Populous: The Beginning, while being one of the greatest RTS game of all times is also a pretty old one from 1998. And that certainly means compatibility problems with modern hardware and software.

Whether you are having trouble starting the game, encountering crashes, the game not running smoothly or with low framerate, not being able to select a proper high resolution; or looking for more Populous: The Beginning content like more Single Player campaigns, or cooperative play with a friend, and even if you want to take it to the next level looking for Multiplayer matches or creating new levels and maps yourself. This guide has you covered.

Populous: The Beginning Ultimate Guide will help you set the game up to modern standards, making it more stable and enjoyable by bringing a plethora of fixes and quality of life enhancements such as:

• Fixing crashes
  
• Better framerate
  
• Higher resolutions
  
• Smoother gameplay
  
• Much better game stability
  
• More languages (Español, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Svenska, Dutch, Polish, Russian)
  
• Original PS1 narrator
  
• Hotkey rebinding
  
• Recover lost progress by direct level selection
  
• Better AI
  
• More difficulty options
  
• New campaigns
  
• New tribes
  
• Cooperative play
  
• Multiplayer ready to up to 8 tribes/players
  
• Much more.

If you're from Europe (or any other country that has the game region locked for the matter) and you're having trouble trying to acquire the game through Steam, see if you can buy it directly from this link:

https://steamhost.cn/sub/938657/

Populous: The Beginning is one of those games that managed to awe us by bringing unmatched gameplay innovation and unique mechanics to the RTS genre, which to this very day, couldn't be replicated.
This made its players fall in love with it and created an ever-standing community that supported the game for years (and decades!) to come.
While the original development team of the game left POPTB many, many moons ago, the community never abandoned it and kept enhancing the game way beyond its original capabilities.

Most of this community falls under the umbrella of Populous: Reincarnated. Throughout the years they've created a new enhanced version of the game that is most commonly known as "1.5".
This version of the game will be required in order to get all the enhancements that will make Populous: The Beginning run faster, better, stronger.



1. Once you've acquired the game through Steam, install it.

2. Go to the Populous: Reincarnated site[www.popre.net].


(this is the site)

3. Create an account (Help for the captcha: one spell used in the first level that isn't blast is "landbridge"; the leader of the tribe is "shaman")

4. Go to the downloads section and download Populous Matchmaker and install it. (The anti-virus might trigger a false positive. Don't worry, it's totally safe)




5. Now that you've downloaded and installed Populous Matchmaker, to prevent installation and compatibility problems, run the application as Administrator. Log-in with your previously created account.



6. Once you've logged in, you're welcome to the Populous Matchmaker and should see something like this (it might be a little different depending on the skin you have installed):



7. Go to the settings/options menu. Click on the Populous section and under "Set Populous Directory" verify that it's pointing towards the right Steam installation folder. If it isn't, click the button and set the directoy. It should look something like this:
(will vary depending on your Steam disk drive and directory installation).



8. In the Populous Matchmaker chat type !update and press enter to make sure the program is up to date.

9. Once it's updated. In the same chat type !beta, press enter and wait until it finishes (might be quick, might take its sweet time).



10. Congratulations, you now have the 1.5 version installed!


How to verify that Populous: The Beginning 1.5 version has been properly installed:

Go to your Steam Library > Right Click Populous: The Beginning > Properties > Go to Installed Files tab > Click the Browse button



You should now find a new "pop3.exe", this is the 1.5 version.



Steam will still launch the normal, original version (poptb.exe). In order to force Steam to launch the 1.5 version you need to set a custom launch command in the properties panel:
(could vary depending on your Steam disk drive and directory installation)



Now every time you hit Play in Steam it will launch the new 1.5 version.

Now that you've installed the 1.5 version (if not, see previous section on how to) you can choose from a wide range of resolution options and with a way more convenient interface to do so. While in-game just go to Options > Graphics > Screen resolution and Scaling

---

You can also run the vanilla version of the game with all resolutions included, by adding the /allres flag.

NOTE: Populous: The Beginning natively ran in 640x480 and 800x600. Running beyond 1920x1080 might create visual artifacts, or be more prone to crashing.

