Bullfrog Productions, game featured: Populous, acquired by EA in 1995
Maxis, game featured: Sim City 2000, acquired by EA in 1997
Westwood Studios, game featured: Command and Conquer - Red Alert, acquired by EA in 1998
DreamWorks Interactive LLC, game featured: Medal of Honor, acquired by EA in 2000
Honorable mention to Mythic Entertainment/Bioware, acquired by EA in 2006
Song referenced: Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
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Bullfrog was a lost legend of development. Back when Peter Molyneux wasn’t a pile of lies in a trenchcoat.
Syndicate was a masterpiece!
I ordered that and Theme park through the mail!
I fell for the lies every time. I felt like a teenage girl dating a cheating ex, telling myself he really changed this time, it would be different.
Well maybe we needed a dog control button, Peter!
Maybe I’m still not over it. I’ll see myself out.
After Fable was where I drew the line.
The crazy thing was Fable was actually good! Once you got past Peter’s grandiosity and fabrications, it was a fun, albeit a little shallow, experience.
But Peter had to be out there carrying on about how we could cut down a tree and that same tree would be a stump in the future, or something like that.
This was the game where I learned the bullfrog logo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_(1993_video_game)
If you’ve never played it, it comes up on the list of greatest games of all time fairly regularly.
Awesome game, full of bugs and exploits. I loved it.
If you are looking for a remake, Satellite Reign is a pretty good choice.
Is this similiar to Heart of the Machine?
Huh. Pricey for early access.
However what I will say directly is that non of the following ups came ven close to catching the spirit of the first. The biggest aspect of they miss is that I. the first, your agents are semi autonomous. You can directly control them, but they also just kinda do their own thing if you want.
The play style was more of a mix between like… a 4 person shooter squad and maybe… warcraft where you can just send the units off to do something.
I loved syndicate, but not any of the followups and especially not satellite reign. It completely missed the point of the first game, which was almost more resource and unit management.
Whu? What early access games are you playing? The only ones I’ve seen be less than 30 dollars for early access are games that were never going to be 30 dollars in the first place.
Well I don’t pay for early access, which to me, seems like it should be cheaper because you are buying something in a less than finished state.
Also, $30 for any new title, seems high.
I know I have railed against the “AAAA” grasp at $70 price point for new games (and I will continue to do so) but making games does cost something. And, unless you’re only buying indie ‘experiences’ with runtimes in the refund range, I think $30 is reasonable for a video game. Especially when sales will knock that down by at least 50%, eventually.
It just goes to show, no matter what position you have, someone will exist that goes further.
Oh you are more than correct. I’m just slow to buy games because there is such a large backlog of amazing games out there. For example, I only played Witcher 3 last summer.
Also, I’m old. PC games used to be much cheaper in terms of real physical dollars. And they were no better or worse than what is available now. An example I can provide is quite literally, Syndicate. I got it as part of a one of those big cardboard sleeves of 6-10 cds you could buy from places like compucenter or other big box stores. I think it was on the order of like… $10-30? It was a mix of demos, freeware, and full games. I know for a fact that in the same sleeve that I got Syndicate in, I also got Populous and Realms in the same pack, either 1993 or 1994. At least one or two of the CD’s were just a bunch of demos or small free-ware games. Those were the games I remember and it had 5 other games, at least.
So in inflation adjusted dollars we’re taking $35. For all that. Practically new, when there was no such thing as digital distribution. These days everyone seems to think their “whatever” game is worth, a lot? But like, it didn’t used to be this way. What would be considered AAA games were simply cheaper (for the PC versions) in real inflation adjusted dollars, back in the day.
There was a fundamentally different spirit around games back then, especially PC games.
The Realmz demo was such a good game, I probably put hundred or thousands of hours in. And I bought a bunch of the expansions. Its mind-boggling to me how they weren’t sued into oblivion by D&D, because it was basically a clone of AD&D. The expansions, you quite literally just mailed them cash and got mailed back codes.
Pretty sure the “spirit” back then was just a combination of the same indie spirit as now and the moneymen selling low because they weren’t sure parents would be willing to buy that much, at the cost of the video game makers? Now, the money knows people like games and those owners exploit both the makers and the consumers.
But that doesn’t mean real craftspeople should give away their work for some vague artistic pride. Not even looking at what that same $35 dollars will get you today vs in the 80s or 90s.
This isn’t to castigate you, or anyone, waiting for price drops and sales. I do too. But saying all games are too expensive does not go.
Let’s add Sierra Entertainment to this list. King’s Quest 4 Lyfe
sad Prototype noises
Sierra was not acquired by EA.
Vivendi/Activision
Popcap. Sad times
Z U M A
I dunno. Maxis is a bit of a mix bag. Had EA not brought them, they might have gone bankrupt.
Yes, SimCity 3000 and 4 was very-very good. Sims 1 and 2 were also under EA, and they weren’t a cash grab like 3. Spore was also fun. The last SimCity, in 2012 was shit.
Spore would have been an amazing game if it was like the early demos and not transformed into some weird kid thing.
Spore was fun until you get the last stage then it became tedious.
“Wait….my species has achieved space flight. Why I’m constantly fixing all these issues? I just want to explore and stuff.”
It was fun but if you ever saw the original stuff they demonstrated you can see it’s a very different and simplified kids version of what it was
The game was never like the early demos. If a demo isn’t playable by the public then don’t assume it was ever actually a playable game in that state. And to be fair, even if it was I’m not really convinced it would’ve been fun.
Fair, but they’ve long since been dismantled and still hold a special place in our hearts.
Oh, yeah… Completely agree. Shell of their former self that’s now left to make DLC for god knows how long.
Your feeling of helplessness is your best friend, savage!
That quote is from RA2, produced by EA.
It’s a good one, but rules are rules.
SPAÆACE!
Sooner or later time will tell
Red Alert from Westwood was great, but do we have any Nox fans hereabouts?
One of the first RPGs I played as a kid :).
Same. The multiplayer was next-level too, possibly some of the most fun I’ve ever played. CTF with Wizards and Fighters was so ridiculous.
Just a week or two ago C&C went open source. There’s a lot being done with that community now!
Good news, comrade.
Electronic Arts? More like Electronic Farts.
Gotta love a well-documented meme. Thanks OP!
Don’t forget about Lionhead Studios and Black and White 2
Man, I sunk a ton of hours into B&W. Never figured out how to pass one level (final one I think) but it was hella fun.
Westwood was good, I liked the Kyrandia games
On the other OTHER hand, The Sims 1 was done under EA’s thrall.
tbf they did remaster command and conquer and red alert and they did an awesome job as it was a passion project with lots of input from the community. With original developers and composers working on it
But i agree with your point they need to being this stuff back or sell so others can
How nobody remembers Dungeon Keeper ಥ_ಥ
