The Making of Syndicate - Alex Trowers (Bullfrog Productions)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- Learn how Bullfrog Productions created Syndicate with this exclusive interview with Alex Trowers. Alex also worked on Theme Park, Hi-Octane, Magic Carpet and Dungeon Keeper 2. Alex reflects on how he helped create these classic titles, and shares some really fun trivia on his work with Bullfrog and what the gaming industry was really like in the 90s. Alex helped design some of Bullfrog's best ever levels and became one of gamings most important level designers in the 90s.
While listening to how Syndicate and other classic titles were made, please enjoy this part playthrough of Syndicate.
Alex reflects on his career in gaming and even shares some insights on making Amiga and PC classics and his views on the gaming scene. Alex also shares some amazing behind the scenes and never heard stories on how he gave so many classic games their iconic feel.
If you ever wanted to learn how Bullfrog Productions created so many classics, check out this interview today.
Please check out the Arcade Attack homepage for all our retro reviews, podcasts, interviews and lots more: www.arcadeatta...
Fancy discussing this video? Fancy suggesting a topic of conversation? Please tweet us @arcadeattackUK or catch us on arcadeattackUK.
Please also consider subscribing to the Arcade Attack Retro Gaming podcast on your favourite podcast platform. We are on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and all your other favourite platforms - here is a handy link:
link.chtbl.com...
All copyrighted material contained within this video is the property of their respective rights owners and their use here is protected under ‘fair use’ for the purposes of comment or critique.
#syndicate #dungeonkeeper #bullfrog #retrogaming #amiga
I'm 42 years old and I STILL occasionally think about this game. It was so immersive. I kept hoping that one day there would be something made to rival the experience, but with AI NPCs and squadmates to take the whole thing to the stratosphere. Maybe this is the decade.
There is this game called Satellite Reign, not nearly as good but still a solid game.
Me too, it came bundled with our HP 486 in 1994. 11 year old me used to sneek downstairs when mum and dad had gone to bed and play late into the night, good times. I didn't have a similar experience or wanting to play all night again until BG3 was released.
@@timothywells8589 haha! How great! Thanks for sharing my dude
Me too!
same!
I did a 1 week work experience for Bullfrog arranged by my school back in 1992, and consequently did playtesting for Syndicate. As a 15-year old I was over the moon to eventually see my name listed on the credits. Sean Cooper gave me a lift to Guildford every morning, and I got in trouble with Peter Molyneux for sitting in his chair. The original Syndicate that I playtested had 8 agents as opposed to 4.
Great memories I'm sure you have, I did a 3 week playtest work experience there on Gene Wars, Syndicate and Theme Hospital. I remember the Friday afternoon 'market talk' by Peter to all the teams. :)
It probably wasn't Peter Molyneux's chair
Bullfrog and Westwood were my entrance to PC gaming and I will never forget those times. I'll be forever grateful for the people that worked on those games
True pioneers of their field. I agree.
Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin... all eliminated by EA^^
Same.
Same.
@@Charles_Bro-son Again, capitalism killed some lovely things.
Putting those "Syndicate" floppies into my Amiga 500 and getting to see that intro for the first time was a landmark experience for me as a gamer.
I can relate to that feeling too.
Think it kickstarted my love for steampunk / cyberpunk style worlds and games
Completing Syndicate was such an event in my young (at the time) life, I can still remember it. My squad was all armed with lasers for the last mission, and I cut through it like butter. Good times. Thanks to everyone involved for creating something that left such a positive impression on me.
why this game was never rebooted... is beyond me. This is possibly my most played game along with Jagged Alliance.
Syndicate still works as a fantastic game. Finding fun ways to assassinate targets, upgrading agents' hardware, 'persuading' civilians, police and even enemy agents - amazing! We need a HD revamp!
Satellite Reign is a good modern spiritual successor, very good in it own right in it advances the original game play of Syndicate. And its 80% off in Steam right now.