---

While you're running 1.5 version, just pressing Alt+Enter might do the trick. But then again, you'd have to do it everytime you start the game. For a possible better solution, follow the next steps:

1. Go to your Populous: The Beginning installation folder
To quickly find it go to your Steam Library > Right Click Populous: The Beginning > Properties > Go to Installed Files tab > Click the Browse button




2. Look for a file called ddraw.ini and open it with a text editor like the notepad.



3. Modifiy the [pop3] strings width and height to match your screen resolution (in my case 1920x1080). And the strings windowed and fullscreen to your desire (true or false).





This can also be done for the [poptb] tag in order to get your original version working if it crashes when starting a new game. Just remember the width and height must be that of your screen resolution, not the resolution you want to play in-game.

---

Some people might find that the game doesn't show all resolutions and just goes up to 800x600:



If you're facing such problem you can try adding the following string to your ddraw.ini file


This will add all the hardcoded resolutions and they will be available to choose in-game. These are the following hardcoded resolutions availables:

640 x 480
800 x 600
1024 x 768
1280 x 1024
1280 x 720
1600 x 900
1920 x 1080
1920 x 1200
1920 x 1440
2048 x 1152
2048 x 1536
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1920
2560 x 2048
3840 x 2160

With Populous: The Beginning 1.5 version (see the 1.5 section on how to get it) we have more languages available to select directly in-game.

These are the languages currently supported:

• English
  
• Español
  
• Français
  
• Deutsch
  
• Italiano
  
• Svenska
  
• Dutch
  
• Polish
  
• Russian

To quickly change the game language, while in-game just go to Options > Language : <English> and click it to switch between different languages.




(Quick rundown of all the languages working)

Being a 1998 game means no auto-saving and you could find yourself being deep in a Populous: The Beginning session going through several levels. You leave it and just quit the game altogether.
Sooner than later, you find out that you didn't save your game while you've been unlocking new worlds and have to go back and do it all again in order to recover your lost progress.

Worry not! As we have a solution so you can recover (kinda) your lost progress!

Fortunately, with the 1.5 version (visit the proper section on how to get it if you haven't) comes a new level selector. So just like in the official expansion Undiscovered Worlds, you can select any of the 25 original campaign levels.
Now you can go and restart your game from where you've left or go right into any favourite mission of yours.

While in-game just go to the Single Level section and there you'll find all 25 levels. Select the one you'd like to play, and hit Start.

Populous: The Beginning has quite some actions we can do and take while playing. And being a Real Time Strategy game, key mappings could be a must. Unfortunately, the original version of this game didn't allow us to rebind hotkeys, and most of the actions didn't even have keys assigned to them.

Fortunately with 1.5 version we can! (visit the 1.5 version section on how to install it if you haven't already).
This means, we can place down the buildings or cast spells with the click of a key. We can set hotkeys for all spells and buildings plans, aswell as for other actions like selecting/deselecting units, etc, without pointing and clicking everything.

If you want to set your keys in 1.5 you can do so in-game by going to Options > Key mappings. Here you'll encounter all the possible actions we can assign keys to.
So modify them at your likings.



These are some quirks you must know when configuring the key bindings:

• The spell Swarm is called "Insect Plague"
  
• The spell Tornado is called "Whirlwind"
  
• World View is called "Toggle view"
  
• You can assign the same key for multiple actions, this could generate some conflicts, like one of said actions not working when pressing the key.
  
• If you assign different actions to the same key, watch for it to have different modifiers. E.g.: I assigned Q so the spell blast is selected. I've also assigned Q to select the Hut plan but using the Ctrl modifier, this way I need to press CTRL+Q when I want to place down a hut, while hitting just Q will select my Blast spell.
  
• You can sort by Action (the name of the action or spell), Keys and Modifiers (Alt, Ctrl, Shift) so it's easier to find what you're looking for.
  
