All of the big Bullfrog games were unique and for some reason never spawned imitators. Populous, Magic Carpet, Theme Park/Hospital, Dungeon Keeper alongside Syndicate

Bitmap brothers are also responsible for one of the most underrated RTS games imo: "Z"

I remember playing this game as a child and absolutely loving every tidbit of it... there's never been anything quite like it since, especially nothing with such a banger of a soundtrack.

One of the best parts of the game: Your scowling coach berating you for getting the robot too smashed up and then having to pay for the repairs.

that game had such a dope soundtrack!

I fondly remember this game and when I was a kid spent a lot of time playing it. I thought it was amazing with the voice acting for the gods and music and gameplay. I agree there was nothing quite like it released after this game. You can still buy it on GOG btw.

There was dancing in Pirates?

EDIT: did a quick search. I played Pirates on the C64 and never heard of the rather recent "Gold" edition for PC. I know where I'm going to spend the next weekend! Thanks for bringing it to my attention <3

In a c64 emulator, full screen. You can find the .d64 floppy images online. Use a joystick or at least a cheap usb gamepad, the ship to ship fighting is more fun than.

Or if you have a real C64 with a CRT that would be best, but than with some kind of mass storage attached (anything that is faster than a 1541 since the game is so big it has to load before every fight it other activity).

The game can be pretty immersive and playing it through is a multiple hour endeavour.

If in a ship to ship fight, you gotta raise sails first (by moving the joystick up).

"In a browser" is always an option:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Sid_Meiers_Pirates_1987

https://archive.org/details/PiratesMacintosh

There are probably others, but Archive.org is misbehaving at the moment.

I played the remake, which was pretty good, though now 20 years old itself.

tbh if you want to scratch the pirate-y itch, Assassin's Creed Black Flag is excellent, if just for the sea shanties.

Which has itself just had a remake released for it I see! I don't keep up with games these days.

gog.com or Xbox backwards compatibility?

> Is there another game like Syndicate or Lemmings out there?

Concerning Lemmings: Gemini listed the following games that are at least similar in spirit:

- Humanity (2023)

- Zombie Night Terror (2016)

- Spirits (2011)

- Craftlings (2026)

For Syndicate I tried Satellite Reign - it was ~10 years ago, and despite great graphics back then, I was disappointed by the fact you couldn't even drive cars (where it was a possibility in 1993!); bummer!

So if anyone knows a better title - I'd likely give it a try!

There is Syndicate Wars (Succcessor) and Satellite Reign, a spiritual successor from 2015.

I just ported syndicate to the web

https://this.os.isfine.org/#syndicate-plus

With some improvements and, uhm, modernizations https://www.linkedin.com/posts/georgzoeller_i-ported-syndica...?

For games like Lemmings:

Rat Trap/Krusty's Fun House (available on Amiga just like Lemmings)

Chuchu rockets

This is really getting into the weeds, but there is also the Japanese game Bazaru De Gozaru for the PC Engine CD (TurboGrafx 16 CD)

I played through Satellite Reign! I remember it being a pretty worthy successor, having also played the original Bullfrog Syndicate.

Unfortunately I think the modern gaming public would be allergic to isometric third person, especially as soon as they encounter visibility issues.

Satellite Reign was fun. Not sure if I'd call 2015 _recent_ though :)

> it came out on Steam as an early release but never quite made playability IMHO

Satellite Reign has been released as a full game, playable from start to finish and it's really excellent (no idea tbh why the Steam reviews are stuck at 'Mixed', kids these days smh...). It takes a bit to get into the 'flow' and discover all the little gameplay details but once you "got it" it's a lot of fun. I usually do a playthrough at least once a year.

Also re Pirates: one of my favourite 'strategy' games on the Amiga. The 2004 remake in 3D is fun but the graphics really haven't aged well and the art style wasn't all that great to start with.

I'd really like to see a modern 2D Pirates remake with a bit more historical details and fewer gimmicks (e.g. no sword fights and QTE dancing please).

Scorched Earth always comes to mind as an influential early artillery game, but it too was PC, so hard to say.

I actually remember it's stupid tagline better than the name, "The mother of all games" indeed. But that is what I was searching for to get the name.

Yeah Worms was coded on Amiga computers in a part of the world that was extremely Amiga heavy so it’s unlikely Gorillas.bas is the reference point.

Also remember the guys who made Commander Keen.

Yep - Pirates is "the first game to be called Sid Meier's Something or Other" - almost all of his subsequent games used that title scheme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier#Games

Haha, same for me for the language.

I grew up in southern Germany, far from the sea, and all the nautical language is just gibberish to me, no matter if in English or German.

In the 90s, we had a pretty popular HipHop band from Hamburg (close to the sea, Germany's largest port) with a member called "Schiffmeister"[1]

I always assumed "Schiffmeister" was an official German nautical term, but it turned out it isn't and the guy just liked to play Pirates and used the literal translation of "shipmaster" as his pseudonym.

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettes_Brot

My father lived in a different part of the country and copied the game for me. He spent I've no idea how long at the photocopier copying that manual for me. I loved that game, mainly because the manual had absorbed his cigar smoke and reminded me of him.

> To this day, I can identify many real aircraft because they appeared in the manual.

Between F19, M1 Tank Platoon, Gunship, the ranger game, Red storm Rising, and Pirates I have so many random tidbit factoids in my head. It's really pretty amazing. Never really got into F15 though, felt to arcade game-y.

I think my favorite game of the 80's was Carrier Command on the Atari ST. I don't know how well it would hold up today if I played it, but at the time I spent many happy afternoons and evenings piloting my carrier around.

I was born mid 80s in Germany to Americans and had the internet and computers as a wee child, moved to America early 90s and felt like I was the only person in my not-California State with a PC until I was in high school in the 98-00s. I don't remember ever not having a computer. I remember my parents healthcare friends being the only people I knew who owned Apples, for imaging hearts etc.

I mention not being in California because back then when I was online everybody else online was from California or Europe. I feel like my career would've sped up about 15 years if I had grown up in CA..

But with that said, I'm way older now and I still can count the number of my friends actually into building PCs and what not on one hand. ALL of my friends have always been console gamers. I have a 22 year old Steam account and I think I might have 2 IRL friends on it.

Hanse: Die Expedition (1994) - https://www.mobygames.com/game/9273/hanse-die-expedition/

There's also the Patrician series (Patrician 1, 1992, Patrician III 2002) I think you may be referring to: https://www.mobygames.com/game/15367/patrician-iii/

Patrician III starts out as a manual trading game, sailing your trading cogs up and down the Baltic, but then to expand you build industries, and supply goods so the population can expand and create and consume more of your goods, automate trading routes, you can become mayor of your home town, defend it against sieges, and it to a large extent turns into a city builder.

You can also send ships to explore and find trade routes to the Mediterranean, and IIRC you can occasionally accidentally discover America.

Very cool game.