Olympus Built on eZeus
Active C++ (Qt)
Windows (packaged builds)
Same model as eZeus
Newer packaged releases · 0.1.0-rc.1
Last commit 161a122
Zeus: Master of Olympus
- Setting
- Ancient Greece
- Developer
- Impressions Games
- Publisher
- Sierra Studios
- Expansions
- Poseidon (2001)
Chris Beatrice (design) · Gingerich (programming)
An engine revamp, not a reskin: global labor pool replaces labor walkers, no forts, elite housing built directly.
Credits
- Designer
- Chris Beatrice
- Programming Director
- Mike Gingerich
- Producer
- Ken Parker
- Programmers
- Jason Benham, Jim Solomon, Gabe Farris, Chris Gurski, Thanh Pham
- Art Director
- Darrin Horbal
- Artists
- Adam Carriuolo, Bob Curtis, Brian Despain, Mike Malone, Heidi Mann, Andrea Muzeroll, Dennis Rose, Abraham Wiley
- Additional Design
- Tony Leier
- Adventure Production
- Clay Heaton, Chris Bold, Brett Levin, Albert Meranda
- Writer
- Lisa Gagnon
- Audio Director
- Keith Zizza
- Music
- Henry Beckett, Keith Zizza
- Sound Design
- Keith Zizza
- Voiceover Editing & Additional Sound Programming
- Ed Saltzman
- Voice Recording
- The Troupe
- Voices
- Gil Andrews, Meredith Boston, Bob Burchette, M.C. Danner, Sonny Dufault, Bob Feldman, David Fielding, Pam Good, George Hastenstab, Mark Kimball, Steve Liquori, Vicki Lorraine, Mike McNally, Kent Ohlman, George Piehl, Rick Rumble, Scott Severance, Mike Verrette, Keith Zizza
- Localization Producer
- Jon Payne
- Quality Assurance Manager
- Greg Sheppard
- Lead Tester
- Tony Leier
- Beta Testing Supervisor
- Juancho Martinez
- Testers
- Chris Bold, John McAuley, Juancho Martinez, Clay Heaton, Hans Wang, James E. Lewis, Jesse J. Nunes, Alexx Kay, John Everly, Albert Meranda, Brett Levin
Poseidon: Master of Atlantis
- Designer
- Tony Leier
- Producer
- Ken Parker
- Programming
- Jim Solomon
- Director of technology
- Mike Gingerich
- Director of design and development
- Chris Beatrice
- Art director
- Darrin Horbal
- Lead artist
- Andrea Muzeroll
- Artists
- Adam Carriuolo, Bob Curtis, Brian Despain, Mike Malone, Heidi Mann, Dennis Rose, Abraham Wiley
- Audio director
- Keith Zizza
- Music
- Henry Beckett
- Writer
- Lisa Gagnon
- Quality assurance manager
- Greg Sheppard
- Lead tester
- Chris Bold
- Adventure production
- Chris Bold, John Everly, Clay Heaton, Brett Levin, John Curst McAuley, Albert Meranda
- Testers
- John Everly, Clay Heaton, John Curst McAuley, Albert Meranda, Ted Assur
- Beta test supervisor
- John Curst McAuley
- Voices
- Gil Andrews, Bob Burchette, Pam Good, George Hastenstab, David J. Fielding, Steve Liquori, Michael McNally, Katherine Palmer, George Piehl, Rick Rumble, Scott Severance
- Voice recording
- The Troupe Sonics
File formats
.sg2 / .sg3 + .555 →
Documented. An .sg2/.sg3 index over pixel data held in sibling .555 files — the shared art pipeline for the whole isometric era.
Documented .eng →
Documented. Holds every string in the game, plus the layout of the message dialogs — the file any translation has to go through.
Documented .map / .sav Undocumented. These titles have their own scenario and save formats, and no public write-up exists — Akhenaten and the Ozymandias projects are the closest thing to a spec for Pharaoh.
Partially documented Buildings
100 buildings → Every building the engine defines, with its footprint in tiles and the constant that names it in the source. Filterable by name or category.Housing
11 rungs -> The ladder a citizen climbs, rung by rung, and what each one demands before it will evolve - the number half this game's mission goals are written against.Mechanics
The walker model -> Every Impressions city runs two opposite systems at once. Employment is a global pool with no geography in it at all. Services are delivered by a person who walks out of a building and covers whatever they happen to pass. Almost every frustration these games produce comes from expecting one of those to behave like the other.Production
19 producers -> Every chain from raw material to finished good, read out of the engine rather than timed with a stopwatch - with the rate it steps each workshop's progress bar with, where the source states one in a shape this page can stand behind.Campaign
13 adventures -> Seven adventures and the six Poseidon adds, with the episodes inside each - including the colony choices that make a played run shorter than the list.Cheats
11 codes -> Every documented cheat code, and how to trigger it - save-file byte offsets for the two games that predate any cheat box, and the Ctrl+Alt+C codes the later manuals never mention for the rest.Open-source engines
eZeus Independent — not byte-exact by design
Active C++ (Qt)
Windows, Linux (Qt)
N/A — intentional divergences (new walker model, dual-city play)
Base for Olympus - English/Polish only (font glyph limits)
Last commit 9200381
CityBuilderEngine Independent — inspired by Zeus, not a reimplementation
Dormant C++14 (Qt5)
Windows, Linux (Qt5) · server/client split
N/A — new engine, not save-compatible
Early stage — map engine only
Last commit ed1a287
How to play it today
Every engine above needs a copy of the original game. They ship code, not assets — none of them is a way to play Zeus without owning it.
Both stores sell the bundle with the Poseidon expansion, which GOG lists under its European name, Acropolis.
- PCGamingWiki — Zeus: Master of Olympus ↗ Patches, resolution options and modern-Windows notes.
Tools & Mods
- Impressions Resolution Customiser Tool Widescreen resolutions and UI scaling for the Steam and GOG releases. Source here; binaries on Nexus Mods.
Last commit
7a97368 - Adventure Editor (map & scenario editor) Tool Launches straight from the game's own start screen - no separate install. Builds adventures, colonies and scripted episodes; HeavenGames' scenario-design primer, linked here, covers the design side the manual doesn't.
- HeavenGames — Miscellaneous Files Tool Fan-made utilities alongside the adventures and completed cities - ZeusMapper, Cheat Engine scripts, custom map packs. None are individually catalogued on this site; browse here instead.
- Nexus Mods — Zeus: Master of Olympus Tool The resolution customiser above is hosted here too, alongside whatever else gets uploaded - check back for new mods and tools as they appear.
- ModDB — Zeus: Master of Olympus Tool A mirror of jackfuste's WSGF widescreen fix, as of writing.
- ModDB — Poseidon: Master of Atlantis Tool No mods listed as of writing; the expansion has its own ModDB page, so it's linked separately from Zeus's.
Manual
Zeus: Master of Olympus manual (Impressions Games / Sierra) -> Scanned copy, Internet Archive. Poseidon: Master of Atlantis manual (Impressions Games / Sierra) -> Scanned copy, Internet Archive.Community
zeus.heavengames.com Active
Forums Per-game HeavenGames site — news, downloads, FAQ.
GOG forum — Zeus + Poseidon Active
GOG GOG's own discussion board, filed under Acropolis — the name GOG lists the bundle under in Europe.
Steam Community discussions Active
Steam The store page's discussion board — the first place most Steam buyers land with a question.
r/impressionsgames Active
Reddit Covers the whole series in one place. Reddit blocks automated fetches from this machine, so its traffic level wasn't independently checked before adding it — the way MobyGames and a few other sources are handled elsewhere on this site.