Wireframe - #33 - 2020

Interface

52 / wfmag.cc

Developer Profile / Peter Molyneux

The Entrepreneur

1984

Molyneux’s first game set the tone: you ran a

business, making and selling things, setting

prices, buying advertising and so on (like the

above image, which isn’t actually of the game

because... it seems to have disappeared from

existence). It was not a success and – take it

with a pinch of salt – sold a total of two copies,

one apparently to his mum.

Dungeon Keeper

PC / Mac 1997

Even the option to be benevolent flew out the

window with Dungeon Keeper, as Molyneux

grew into his role as tyrant-in-chief behind the

scenes (this is entirely conjecture). Another

game of building, management, and slapping

imps, Dungeon Keeper proved both brilliant

and wickedly funny – an element of Molyneux’s

output that tends to be forgotten these days.

Druid II: Enlightenment

Amiga 1988

The first project for Bullfrog was this port of

a C64 original made by a friend of Molyneux.

A Gauntlet-alike, Druid II: Enlightenment was

at the very least half-decent; it played well, it

was technically sound – it did the job. But more

than that, it offered a springboard to greater

things for the new studio, and for Molyneux’s

creativity. And his tall tales, but we’ll get to that.

Populous

Amiga / multi 1989

Here it was: the moment Peter Molyneux

invented God (games). Populous was unlike

anything we’d ever seen before, bringing the

sort of creative freedom that comes with a

mind approaching the industry from the outside.

This was a game made by a man who had spent

time exporting beans, who was able to see the

bigger picture. And it changed gaming forever.

Theme Park

PC / multi 1994

Other big Bullfrog games popped up in

intervening years, but Theme Park was the

first one in a while to feel very Molyneux.

Aside from the whole ‘floating unseen power’

role the player took, there was also the

unmistakable ‘Peter air’ to things with the whole

micromanaging stock, rearranging debt with the

bank, and dealing with the park’s labour union.

Molyneux’s megamix

10 of Pete’s performances, picked

Frogs and lions and cans, oh my

01 02

05

03

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