From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


"Syndicate", Bullfrog's action-shooter-strategy game from 1993, has
gotten much praise around here (despite being 32 years old), for its
stylish setting, simple-but-satisfying mechanics and impressive (for
the time) visuals. But if you ever wanted to know more about it
-specifically in the area of its development- then allow me to
recommend the following video documentary:

"The Making of Syndicate"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2o1IEmerU0

Admittedly, it's a bit long-winded (almost three hours. I listened at
1.75x and even then I had to divide it up into chunks) but it includes interviews with a number of the original developers and artists.

A lot of the video goes into detail about the (almost unintentionally) iterative development process. The developers (and their friends)
would work on the game during the day, then play and re-play it
endlessly at night. Not because they were trying to make a great game
(although obviously that was the goal) but because it was just so much
fun. When something didn't work, they immediately changed it until it
did. "Syndicate" was primarily designed as a multi-player experience, apparently, although it originally shipped without that capability and
I --like most players-- missed out on that experience.* Now I'm sort
of sad that I did.

Another interesting factoid was that the world was designed to be
"alive"; a sandbox in which the players would have their adventures.
Today we take this sort of thing for granted but it was still fairly
novel back in 1993. It wasn't an original idea --Origin, for instance,
used the same philosophy for its Ultima games as far back as Ultima
4-- but it helped set "Syndicate" apart from other top-down shooters
of the era, which had fairly static worlds in comparison. Alas, while
there are some details on how they created the 'smoke and mirrors' to
fake this liveliness, its fairly scant.

The documentary doesn't really bring too much new to the table about "Syndicate's" development --many of the stories, especially about
Bullfrog's early years, I'd heard before-- but it does put it all
together into a coherent package. If you enjoyed "Syndicate" and
wanted to know more about how it came to be, give this documentary a
watch.





* it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Multiplayer back then was through
NetBios and almost _nobody_ had Netbios networks at home. TCP/IP
Internet gameplay wasn't even a gleam in the developer's eye at the
time. Its why multiplayer wasn't included in the game at launch; the
audience would have been too small.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

I'm still pissed EA has removed Syndicate 2012 from my account *twice*, after I've bought it *twice*

rms

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 2 Aug 2025 17:36:01 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

I'm still pissed EA has removed Syndicate 2012 from my account *twice*,
after I've bought it *twice*

They're probably figuring any one foolish enough to buy that game
wouldn't notice if they took it away. Especially if they bought it
twice ;-P

That said...

I just checked and the did the same thing to me (and I only just
noticed ;-)

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sun, 03 Aug 2025 15:25:28 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sat, 2 Aug 2025 17:36:01 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

I'm still pissed EA has removed Syndicate 2012 from my account *twice*, >>after I've bought it *twice*

I just checked and the did the same thing to me (and I only just
noticed ;-)

Wow... I just realized it's much worse than that.

There are 45(!) games missing from my EA-App/Origin account, including Titanfall 1 & 2, Mass Effect Andromeda, both Star Wars Battlefronts,
and many more.

Admittedly, a handful of these were "free" games (such as "Battlefield
1942" or "Plants vs Zombies"), and a number of them are older titles
(such as the aforementioned 2012 "Syndicate" or the 2010 "Medal of
Honor"). But a number -like "Star Wars Squadrons" (2020) or "Star Wars
Jedi Survivor" (2023) are very new.

Stop killing games? STOP STEALING THEM FROM OUR ACCOUNTS, EA!

(EA's help pages are shit too. The one I found doesn't even let me
select "PC" as a platform)

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 20:04 this Sunday (GMT):

On Sun, 03 Aug 2025 15:25:28 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sat, 2 Aug 2025 17:36:01 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> >>wrote:

I'm still pissed EA has removed Syndicate 2012 from my account *twice*, >>>after I've bought it *twice*

I just checked and the did the same thing to me (and I only just
noticed ;-)

Wow... I just realized it's much worse than that.

There are 45(!) games missing from my EA-App/Origin account, including Titanfall 1 & 2, Mass Effect Andromeda, both Star Wars Battlefronts,
and many more.

Admittedly, a handful of these were "free" games (such as "Battlefield
1942" or "Plants vs Zombies"), and a number of them are older titles
(such as the aforementioned 2012 "Syndicate" or the 2010 "Medal of
Honor"). But a number -like "Star Wars Squadrons" (2020) or "Star Wars
Jedi Survivor" (2023) are very new.

Stop killing games? STOP STEALING THEM FROM OUR ACCOUNTS, EA!

(EA's help pages are shit too. The one I found doesn't even let me
select "PC" as a platform)

It's EA, I'm not surprised they're being anticonsumer again. Really
hoping SKG is successful.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
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