From Pluribus To PC Gaming History
If you have been hooked on Apple TV's Pluribus, you have probably noticed the standout performance from Rhea Seehorn. Known by many for her powerful role alongside Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul, Seehorn has quietly built a long and varied career going back to the 1990s.
What many PC gamers and Magic: The Gathering fans might not realize is that one of her earliest live action roles was not in a TV show or film at all. Instead, it was in a Magic: The Gathering PC game from Microprose, often remembered by fans as Shandalar.
This strange crossover between prestige television and retro PC gaming is a fun reminder of how deep gaming history runs and how often it intersects with mainstream entertainment.
The Low Budget Charm Of Shandalar
Shandalar is a classic name among long time PC gamers and Magic: The Gathering fans. Released in the mid 1990s, it was a digital adaptation of the Magic card game that was surprisingly ambitious for its time. Unlike many other Magic videogames that focused purely on one versus one duels, Shandalar offered a full single player campaign.
In the game you explore a fantasy world, wander across a map, challenge rival magic users, and slowly build up your deck by winning battles. For its era this was a mind bendingly expansive concept, blending card game strategy with a light role playing style overworld. It has since been recognized as one of PC gaming’s unsung heroes, especially for players who loved deep systems and replayable content.
Part of what made Shandalar so memorable though was not just its design. It was the delightfully cheesy presentation that screamed 1990s PC gaming. The tutorial content, where Rhea Seehorn appears, is full of live action actors composited onto primitive computer generated backgrounds. The result is blurry, low budget, and completely captivating if you appreciate retro game aesthetics.
The tutorial itself reportedly runs for well over an hour of guided instruction. Watching it back today, it is probably not the most efficient way to learn Magic, especially given how complex the card game is and how much it has evolved in almost three decades. But the commitment is impressive. The production team clearly went all in on immersing players in this quirky fantasy world, and Seehorn’s performance is a big part of that charm.
Clips of the tutorial live on through YouTube, where viewers now flood the comments with jokes linking her Shandalar character to her role in Pluribus. Fans love to imagine some bizarre shared universe where the polite gestalt consciousness from the show somehow connects to this old school PC fantasy realm.
Rhea Seehorn On Tube Socks And Electrical Tape
Rhea Seehorn has spoken briefly about her time on Shandalar, and the behind the scenes details are exactly what you would expect from a shoestring 1990s game shoot. In an interview with NPR, she described the project as so low budget that they did not even have proper footwear for the costumes.
Instead of custom fantasy boots, the actors wore tube socks with electrical tape criss crossed over them to suggest gladiator sorcerer style boots. It is the kind of DIY solution that feels perfectly in line with the era, when PC games were growing more cinematic but teams did not always have Hollywood resources to match their ambition.
Seehorn also shared a funny story about the first time she saw herself on the game’s box. She was so excited that her photo appeared on the back cover that she went to Best Buy, pointed herself out on the packaging, and asked if she could get a copy. The store employees were utterly unimpressed and refused, leaving her with a mix of pride and embarrassment that many early career actors can probably relate to.
When the interviewer mentioned that the entire tutorial is now easy to find on YouTube, Seehorn burst into laughter and physically recoiled, a very human reaction to having an old, slightly cringe project resurface in the age of instant online access.
Why This Little Slice Of PC Gaming History Matters
On the surface, this is just a fun bit of trivia. A serious dramatic actor from a critically acclaimed TV series once starred in a campy tutorial for a Magic: The Gathering PC game. But it also highlights a few reasons these older titles are still worth talking about among PC gamers today.
They show how experimental PC gaming used to be. Shandalar tried to merge deck building with open world exploration in a time when that combination was rare.
They capture a unique visual style. The mix of live action, basic computer graphics, and theatrical costumes gives the game a distinct identity that modern high budget productions often smooth away.
They connect gaming to wider pop culture. Seeing modern stars like Rhea Seehorn pop up in old game footage is a reminder that games have been part of the entertainment ecosystem for decades.
For players who grew up with 1990s PC titles, rediscovering Shandalar is a nostalgic trip. For newer gamers, it is an insight into how far PC gaming has come in terms of production values, user experience, and game design.
Today we enjoy slick digital card games, cloud gaming, and polished story driven titles. Looking back at something like Shandalar, with its tube sock boots and hour long tutorials, is not just funny. It is a snapshot of the creative foundations the modern PC gaming scene was built on.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/pluribus-lead-rhea-seehorns-career-began-as-the-tutorial-sorceress-in-a-magic-the-gathering-pc-game-from-1997/