• If some of the keys are not working, sort by Keys and check it isn't assigned to another thing. Even if some of them are properly assigned (like my Q for Blast and Hut plans) verify that the one that doesn't use modifiers has selected NONE under the modifier setion, and not ANY, as this could override all the modifiers the key is using (in my previous example, having ANY set to Q instead of NONE would prevent me from using Hut plans with the Ctrl modifier)

Have fun!

---

For Multiverse (see next section), it's mostly the same as to setting hotkeys, the names of the actions and the quirks of it.
There are a couple of main differences here however.

The first one is that to set your hotkeys in Populous Multiverse you must do so from this little console that you'll find whenever you open the game in Multiverse:



If you happen to close the console, you can open it again by pressing Shift+F1.

Here you must select the conveniently named "Keys remappings" button, and it will open the following window where you can see all the actions, modifiers and keys available to do your proper key remapping.



The quirks you must know about this are:

• Here you have a search bar if you desire to look directly for a specific action.
  
• In the Extra tab you will find all the spells and some other actions.
  
• It's important that you save your keys once you've finished setting them up by hitting the Save Hotkeys button. Both in the Hotkeys and the Extra tabs.
  
• Whenever you come back to play, open the same menu, and hit Load Hotkeys button in order to load the last settings you've saved.

Have fun!

Populous Multiverse is a community made version that enhances the original Populous: The Beginning and adds content to it. It's close to the original version of the game but with fixes and quality of life enhancements like more game stability, better framerate, hotkey remapping, etc.

With Populous Multiverse you will also be able to have a lot of different campaigns (EXTRA campaigns!), from the original campaign and its only official expansion Undiscovered Worlds, all the way up to this very day. All these campaigns that were made by the Populous community.
You will also be able to enjoy extra stuff via mods.

You will be able to enjoy and manage all your extra campaigns, options and mods via the Multiverse Launcher.


1. I will take for granted you already acquired Populous: The Beginning in Steam and installed it.

2. You can get the Multiverse Launcher by going to The Beginning site[thebeginning.uk].


(This is how the site looks)

3. Go to the Multiverse section and scroll down a little bit until you see "Click here to download the Multiverse Launcher".



Your antivirus might trigger a flag on this one. Don't worry, it's safe.

4. Install it in your Populous: The Beginning Steam installation folder. The directory should look something like this:

(Obviously, this could vary depending on your Steam disk drive and installation folder).

Then again, it might trigger your antivirus when trying to install, and again, don't worry, it's safe.

Congratulations, you now have the Multiverse Launcher!



Oh no! Unfortunately your library is empty :(

Don't worry, in the next section (Campaigns) we will see how to get all the campaigns.

If you want Steam to track your playtime when playing any of these campaigns through the Multiverse Launcher you need to set a custom launch command in the properties panel:
(could vary depending on your Steam disk drive and directory installation)




Now every time you hit Play in Steam it will launch the Multiverse Launcher.

Craving for more Populous: The Beginning but Bullfrog just left you with the original campaign and a half assed expansion pack (Undiscovered Worlds)?
Worry not! As the awesome Populous community got your back and has you covered. They've been making more campaigns throughout the years (the last one released in 2023!) and they have a wide range of difficulties, so either if you're the most of newies or want to relax with some extra content, as well as if you're a seasoned player or just looking for a challenge, you'll find something for you.


1. If you've yet not installed Populous Multiverse, do so (see previous section).

2. Once you've installed the Multiverse Launcher and in order to prevent some problems, run the application as Administrator.

3. Click on "Browse packs" button.



This will open your browser and take you to https://thebeginning.uk/campaigns/
Here you can find all the available Populous: The Beginning campaigns with a brief description of each.



4. Click on any campaign that you want to install. This will take you to the specific campaign page. Now you must click the Multiverse icon



It will prompt your browser with a pop-up asking if you allow this page to open the Multiverse Launcher. Once you accept it will automatically download and install the campaign.



NOTE: If it says that you need Admin rights in order to be able to install the campaigns, go to the installation folder, right click MultiverseLauncher.exe, go to properties and under the compatibility tab check the Run as administrator box. So everytime the program opens it does so with Admin rights.

