I love how the scream from the guy getting run over by the tank is the same scream as the agent’s in _Impossible Mission_ when he falls down a bottomless pit.
So digging into the actual manual: There's an extra scoring opportunity during the "Attack" scene for the Allies if they can destroy the gun with a grenade, and you can actually send a man OVER the second wall to further increase your chances of getting at least one man all the way. In a full game, if the Dictator is successful in killing every last man, the game ends immediately. For the "Escape" scene, when played in Single-Player Mode, you will control the helicopter even if you were playing as the Dictator. Score will be reassigned accordingly in this case. This was actually noted in an ADDENDUM to the manual. Additionally, scoring is doubled for both players when the Dictator-selected Level is even ("2"), and when the level is at either end (1 or 3), the DISADVANTAGED player earns triple points (3x for Dictator at level 1, 3x for Allies at level 3) The Allies are given TWO attempts at each Level. Notably, the Fast-loader was part of the actual game, with a section in the Trouble-shooting part pointing out that BEACH-HEAD II uses a fast loading technique which could fail on drives that were out of alignment even if non-fast loader programs seemed to load fine.
Well before starting this series I tried to find out if USB C64 keyboards were a thing so that I could have at least a slightly more authentic experience whenever a game predominantly used keyboard inputs, but turns out no, USB C64 keyboards are not a thing. Well... not plug-and-play anyways. There's project kits you can get to turn real C64 keyboards into USB keyboards but that was way beyond the scope of what I was prepared to do. :P
Today I learnt that the music here is the US Marines anthem. And the game where I first heard this music was _Captain Comic._ At least in this here game the tune is used remotely appropriately.
Wasted lots of time on this one as a kid. The first sequence was my favorite, loved those voices. IIRC, the grenades let you take out the turret...it took time to throw, though, so it was very risky. Yikes we had patience back then. The stages are kinda ridiculously overlong, aren't they? (Oh, theme song is the US Marines Hymn)
Trying to copy this game without the proper software would result in loading into a lecture on the evils of piracy by the programmers of the copyright protection software used (Piratebusters).
Well great, even the randomizer wants to see me suffer. Most vowels for a game with literally no vowels. Oh well. Next time! (Maybe) Edit: Adding this note to make it clear I'm only slightly annoyed. It's actually amusing.
BTW: If you freeze-frame the tie-breaker randomizer choices you will see that every option has an OPPOSITE option. If "Least Vowels" was picked, well, guess what would've gotten in with ZERO effort?? ;D
@@Nezuji And if that was the name of the game then it would've won, but it's explicitly named using numerals and a degree symbol, not words, and thus has no vowels. Again, if the tie-breaker chose "Least Vowels" it would've won! :B
I'm with Kris on this. You have to go by title as written. Otherwise it'd lead to lawlessness. This is the fairest way to do it. I just find it amusing that it gives the impression that it's sentient and against me. Like that moment in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead where one of them flips a coin and it ends up as heads 92 times in a row.
Hi PM. I have a request. It's kind of big. I know how you like spending ages looking at numbers and frame rates and figuring stuff out. Well there's something I've always wondered. It might seem obvious, but Populous (let's just say 2 because it looks nicer) always seems to push you towards building the whole map to be completely flat. But this is boring and looks bad to do. Also it leaves you vulnerable. So my question is. Is there a more optimal way to build land, considering that the larger the building, the faster they gain health and the higher their maximum health, inside the building. But a top level building, the castle, uses up _loads_ of land and can be one-shotted. So all flat land is a bad strat in my eyes. But I'm even curious if all castles is even the best strat in this game for literally the speed of which you build hp and the density within which it can be contained with a tile / building ratio. So the sum is. What is the best possible metric for a tile, which is given a value from a mean metric, based on the collective values of a 32 tile area, given the possible combination of building types and sloped/useless land tiles.
Figuring out those numbers would be a nightmare, but there are merits to not just simply building flat. Most negative-effect tiles like swamps require flat land, so having less flat land means being less susceptible to such attacks. Large structures may produce population faster but they don't output new walkers on their own accord as often, thus smaller structures play a stronger roll in having your population march into enemy territory to take it over as opposed to burning mana on knights. Not to mention, if you have any plans to cast a Flood you want to build TWO layers above the ocean, not just one. Populous DS has a number of challenges which explore how to deal with certain limiting factors, among being just a really good variant of the original Populous overall! :B
@@Pixelmusement I don't think the sum is that bad but is probably suited to someone with actual maths background. Yes the sloped tiles help so much in not having to clean up stuff. That's actually the primary reason I favour that strat. Frequency of new walkers is also an advantage. I wouldn't want to play on a handheld screen and I consider the N brand cursed. The original Populous was designed with network play in mind and I feel that's the best way to play. On DOS.
I love how the scream from the guy getting run over by the tank is the same scream as the agent’s in _Impossible Mission_ when he falls down a bottomless pit.
So digging into the actual manual:
There's an extra scoring opportunity during the "Attack" scene for the Allies if they can destroy the gun with a grenade, and you can actually send a man OVER the second wall to further increase your chances of getting at least one man all the way. In a full game, if the Dictator is successful in killing every last man, the game ends immediately.
