Best Bullfrog Game

madrab

just reading some of the best game in the universe thread and i started to add my fave games into it and i realised that alot of them were from bullfrog (best developers ever!)

my favourite are:
Syndicate
Syndicate Wars (but i prefered the playstation version)
Dungeon Keeper
Dungeon Keeper-Deeper Dungeons
Dungeon Keeper 2

What were yours? (and can you still get them/will they work on modern pc's?)

TerrorFirmer

Bullfrog....

Hi-Octane!!!

The most absolutely mental racing game EVER...

Brilliant stuff, flying around the tracks about 300mph blowing up the other cars with machine guns and rockets...

Great graphics and sound for the time, too.

Retr0gamer

I thought Hi-Octane was there lowest point. More shooter than racer and Wiperout was out at the time making it obsolete. I loved every other Bullfrog game though. I adored Magic Carpet. There's nothing else like it and it's way ahead of it's time. It's such a pity that EA absorbed them and then destroyed them. They did the same to Origin as well

TerrorFirmer

I adored Magic Carpet

Ah yes, I remember playing that one on the Saturn....was there a PC version? I'm too lazy to google it....

i_am_dogboy

Gotta be theme park, I wasted so much of my youth with that game. Some preferred rollercoaster tycoon but there's just something really entertaining about seeing a person fall from a rollercoaster then get up and cry. I was a big fan of most of the bullfrog games.

DEG viper

i thought the dungeon keeper games were absolutely brilliant games and i still play them every now and again

Mr E

Loved magic carpet. The graphics and sensation of movement were amazing at the time (draw distance would be a definite sticking point in this day and age, though...)

cousin_borat

Syndicate was class

corblimey

I'd vote for Theme Hospital. The humour, the gameplay, the visuals. I played it a couple weeks ago, and apart from the inability to rotate (a requisite in today's games) it still looked, sounded and played very well.

madrab

i forgot about magic carpet, that was a great game, i think i still have it somewhere, the only bad thing about it was that i remember it being on a few episodes of neighbours years ago

Rhyme

Magic Carpet has to top my list... Syndicate too and Theme Hospital because i just love it for no reason

monument

Theme Hospital, then Syndicate Wars.

Rew

Theme Hospital and the Syndicate games.

Im shocked that there hasn't been any more Syndicate games, they were way ahead of their time.

jaggeh

hi-octane and syndicate wars (as the vehicles from hi-octane were all in SW )

Captain Trips

Can't believe no-ones mentioend Powermonger. This came was absoluetly superb. It definitely predated the "original" RTS game Dune 2 if I remember correctly.

Syndicate was excellent, but the 3D world the made on an A500 in Powermonger was brilliant. The seasons changed, making catapults and attacking villagers...happy times. Having a hundred soldiers chargin across the landscape.

If they remade it without ****ing it up I'd be happy. The game had so much depth. Even capturing the enemies generals, etc., .

It was way better than Populous and Syndicate IMHO and probably Molyneaux et al's finest moment.

TerrorFirmer

Can't believe no-ones mentioend Powermonger.

I used to have this, on the MegaDrive!!!!

Great game, but I can actually barely remember it....

Pity.

projectmayhem

theme hospital gets my vote

such a funny (and bloody addicting) game

Stark

I loved Theme Park, Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper

case n basket

Syndicate Wars? Wash your mouths out.

The original Syndicate was the only one worthy of the name, a terrific game. Theme Park and Magic Carpet were pretty good also.

tk123

i_am_dogboy wrote:

Gotta be theme park, I wasted so much of my youth with that game. Some preferred rollercoaster tycoon but there's just something really entertaining about seeing a person fall from a rollercoaster then get up and cry. I was a big fan of most of the bullfrog games.

I found themepark when I was having a tidy abt a month ago - I downloaded Dos bos and played it for DAYS - it's still so good!!!

Kevok

This thread has made me realise what a horrible state the industry is in at the moment. Games cost so much to make that the niche games that were so prevalent then are all but extinct. Bullfrog, Origin, the old Lucasarts and even Westwood is now dead. Three of those four, absorbed, raped and discarded by EA.

Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, Syndicate Wars and Magic Carpet are the shining Bullfrog games IMO, and will forever be in my games collection.

tuxy

damn you EA

D-Generate

Hi-Octane rocked so so much. Great multiplayer even on the one pc.
I preferred Theme Hospital to Theme Park but both are classics.

Rew

Still have theme hospital lying arounf here, I break it out for a game every so often...

madrab

i didnt realise that starting this thread would make me hate ea even more than i use to

from now on i wont even give them the dignity of capital letters

You know what to do Ralph; Burn them, Burn them all!

jaggeh

omg i so forgot about powermonger, i had it on the megadrive.
I LOVED THAT GAME

it was so funny when your men got hungry and started wandering off to hunt :P

a remake would be superb.

Boro

Ah yes, the original syndicate was great fun. Played it there again a while ago. I remember there used to be this great level where there was a parade or something in the city you were in and you could drive through it with the mind control devices active and have thousands of guys running along behind you. It was great crack just to turn around and mow them all down in the car

Commissar

Hi-Octane was fantastic.
Dungeon Keeper was right up there too.

