Information about Magic Satchel

The Magic Satchel is a term often used in reference to computer role-playing games. It refers to the use of a character's inventory in the game, which can often contain more items than is physically possible for the character to carry (or are simply too large), without any visible means to hold or transport them. It was jokingly suggested that these characters were carrying around some kind of invisible mystical bag where they could keep everything without fear of encumbrance and could pull out any item at will.

A similar concept is hammerspace, the physical dimension that characters reach into to pull out very large mallets with which to hit other characters on their heads.[1] The main difference is that “hammerspace” is used in reference to animations and other fiction in which the viewer or reader does not participate, whereas “magic satchel” is used in reference to games in which the player does participate.

Origin

The concept of a magic satchel was alluded to (although perhaps not conforming to this exact context) many years before its use in computer and video games, for instance as Felix the Cat's desired bag of tricks and in the Disney film Mary Poppins, where the title character has a bag from which she can seemingly produce a large number of objects, including ones that significantly outsize its dimensions: for example, in one scene, Mary Poppins can be seen pulling a large lamp, complete with a shoulder-length stand, from inside her bag. Even earlier, the bag in Samuel Beckett's play Happy Days (1960) is strongly implied (though not shown) to have magic satchel-like qualities.

Even further back, in the medieval Welsh epic Y Mabinogi, Pwyll is given a magic satchel by the goddess Rhiannon; this satchel can never be filled except by a man putting his body into it. This trick is used to save Rhiannon from an unwanted Otherworld suitor.



Typically, in most games, a magic satchel can carry almost any number of different items (even vehicles in some extreme cases), but only up to 99 of a single kind of item, as any more of it would require too many digits to indicate. For example, when the counter has two digits, a satchel may have 99 Healing Potions and 99 Antidotes, but may not carry 198 Potions, or even 100 Potions, because that would be three digits—one too many. The general exception to this rule is money. A magic satchel can carry nearly any amount of money (although many games have either a limit of 65,535 units or 4,294,967,295 units, as these are the maximum values that can fit in two bytes or four bytes, respectively).

In addition, in most games, none of the objects in the satchel have any weight: One can carry an armory's worth of giant swords, several dozen old suits of armor, scores of healing items, a (not-so) small fortune in the local currency, and a vehicle or three, without any strain whatsoever. This rule is not universal, however; a few games do enforce weight restrictions, and many do have some items that require a certain minimum level of strength. The first game to introduce a weight limit (which varied according to the player's strength) was Ultima Online.

Examples

In print media

• Doraemon, a robot cat from the eponymous manga.
• In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, a magic satchel is available as a magical item called a Bag of holding.
• The Luggage in the Discworld series parodies the D&D convention.
• In Ranma ½, the character Mousse can hide a large number of weapons mostly in the sleeves of his robes, but also in his feathers when in the shape of a duck.
• In the novel Changeling by Delia Sherman, the main character owns a magic bag, aptly named Satchel, which provides her with an unpredictable supply of prepared meals.
• Alpha Flight (a Marvel Comics superhero team) member Shaman (Michael Twoyoungmen) is a First Nations medicine man from Calgary. Both a skilled doctor and sorcerer, he carries a medicine bag which contains a pocket dimension. He can summon anything needed from the bag.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione Granger uses an Undetectable Extension Charm on her bag, enabling her to carry many items of various sizes without much trouble.
• In The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Mr. Moseby's grandmother, Rose Moseby has a medium sized purse and she pulls out a baseball bat, a vacuum, and another purse from.
• In the Enchanted Forest series, by Patricia C. Wrede, the character Morwen enchanted her sleeves to carry many handy items, such as a camping blanket, a collapsible bucket, a pair of spare robes, etc., providing she knew what she wanted. This spell was not without limits, however.
• In the Danish cartoon series Rasmus Klump, the character Pelle(a pelican) has a magic satchel inside his bill pouch. At one occasion, he searches for a certain object and ends up with a gigantic amount of tools, building materials and other objects around him.

