Utopia: The Creation of a Nation (Amiga) longplay

Utopia: The Creation of a Nation was developed by Celestial Software and released by Gremlin in 1991 for Amiga and ST. MS-DOS and even SNES releases followed within 2 years. Utopia is a colony building real time strategy game with combat elements. Similarly with Sim City, player is in charge of funds, construction and managing basic necessities. Compared to Sim City Utopia includes additional features such as resource gathering, trading, specialized industry, espionage, research and combat. The first strategy game I bought.
I'm playing this on A1200 config, it doesn't make the game time progress faster, but speeds up animations quite a bit. I could've played this on A500 config, but the game just feels very sluggish, when you're used to faster responses. Scenario chosen for this demo is Tilikanthua, which should be the third hardest. Changing music tracks in this game is done manually. I recorded the soundtrack by Barry Leitch separately and looped it over gameplay so I didn't have to play DJ while playing the game.
According to manual the main goal is to achieve 80% quality of life rating. IMO destroying the enemy city should also be a main objective. In this video I complete both of these tasks for the chosen scenario. Scenarios should be considered as difficulty levels. There are some different tilesets and player is given different info of aliens in each scenario. However, gameplay remains pretty much the same so there's not much point to play every single scenario. Once you figure out how to play it does get a bit repetitive. Adding colonists to open jobs, trading for money and waiting for money soon become the primary activity.
After destroying the alien city I kept on playing for about an hour to reach 80% quality of life rating. This was done by adjusting tax to 0%, building hospitals and holding sports events always when possible so that part is not included in the video. Manual isn't exactly clear on the best formula for ratings. Large colony size should affect it positively, but at the same time more hospitals are required or the rating drops.
There are some glitches in the release I played. Invisible obstacles got in the way of my tanks and constructions. Sometimes new tax rate and birth rate values wouldn't register. There is a 3.0 patch for Amiga version, it would probably fix many issues. I couldn't beat the last scenario, CPU VS player handicap is extreme. They always launch a massive attack around 30-60 minutes in the game. Meanwhile, I have few laser turrets at that point and maybe few level 1 tanks. I can only wonder how different releases balance difficulty levels.
For an RTS the combat system of Utopia is very minimal and clumsy. There's also unnecessary micro and most gameplay elements are not very polished. It's still a great concept for such an early title. Utopia was released one year before Dune 2. Amiga game K240 could be considered as a sequel, again with a great concept and expanded gameplay elements. Fragile Allegiance is an excellent remake of K240, released for MS-DOS in 1997, still one of my favorite RTS games.

[@custombuild847]

that was the best game i ever played .. 30 years later and the music still plays in my head :)

[@alfwaibel4773]

It´s from a composer, which lived in the beginning of the 17th century - Johann Pachelbel, and it´s called "Canon".

[@bjornpolivka5774]

I loved Utopia, but it's my close second. My number one is Mega lo Mania. Had catchy music too. Games from back then especially for amiga were so creative and memorable

[@rhebert4]

So true story: I played this game on SNES when I was 10 years old. A few months later I went to a wedding with my mom. During the wedding, I grabbed my mom and said "this is so rad, they are playing the Utopia song". LOL.

[@Geburah82]

Barry Leitch was the dude that put together all(iirc) of the original pieces.

[@Lord_Funk]

26:19 This was the game which made me discover the classical piece *"Pachelbel - Canon In D Major"* since it played that midi version of it. It took me years (back in the 90's) to finally find what musical piece it was. Not until I heard a female piano player in a hotel bar play the tune I finally found someone to ask what the name of it was. She wrote it's name on a piece of napkin for me. I played it on my Amiga Commodore 600. Still have the machine and it still runs. Probably the game on a disk as well.

[@Daimo83]

I've never played the game but omg this music is amazing

[@aleks8888no]

This game has many fond memories for me. Spent ages playing it on my brothers Amiga 500.

[@ALIENiAM]

This Soundtrack...literally bringing tears to my eyes that i instantly recognized it, i listend to those Beats for so many hours back then :D thanks for uploading !