5. Congratulations! You've installed your first campaign! And now your Multiverse Launcher should look something like this:



There you can see some info about the campaign like the story synopsis, release date and difficulty. If you're ready to play the campaign, just hit the Play button.

6. Now you can download as many campaigns as you'd like. All of them will be available in the Multiverse Launcher. In order to see them, hover over the right side of the launcher and you'll see all the campaigns you've installed and can select to play.

1. You need to have Multiverse Launcher installed (see Multiverse section).

2. In your Multiverse Launcher go to the Settings section. There you'll find an option to change difficulty



3. Select the difficulty of your desire: Easy, Normal, Hard or Very Hard.

Done! Now you can just go and play some Populous: The Beginning and the difficulty of the game will be changed to what you've selected in the settings.

You will be able to play as other tribes colors. If your favourite tribe was the Dakini (red), the Chumara (yellow) or the Matak (green), now you will be able to rule the world with them.
Blue will take place for the tribe you choosen to play as.


1. You need to have Multiverse Launcher installed (see Multiverse section).

2 Go to the Settings section. There you'll find an option for Tribe skin. Choose any that you like.



Done! Now when you start playing you'll do it so with the tribe skin you've chosen.


(who didn't want to play as the Dakini?)



(now I will finally be able to take on Blue's reign!)

You can find some very useful, some very fun, and some curious mods you can tinker with in Populous: The Beginning.


1. If you've yet not installed Populous Multiverse, do so (see Multiverse section).

2. Go to the Mods Manager section of the Multiverse Launcher. There you'll find all the available mods. If you wish so, you can also click in Browse Mods to download more.



3. If you download a new mod, you'll need to install it, just click the Install button and then select the .modpack file you've just downloaded and it will be installed.





4. If you wish to use any mod, you just need to click on the gear icon and then Enable, in this case I will try the new Black tribe. Once you enabled it, the Gear icon should turn green.



5. Now that the mod is enabled we can already play and see its effects in game.

---

Some mods are more straightforward like the one we just used as an example. Enable or disable and you're good to go.
But some others will require you to tinker a bit with its settings, for example with this Limited Reincarnations mod:



It will require to go into the settings and set if you want a limited amount of lives for each tribe, and if so, what amount of lives:

---

Mods are fun! And they open way more possibilites for players in combination with other settings and community additions.
For example, I could set a higher difficulty in the options, play the Anniversary campaign (which is the original campaign but more difficult already!) and set a limited amount of lives for my tribe, while playing as the new Black tribe and on top of everything add the Smarter AI mod.
There, I've created a new ultimate hard challenge, to conquer the worlds and ascend to godhood as the black plague!

NOTE! BEWARE! WARNING!

As with all modding in any game, the more you use mods on top of each other, the more you risk breaking the game.

Does this ring you any bells? No, not the tower bells, any nostalgia bell... If it did, then you must probably have played Populous: The Beginning on the PS1.
If not, it could still be a pretty good addition for Populous: The Beginning on PC. Because, sadly, this narration never made it into the original PC version. But luckily, our beloved Populous community comes to the rescue once again (yay!) and now you can enjoy this original PS1 narration made by Robert Ashbey in the PC version.


1. You need to have Multiverse Launcher installed (see Multiverse section).

2. In the Multiverse Launcher, go to the Mods Manager tab and click in the Browse mods button.



3. This will take you to the mods section of The Beginning site. There select and download the Robert Ashby (PS1 Narrator) mod.



4. Once you've downloaded the file AshbyNarrator.modpack go back the the Multiverse Launcher Mods Manager tab and select the button Install



5. It will prompt you a new window to search for the mods to be installed. Select the file AshbyNarrator.modpack.



6. If everything was done correctly you now should see the mod available in the Mods Manager section.



7. Now all you need to do is to enable the mod. You do so by clicking on the gear icon of the mod and then Enable. The gear icon should turn green.



Congratulations! You now have the original PS1 narration ready to go in your Populous: The Beginning campaign in PC! (It also works for the Anniversary campaign).