In films

• In the 1992 film Brain Donors, the character Jaques wears a magic-satchel like raincoat that seems to contain anything and everything, from a fire extinguisher to a folding office desk complete with typewriter and inflatable secretary. A messy situation occurs when Jaques is arrested and ordered to empty his pockets.
• In the film Mary Poppins, Mary has a magic bag that can store any number of items regardless of shape.
• In the live action Jim Carrey film The Mask, the main character uses cartoon like applications of Hammerspace.
• One running gag in the Marx Brothers films was for Harpo Marx's character to be carrying any given item at any given time, no matter how improbable or ridiculous, and be able to produce it at will, seemingly out of thin air. In Horse Feathers, for example, he produces a candle burning at both ends, as well as a cup of hot coffee for a passing bum who wants to get a cup. In the last Marx Brothers movie, Love Happy, Harpo is forced to empty his pockets and produces two mannequin legs, a block of ice, a music box, a puppy, a mailbox reading "Moss Kaufman," and a music box...

On television

• The torso/storage compartment of the robot Bender from the Futurama animated cartoon television series acts as a magic satchel.
• Wakko Warner from Animaniacs carries a literal "gag bag", a seemingly ordinary canvas sack from which he can produce all manner of items.
• In the DiC animated cartoon series Popples, the colorful characters use this extensively to pull various objects from their pouches.
• Bill Smith from The Red Green Show can produce anything he needs for a given adventure from his trousers.
• The character of Jerry on the 1990s sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose wears a trenchcoat from which he can instantly extract any needed item, always with the accompanying sound of a velcro attachment ripping free.
• In the short-lived 1960s cartoon series Batfink, the hero's hulking Asian sidekick, Karate, can produce various objects from the capacious sleeves of his gi.
• Nanny, in the British show Count Duckula, wears a sling on her right arm, and is able to produce virtually any item from her sling
• The character Coco in Cartoon Network's Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends acts as a moving, breathing magic satchel, by laying giant plastic eggs which can contain almost anything.
• In the 2005 remake of Doctor Who, it was revealed that the Doctor's pockets, like the TARDIS, are bigger on the inside than on the outside, confirming a long time theory held by the fans for many years. During Tom Baker's tenure as the Doctor, he was frequently required to empty his pockets by authority figures. This usually resulted in the production of many useless and cumbersomely large objects.
• The character Charmcaster from Ben 10 has a bag from which she can draw all manner of items, such as magical explosives or throwing blades. Although small, the bag seems to have something of a pocket dimension inside, allowing Charmcaster to store things within it that logically should not fit (at one point, she produces her uncle Hex's magic staff, an item that is at least four feet tall).
• In a Benny Hill sketch set in the 18th Century, a woman in a big, puffy skirt hides at least seven people under her skirt to fool passing castle guards.
• In The Super Globetrotters, Louis "Sweet Lou" Dunbar can pull anything he needs out of his giant afro.
• In the animé Sonic X, Amy Rose has unlimited access to hammerspace, in which she pulls out her large hammer.

In computer and video games

Video games make extensive use of magic satchel devices to keep the player's inventory. Generally this applies to the majority of games where the player controlls one character or a small party of characters. It ranges from first-person shooters like the Half-Life or Halo-series, Action Adventures like Tomb Raider and The Legend of Zelda as well as CRPGs and other genres.

A further modification of the magic satchel-idea is to give the player a limited inventory in which to contain his weapons and items in form of a bag of some kind, but never actually showing this device visually on the played character. This occurs in Resident Evil 4, where the items and weapons are stored in a briefcase, which, although being accessible at all times, is never seen with the character. This also applies to many CRPG's. Although giving a more realistic feeling than "unlimited" magic satchels, these bags can nevertheless carry more items as would be physically possible, like rocket launchers in the briefcase in Resident Evil 4 or huge medieval weapons like halberds, war hammers or morning stars in the Diablo series. The difference to magic satchels mentioned above is that the player might be forced to get rid of some of his items to be able to store others.

While most games give the player a magic satchel without any further explanations or reasons, some games treat them with comical effects, like the Monkey Island series, where it is shown that the character stores all items in his pants, even though many of them are way to big or heavy to be carried invisible in there. Another example is Toonstruck where a hand-sized bag is openly referred to as "bottomless bag".

See also

• TARDIS
• Portable hole
• Bag of holding
• Pocket universe