@@scarter9447 Satellite Reign is great but has more in common with Commandos than Syndicate in terms of gameplay. no other game exists right now that plays like syndicate 93
@scarter9447 I'll check it out, thanks.
@@scarter9447 Yep, satellite rign is not syndicate.
@@harbinger200 your right it's not. It's superior in modern gaming to the computation bound time bound syndicate. Thankfully we still can enjoy syndicate on hardware or software if we so choose.
This was great. Bullfrog shall never be forgotten. Thank you both.
Glad you enjoyed it
@@ArcadeAttack Now I'm in the middle of your Mortal Kombat interview with John Tobias.
You're doing good work. Subscribed.
Syndicate is still one of my all time favourite games. Played for many, many hours on the Amiga version.
when i was a kid,I played this game, i had the 4 guys pile into the transport and then they got into a fire fight and they all popped out on fire. For a kid that was crazy. One of the most memorable moments in amiga gaming.
A friend of mine had this on his PC and I didn't understand it at first. So complicated compared to the console games I was used to. After playing it a few times I realized it was something special, something different. It had a level of sophistication I had never experienced up until then and I always knew seeing that Bullfrog logo when booting up a game meant a good time with a quality game.
"SE-LEC-TED" is forever burned in my brain from the bazillion hours I played this game.
I thought they were saying tele-ken
I still play Syndicate.. im 43. Great interview, Bullfrog did lots of good stuff back in the day
Can you please share how you play it? I have Mac OS gear.
How do you still play it?
Such an awesome game, I'm past 40 and Syndicate, together with Syndicate Wars hold a very special place in my memory.
This title bundled with the Creative multimedia kit in 1994/95 played on my 486 dx2 66 made me fall in love with PC gaming. Futuristic and brilliant considering that it was released in 1993 and has a wonderful soundtrack like all Bullfrog masterpieces. Thanks ❤
"Multimedia PC" was _the_ buzzword when I was a kid 😂❤
Going to my mates house to do homework because he had Encarta '97 (but usually just playing Duke 3d, C&C Red Alert or modded Quake instead lol)
yeah ..those Creative Labs kits introduced many of us to the real multimedia gaming.
@@RicardoDawkins i agree i had thi experience in 1994. I just found a socket 7 PC already boxed with Pentium 100 and a original Creative Labs multimedia kit with Vibra and 8X Creative CDROM connected on the sound card controller. A sort of time travel machine 😉
@@efpcvintageplanet3406 1994 was the year for me too
it was gamechanger for me too
Finishing this game and the American Revolt expansion are still some of my proudest gaming moments as a kid. :D
A truly incredible game. I finished it on the Amiga 500 back in the day. I used to love making an army of persuadeatron minions!
Man, Bullfrog did some absolute bangers back in the day. Populace, Powermonger, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Theme Park and Dungeon Keeper. That's a whole childhood of memories. All this back when each and every game being released was totally new and totally different from the previous one. The golden age of video games.
Dungeon keeper is on steam! It plays great
Loved Syndicate. Sorry for copying it lads.
Me too 😄
I remember x-copying it several times for chums at school!
Damn x-copy, yeah I got it from an outdoor market as part of a 5 games for £1 at the age of 6 not knowing what it was. Put it in followed the instructions and a few mins later I had a duplicate. I thought great! Got my cousins games and copied them for me (including Syndicate) and he got copies of mine and so forth.
I didn't know it was a bit of a dick move then but it did introduce me to this amazing game.
@@SteveT3D Yup. That and the Stag demos.
@@veritypickle8471 I just remember Amiga Syndicate being a bugger because it was multi-disk, everyone wanted a copy because it was awesome, but very few seemed to have 4 spare DS/DD disks which weren't totally worn out and difficult to copy to!
Great to hear from Alex. "Syndicate" is definately one of the greatest games ever made. One of all time favourite for me. True and dark tragic Dystopia Cyberpunk, it's very real. Realistic. In the 90s I played tons of "Populous", "Dungeon Keeper", "Theme Park" and so on as well. I played them all. And still sometime playing them and streaming, telling about them and how they were developed. Brilliant game designers. Revolutional games, somewhere cloe to Looking Glass, my all time favourite company of devs, ingenius.
