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A tribute to Bullfrog Productions: the creators of Syndicate and Populous

Syndicate was one of the first games I saw on Amiga. A friend of mine from elementary school had it and when I went to his after school one day he told me that “a lot of research is being done”, he tells me that I am looking at a screen with a graph. I was like “Whaaaaaaat” and he was like “to get better weapons, buddy!” And then I thought … you get the idea. As soon as we were finally able to play the game properly, only one thought popped into my head: wow. If you haven’t played Syndicate on any platform, I advise you to do so now. His lack of respect for the general public (you’ll see what I mean) laid the foundation for many of today’s popular titles.

Syndicate was developed by Bullfrog, whose iconic logo will forever be etched in my brain. The Bullfrog magic didn’t just stop and start with Syndicate, no, their previous catalog is impressive and without some of their inventions (as stated above) many of today’s popular titles would not exist.

Bullfrog was founded in 1987 by Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux. His team also consisted of legendary designers Gary Carr, Glenn Corpes (whom we have interviewed here), and Paul McLaughlin. They had to wait a few years for their first big hit and I only need to say one word: populous. To say that Populous was innovative (ho ho) is an understatement. 90% of retro gamers know what it is, the first widely recognized “Game of God”. The isometric view, along with the world map included in a book, really made you believe that you were working like god in his “office”. One of my favorite actions in the game was to “do some landscaping”, that is, flatten some mountains (because I felt like it) and also make the dirt of some of the enemy’s followers disappear. There is no barley for them this year!

Released at the same time as “The Satanic Verses,” the Daily Mail warned Bullfrog that they could also get a fatwa like Mr. Rushdie; thankfully it never materialized and Bullfrog was able to continue.

The next Bullfrog game I remember was Powermonger, another “Game of God”, but it introduced a 3D game engine and it looked fantastic. I think this title laid the foundation for the iconic black and white PC title (also designed by Molyneux) with its “artificial life” engine and a population with its own statistics. The game took a different approach for Populous, as it focused less on the terraforming aspect (next to nothing) and more on keeping a population alive (or not!). Thus demonstrating that innovation does not have to involve a completely new idea for it to work.

The inevitable sequel to Populous followed (which again was excellent) but it was during 1993 and 1994 that Bullfrog produced two of my favorite games. The aforementioned union and also the theme park.

The main concept of Syndicate was global domination (I see a theme here Bullfrog …) through the conquest of territories (Bullfrog!). In fact, the game turned out to be a pretty gross satire on the world we live in. The player would guide his team of four cyborgs around said territories, annihilating the enemies, setting fire to many buildings and gentle (or not so gentle) persuasion of the population. Then you would need to tax the population to raise money for research, as I mentioned earlier. All of this in a fun 1993 computer game. The fact that the Mega Drive port performed as well as the Amiga version is down to the extremely talented team at Bullfrog.

And so, to the next wonder: the theme park. Show me a kid in elementary school who doesn’t want his own theme park and I’ll show you a liar! After visiting Alton Towers one summer, the first thing I drew the first morning back to school was the “Super Looper” or something that sounded similar. Although the main objective of the theme park was less fun, spending money to earn more money, it was a pleasure to participate in the free nature of the creation of each theme park. Want to put a big saucepan right next to the burger shack? Be my guest! Honestly, my theme parks were paltry compared to some created by my friends and cousins, but you’ll be pleased to know that I now have another copy to rectify this! Roller Coaster Tycoon has been praised as its successor, but do you see a 16-bit version anywhere? The Mega Drive version of Theme Park is still around, which again is simply surprising given the limitations of the console.

Bullfrog was also responsible for the beautiful magic carpet on PC and the timeless Dungeon Keeper (also on PC), but I will always remember them for the innovation and life they brought to 16-bit regardless of the obvious limitations. If anything, it meant that we poorer gamers didn’t miss a chance to stifle the taunts of our PC owner friends.

Electronic Arts deserves a mention here because it was they who published these iconic games with Bullfrog. The inevitable merger with (or incorporation into) Electronic Arts occurred in 2001, 14 years after the company’s founding.

So we thank Bullfrog, for their innovation and desire to remain relevant. We’ll enjoy your titles for years to come, but don’t hold your breath for more research in real time.