Populous

Populous is a video game in the strategy genre developed by Bullfrog Productions, Ltd. and published by Electronic Arts, Inc. originally released in 1989. It is currently playable on DOS.

You play a god, who faces other gods in a celestial game of conquest. To win, you must help your chosen people take over the world and wipe out the vermin that worship the other god.

Each god starts with a single human, thrown into the middle of the desert. Sometimes there is habitable land in sight, sometimes not. To have a chance of winning, you must change the landscape, creating flat land for your followers to build on. The more followers you have, the more powerful you will be, so take care of them. Build as fast as you can, because the other god is doing the same.

When you have enough followers, you can make the leader of your village a hero. He will then roam the land you have built, literally taking the strength of the village into himself, and making his way to the enemy. When he gets there, he will wage holy war against the people of your enemy. He will burn; he will kill. And he will not stop until they are all dead . . . or he is dead.

But you don't have to let your people have all the fun; the gods have other tools too. You can drown your enemies one at a time with your land lowering powers, submerge their cities in swamps, or raise a volcano in the middle of their best farmland. Better yet, you can flood the land and drain everyone who didn't build on high ground.

And when you win, you'll have 500 more worlds to conquer. A god's work is never done.

Populous is available at a reduced price on the following websites and is no longer abandonware.