populous

Populous
European cover art for Populous
Developer(s)	Bullfrog
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Designer(s)	Peter Molyneux
Platform(s)	Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, PC Engine, Game Boy, NEC PC-9801, SNES, Mega Drive, Sega Master System, Sharp X68000, Mac OS, FM-Towns
Release date(s)	June 5, 1989
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy, God game
Mode(s)	Single player, Two player
Media/distribution	Floppy disk, Cartridge, CD-ROM

Screenshot of the Amiga version

Populous is a computer game developed by Bullfrog in 1989 and is regarded by many as the first PC God game.^[1] In 1991, Populous won the Origins Award for Best Military or Strategy Computer Game of 1990 as well as 1990 Computer Game of the Year in American video game magazine Video Games & Computer Entertainment. It was the first game in the Populous series, preceding Populous II and Populous: The Beginning.

Synopsis

In this game, first developed for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC, the player adopts the role of a deity and assumes the responsibility to shepherd people by direction, manipulation, and divine intervention. The player has the ability to shape the landscape and grow their civilization with the overall aim of having it conquer an enemy force, which is led by an opposing deity.

Expansion packs

An expansion pack called Populous: The Promised Lands was made available, which added five new types of landscape. In addition, another expansion disk called Populous: The Final Frontier added a single new landscape-type and was released as a cover disk for The One.

Reception

Populous was extremely successful and spawned a number of sequels of increasing complexity.

The game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #150 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.^[2]

Populous: The Promised Lands was reviewed in 1990 in Dragon #156 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.^[3]

Biff Kritzen of Computer Gaming World gave the game a positive review, noting, "as heavy-handed as the premise sounds, it really is a rather light-hearted game." The simple design and layout were praised, as were the game's colorful graphics.^[4]

Development

Peter Molyneux led development and mentioned in an interview that the reason the player could manipulate terrain was that he was too lazy to design the many pre-defined maps that would have otherwise been required.^{[citation needed]} The 2001 game Black & White, also led by Molyneux (but this time at his company Lionhead Studios), has been called the "spiritual descendant of Populous."

Bullfrog prototyped the game-play as a board game using Lego, over the course of a few days.^[4]

Spin-offs

Bullfrog offered Powermonger, a combat-oriented game with similar mechanics to Populous.

Populous DS, a new version of the game (published by Xseed Games in America and Rising Star Games in Europe), was developed by Genki for the Nintendo DS and released November 11, 2008.^[5] The game allows the user to shape the in-game landscape using the DS's stylus. It also features a multiplayer mode allowing 4 players to play over a wireless connection.^[6]

References

External links

• Populous at MobyGames
• Edge Online article - The Making Of: Populous