains a searchable [database of Magic cards. It was officially licensed by Wizards of the Coast, and was promoted and distributed by Magic-League.com, a website for free online play between 2003 en 2005. It initially was developed by Dragonstar Studios.
Description
Apprentice lacks a rules engine; the game moves forward by the players typing out their current actions. Apprentice simply provides an interface that can keep track of the current phase of the game; cards in play and their current state; and cards in the graveyard. There is no concept of card ownership; players may use as many copies of a card as they would like in decks they create. Cards which interact with sideboards such as the Judgment "wishes" or the Dissension split card Research/Development are not implemented directly, and are instead usually adjudicated by creating temporary new cards on the spot.
NetDraft was the main program used by Apprentice to support drafts.
History
Apprentice originally was developed by Dragonstar Studios between 1996 and 1999 and was based on an earlier program from 1995 by Tan Thor Jen.[1] Christopher Warden, owner of Dragonstar Studios, acquired the source code for the original 1995 Apprentice, which was written in Visual Basic. It was then ported to Delphi by Mike Allen and after creation of the 1.0 port development was continued by Ryan Davis. The last release was in the version 1.4 branch and a 2.0 branch, developed by Davis, was promised in 2003.[2] However, Dragonstar Studios disbanded. In 2007 Apprentice 2.0 was open sourced.[3] In 2012 Apprentice started being updated again, with a new website created.[4]
References
- ↑ Apprentice: Play Magic Via Modem (1995-12-08)
- ↑ More Apprentice 2.0 Screens (2003-12-13). Archived from the original on December 21, 2004.
- ↑ Apprentice 2.0 | Download Apprentice 2.0 software for free at. Sourceforge.net (2007-06-22).
- ↑ Dragonstar Studios. "Apprentice 2.0 Card Game App"