johnl@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (John Lindwall) (07/15/89)
Review of POPULOUS Amiga game from Electronic Arts Requires AmigaDos 1.2/1.3 OVERVIEW The premise of Populous is that the player takes the part of one of two Deities in a mythical land. The people inhabiting this land are aligned with one of the two deities. By assisting your chosen people in surviving and thriving, the deity gains in power. When all of the opposing population are wiped out, the deity has won. SCREEN DISPLAY The screen display of Populous is boggling at first, but becomes quite comfortable with experience. The top left corner of the screen displays a large scale map of the land. The center of the screen displays a zoomed in view of small portion of the large scale map. The top right part of the screen contains an "info" area, which graphically displays statistics of a selected "object". A power gauge on the right of the screen displays the amount of mana accrued by the deity, along with the powers the deity may weild. The bottom portion of the screen contains a collection of icons which are the players controls. The game is controlled entirely with the mouse. I applaud the designers for such as useful and effective user-interface. All of the game controls appear on this one screen. DESCRIPTION At the start of the game the computer displays the land on the large scale map. Flashing white dots indicate the location of Good population; flashing red dots indicate Evil people. At the start of the game, each side only has a small number of people (3-6). By clicking on the large-scale map the player can view selected portions of the map. Deities wield indirect control over the population. The people can be directed to settle, attack, join and settle, or quest. Settling causes people to look for flat land areas in which to build houses. The more flat area for crops, the larger the housing is. IE there are tents, huts, houses, towers, forts, and castles. The deity can assist the efforts of the people by modifying the landscape in order to create flat lands. When the housing becomes crowded, a walker will come forth and seek out a new place to homestead. As more people are "born", the deity's mana increases. Attack mode causes people to set forth and attack any enemy forces in the area. Join and Settle mode causes adjacent walkers to merge into a more powerful walker. If no other walkers are near they will settle instead. Quest mode causes walkers to set forth in the direction of the marker. The deity can place the marker anywhere on the map. This option allows the deity to direct the expansion of his people. A deity's powers include A> Modify landscape (up or down). B> Move marker (see Quest mode above) C> Create swamp (great for killing enemy walkers) D> Create knight (changes a walker into a powerful, independent killing machine) E> Volcano (demolishes enemy landscape/houses/people) F> Flood (Raises the ocean's water level, can be devastating!) G> Armegeddon (cause remaining population to battle to the bitter end). Each option consumes mana. Unless you have enough mana you cannot execute the option. OPINIONS This game is unlike any I've ever played before. The level of detail is amazing. The graphics are excellent. There are a variety of terrain types (wooded, desert, rock, ice). There are dozens of predefined lands, which increase in difficulty. The computer player is very good. Two player mode is also supported as well as modem play! Many parameters of play can be modified, allowing a handicap to a more experienced player. When playing Populous I lose myself in the game world. It seems that the land takes on a life of its own. As the game unfolds, a kind of history takes place. For example, in one game I had built my people up to a high degree. I had a firm base of support with many castles and a strong leader. I had built a land-bridge across the ocean so that my forces could perform a mass invasion of the enemy area. Then DISASTER struck! The enemy deity had seen my strength and suddenly flooded the entire world killing 75% of my forces and altering the landscape completely! (I had stupidly built my flat areas on low ground). My plan shifted to a defensive mode, and I was forced to rebuild while the enemy attacked relentlessly. Through patience and harrassment of enemy forces (a volcano or two in the middle of the enemy stronghold is always nice) I emerged victorious!! It is fascinating to view the changing face of the world and its peoples as the game progresses. I recommend this game highly. I always want to play "just one more land". It appeals to my sense of fantasy and egotism (when was the last time you got to be a deity?) If you are a hard-core board gamer, you may dislike the lack exact control over forces. Forces move of their own accord often. Movement of forces can be influenced by use of the marker - but exact troop placement is not done. There are no odds charts to consult. Each force has strength measured on a graph, not a strength number. Forces are generic: there are no infantry vs cavalry vs artillery. COPY PROTECTION Copy protection: Yes. It is supplied on a bootable WorkBench disk, and you must click on an icon to startup. But it appears to look for copy protection on the disk when loading data files. (I assume this from the funny noises my floppy drive made). I tried starting the game after booting from my own WorkBench, but Populous took over. I didn't see anything in the manual about installing on a hard drive. This is sad, because Populous is an excellent candidate for a background game: it is not a rapid paced arcade game demanding lots of CPU, it has a pause option, and takes a long time to play (1-2 hrs). GLITCHES: Occasionally I see a momentary double-buffering glitch, but it is almost unnoticeable and doesn't impact game play. DOCUMENTATION The manual is nice looking and nice to read. A little tutorial section gets you started nicely. (The game has a tutorial mode). No complaints here. SUMMARY Populous is like a wargamer's version of the computer program "Little Computer People". Great game. ---------------------------------------- John Lindwall johnl@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM "The above opinions are mine, not my employer's"
