Favourite PC game of my youth

Around 1993 Bullfrog studios released a game guarenteed to win the hearts and minds of troubled youth such as myself. This game was Syndicate and it got us computer geeks thinking about how evil corporations are long before it was hip (not that we'd know about it if it was hip I guess).

Here's a video of the intro sequence and a low resolution, no sound version. If you have the hardware to run it on, or the emulation skills, here's the actual game.

This game is a part of our culture. It was the first time you could sit down at your PC and play the role of the bad guy. I think it is such a shame that software like this is left to rot. If Bullfrog were to tell us how to decode the data files in this game we might have a chance of writing an implementation for win xp or linux (or whatever the next platform is that we'll all be running). To get these videos I used msdos running under vmware.

Special thanks to "Erik" for supplying me with an mp3 of the intro music. He tells me you can use DosBox (with a frontend) to emulate an environment that will run Syndicate quite well (even with sound). Settings to use: cycles=10000, sblaster=true, xms=false, ems=false, core=normal, machine=svga. But you might have to tweak these. You should check out this site for more sounds and other great stuff.

In other news, I've been contributing some code to the FreeSynd project which aims to rewrite the game for modern platforms using the original data files. We've had to reverse engineer the file formats as no information has been forthcoming from Bullfrog. I recently received some information about the AIL sound system used by Syndicate. This could be helpful in adding sound to FreeSynd. Also, I've written a version of dernc for linux based on the FreeSynd code, that some people might find useful.

Out of interest I looked up the copyright registration of Syndicate. The claimant is Bullfrog Productions but everyone tells me that EA actually holds the copyright now. I've had a lawyer tell me that the copyright may have returned to the original authors though, as the uk has curious laws that allow that. It'd be nice to get a disclaimer of copyright from everyone who might have a claim over it, just so we can legally distribute the game, but as long as no-one is trying to sue me I don't think I'll rock the boat.

QuantumG


<< back to my home page
Anonymous says:
You are an awesome person
Eric says:
I grew up with this game myself on my A1200, one of my all time favorites ^ ^
Nods says:
im surprised no one's jumped on the sequel. syndicate wars had potential but it'd be awesome to see a new syndicate game running on todays machines.
Sam says:
Im thinking about making syndicate into a mod for either battlefield 2, battlefield 2142 or Quake wars enemy territory. What do you think to this idea.
GNUbie says:
I really loved this game (on PC). Will keep an eye on the progress of this project! Best of luck guys and HUEG thankses!
askarel says:
Loved the game. I did complete it without the cheat codes, some parts were not easy...

The design of the cities in the game actually reminds me of Louvain-La-Neuve: multiple ground levels, same textures on buildings,...

Just play the game after (or before) visiting the city, it's quite disturbing...
CHRS says:
Oh yeah

GUNS AND ROSES
WILLIAM AXL ROSE
FonMax says:
me too, this game is the best arcade/action/strategy and it's wonderfully runs under DOSBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/)
Markus says:
This gameneeds to be remade for todays computers and speeds can just see the mutyplayer fun you could have
Vic D says:
One of the truly best games ever! Can't wait to get home and see if I can get it running. You rock! what ever happened to great written games like this..?
noota says:
yeah great game!thx for this page man!
Xavi- from Spain says:
It IS still a great game.
Actually, I just installed it after more than 10 years in a shelf, and works perfectly on Windows XP (without any special program)
Electricray says:
Ahh syndicate how i wish it could be revamped for the pc it truly was one of the best games i ever played thanks and best of luck
Leu says:
Nice to see it available -somewhere-.

If someone wanted to port the theme over as a mod to some other engine, rather than a FPS game as the basis, I would love to see something like a "Company of Heroes" mod to bring back the top down direction of Syndicate. When you think about it, Syn was the part of the beginning of the interface we now know as Real Time Strategy, with of course Dune being another key player.
Anonymous says:
This is an absolutely classic game. I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately. I must play it... Thank you for providing all that you could. You're the man!
Road Runner says:
One of my all time favourite games, It had everything... Strategy, action, storyline, machine guns, persuadertrons!

Can't wait to go home and try to get this working. Thank yoooou!!!
Anonymous says:
Like they all say,one of the best games i have ever played. Bring back such childhood memories. I want to play it now, gonna download and give it a bash.

We really do need a kickass remake of this game, what a classic, and the joy i would have playing on a modern day pc and with kick ass graphics.

Oh yes there MUST be a sequal.
Daniel Wright says:
Cool, I played it on PSX. Mber getting it from Blockbuster, well actually my mom had to cause I wasn't 18 years old yet! I think sega suturn had it and so did 32x?
Great game, I loved it!!!!!
XWing Blue5 says:
QuantumG - you da man! I played this a billion years ago on my 386 SX25. I'm downloading this to intro to my kids (who'll probably beat me at it). Way to go and 'luck with getting a new series up for today's machines.
The Chicken says:
SHWING!!!!!!!!!!
Spitfire says:
Very good job, man!
But, running the game through WinXP, I can't make the soldiers to fire their guns. Any advice to fix that?


Best regards
Spitfire says:
Very good job, man!
But, running the game through WinXP, I can't make the soldiers to fire their guns. Any advice to fix that?


Best regards
Rick says:
I own a copy of this game, but have never gotten the hang of it. I much prefer watching games, and have spent many hours watching this one being played.
Shannon from USA says:
OMFG!!!! This was my all time fav game as a young girl...I LOVE this game!!!! thank you QuantumG for putting it up to have! I will download and stroll down nostalgia lane and kill, oh and use persuadeatrons!! I still remember the .exe file for this game...LOL :)
Shannon from USA says:
OMFG!!!! This was my all time fav game as a young girl...I LOVE this game!!!! thank you QuantumG for putting it up to have! I will download and stroll down nostalgia lane and kill, oh and use persuadeatrons!! I still remember the .exe file for this game...LOL :)
Ando_13 says:
Props to QuantumG for bringing this back to life. As others have attested, this is my all time fav game. Those that havn't played just don't get how much joy using the persuadeatron brings...
Blade Runner says:
Syndicate was the first video game I bought for pc, besides Beneath a Steel Sky. Now, 15 years later I still have it so I didn't need the rip. But thanks for the dosbox info, it was always a ******* mass to run the game with sound. Now I can play one of my all time favourites again and that without spending hours with sound or memory configurations. Thanks again.
Blade Runner says:
Syndicate was the first video game I bought for pc, besides Beneath a Steel Sky. Now, 15 years later I still have it so I didn't need the rip. But thanks for the dosbox info, it was always a ******* mass to run the game with sound. Now I can play one of my all time favourites again and that without spending hours with sound or memory configurations. Thanks again.

Your name: