n I n the beginning there was Fusion. And it came to r E floods and even complete arma- art pass that and geddon can be summoned... as long as the god is sufficientlyhqu powerful. Most of these options ake said 'Let there be only slow the opposition's progress, but arma- 4 s, geddon always results in a victory for the s '. And there was Populous. stronger god - so make sure of your status w before you bring the world to an end. And Gary Whitta saw that it was good. a m p he era of strategy garners s having to put up with , game after game casting v them as Roman generals, o NATO commanders and l c nuclear. submarine captains is over. a Power n do- with controlling the movements of o 4. freak tank regiments or the actions of foot e s soldiers. With Populous you're nothing s no , loless than an omnipotent deity with an ngentire world ripe and ready for the taking.er h a Becoming the master of all you sur- vvey means first getting rid of another C are carried out via a bank of edeity, a Satanic demon with initial icons belowo the main game area From here t power and a following equal to your m o earth is quaked, volcanoes are created, floods own. Since both gods are effectively m m are caused and Armageddon is triggered. The invincible, the battle for supremacy is a a relatively mundane tasks of altering the land- n kfought on the planet between their scape and gathering information are also car- d eopposing mortal followers, with the ried out from this point. s a r e i s s u e d a n d a c t i o n As 'your people's lifespan is not only s affected by their individual pow- er levels, but also by the type of terrain they inhabit. For example, the Ice World's hostile conditions will soon finish off anyone who stays out of doors for too long.

ea R EV IEW

Ilac our followers begin their life in 'Settle' mode. Having found a suitable spot of level ground (which you pro- vide for them), a group of mortals will build themselves a home- the size and type of which depends on the amount of space available (the range of domiciles stretches from the roughest of tents to a walled castle). The population then expands to fill the building's capacity, with the excess spilling out to begin the process all over again.

loser banished forever. Despite the fact that you're all- seeing and all-knowing, you're still not in a position to directly control your mortal followers' movements and ac- tions. What you can do is issue vague commands and affect the lie of the land to suit your people's actions_ Populous is all about power - learn- ing the fastest way to generate it and the most effective way to use it. Although you start with only enough power to perform menial tasks such as raising and levelling land, if used wise- ly this allows your population to set up home and expand thus increasing • your power. The main part of the game is taken up by Conquest, where you attempt to systematically subjugate the people of SOO ready-made worlds, gaining pass- words to later planets as you go. And if SOO worlds sounds a little limited, Populous is also capable of generating a further 128.000 different landscapes at random!

loppe 'rightsnkTerminator, are a whichkind of take mediaeval a lot of power to create hut are one of the most effective offensive forces. They travel about enemy territow, killing anybody they find and burning down any settlements that get in their way.