raz%kilowatt@Sun.COM (Steve -Raz- Berry) (07/17/89)
In article <431@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> johnl@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (John Lindwall) writes: > Review of > POPULOUS > Amiga game from Electronic Arts I have heard from some one with an 25mhz '030 machine that this game is one of those that relies on the 68K running at 7.1foo Mhz. Can anyone confirm this with an '020 machine? The game sounds neet, but I won't buy it if it won't work with turbo'ed Amigas. Steve -Raz- Berry Disclaimer: I didn't do nutin! UUCP: sun!kilowatt!raz ARPA: raz%kilowatt.EBay@sun.com KILOWATT: sun!kilowatt!archive-server archive-server%kilowatt.EBay@sun.com
unland@cbmvax.UUCP (Rick Unland - Regional Support) (07/17/89)
If anyone with a CSA turbo 020/030 and dragstrip (NOT MIDGETS though) wants to run this game on their system without removing the boards here are the instructions on how to install a switch to run in 68000 only mode. 1, You will need a 3 pole double throw switch. 2, Solder one side of the switch to the top pin of the 68000 only jumper pins on the CSA board. 3, Solder the other side of the switch to the left pin of the B2000 jumper set on the CSA board ( you have to remove the jumper on this one). 4, Solder the middle or ground of switch to the bottom pin of the 68000 only jumper on the CSA Board. Thats all there is to it, I have been using it this way for about three weeks with no problems and populus works great! Also if you switch while running all it does is GURU!. -- ******* Rick Unland Commodore Business Machines **************************** * Usenet: uunet!cbmvax!unland ARPA: cbmvax!unland!@uunet.UU.NET * * Standard Disclaimer: If I said it, I was drunk! * * If I didn't say it, I wasn't drunk enough! * * "I thought they said the Commodore could stand up to anything!" * *********************************************** Earth Girls Are Easy! **********
lauren@cbmvax.UUCP (Lauren Brown - CATS) (07/17/89)
In article <7327@cbmvax.UUCP> unland@cbmvax.UUCP (Rick Unland - Regional Support) writes: >If anyone with a CSA turbo 020/030 and dragstrip (NOT MIDGETS though) wants to >run this game on their system without removing the boards here are the >instructions on how to install a switch to run in 68000 only mode. > (instructions deleted) Dear Hardware Hackers Intending to try Rick's switch: Please note that all standard disclaimers regarding voiding warranties (Commodore and/or CSA) apply to the above message. Proceed at your own risk. Now, who has a screwdriver? -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lauren Brown -- CBM >>Commodore Amiga Technical Support<< 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA 19380 UUCP ...{allegra,uunet,rutger,}!cbmvax!lauren PHONE 215-431-9100 Do not believe in miracles - rely on them. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
raz%kilowatt@Sun.COM (Steve -Raz- Berry) (07/20/89)
I am posting this for another.... From: ames!mailrus!uflorida!unf7!tlvx!sysop Date: Wed, 19 Jul 89 16:31:38 -0400 To: unf7!uflorida!haven!ames!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!kilowatt!raz Subject: Re: Populous Review (long) In-Reply-To: your article <115903@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> > In article <431@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> johnl@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (John Lindwall) writes: > > > > Review of > > > POPULOUS > > > Amiga game from Electronic Arts > {Then in a lost article # I write:} > I have heard from some one with an 25mhz '030 machine that this game > is one of those that relies on the 68K running at 7.1foo Mhz. Can > anyone confirm this with an '020 machine? > > The game sounds neet, but I won't buy it if it won't work with > turbo'ed Amigas. > > Steve -Raz- Berry Disclaimer: I didn't do nutin! > UUCP: sun!kilowatt!raz ARPA: raz%kilowatt.EBay@sun.com > KILOWATT: sun!kilowatt!archive-server archive-server%kilowatt.EBay@sun.com Hi. I bought Populous, but I had to take it back. It SEEMS that it doesn't like my 68010, but that's just a guess. I have a replacement disk drive, so maybe it could be that, but I doubt it. I wanted to post to USENET, but my postnews doesn't seem to be working correctly. Hmm. My *GUESS* is that it's the copy protection scheme. I tried calling EA, but they must have taken off early that day (no answer at a little after 4:00 pacific time).... I took the game back anyway. Maybe if they update it, I'll buy it later.... It's really annoying to buy programs which may or may not run. I mean, if companies think Amiga owners are going to have 7.16 MHz 68000's forever, they're just plain stupid. After all, look at the upgrades in the clone world (8088, 8086, 80286, 80386), and companies work hard to make things work for everything. A lot of Amiga games work great. Anyway, I wanted to post this to all, but never mind! heh. Maybe some others will call EA and complain. If they get a few people complaining, they'll start to think, "Gee, maybe someone out there plays games on something other than an A500! Imagine that!" Again, I have no way of knowing if the CPU is the real problem or not; I do *NOT* want to open my system up and swap CPU's to find out. That is not a proper solution. Let me know (or post to USENET) what you find out from others... sorry I'm not more help. Later! --- Gary Wolfe, SYSOP of the Temporal Vortex BBS Steve -Raz- Berry Disclaimer: I didn't do nutin! UUCP: sun!kilowatt!raz ARPA: raz%kilowatt.EBay@sun.com KILOWATT: sun!kilowatt!archive-server archive-server%kilowatt.EBay@sun.com