Absolutely fascinating to hear Alex talk about old times. My time spent working on Syndicate at Bullfrog with Sean, Alex, etc, was, by far, the best experience I ever had working in the games industry. Sadly I never really kept in touch with my colleagues from there, so it's great to hear Alex went on to do many good things elsewhere.
Thanks Phillip. I'll pass on this message to Alex. You too are a legend. Thanks for checking out the interview. I have an interview work Sean coming out on UA-cam soon.
@@ArcadeAttack I look forward to checking that out then, too! :)
@@ArcadeAttack One of my favourite memories of Syndicate is when I added some logic to the Agents to give them a very low random chance of self destructing when they were very low on health. I didn't *tell* anyone I'd added that in... When Peter was playing it one time shortly after, there was a big explosion noise and Peter shouted "What the **** just happened?!" from across the room. Ah, I laughed...
Wait, Mad Fil? Holy crap dude!
You should totally tell them about that interview Amiga coverdisk we wrote...
@@BulkPaint Alex! My man I'd entirely forgotten about than nonsense until now! Great Maker, you've a better memory than me... Was that for Amiga Format?
I loved seeing the Bullfrog logo on the side of an office ias I drove into Guildford, it was a cool thing. Later in life, I became friends with some Lionhead guys, who had the same sort of mindset as Alex :)
What a BLAST of a Game in former days ! Thnx for all the good hours playing this great title !!!
Bullfrog was best studios back in the days, for me personally. Loved their games, still playing them. Syndicate was amazing, I have to play again my English was close to nonexisting at that time.
Golden era of games made by gamers, unlike sad times we see today.
I'm 41 and with my brother we still talk about this game, particularly the Persuadertron!
Elon Musk too, with his Neuralink 😅.
dude i fricken loved that game. i’ve been looking for something like it ever since. how did they capture the fun and strategy so well but keep the amazing immersion.
One of my top favourite Amiga games.
I enjoyed the atmosphere and the gameplay, but it was the graphics that got me. The cool isometric buildings, fences, lamp-posts.. I just loved the style.
One of my top 5 favorite games of all time.
Alex, get The Bullfrog back into action!!!!
Come on Alex!
My fav game ever. Changed my life. Opened my eyes to a lot of things.
I still have my original copy on floppy disc. The explosions caused major slowdown back then. It was like being in a movie where they used slow motion during the action scenes.
Great memories for sure.
Bullfrog was always my favourite studio of all time, Syndicate was mindblowing! I'm collecting Bullfrog games as of late and the memories make me soooo nostalgic, these guys are rockstars in my eyes.
Thanks for the interview, really interesting!
Populous
Syndicate is one of the greatest games ever made. I recently finished a playthrough for the first time in like 10 years.
that intro, in 1993, felt epic and so high tech! i saw it so many times. this game was epic and such an era!
Hey guys, somewhat related, my experience with Syndicate was the 2012 reboot, which I absolutely loved and still play. What drew me to the game originally was the fact that it was actually banned here in Australia due to, uh, "excessive violence" lol. Loved it and it helped me discover the original! Extremely cool. Thanks lads.
Syndicate was my favorite for many years!!! Syn2 I didn't like because of how it looked visually regardless of the exciting 3D and moving inside buildings, I agree it just didn't feel the same. HUGE Thanks to everyone that made this game. It was awesome to hear all the fun you had making it and refining it!
I loved this game, although I wasn’t quite old enough to grasp it. Syndicate would be amazing in a Modern form.
I fully agree! Bring on a full on remaster!
Satellite Reign is a spiritual successor
@@ShishakliAus but it's slow, not as violent and overall just kind of boring. I finished it with some friends and it was fun playing co-op but ultimately it's no Syndicate.
Bullfrog are most deeply missed gaming studio. I totally lost myself in so many of their titles and can remember enjoy them so vividly till this day.
I keep waiting for some kind of remaster or remake of Syndicate.
