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EA looking to revive classic Bullfrog games
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 11th August 2009
Electronic Arts may be looking to revive a few of Bullfrog's old licenses in one form or another, it seems.
Bullfrog was Peter Molyneux's original studio which developed a strong reputation for off-the-wall strategy titles in the mid 90s. The most notable titles were Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Syndicate and, of course. Dungeon Keeper. Unfortunately, when Bullfrog was sold to Electronic Arts at it's peak a lot of the key talent left the company and went to join Molyneux at Lionhead.Since then EA has made a few token efforts to use the Bullfrog licenses and is heavily rumoured to be making a new Syndicate game as we speak.
Now, according to EA's Harvey Elliot, those old series may soon get revived in some form - though they almost definitely won't come as straight-up remakes.
"If you remember all the old classics you played, if you go back and play them now, they're not the same. They were right for their time, and the trick with those games is coming up with what's right for the time now," Elliot told Kikizo.
"I'm going to look at them at some point, I think there's an opportunity to bring those back in the future, but only if it's right for the time and not just a 'remake' or something. We'd need to do it in a way that's true to the original values, but would still make a great game today."
Which Bullfrog license are you most interested in? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Any one else read this and think consoleised? :(
You're not the only one.
Despite that, however, I'd love to see Dungeon Keeper 1&2 again (found my DK2 disc the other day - might install that again now...) and most especially Syndicate... :D
(cue misty-eyed nostalgia of playing Populous on the Atari ST many, many years ago ...)
I've even played that through again recently enough - such a legendary game.
i've been waiting for new dugoen keeper for aaaages, loved the one
and syndicate :) kick ass, but need some new populous to, old school populous II not the latest one with the shamens and stuff
though i've got a feeling EA will cock it up, prob move syndicate to an FPS or over the shoulder shooter
I was so disapointed with the Golden Axe remake, all they had to do was update the grpahics but keep it a 3nd side scroller but noooo they go 3D and drop the best cvharacter, ie lil drwarf dude with the "golden axe"
Now here's an idea, instead of spending all that time and money effectively ruining the memories of those that hold these little gems dear to their hearts.... why not direct all that energy into actually developing games?
agreed, but theres no money in innovation these days, only recycling. :/
Haven't you heard? Recycling saves precious resources, and the planet!
:) :D
I've still got populous installed on an old PC somewhere..
(i know Westwood is commonly mentioned on the topic of EA killing game franchises but to be honest i enjoy the new C&Cs quite a lot.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recycling, if done properly like Monkey Island.
It's good to be bad. :) Anyone else remember the torture chamber with the black mistress? And how she loved to be whipped?
No doubt EA would remove the final cut scene where the captured knight is accidentally zapped with a wand of polymorph into a troll female....to the interest of the surrounding troll males .
The article is pretty clear on the fact that they want to make a new game, not a remake, sadly. So i wouldn't hope for an "enhanced port"
Other than that I'm all for remakes but if they change the mechanics it'll most likely suck.
32bit XP will run the software render DK1, but not the DirectX version (not a valid Win32 app)
64bit XP will not run either, as the launcher is 16bit :(
Unfortunately, as excited as I would like to be, this is EA we are talking about. Consolification is going to ruin anything they try to remake. Or not, as the case maybe.
Whatever they do, it is going to butcher some of the best games ever made. The consoles are such a powerful business force at the moment, and a company like EA is not going to miss an oppurtunity to make money. And there in lies the problem; these were PC games.
But I get the feeling that they will just take these classics and ruin them to make as much cash as possible.
But i strongly remember playing DK1 on 32 bit XP pre-SP3.
If they do port or remake, they should provide an original playable of the title; and if they want to tweak, put the updated version out alongside of the original. The originals were good because of the game. Tetris is simple, and still getting played strongly.
But, just my opinion.
BS. I still break out Populous the Beginning and Dungeon Keeper once or twice a year. And I still find them far better than any other games out there, I can play them for a week straight and not get bored. I did get Populous for the DS and that's pretty cool with the stylus. I wouldn't mind a graphics update though, just don't mess with it. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Not sure I'd care about another sequel or spinoff, but I'd buy a graphics update for sure.
While I totally disagree with the statement you quoted (what a load of horsehit), you have to appreciate that nostalgia is a powerful force. Games people tell me are amazing that I missed the first time around, I just can't get in to. Some things really do depend on the time. I could play X-Com until the sun rises (and often do), but try getting my younger brother to, or any of my friends my age who missed it, and it just doesn't happen.
Releasing these games with better graphics would help a lot, but they are still only going to cater mianly to the old fans. Unfortunately, times do move on and cultures change, so a revival really would need something changed. But I disagree with him saying that going back to your old favourites is different and worse. They are always just as good for me, but I can appreciate that is only because of nostalgia.
Every good RTS is based on paper-scissor-stones, one way or the other. It's like a good movie or book: They're great when first released but they'll be watched/read by the next generations to come. Take Hitchcock's movies as an example, or the Bond novels.
Depends how open you are to 'old' new things, I guess - I didn't play X-Com the first time around, but when I did finally play it I enjoyed it. Same with a lot of sprite-based RPGs - didn't play them the first time around (like on the SNES) but have since played the PS1/GBA/DS/PSP rerelease (or frequently all of them) and was totally drawn in. I first played Chrono Trigger (on an emulator) around the time when Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy was released... and I enjoyed Chrono Trigger more. ;)
Maybe they should bring out the game in two versions, buy the remake, with its "updates" and get the original, tweaked to run on XP/Vista/Win7 as well.
So at least you can't bitch and say the original was better, since you have it also...
I concur, and better multiplayer
Dugeon keeper vs Dungoen keeper yes please
£30! I managed to get Syndicate + American Revolt working under DOS Box without too much effort
I'd do that.
If some bugger hadn't stolen my copies of Syndicate and Syndicate Wars years ago. :(