The Bollox

I say Theme Park! what a game! the first time I 'played' it ws in a friends gaff years ago on the SNES, the reason I have played in inverted commas is because he insisted that I told him what to do instead of him giving me the god-damned controller! but the best craic was when you had a lot of ppl using your rides and you don't have any mechanics so your ride explodes oh man I miss that game!

po0k

Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Hi-Octane.

Big Nelly

is Syndicate on the PC the same game that used to be on the Amiga 500? if so I must try and get a copy! I loved that game!!

bizmark

Sw one of the best games i have ever played still have the cd here however xp wont run the damn thing

madrab

yep same game (though not sure if its 100% the same)

it was on the amiga that i first played it


that was a great system

po0k

bizmark wrote:

Sw one of the best games i have ever played still have the cd here however xp wont run the damn thing

DOSBox

Retr0gamer

Unfortunately Syndicate Wars isn't framerate limited and will run at roughly 1 million frames per second on a modern machine. However the hilarity that ensues is more than worth it.

madrab

i can only imagine pumping them up on purple haze (feel free to correct me) and watch the quartet of paranoid supersoldiers with miniguns commit genocide


ummmm sounds soo good


PS is their a way to limit the frame rate?

Retr0gamer

well my friend tried it a while ago and said he couldn't find any option. Most old games had an option in the performance settings that was something like Ultra High spec that you could select and limit the framerate.

bizmark

SyxPak wrote:

DOSBox

Cool it works mind you at around 1000 fps makeing it impossible to play the game which is a pitty

steviec

I had that problem with Syndicate Wars and pressing one of the function keys fixed it (F7 possibly? not sure though), it doesn't actually limit framerate but puts it in high detail mode which was enough to get it to a manageable pace on my PC which is fairly average-speed.

Never got into it when I tried to play on PC though, I loved Syndicate on Megadrive(my fave 16 bit game ever) and Syndicate Wars on Playstation, it was only later I got the PC versions and mouse control seemed wrong to me.

po0k

bizmark wrote:

Cool it works mind you at around 1000 fps makeing it impossible to play the game which is a pitty

I'm after testing it on my machine ehre (P3 800) I'm actually getting rather poor performance, but I haven't tweaked ti too much.

You can limit the operating speed with DOSBox, you just need to RTFM.

Agent Orange

Populous was great fun altogether, a truly unique game.

Syndicate was fantastic. Wading into a huge crowd and mowing them down, the roar of your agent's miniguns... ah, memories. That and setting hundreds of people on fire with the flame thrower... or blowing up a train with a rocket launcher.

Stalfos

Dungeon keeper 1 and 2 were great games

Actually, wasnt there a trailer for Dungeon keeper 3 in the second one?
Does anyone know what's happening with that or has it already been released or something?

madrab

i think originally it was meant to be an add on (hence when it came out the cd said disk 1) then it was turned into a sequel but then ea came along......


feel free to correct me

hamster

I really liked Dungeon Keeper... "Your creatures are getting hungry....". Was DK2 any improvement on the first one? I have them on file and might install them if work life (tm) allows it...

po0k

Your Imps Demand Cable

Captain Trips

Big Nelly wrote:

is Syndicate on the PC the same game that used to be on the Amiga 500? if so I must try and get a copy! I loved that game!!

It is, and it came with the American Revolt exapansion as well. It's so long ago though I'd expect you to have trouble finding it (and running it). I remember getting it free with a Creative Labs soundcard in 1995 - so if it was in freebie state a decade ago, good luck finding it!!! I don't know where my copy is anymore.

Syndicate Wars was a 3D one, which was cool but definitely wasn't as slick as the original. It wasn't 3D accel but it did burn my P200mmx at the time!

Rew

Actually if you google for it its available online.

Big Nelly

Rew wrote:

Actually if you google for it its available online.

Found it and seems to be available for free on a download

Will it run thou? or do I need other software to get it working?

System:
Windows XP
Excalibur Radeon 9800PRO
1GB PC3200 memory
Athlon XP 2800+ with sharkoon silent cooling fan
SATA disk!

Rew

Big Nelly wrote:

Found it and seems to be available for free on a download

Will it run thou? or do I need other software to get it working?

System:
Windows XP
Excalibur Radeon 9800PRO
1GB PC3200 memory
Athlon XP 2800+ with sharkoon silent cooling fan
SATA disk!

Read the previous comments above about running it on moderen machines.

Dont be at yourself

Theme Hospital just nudges out Dungeon Keeper for me. Though they're both absolutely amazing.

CiDeRmAn

Loved playing Magic Carpet on my playstation, great stuff.
Picked it up a couple of months ago and guess what?
Still great stuff, ok the graphics engine is a tad rusty but still gives the terrain a real solid feel, especially as it deforms under your, and your opponents, spells, loved putting a volcano or earthquake through an enemy castle, wonderful!