Whenever the subject of the Fable series or its outspoken creator Peter Molyneux pops up, a lot of people question why the man is given so much airtime. Why people give a hoot about the games he's making.

He seems to be known by many as simply the guy behind Fable. Or that guy who made too many promises about the Fable series then didn't deliver. Which is a damn shame.

Because many of our readers are American, or young, or indeed young Americans, they may not have grown up with systems like the Amiga. They may not know who Bullfrog Productions were. If that's you, we're going to show you why people care.

Last night, Molyneux was given a BAFTA Fellowship at an awards ceremony in the UK, and as part of his acceptance speech said "Sorry - I've slightly over-promised on things on occasion. I could name at least 10 features in games that I've made up to stop journalists going to sleep and I really apologise to the team for that."

To people who can remember Molyneux's boasts prior to the release of the first Fable, that it would feature things like persistent tree growth, it brought a wry smile. He sometimes promises the world from his games. Sometimes doesn't come good on them. But in many cases over the past 24 years he has actually delivered.

In The Beginning, There Was...Business

Peter Molyneux developed his first "game" in 1984. It was called The Entrepreneur, and was a...business simulator. Despite being so convinced of the game's success he literally cut himself a larger mailbox, it went on to sell two copies, a blow so severe that he cut and ran from the games business to design office databases.

This actually paid quite well, and in 1987 Molyneux returned to games development, founding Bullfrog Productions. Bullfrog's first game, the top-down shooter Fusion (designed by Molyneux), was pretty good, but its second game - Populous - exploded.

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