For the "Escape" scene, when played in Single-Player Mode, you will control the helicopter even if you were playing as the Dictator. Score will be reassigned accordingly in this case. This was actually noted in an ADDENDUM to the manual.
Additionally, scoring is doubled for both players when the Dictator-selected Level is even ("2"), and when the level is at either end (1 or 3), the DISADVANTAGED player earns triple points (3x for Dictator at level 1, 3x for Allies at level 3)
The Allies are given TWO attempts at each Level.
Notably, the Fast-loader was part of the actual game, with a section in the Trouble-shooting part pointing out that BEACH-HEAD II uses a fast loading technique which could fail on drives that were out of alignment even if non-fast loader programs seemed to load fine.
The docs were VERY long so I'm not surprised I missed those, though again, it seemed to get several of the numbers of things wrong...? :P
Trivia: The "modifier" key to access the even-numbered function keys on the C64 is just the "shift" key, if memory serves.
Well before starting this series I tried to find out if USB C64 keyboards were a thing so that I could have at least a slightly more authentic experience whenever a game predominantly used keyboard inputs, but turns out no, USB C64 keyboards are not a thing. Well... not plug-and-play anyways. There's project kits you can get to turn real C64 keyboards into USB keyboards but that was way beyond the scope of what I was prepared to do. :P
Today I learnt that the music here is the US Marines anthem. And the game where I first heard this music was _Captain Comic._ At least in this here game the tune is used remotely appropriately.
The personality of "The Dragon" reminds me of Lieutenant Sparks and his volcano layer from _Sealab 2021._ 🎧
I remember just playing the first sequence endlessly as a kid. :D
Wasted lots of time on this one as a kid. The first sequence was my favorite, loved those voices. IIRC, the grenades let you take out the turret...it took time to throw, though, so it was very risky.
Yikes we had patience back then. The stages are kinda ridiculously overlong, aren't they?
(Oh, theme song is the US Marines Hymn)
Yeah, I know that it came from the Marines I just don't know the name of it... if it even has a name? :o
@@Pixelmusement It's literally called the Marines' Hymn, by Francesco Scala :-)
@@Sykirobme That's... surprisingly unimaginative. :P
I played this a ton, the speech impressed me at the time
Trying to copy this game without the proper software would result in loading into a lecture on the evils of piracy by the programmers of the copyright protection software used (Piratebusters).
Well great, even the randomizer wants to see me suffer. Most vowels for a game with literally no vowels.
Oh well. Next time! (Maybe)
Edit: Adding this note to make it clear I'm only slightly annoyed. It's actually amusing.
BTW: If you freeze-frame the tie-breaker randomizer choices you will see that every option has an OPPOSITE option. If "Least Vowels" was picked, well, guess what would've gotten in with ZERO effort?? ;D
But, but, "Seven Hundred and Twenty Degrees" has NINE vowels! :b
@@Nezuji And if that was the name of the game then it would've won, but it's explicitly named using numerals and a degree symbol, not words, and thus has no vowels. Again, if the tie-breaker chose "Least Vowels" it would've won! :B
I'm with Kris on this. You have to go by title as written. Otherwise it'd lead to lawlessness.
This is the fairest way to do it. I just find it amusing that it gives the impression that it's sentient and against me. Like that moment in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead where one of them flips a coin and it ends up as heads 92 times in a row.
Odd to set it in 1947 and put the futuristic helicopter of Blue Thunder on the title screen
You shoot the box In between the tracks to kill the tank
Hi PM. I have a request. It's kind of big. I know how you like spending ages looking at numbers and frame rates and figuring stuff out. Well there's something I've always wondered. It might seem obvious, but Populous (let's just say 2 because it looks nicer) always seems to push you towards building the whole map to be completely flat.
But this is boring and looks bad to do. Also it leaves you vulnerable. So my question is. Is there a more optimal way to build land, considering that the larger the building, the faster they gain health and the higher their maximum health, inside the building.
But a top level building, the castle, uses up _loads_ of land and can be one-shotted. So all flat land is a bad strat in my eyes.
But I'm even curious if all castles is even the best strat in this game for literally the speed of which you build hp and the density within which it can be contained with a tile / building ratio.
So the sum is. What is the best possible metric for a tile, which is given a value from a mean metric, based on the collective values of a 32 tile area, given the possible combination of building types and sloped/useless land tiles.
Figuring out those numbers would be a nightmare, but there are merits to not just simply building flat. Most negative-effect tiles like swamps require flat land, so having less flat land means being less susceptible to such attacks. Large structures may produce population faster but they don't output new walkers on their own accord as often, thus smaller structures play a stronger roll in having your population march into enemy territory to take it over as opposed to burning mana on knights. Not to mention, if you have any plans to cast a Flood you want to build TWO layers above the ocean, not just one. Populous DS has a number of challenges which explore how to deal with certain limiting factors, among being just a really good variant of the original Populous overall! :B
@@Pixelmusement I don't think the sum is that bad but is probably suited to someone with actual maths background.
Yes the sloped tiles help so much in not having to clean up stuff. That's actually the primary reason I favour that strat.
Frequency of new walkers is also an advantage.
I wouldn't want to play on a handheld screen and I consider the N brand cursed.
The original Populous was designed with network play in mind and I feel that's the best way to play. On DOS.
Seems to be a decent game, but the stages are too long and too repetitive.