New three-hour documentary about 1993 cyberpunk game Syndicate is better than anything you will find on Netflix

Ah 1993. It’s back in the memory banks somewhere. At a time when people were beginning to transition from home computers such as the Atari ST and the Amiga to PC-based hardware (as well as the new wave of consoles) there was a company called Bullfrog. You may have heard of them.

Everything Bullfrog touched would generally turn to gold, but until the arrival of Syndicate, it was still best known for Populous and the excellent Populous II God games.

At the head of these games was the gaming enigma Peter Molyneux, who produced Syndicate, but at the time, he was just “some dude”, before going on to become one of the most (in)famous names in gaming.

Now I loved Syndicate. I remember playing it to death with my brother on an early PC we built. The cyberpunk vibe was very Blade Runner to me at the time. Characters with long trench coats planning assassinations and the like were right up my alley.

Add-ons and sequels never quite caught my imagination as much. Syndicate, though, remains one of my favorite games of the era.

There are some really good deep dives on YouTube about retro gaming, and sterling work continues to be done by the ‘onaretrotip’ channel.

This. close-on, three-hour documentary digs deep into the history of Syndicate and interviews many of the people who worked on the game. It’s fascinating and a nostalgic look into how the early games publishers, such as Bullfrog, actually worked.

You will have to put a shift in to finish it, but if you have a soft spot in your heart for Syndicate, those three hours will zip by.