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From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: "8 Classic Games You Haven't Played (but should)"
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2025 10:25:51 -0500
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On Wed, 29 Jan 2025 23:00:03 GMT, Geeknix
<usenet@apple.geeknix135.net> wrote:

>On 2025-01-28, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 28 Jan 2025 07:02:48 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> "Populous" is a genre of god-game that I think needs to make a
>> come-back (although I was always more fond of the sequel). There have
>> been attempts to revitalize the god-game genre, but they always added
>> too many layers of complexity to the game, and I think that what made
>> "Populous" so addictive was its simplicity. It was a very hands-off
>> sort of game, where most of the action took place outside of the
>> player's control, and you had to swoop in only at critical junctures
>> to make sure the outcome of a battle went in your favor. "Populous" is
>> actually one of those games that /benefits/ from its technological
>> limitations, with its small view-window keeping you focused on just a
>> tiny part of the world at once. Even just the ability to zoom out to a
>> more macro-level view of the world works against the game's balance, I
>> feel.
>
>I never played Populous, never understood it, but then again I never
>really looked at it or tried. My younger self just thought it was a rip
>off of Powermonger without the fighting.
>
>I played Powermonger a lot on the Amiga, I sometimes just played the
>intro over and over. The music was great to a younger me sitting in a
>dark cold bedroom staring at a 14" CRT with small speakers blasting out
>the soundtrack, happy days. I also somehow stubbled across some kind of 
>bug that gave my troops infinite strength, but they looked a little 
>glitchy.
>
>I just tried searching to see if this glitch was a thing. I couldn't
>find anything about it. The only bug mentioned was that sometimes the
>shepard's looked like they were doing something lewd to their flock!
>
>Sorry, but I can't help thinking of Powermonger whenever Populous is
>mentioned. Now I'm going to watch the intro on YouTube and maybe look up
>Mega-lo-mania also. Thanks for the memory trigger..

Heheh. I was the opposite. "Powermonger", for me, was a rip-off of
"Populous". Although seeing as both games were developed at Bullfrog
(albeit not by the same teams), in either case 'rip-off' is probably
inaccurate. 

Peter Molyneux was a fan though. He once said it was "better than
Populous". High praise from the guy who developed "Populous" in the
first place.

Personally, I preferred the older game. "Powermonger" just added on
layers of complexity I felt were unnecessary. Although, again, that
might be because I came across it later. Perhaps had I played
"Powermonger" first, I would have been bitching about how stupidly
simplified they'd made "Populous". ;-P

Can we both agree, though, that "Syndicate" was the better of both
games? ;-)