Lost NES Version of God Sim Originator, Populous, Recovered
Populous, credited as being the first true god sim game, has been recovered on the NES by Games That Weren’t, a preservation group dedicated to lost/unreleased games. This version, lost for 33 years, is now playable via NES emulators.
Games That Weren’t do note, however, that not all emulators will run it smoothly. Broken graphics have been noted in FCEUX, and may be present in other emulators too, so gamers interested in checking out this piece of video game history are advised that Nestopia and MESEN are the best ones to use.
“In 2025, Games That Weren’t was tasked with doing some disk recovery work – and within an archive was the final backup for the game,” the organization said on its official website. “After some work (with thanks to Martin Pugh and Paul Hughes for advice previously on Sensible Soccer’s build), we have managed to get the game up and running.”
Lost, Not Cancelled
Populous was first released on Amiga in 1989 and was developed by Bullfrog Productions (Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper) and published by EA. It lets players act as a deity and steer the civilization of their followers, primarily by shaping the land and environment…or destroy them by covering them in lava.
It used an isometric viewpoint, which carried over to the NES version and would have helped the game stand out from that console’s slew of platformer games. However, as noted in a video by Games That Weren’t, Populous was shelved by its NES publisher, Imagineer. The company believed that the game wouldn’t make many sales as the NES was going out of fashion.
The game did, however, get a SNES version, as well as on other consoles, from 1991 onwards. The last version of the game was made for the DS in 2008. Godus, released in 2013, was developed by Populous’ creator Peter Molyneux and presented as a spiritual successor, but met with less than favorable reviews from critics and players.
Games That Weren’t
The NES version of Populous is the latest in a long line of finished but abandoned games that might have otherwise faded into obscurity or urban legend, if not for game preservation groups.
Games That Weren’t started its online presence in 1997 and initially focused on Commodore 64 games, before broadening its remit to include multiple platforms such as the Atari Lynx and more recent consoles like the Xbox 360.
The last title Games That Weren’t uncovered was another forgotten NES conversion: Sensible Soccer, also lost for over 30 years. There are no known issues with running this on an emulator, though.