[@kefrensmegademo]

The best soundtracks made for a rts game really ! ❤❤ Love so much still after 33 long years !...

[@jolesco]

Nice to see a longplay of Utopia I played this game on the A500 back in the day

[@Starredmediasoft]

Used to love this game, a500 was definitely not only turrican or gods

[@peternystrom921]

Some one should make a remake on steam. It was realy amazing for its time.

[@Stovetopcookie]

Peter Nyström I would love to see that. I would buy that in a heartbeat

[@AceMcCoolSD]

I would be all over that, been searching for something like it for years. I played it on the SNES and rented it from the video store.

[@christophstuwe4330]

@@AceMcCoolSD Fragile Allegiance is on Steam. Its the successor to K240 and K240 is the successor to.... *DRUMS PLAYING*.... Utopia..., its still pretty old but imho one of the best 4X games.

[@peternystrom921]

@Александр Саха Комаров Prova en Emulator? Men att uppleva en riktig Amiga, det är inte helt fel. Vad kostar en sån idag?

[@Stovetopcookie]

@@peternystrom921 what would be involved to get a reboot started? I know nothing about the gaming industry , licensing , etc. but I would consider investing in the project.

[@pavel9652]

I have never heard about this game, but I must have seen Utopia logo somewhere because I recognize it. Graphics, music and controls are good and I am glad to see there are 30 years old games that are perfectly playable! However, intro story where the advanced colony is surprised and then abandoned after a single missile hit from the missile launcher that had to move one by one like a train into visual range of defence to fire missiles is a stretch! ;)

[@spearPYN]

Supremacy, Utopia, Dune, Master of Orion, K240, Reunion, Alien Legacy, Ironseed, Ascendancy, Master of Orion II, Fragile Allegiance, Star Wars: Rebellion, Imperium Galactica -- the very best sci-fi strategy games of all time! Still unmatched in this modern era.

[@einokeino303]

Nice list! I would add Alpha Centauri. You might also like Deadlock 2 if you haven't played it.

[@spearPYN]

@@einokeino303 I forgot also about Deuteros, Amiga legendary title from 1991.

[@AndysGamingThoughts]

Let's throw The Settlers in there too 🙂

[@user-nc3bn8jz2c]

Just hearing that theme tune makes me feel sixteen again! An awesome game for an awesome computer.

[@ericleon274]

I have this for the snes. That version didn't have any of the opening cinematic. Very cool. I love the soundtrack. Both versions rock.

[@WerbelMicrowave]

Thanks for the playthorugh. This was my favorite game on the SNES. I play this video in the background for the music (except for Canon... that gets old).

[@Joetoep]

This game !!! D: Played it sooo many times. Whoa ! Thanks for the longplay !

[@WerbelMicrowave]

Thanks for the LP. I had the SNES version, and played it a lot as a kid.

[@arongooch]

Thanks for sharing. I always thought this game was so ahead of its time. This was before the likes of C&C and them type games. Played this all the time as a kid on the Amiga.

[@Inspiringbeing]

thank you for doing this. I appreciate your doing it!

[@samsoulee]

I played so many Hours on this game on snes back in the days !!! 😍

[@Bloodlyshiva]

"According to manual the main goal is to achieve 80% quality of life rating. IMO destroying the enemy city should also be a main objective." In a real sense, it is-killing the enemy city grants a HUGE boost to Quality of Life.

[@einokeino303]

"After destroying the alien city I kept on playing for about an hour to reach 80% quality of life rating." I edited the video and cut that hour after destroying the enemy city, because there wasn't anything particularly interesting there to see, just waiting for the percentage to go up. This is why the victory screen appears in the video right after the enemy city is destroyed.

[@knightrdrx]

This sure beat anything on the NES which was my only gaming alternative. My dad buying a computer in 1993 was very exciting as a teenager...a whole new library of games opened and I would drag my dad to babbages every now and then and he would get me nhl 94, Tony Larussa 2, this one, Wolfenstein, alone in the dark,doom, links386, mystic towers, and world cup soccer all great games

[@einokeino303]

This game was actually ported to SNES. It's interesting to find out about the early RTS ports for consoles. Dune 2 and C&C are some of the other examples.