---

At the moment the mod has the original Robert Ashbey narration and narration translated to Spanish and French, other languages TBD. If you want to select other languages you must press the gear icon and go to settings. There you can change the language.

Smarter AI:

• Spell casting aim has been improved.
  
• AI Shamans will cast the Tornado spell on vehicles with the human player's Shaman inside.
  
• There's a small chance the AI Shaman will perform the Blast Trick.
  
• Magical Shielded enemies will be acknowledged and appropriate spells will be cast.
  
• The human player's Guard Towers will be prioritized in attacks.

1. If you've yet not installed Populous Multiverse, do so (see Multiverse section).

2. Go the Mods Manager tab and search for the Better AI mod



3. Click on the Gear icon and then Enable. The gear icon should turn green.





Done! You now have a smarter better AI!

If you have a friend or any partner to play with and want to unleash cataclysmic spells while conquering worlds cooperatively, this is the way, look no further, I present to you The War of the Gods campaign: a two player co-op camapign that consists of 25 levels that pay homage to the original campaign in some ways.


1. Since this is multiplayer, you're going to need to have Populous Matchmaker installed (see Populous: Reincarnated - 1.5 version section)

2. You and your friend should hop into the Populous Matchmaker. One of the two should be able to host. To see if you can host go to Options > Network > Click Port Test button



It will give a result from 1 to 5. With 5 being really unlikely that you could host and 1 being possible to host. You should get at least a 3.

In order to be able to host you need to set your computer IP to static. Then go to your router setup page and forward port 7575 UDP to your IP.

3. Once any of you is able to host you need to jump in one of the "huts" that you see on your left side. The one being able to host should take the "host" spot, and the other the spot immediately below it, which is called "join".


(in this example you can see 4 players going into a match, here the player "Jjayden_TSI" would be the host). The legend [1.5] next to the host means he's hosting the 1.5 version of the game. You should be using that version too as it's needed for the co-op campaign.

4. The host is the player that sets the game up and its configuration. Once you join the host seat, you'll see some hosting options. The most important bits here are that you select the correct version of the game and the correct map.



This campaign is called War of the Gods and thus you can find the mappack by the same name. The campaign is divided into two mappacks: War of the Gods and War of the Gods (part 2).
And the levels are the same as they're arranged in the mappacks:

Levels:

1. Erecting Paths
   
2. Hornet Nest
   
3. Cursed Faith
   
4. Triforce of Storms
   
5. Black Death
   
6. Supernatural Voodoo
   
7. Inconspicuous Odds
   
8. Intercontinental Split
   
9. Obscured From the Flow (Fog of War on)
   
10. A Sinking Feeling
    
11. Perilous Spirits
    
12. A Pushover Decision
    
13. Ethereal Onslaught
    
14. Ambush Assault
    
15. Detained
    
16. Bloodthirsty
    --- War of the Gods (Part 2) ---
    
17. Center Field
    
18. Top Stalker (Fog of War on)
    
19. Absurd Partners
    
20. Demon's Flight
    
21. Ruptured World
    
22. Stranded
    
23. Hellfire
    
24. A Mortal's End
    
25. War Of The Gods

5. Once you selected the level you want to play, hit the launch button that's next to the version selection. You and your friend will be taken into the Populous: The Beginning pre-game lobby. Here is very important that you set Computer Players: Yes. Otherwise there won't be AI in the game and the level will finish right when you start it.



Also turn Fog of War: On in levels 9 (Obscured From the Flow) and 18 (Top Stalker).

6. Once you're ready just hit start.

And that's it! You should now be playing with your friend (Blue and Red tribes) together against the other 6 tribes!

NOTE: Forgot to mention. Last level of the campaign (25, War of the Gods) makes use of Omnipresent shaman. The Populous Matchmaker anti-cheat system will kick you out of the game and call you a cheater. To prevent this, before launching the game just type !cheat in the Matchmaker chat and press enter. You will now be able to play the level.

Ready to get some Multiplayer games? Just come to the Populous Matchmaker and enjoy some crazy 8 players matches with 4 new tribes.