Have it on 3DO and PC. I love Bullfrog games, DK1 and 2 were genius and such fun! Theme Park was another.
Populous The Beginning was an amazing game. Love Bullfrog
Thanks for the interview guys, very enjoyable.
I had Syndicate and Powermonger on the Mega Drive as a kid and I loved them and when I got a PC for Christmas 95, I got a whole bunch of Bullfrog games because of those two. I enjoyed so many of their games like many people, my favourite probably being Syndicate or Dungeon Keeper 2.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Brilliant and fascinating interview, loved hearing about the old Bullfrog days. Thanks guys!.
Glad you enjoyed it
I agree, the first Syndicate is the best one. The look and feel of the game is awesome. Like the first Baldurs Gate, Desperados etc where it’s real 2D graphics painted or rendered in details. Even modern games in 3D do not have this look and feel. Like the first two Diablo games compared to the latest. I wonder if anyone would make such old style graphics (but for 4K) today, that would be awesome.
Excellent interview! Very fun to hear about Bullfrog’s work process. I’m simply dying to hear some more behind-the-scenes goodies from the making of other Bullfrog classics like Theme Park, Magic Carpet (1 and 2), Hi-Octane and Dungeon Keeper (etc.). It was such an interesting studio from what I have been able gather from reading and listening to ex-Bullfrog people.
Thank you. Make sure you check out my Mark Webley interview also.
Iconic formative game of my youth from Bullfrog. Any game by that company was special. Loved High Octane
This is stellar. I loved Syndicate when I was young, as I did so many Bullfrog Games. For me Bullfrog always was something special. Their games were of such high quality, original and amazing fun. Shame they aren't around anymore. Perhaps one of the best game design studios ever.
I remember reading the UK version of PC Gamer with their updates of that submarine game that never was. Damn what were the names of that 3 man team. I think they later started the studio: Mucky Foot.
I remember the lead designer now: Guy Simmons. What became of him? 🙂But this channel is great. Highlighting UK Game studios. They were certainly in a league of their own. Kind regards from The Netherlands.
Oh those times! Whenever I start a game and I see the Bullfrog logo intro I know it's gonna be awesome!
absolutely loved listening to this - cracking interview, and such brilliant insights, not just from the past, but from an OG living on in the realtime
Thank you so much.
Great chat about classic games, systems and companies.
Really loved this!
I absolutely loved this game and Syndicate Wars in the 90s
If there's any chance you could rander the message, tell Alex Towers a random Syndicate fan says hi and thank you. When most of my entourage was into either console games or Doom, my mind got blown by this game. This is the first video game that built the concept of fan-fiction in my head. I would write Syndicate's story as homework for school and some teachers were fine with that. It sparked my imagination like no other game at the time and I only played a demo with one assassination mission at this point. So thank you for this!
And I played Syndicate by Starbreeze Studio; actually own on copy right now; and...well... Though I think a FPS but with the base Syndicate formula, doing random mission with a planing phase and all that, would have been amazing.
Great show and great interview, btw!
I remember how Syndicate blew all our minds when it came out. We were instantly obsessed. Great memories 😃
This game needs a proper isometric remake. Satellite Reign really didn't scratch my itch.
what an amazing interview !
In was only killing some time, thought I'd spend 5 mins on this but WOW !
I got totally sucked into this video / interview and couldn't stop watching / listening.
This was a pleasure to listen to. The interviewee was incredibly interesting and engaging,
With some fantastic insights and nuggets of information.
(It helps that I'm a massive Bulfrog and Amiga fan) but even so, I was hooked.
Thanks very much indeed
Thank you for a great interview. Fascinating
Glad you enjoyed it
Brilliant interview!
To this day one of the top-3 best games I've ever played. It's like, at that time I was completely sold on Dune 2 and Syndicate. Syndicate was my Blade Runner / future urban warfare fantasy and Dune 2 was the large-scale battlefield fantasy. It's an unbelievably good game. You could play it in so many different ways too. If you just wanted to screw around and "persuade" an entire city and cram every person into a tiny car and blow the car up wity flame throwers and watch like 100 people run around on fire, you could do that. It's like... there was no end to all the fun in that game ;D.
