I downloaded an abandonware copy and works just fine using DOSBox 0.70

Remember to run the game with command line parameters.

E.G.
populous.exe VGA Adlib Sound

populous.exe VGA Internal Sound

populous.exe VGA Tandy Sound

populous.exe VGA Roland MT-32

I tried all of those examples with no change. Doxbox just does nothing. I cannot even type on the command line.

Wouldn't running populous.exe without command line parameters have some result anyway?

remoray

Is the DOSBox Z:\> prompt being displayed at all?

If not try changing output=xxxx in the dosbox.conf file.

My mistake. My directory strucutre was wrong.

I now have Populous I running fine on 0.70

remoray

Glad to hear you sorted out your problem. 😎