Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and download (if available)

I remember buying this when I was a kid (or rather I think my mother bought it for me), and I still have the box around somewhere, but sadly the disks have long since died. I spent a lot of time playing it and I loved it, and when the sequel came out I loved that one even more. I think I'm gonna get this mostly for the sake of completion, and I might even fire it up once or twice, but I still think I'll stick with number two when I feel like playing some Populous.

Thanks anyway, though. The nostalgia is flowing through me as I write this.

yes i remeber the game too, at that time when the game was on the market i had to decide if i will hold hands with my first girlfriend, or i go home to play Populous!well i decided for the 2nd.just to see the foe´s creaters take a free swim in lava!(poor girlfriend, but she did not like computer games anyway) :angel:

long time lurker: as far as I remember this game came first on Amiga/Atari ST and not PC; the graphics were considered to be superb at the time the game came out and so was the interface: remember that this is long pre-winxp - so the interface was seen as easy and intituive

the amiga version had a bangin´intro track I still remember 15 years later, I hope this is an the pc version as well

Uhmm... quick thing I want to set straight: Overlord provided all screenshots except for two. The credit goes to him for it :bye:

It's not that important, but nevertheless, thank you for pointing that out! And, of course, thank you for those 2 screenshots! :ok:

This is actually a rather memorable occasion (the placing of this game on this site, that is) and I am inclined to ramble on a bit...

Some PC games have made gaming history. One of these is Populous. Some other games like this are Syndicate, UFO Enemy Unknown, DOOM, Civilisation,..., well check this site out for more gems like this. The reason these games were played to death by EVERYONE (yes, I know, except you :bleh: ) is that they were completely original concepts which set the stage for a billion clones (some of which were excellent).

This originality is sorely lacking these days in many fields :cry: . Is our imagination exhausted ? Is our creativity degrading ? Are we doomed to go to the movies and having to choose between Rocky 94 and Scream 56 ?
Fortunately, the answer is no, as HomeWorld is a quite recent and brilliant example of (can't wait till NEXUS hits the shelves :w00t: ). The problem is that games (and movies) are much bigger now, cost a lot more to make, and take a lot longer to make. And because it is so expensive, new concepts are risky things to try out. But when they are good, the payoff is HUGE.

Back to the good old days, when I was first introduced to Populous, it was absolutely revolutionary. The very first God-game. Even the graphics were very impressive then. It blew my mind and I played it for ages. I even bought the expension pack. Bullfrog still remains the most innovative game company ever in my humble opinion, and this is were they really started to roll. Respect :ok:

Well, it seems I got very :ot: and I deserve to be :rifle: , but the very first God-game can't help but make you philosophical. Gods bless Peter Molyneux and his cronies for providing me with countless sleepless nights.

Cheers,
Lodewijk

All of the maps of the original Populous were created simply by generating strings of random numbers (and Peter Molyneux admitted in his 2000 GDC presentation that the Promised Lands expansion pack to Populous simply consisted of those random numbers reversed).

Yea brilliant game. :ok:

I believe it came out on the Atari ST first, which I had at the time. And I think it was written in C.

Does anyone have a pic of the box (or was it the magazine advert?) showing little people building and expanding out of a computer (or screen or book) onto a desk?
It was really cool anyway, I'd love to see that again!

I also agree that Populous 2 was a big improvement on this brilliantly original game.

Trevor.
trevor@ezfrog.com

Can any of you save your progress in Populous? Everytime I click on the Filename box i get the prompt for my Deity name and then the Deity Verification Check; just like when i first start the game. I can't save my game. Does anyone know how to get around this? I even copied all the files to a floppy disk and run the game from there, but no luck.