Arguably the best Atari ST game ever made, Sundog: Frozen Legacy is also one of the best sci-fi RPGs ever, period.
It isn't a strategy game, or a space combat game, or a role playing game, but a masterful blend of all three genres into an addictive, astounding epic that will take you months to complete (it took me a few solid weeks, even with walkthrough in hand).
The game's premise is somewhat cliche, but reasonable: you are a former (galactic) slave who just inherited your uncle's starship, along with a contract that your uncle was working on, which is to supply a colony with the materials and equipment it needs to grow. You must pilot the ship, the Sundog, to the various planets within this area of space and acquire the goods through buying and selling or other means, and deliver them to the colony when they are requested. Naturally, as you nonchalantly work on the contract, you will soon be involved in a bigger, more sinister plot that has the fate of the entire universe hang in the balance.
What makes Sundog a true classic as opposed to merely a good RPG is neither the brilliant plot development, or the excellent game mechanics, although it has plenty of both: it is the astounding level of detail. The detail in Sundog is staggering, and truly attests to this being a labor of love: the gameworld is fully realized at every level, from outer space to planetside where you can disembark from your ship into an armored car, and even out of the armored car into the streets. Each level of details is full of things you can interact with, from other ships in outerspace view, down to people inside various buildings at ground-base level.
Overall, there's really no fault I can find with Sundog, except that some ship-to-ship combat sequences toward the end are a bit too difficult, and there are not as many clues as I would like. Still, it is a masterpiece in every respect, and arguably a better game than FTL's better-known classic Dungeon Master that was made a few years later. If you are looking for a reason to install an Atari ST simulator, this is it.
Two thumbs up, way up!
Review By HOTUD
Sundog Fansite: http://www.lukin.com/sundog/index2.html
Sundog Resurrection Project: http://www.sundogresurrectionproject.com/
Planetary and city maps: http://www.synthe.net/sundog/sundog.htm - archives mirrored on this page.
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Comments and reviews
All Atari ST roms here are copy protected, resulting in red screen of death occuring randomly. Use .st image from this thread instead.
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/166176-sundog-frozen-legacy/?
Since SUNDOG crashed very often on my MISTer FPGA, I started looking for another way to play this game. I tried the HATARI software emulator with EmuTOS. Did not work well either, also crashed very frequently. In the end, the solution that worked for me is: STeem software emulator (running on a Windows 11 PC) with an ordinary TOS102 (not EmuTOS). This works very well and has not crashed a single time so far. I hope someone finds this useful and I wish you a lot of fun playing SUNDOG (first find Banville, then go to Lafser and buy Scatterguns. You have to find out the rest :-)
Play Sundog on my cousin's ST until the early morning hours. We figured out you could buy concentrators (I think that's the part) in one system and then sell them in another for big profit. I had over a million credits. We did find the lost colony and finish the game. What a great game that was ahead of its time. Other great games on the ST were Dungeon Master, Time Bandit, and Oids.
Starfield was heavily influenced by this game, so let's hope that when Starfield comes out in 2023, that it will be great.
I remember Sundog fondly when I was a kid. I was too young to actually understand how it works, and my best friend used to play it on his Atari ST, which I never got - my dad picked up an Amiga 500 a year later.
Between Dungeon Master, and Sundog, this was what actually really got me into gaming. I used to watch my best bud play both. In Sundog, he never bothered with the game plot, but tried to get into fights with gangs, or robber gangs whatever they were on the starter planet. He used to take all the parts from his ship, and sell them for weapons and shields.
Silly stuff, but we were both fascinated with the game. I'll always remember this game well.
How did you run stari st on Mac?
this game has a very special place among other space exploration games (a genre that usually combines rpg, simulation, strategy and adventure elements in various measures) with its unique and user friendly gameplay.
I had the 520ST version and luv'd it... I was so bumed out when upon gaining tittle dead to the Sundog transport ship after a few months of play, l didnt have my brand new color printer (which l'd just purchased) plugged in , and so when the deed appeared and the print deed icon appeared , l hit it before l realized the printer wasn't powered , and so l never got that beautifully rentered deed color printed , and the option never arose again
Sundog was the reason I bought a Atari ST and not an Amiga at this time
I finally got SUNDOG running on my Apple MacBook Pro. It was not easy and now I am so glad to be able to play this game again! I can even save games and I also successfully created a Game Library to store games.
As I remember it a relative left the ship to you upon his death with the requirement you find and bring supplies to build up the colony once you find it. The whole time you have to run enough cargo between ports to make a profit to trick out and keep the ship in good repair especially from pirates. Don't for get the bear spray.
This game absolutely ruled all. Played it on the Atari ST with my older brother. The colony is on the 1st world (Jonnd?) but you have to go explore in your pod to find it. The location changes with each game.
So many layers to it! Haggling for stuff, finding new planets, travelling from city to city, exploring new cities on foot or in your pod, space battles, running cargo for profit.
Way ahead of its time, I think! Guys over on Sourceforge have been working on a reboot that's in Alpha now, FYI.
Last tip! Get a ground scanner to be able to fly your ship from city to city.
I played this on the Apple II, though I was rarely successful at it. Never did find the lost colony. Such an amazing game though. Very sad it never got ported to the PC. Can anyone recommend a good emulator?
ST version was awesome. Make sure to bribe and haggle people in bars to get the cloaker and other cool pirate parts for your ship. If I remember correctly, the point of the game is to find the lost colony and safely transport the cryo-frozen citizens there. Good luck, I could never find it. And don't forget to stock your pod up with burgers!
I got it running with the hatari emulator yesterday (7th October 2012).
It seems a bit buggy, some clicks with the mouse react strange (it looks like it doesn't always capture the mouse up event).
I'm looking forward to play it, but I wish I had a manual explaining things.
I played this on the apple II and loved it. Gonna try the Atari ST version and see how it compares. Graphics look better, b ased on the screen shots.. gogo monochrome!
It was originally written for the Apple II and then ported to the ST, people.
I use to own the Apple II version, wish I still had it. Loved this game! Brilliant
very cool.... but you usually have to download a different emulator... like Steem or SainT
Yeah looks like it's an AtariST game, I could not make it run though
Actually, Sundog was also released on the Apple II, but the Atari ST version is rumored to be better.
You'll need an Atari ST emulator...The game was only ever released on the Atari ST..
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.