For those of you who were trapped in a small dark room during the late 1980's and 1990's, or otherwise similarly deprived, Populous is a series of games developed by Bullfrog Productions which created the god-sim genre.

The premise is that you (the player) and your opponent (AI or human) are gods or equivalent deities, and you battle each other using your powers - such as the summoning of natural disasters and the ability to coax the will of your followers - in order to destroy the followers of the opponent. The winner is the god with remaining followers.

License: free

Additional System Requirements: ClanLib 0.7