NOTE: The most played version is 1.5, so you should install it before hoping into any hut. Just type !beta in the chat and press enter and wait until updates are finished. For more specific info go see the Populous: Reincarnated - 1.5 version section.


1. Since this is multiplayer, you're going to need to have Populous Matchmaker installed (see Populous: Reincarnated - 1.5 version section)

2. Just hop into the Matchmaker (MM) and say hi.



3. Here's a quick rundown of what you will encounter in the Populous Matchmaker.

• On your left you will see the "huts". Here is where people join to get matches going. Each hut represents a separate game. In the image above you can see a full hut with 8 players in it. That means the match will be an 8 player one (probably a 4v4).
  
  
• On your right you will see the list of players that are online. They have a unit icon representing their rank. Ranks go from lower to higher as follows:
  wildman > brave > spy > warrior > priest > firewarrior > shaman
  
  Only blue shamans represent said rank. Other colors stand for:
  Red Shaman: Moderator
  Green Shaman: Mappack admin
  Yellow Shaman: Administrator
  
  
• In the middle you'll find the chatbox, where people... chat! If you want to send a whisper, just double click on the nickname of the person you want to send a private message to.

4. In the options panel you'll have several stuff to tinker with and set them at your liking.



5. In the Mods menu, you'll find all the available mappacks with their respective maps. There you have a wide range of search functions like type of map, version and number of players.



6. If you want to create a game, you should be able to host. To see if you can host go to Options > Network > Click Port Test button



It will give a result from 1 to 5. With 5 being really unlikely that you could host and 1 being possible to host. You should get at least a 3.

In order to be able to host you need to set your computer IP to static. Then go to your router setup page and forward port 7575 UDP to your IP.

7. Once you are able to host you need to jump in one of the "huts" that you see on your left side. In order to do so you should take the "host" spot, and the other other players that want to join your game the spots immediately below it, which are called "join".

8. When you join the host spot, new options will appear in the MM. These are pre-game options:



It may appear daunting at first, but once you get used to it you'll see it's pretty simple.

Players tab:
You will see the nicknames of the players that joined your hut and their ping. There you can also change starting colors (so you can change in which base starts each player).

Hut Settings tab:
Here you can set a password for your hut so only people with the password can join. Restrict the hut to certain ranks. And lastly pick the map that you'll play. Alternatively you can go to the "Mods" tab shown previously with more map search functions, and once you find the desired map, click Install and said map will now be selected to play.

Level tab:
This just shows a thumbnail of the level you have selected.

Map additions:
Here you can choose if the game starts with certain buildings, population or mana. It's mostly not used in competetive matches but it could be used for some casual play.

Game tab:
This is the last tab and here resides two of the most important things. The version selector (1.5 is the mostly played version and required for 4+ players matches) and the launch button which you'll need to hit in order to start the game. Here you can also set the game to Unranked (no points will be awarded for League ranking) and set a timed game with a certain win condition.

9. Inversely, if you're unable to host, you could just join any hut with a person that is able to host and they will set the match configuration.

10. Once the game is launched you will find yourself in the pre-game lobby. Here's a quick rundown of the options you will find there:

• Level List: Here you will find all the levels available in the selected mappack.
  
  
• Restrictions: Here you can select what buildings and spells will be available in the match.
  
  
• Features: This consist of features that bring the new 1.5 version. Like being able to disable certain glitches or enable other features like swarm not affecting allies.
  
  
• Max buildings: 1.5 version let's you build unlimited structures (whereas original version was limited). Here you can choose to put a limit if desired.
  
• Max pop: Same goes for pop. Original version cap was 199, in 1.5 is unlimited and you can choose to put a limit.
  
• Guest Spells: Here you can select if one of the guest spells is active (Teleport, Bloodlust, Armageddon)
  
• Fog of War: choose if you want FoW on or off
  
• Shaman: Set amount of shaman lives
  
• Computer Players: Set computer players for certain maps that have AI available
  
• Forge World: Set on or off. If turned on, players will be able to have 2 minutes at the start of the match to terraform their base around their Reincarnation Site.
  