[@Bokaj01]

LOVED this game, played it to death on A500. I think you could get an ekstra disk that showed the enemy city you sent your tanks to - when they left your map.

[@AceMcCoolSD]

Ah man that must have been cool to see the cities. I kind of envisioned my tanks and aircraft randomly attacking their buildings. Although I was a little confused when I would send my whole group of tanks (100) to attack and I would get a report saying they hardly got a scratch.

[@sebastientoccupe5704]

Expansion memory detected ! Thank you mummy and Daddy for buying the 2000

[@TimDekker002]

Beste Spiel aller Zeiten, hunderte stunden auf den SNES

[@oa1971]

Y yo que pensaba que el half-life tenia la presentación mas larga :) Muchas gracias nunca vi este juego esta excelente

[@spearPYN]

Games were just better back then.. This one, Master of Orion, Civilization, Ascendancy...

[@TheMessyCoder]

I'm going to try and remake this game

[@DavideTamburini]

Utopia, Megalomania, Celtic Legends, Shadowlands Amiga best games ever

[@viledemon7984]

Thank you! I loved to play this game as a kid and have many memories :) I hated those stuck tanks too!

[@annadim2446]

Someone should try and recreate this masterpiece(Bigger maps better looking)= but keeping the same nostalgic sprite look. It would be marvelous.

[@TopHyena3]

Games now are about charging you a fortune for access to special abilities. These games are far better but don't make as much money

[@GastonTheStallion]

Probably my favorite game before X-Com came out \o/

[@jackmehoffe9372]

Corr this is an old one! I managed to get the flashing utopia in the top right once. And I said never again. But great game.

[@fredriksvard2603]

Underrated game

[@Khaos969]

Amiga is undefeated

[@StaurosPapadakis]

Fantastic game

[@eval_is_evil]

Wow I played this game so much. Why the heck didnt they make a sequel. This was so good.

[@GastonTheStallion]

They did, it was called K240 ;) Not as good imo. though

[@AndysGamingThoughts]

And then Fragile Alliegence, the second sequel.. kind of

[@RobotsEverywhereVideos]

ah yes the tank dance

[@captainroger]

Fuck yes!

[@fuatttop6869]

Fuck, my right ear !

[@stayrospaparunas3062]

How i can download utilitys to play commodore 64 n Amiga 500? Thx

[@soylentgreenb]

You probably want WinUAE for amiga. I'm not sure what's best for C64, probably VICE still? You can also get retroarch, which is a front end with emulator "cores" for different systems. It's intended to be more plug and play but not as versatile. Don't know how well it does with computer stuff but it's nice for NES etc.

[@WerbelMicrowave]

In the SNES version, the aliens do return from time to time. Do they return in this version?

[@einokeino303]

Yeah, sure. They attack repeatedly until defeated.

[@quantumcomata105]

Y build tank factories but no tanks? I'm a bit skeptical of your defenses at this point

[@einokeino303]

Tanks are built eventually, depending on money allocated to construction and available resources.

[@quantumcomata105]

What is that fire hydrant looking thing??

[@einokeino303]

It's a demolish structure button.

[@TopHyena3]

Is there any way to play this on iOS?

[@Mfields4517]

Wish they would make this for iOS

[@DM_ImpiousTerra]

Without fx sounds that video would be perfect lol

[@jeffbruin1]

Any similar games to this?

[@einokeino303]

Amiga game K240 from the same developers and it's PC remake Fragile Allegiance. Ascendancy and Imperium Galactica share some similar elements. Alpha Centauri maybe, if you're looking on larger scale.

[@jeffbruin1]

@@einokeino303 solid reply, thanks

[@pipikeh7]

jeffbruin1 im writin from my gf s account. Imperium galactica 1 is wahat u lookin for

[@quantumcomata105]

Now look at your army! Methinks you need to make peace with the locals. Genocide won't look good on your record