User:TedTycoon

Populous Autobiography

I have been playing Populous since 1999. After finishing Populous and playing multiplayer on a local area network connection, I found the online matchmaker where I started playing with the name Mohicans. I was not that good at that time but had fun anyway.

I had reached the rank of Spy when EA stopped hosting the matchmaker. During the last days of the official matchmaker people were interested in playing new levels, so I wrote my first utility program which made it possible to play the single player levels in multiplayer. Since this time I have always have called myself TedTycoon (as I was also a fan of Transport and Rollercoaster Tycoon). Using an online fan launcher I always kept Spy as my rank which was how it came to be my favourite follower. After that I made a fan site to host the Level Changer download and various tips.

On the 8th of January 2004, EA shut down the matchmaker. I then carried on playing on the unofficial matchmaker hosted by Reincarnated. Having discovered how to edit map files using a hex editor, I then started work on my second utility, the Spell Editor, which modifies header files. This allows you to edit the spells, buildings, landscape, fog and god mode available to a level. I have been adding utilities and making improvements to them ever since. Alacn (programmer of the matchmaker) was always a great help if I wanted to know where to find something in the Populous files. After joining Reincarnated as a secondary admin, I was asked to write something to change the Populous colours, and wrote the palette editor.

Later on, I realised it was hard to make your own Populous multiplayer levels fair, and copying objects in levels was frustrating. I wanted a program which would quickly copy land and objects, changing the colours of the tribes as it did so. As soon as my Symmetry Tool was released, it became very popular, and thousands of players have downloaded it to make their own maps. I made a mappack with one of my best populous mates, Khickman, which was called Red Worlds. I also made another mappack called Symmetry worlds where each world was a mirrored version of existing levels using my new utility.

When Warg started up a group called Wildman Productions, I agreed to help them and become one of their staff. Because Wildman Productions and Reincarnated creators were enemies, I got kicked off the Reincarnated Staff, so I continued helping Wildman Productions make a level tester and a new and better Matchmaker. I have updated the Symmetry Tool several times to add new features, and it still downloaded by someone virtually every day. I am now programming a 2D user friendly map editor with Khickman. For more information on this go to Downloads and then Map Editor.

External Links

Populous: Return of the Spies