  START: Start the game!

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That's it! Now you know the very basics of multiplayer settings and configs. You can now go and have some fun with other people!

You can find a level editor integrated to the 1.5 version of the game (see Populous: Reincarnated - 1.5 section on how to get it).



Once you select it you'll go right into the editor itself and you can start making your own map.



BEWARE: if you start editing, the level you're editing will remain that way. Meaning you can break the original levels and to restore them you'll need to find the original files. Don't touch it if you don't want to modify your game.

---

You can also use the ALACN World Editor which you can find here: https://github.com/Toksisitee/ALACNPopWorldEditor/releases/tag/v1.9.0

Here you can find more Populous tools:
https://www.popre.net/forum/populous-tools-testing-f17/

Here you can find more on scripting and map making:
https://www.popre.net/forum/map-making-and-ai-scripting-f25/

Here you have a couple of tutorials for map making and scripting:
https://thebeginning.uk/modding-guides/

Join the Populous Community Discord if you want to find people for more help about scripting, modding, map making, tools and options:
https://discord.gg/BRMzBWr

With all the versions running around, we might feel a little bit lost already. So here's a quick rundown of the most commonly known versions and their uses and characteristics:

This is the original version of Populous: The Beginning. This is where the original developers left, and the closest experience to the original 1998 game. It works for Single Player and Multiplayer. It only has the 4 original tribes and plays to up to 4 players. Newly released maps that make use of the 1.5 version capabilities do not work in this version.
You can get this version by installing the game through Steam.

This is the newest Populous: The Beginning version. It's being developed and supported by community members. This version has several bugfixes and enhancements that improve the gameplay of the original game. It works for Single Player and Multiplayer but it's mostly used for Multiplayer. It has 4 new tribes and allows the game to go up to 8 players. Allows maps created with 1.5 capabilities as well as original maps from 1.01.
You can get this version by installing it or playing a multiplayer game via Populous: Reincarnated Matchmaker (see Populus: Reincarnated section).

This is a community made version that enhances the original Populous: The Beginning and adds content to it. It's close to the original version of the game but with fixes and quality of life enhancements. It's used for Single player content like new campaigns and modding.
You can get this version by installing the Multiverse Launcher (see Multiverse section).

---

Now let's take a quick look at all the files you could end up with that belong to the different versions of the game. It could look like a mess, but it's quite simple and pretty straight forward.
Here's the deal:

• MultiverseLauncher.exe : This one is pretty self explanatory. It's the Multiverse Launcher.
  
  
• pop3.exe : This is the 1.5 version.
  
  
• pop3b.exe : This is the beta branch of the 1.5 version. Devs use it to try out new stuff without breaking the main version.
  
  
• popTB.exe : This one is the original Populous: The Beginning 1.01 version.
  
  
• popTBM.exe : This is the Multiverse version of Populous: The Beginning. When you launch a game from the Multiverse Launcher this is the version that you will be playing.
  
  
• popTBUW.exe : This is the original Populous: The Beginning Undiscovered Worlds expansion.
  
  
• D3DPopTB.exe : This is the original Populous: The Beginning 1.01 version but launched in 'Hardware Mode'.
  
• D3DPopTBUW.exe : This is the original Populous: The Beginning Undiscovered Worlds expansion but launched in 'Hardware Mode'

Those last two of the bunch (the hardware mode versions) are the ones that will bring you the most troubles because they have serious compatibility issues with modern hardware and software. They might look a little bit better here and there, but will tank the game performance and make it more unstable, no matter how good your hardware is.

This Guide will keep being updated and will keep getting new stuff as long as I am able to.

There's a lot to cover from this awesome game, and despite this guide being quite big, I haven't covered it all. I also don't have all the answers and solutions. But if you find yourself with any problem or question, just leave a comment, or come join our community.

Populous: The Beginning has an awesome community. If you're looking to get into Multiplayer, need some help troubleshooting, want to get into modding, create Populous content or just hang out with the Populous Community, come by and say hi, you will always find someone willing to give you a hand.

Discord: https://discord.gg/BRMzBWr