I totally respected what Syndicate Wars was about and I wanted to play it but I simply didn't have the 3D accelerator hardware necessary to make it run well enough. Anyone could play Syndicate - it ran very well on an Amiga 500 from floppy, the PC version ran perfectly fine too. Syndicate Wars was slightly more demanding. But I appreciated what they did :).
Damn, this interview did jog a lot of memories!
What a great game, I still remember building up to that last mission
Ahh yes.. memories, loved these games and Bullfrog, still got som titles sitting on my box self. Thanks for many hours off fun!
Syndicate Wars on PlayStation was my introduction to these games, absolutely loved them.. some of the most nostalgic sound effects in gaming! ❤ The lore is great, I always pictured this being the Earth in the "Alien" universe; backstabbing, warring corporations, carrying out their own agendas, above and beyond the law and in spite of the dull prison'ed masses! Beautifully grimdark.. the pinnacle of cyberpunk dystopia
Many thanks for the video and the insights ❤
Amazing feedback and great analysis. Love this.
@@ArcadeAttack 🙏🍻
Man, it's been years since I even thought about this game. So good.
I loved Powermonger, probably my favourite on the Amiga. Had a few goes of Syndicate on the pc but once I discovered Doom, pretty much everything else got sidelined. Good interview, thanks.
Doom did conquer all - I was the same!
I remember playing this game with my brother on his Amiga 500, at the time it really felt like gaming had entered a whole new era.
I don‘t remember the gameplay exactly but I remember having an absolute blast. Syndicate and X-Com are probably my main childhood gaming memories.
wow incredible interview, I really appreciate it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I got Syndicate Plus (includes American Revolt expansion) with a new PC my dad got.
Absolutely fell in love, and kept going back to it year on year. Preferred the aesthetics and gameplay vs Sydnicate Wars, and yes the Gauss gun was amazing. 🤩
Thank you so much for so many fun childhood memories!
Awesome interview with this talented and nice guy! It's just too bad they never got to release the Stunt Car Racer sequel.
The first game was so different and fun and I always wanted another one.
Couldn't agree more! Alex is a legend and Stunt Car Racer 2 would have insane.
I still remember that damn Ocean Rig mission. Took my 15 year old self A LOT of time to figure out how to game the push from the miniguns. Good times.
MY GOSH THANKS I love Syndicate, thank you so much for this!
one of my favourite games of all time hands down
I really enjoyed this game back in the day. 🙂 It was really immersive, bizarre, whimsical, unnerving, and the design elements were TRULY legendary for the time. I couldn't believe how awesome every aspect of the game was--not merely the gameplay, but the sound design, UI, music, mapping system, items, economy, etc.
Was there ever a Syndicate 2? 🤔 I don't think I ever heard if it existed.
Couldn't agree more!
What a fascinating guest. A pleasure to listen. Keep up with the interviews, they're awesome 👍
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks
I played it from dusk till dawn back these days and i dont know why but it flew throgh my head from time to time.
Just bought on gog. Looking forward to seeing it again. I need a crt.
Hope you enjoy it!
Syndicate was a great game. Remember my Amiga days booting this up.
Love this. Really gives a flavour of those times. Thanks!
Thanks for listening
memories of driving past the Bullfrog offices in Guildford, visible from the A3
what a game, what a game. 90's gamer here, well to be honest '84 gamer here. i played a lot of this back in the day.
Great interview and a trip back to my first computer game loves in the 90s.
To this day, I still have not figured out how to use the security access cards you research 😅.
This was one of my favourite mega drive games. Played with my classmate alot back in 94 when I was 10.
Rock Paper Shotgun’s first question to Peter Molyneux sums the man up… “Do you think that you're a pathological liar?”
One thing I have never met anyone else who knows - I had Nvidia 3d Shutter Glasses and in Dungeon Keeper, you can go into first person mode using the Fly and fly around the dungeon in VR !
I spent a weekend playing Syndicate on the sofa and on Monday morning could not move my wrist had to have time off work because I couldn't operate the mouse and have had to wear a brace ever since. Worth it
So many hours of my childhood were spent playing Bullfrog and Westwood titles, Syndicate was at the top of the list of games, Alex was a true craftsman and I loved all the titles he worked on.
thank you for this game! :)
Glad you enjoy it! Alex was a top guest.
I only played Syndicate II on playstation (i think) and it was AMAZING. The gameplay, the ambience, the way it was challenging but not frustratiing, simple but not boring. To me this was the perfect game and I dont think ive found much better all these years since.
It's a true classic. I agree.
The hours I put into this on my good old Amiga 1200.
Just the music was amazing it immediately puts you in that world. Hours an hours spent in a dark room playing this game. The mini guns the GAUSS GUNS!!! COLORADO!!!
Ooooooh. Loved this game, played a hacked version. Favorite moment was a mission where you were too snipe a politican in a square with spectators or something. Instead of sniper, i used the rocket launcher. The target and the whole crowd running around burning. Brings a smile too an old soul too this day. Also the Bullfrog and Psygnosis logo is the coolest
Good Times.
Great interview, really good interesting listen 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
I had completely forgotten about Syndicate and Powermonger. Thank you for the wonderful flashbacks.
Lotsa love to Alex and everyone at Bullfrog that brought us those ingenious wonderful games.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fond memories of this one. The scifi and cyberpunk setting and vibe is truly excellent.
thank you very much for this, i love Syndicate!
Glad you enjoy it!
Thx to Alex working on all this greet Games!! Still one of the best Games i´ve ever played!!
I remember getting the demo for this game (A500) on a cover disk, same magazine issue that had Pro Tracker on the other disk (I think it was Amiga Format). Such a classic cover disk issue. And I instantly knew I had to get the full game, which I did. Still one of my favourite games on the Amiga and well ahead of its time for many of the features it introduced.
I love Bullfrog games, just yesterday I was playing Theme Hospital on my DOS PC, probably I'll continue play today. I've never played Syndicate but I have Syndicate Wars, it's on my list of games to play.
All amazing games! Love Bullfrog too!!!
I remember how I couldnt wait to return from vacation to play this game again. And how I spent hours of no-game time to plan in advance how I would spend my credits and which gear to buy. Amazing, might be the most impressive game I ever played.
I loved Bullfrog games. Syndicate was one of my favorites. I paid full price too unlike these other guys. Well, my mom did. :D
Ex Soviet countries had no chance to go into the shop and buy it as there were no such shops but I am glad you were able to contribute :) such an amazing game.
It was the most polished game I had ever seen when it came out. Used to run it on a 386.
One of the best games ever- that dark climate! Love it
Great insights from Alex. Not surprised Richard Longhurst came down from Future towers to play network Syndicate. Playing any sort of network game during that era was rare unless you had friends that could strip required Ethernet cables and knew what a Tee Connector was and where to buy them pre internet hence all of those fly by night network game shops with Quake posters in the Windows in the nineties.... I was lucky enough to play through Syndicate on the Amiga and the CD PC version with the American revolt expansion which had some multiplayer maps. While it absolutely stormed the Amiga scene - it felt like the PC gaming scene was a little early, like before you had even managed to get your LAN party setup there was yet another new Shareware game from ID, West Wood or Apogee offering yet another iteration on the multiplayer experience. So some absolute Amiga staples like Syndicate and Frontier were somewhat 'also-rans' on the PC market, despite good conversions, which was emerging quickly. Another fascinating story to come out of Bullfrog is Demis Hassabis - possibly the only BF Alumni to have his own episode of Desert Island Discs, if you haven't seen the documentary film AlphaGo it's on UA-cam and well worth a watch.
Alex was an amazing guest. Thank you. Love your PC memories. Appreciate it.
Own it on PC and mega drive. Still love it to this day.