New Players
Welcome to Populous
Populous: The Beginning is the third game of the Populous series by Bullfrog. The game (and mission pack) are both out of print, but Populous: The Beginning can still be purchased with other games on Amazon, or various other suppliers. The Mission Pack Populous: Undiscovered Worlds is not availible as a whole anywhere.
Assuming you have the game, the next thing you should do is get a username for gamespy so you can download the necessary files off of fileplanet. This can be done by going to the GameSpy registration site and filling out the form. If you already have a gamespy ID then you can skip this step.
Even though Populous was released a few years ago, the only patch (which was released the same year) was not included in many versions of the game. Regardless, we've created our own patch that not only does what the original official Bullfrog patch does, but it also brings your game up to date with several other patches. It will:
- Fix the bugs that the official Bullfrog patch fixes
- Update the version number to 1.03
- Fix the network hosting bug
- Make the game run without the CD
- Make the game the US version
- Install the resolution changer
- Install Populous Restore
- Install Pop check
You can get the Collective Patch (1.03) Here. Download and run the patch then continue on.
The network hosting fix in the patch is only relevant to people on home networks. If you have a LAN you must forward port 7575 UDP to the machine you want to host with.
The resolution changer lets you set a resolution you want Populous to run at. Examples of what to fill in the fields include:
| Width | Height | Depth |
|---|---|---|
| 800 | 600 | 16 |
| 1024 | 768 | 16 |
| 1152 | 864 | 16 |
Amongst others that your monitor supports. Most people set the resolution to fix the problem where Populous chooses the lowest resolution by default.
The next thing you'll want is the Populous Reincarnated Matchmaker so you can play online. That can be downloaded directly from the link provided. Once the matchmaker has been downloaded and installed, you need to register a name so you can login and play other people for points. Registration is just a simple form to fill out in our forum. For more information on the matchmaker, read our in-depth matchmaker tutorial page.
Before you jump into online play, you should get to know the Populous Online Code Of Conduct. This document will go over the do's and don't's of playing Populous online with other people.
After you've made it to the lobby, you might want to play some new maps and mods that other people are playing. It's recommended that you get a the top few packs on the maps page. In addition to those, the section contain several other packs that you may wish to get.
That should be all you need to get started, if you have any questions you should visit the frequently asked questions page.