• • ••• ,••• i •

=11::1;..11• i• ob.6, 1•1•Wido to I. • , • •144mito,••, P 1 • • • , , • , .1 li4ill•1 •. al 1 li1 . 0,1 'di lop 0io,iq.ii •i • ili•P ..... 1.nPillste T •••li• osici•p4 1•4••••••••••••••••, , • be influenced by changing the •Ivo41 andomm111 •••4411060s • ..... • • • P If misted* • •ints ...... IA• I • , q•dsfrill elf • h 41 ...... • •rn 1 I...... • • • • Seillerstot•o•• • ...... tm Papal Magnet's location. The magnet is a ••••1, ... • ioosim4•••••J• 1 . 'lett 11 , e • ..... • •••••• •. •11 • religious focal point in the form of a staff or ••4 Hoe... "' 1 p • . ft.-.. ' skull which can be used to attract the popula- ••• - • • o •4 ::.!!: tion to any part of the map. Also, the firm .4 p ,• 1...;•. person to reach it becomes the 'leader'. • u ' • l 4 . a • 1 t 1 . i " • o • • n ' s m o v e m e n t c a n Bullfrog Productions ITS NOT has come up with a masterpiece. Most war- games don't succeed in EASY generating a genuine feeling of 'being there', but Populous does — for the simple reason that all the action is viewed in extreme close- BEING GREEN up. Instead of just watching character- block-shaped tank regiments dis- appear from a map, the consequences of your actions are viewed in explicit B and Kevin Duncan (the team behind Populous) began business software for the underu the name of Taurus. Realising that the Amiga's future lay in games software. Peter detail_ so you really do feel that you're andl the gang forgot about databases and spreadsheets and added six new programmers and shaping the course of the game rather graphicl artists to their ranks by recruiting through local computer shops_ than just watching the action from a f The company's fi rst commercial product was the 16-bit conversion of Enlightenment: Druid distance and making the occasional IIr for Firebird. This was followed by a 'thinking man's shoot 'em up' released through tactical decision. The tension gener- Electronico Arts, Fusion. Even at this early stage, Bullfrog was already planning out and ated by the unique gameplay is en- designingg Populous: "I'm not really sure where we got the idea from." says Populous designer hanced by the atmospheric sound, that PPeter Molyneux, "It just sort of appeared." r Although Populous is all about the immortal. Bullfrog was anxious to refrain from being for the fi rst time is actually interactive otoo religious, and so named the two deities Good and Evil rather than God and the Devil_ the rather than just an aesthetic frill there dlast thing they wanted was a Salman Rushdie-type•hit•squad after their blood! is no music as such, just the sound of u Before programming began, a typical landscape was constructed from Lego to allow the eerie low-pitched wailing and rushing team to accurately study the new world's dimensions and perspective. The game was then c wind accompanied by a dull heartbeat, tdeveloped on the ST and later converted and adapted for the Amiga. speeding up and slowing down to indi- i Inspiration for parts of the game came from the strangest sources — for example, the opowecindicator was modelled after a slider•type snooker scoreboard! The samples that form cate your power level_ There's a huge nmost df the atmospheric sound are also rather unlikely. After much experimentation with array of options available, including a slogs and petrol. Bullfrog found that the most realistic fi re sound was achieved by rustling a 'paint map' mode where any game ccrisp packet! scenario can be set up easily, much like Now that Populous is complete. Bullfrog has just started working on two new products r setting up a chess problem. Although othe fi rst is Colony, described by as 'arcade adventure taken a step further' two players can't compete on a single aand Warmonger, a vector-graphics based affair said to be similar in concept to Populous but kwith even more intricate and involved game design. - screen, an unusual two player mode. e As mentioned in the review in issue fi ve, a POI/L1191.1S expansion pack is already in the offi ng. allows two machines to be connected dthis will accommodate four completely new terrains and a whole host of devious new via serial lead or modem. And with trategies. i 128.000 landscapes to conquer, rang- n When they're not programming into the wee small hours, the Bullfrog boys get their kicks from Role Playing Games like Dungeon Master and the coin-op Assault 360. Peter's all•time ing from walkovers to the downright t diabolical, interest isn't likely to wane ofavourite game is Andrew Braybrook's classic Paradroid, which he considers to be one of the best designed games ever. for quite some time. Its what the l As far as fi lm or coin-op conversions are concerned. Peter says he has far too many original i seventh day was invented for. fgame ideas to consider, despite the fi nancial incentives of conversion work: "And besides, it's much more rewarding to produce an original game that you know is your own." e PRICE: E24.95 w Despite the fact that RELEASE DATE: April a the majority of Popu- y — GRAPHICS 88% lous' code was develo- b SOUND 91% ped on the ST, this ver- a 1 ST 91% c sion is lagging ever-so- PLAYABILITY 90% k 1 slightly behind. However. Electronic VALUE i Arts is confident that it will make it n 4 onto the shelves within a week of the OVERALL 95% 1 1 9 Amiga version at the same price. 6 5 . , w h e n P e Bullfrog has only very t recently embarked on e r this version, and as M such no decisions have o been made concerning M l Corpes (Graphics), Shaun Cooper (Game EGA or CGA compatibility- it's due to e ytesting), Peter Molyneux (Game design and program- be released in the latter half of the year n e ming), Kevin Duncan, (administration) and at E24.9S. t eAndy Jones (graphics and game testing). u t x h . e L g e a s n E g i i . g f t r , o i m l e f t t o r i g h t ; G l e n n