TIL Peter Molyneux failed his first game so badly he started a baked bean export company, which got confused with a software firm and kickstarted his development career
TIL Peter Molyneux failed his first game so badly he started a baked bean export company, which got confused with a software firm and kickstarted his development career
After his first game venture failed, Peter Molyneux started a baked bean export business. Commodore International mistakenly offered him ten free Amiga systems because they confused the baked bean company's name "Taurus" with a software company "Torus", and he used the hardware to create a database system for the Amiga, which was successful.
Which is just such a weird story.
Full text of the paragraph:
Due to the game's failure, Molyneux retreated from game design, and started Taurus Impex Limited—a company that exported baked beans to the Middle East—with his business partner Les Edgar.[5][6] Commodore International mistook it for Torus, a more established company that produced networking software, and offered to provide Molyneux with ten[5] free Amiga systems to help in porting "his" networking software.[2][7] Molyneux later said "it suddenly dawned on me that this guy didn't know who we were. I suddenly had this crisis of conscience. I thought, 'If this guy finds out, there go my free computers down the drain.' So I just shook his hand and ran out of that office."[2] Taurus designed a database system for the Amiga called Acquisition – The Ultimate Database for The Amiga[5] and, after clearing up the misunderstanding with Commodore, released the program to moderate success.
I like how his reaction to a "crisis of conscience" is to continue to lie to the person, fraudulently take home all this super valuable technology, and then somehow use this bit of immoral bullshit to actually make something decent. It's like a microcosm of his whole character/career.
I like how his reaction to failure at game dev was to pivot to beans.
He is like a reformed jack and the Beanstalk, except this time he was immoral
He would fit right in with early lemmy.
make something decent
But importantly, not what was asked for/promised.
Faked it till he kinda made it
Fake it til you bake it (beans, that is)
Waiting for the movie.
There's a one hundred percent chance that this story is a lie like everything else involving this loser.
I think it's real, just not the way its presented. I think he likely went to Amiga, talked his company up on how important they are in vague ways, and then jumped on whatever they said to promise that "yes, we can do that." That's his MO.
So we're going back to posts about beans now?
Lemmy taketh, Lemmy giveth
Beans are a natural source of protein -Brak
feel free to post your own content. also what do you mean?
You must be new here
what do you bean?
A long and storied career in running cons. He obviously went to Amiga first.
honestly the only thing that makes sense
I feel lucky that I played fable games as a kid and never heard of this dude so I just saw the games for what they were, no inkling of any broken promises to taint what were actually good games
The first game was incredible, but I thought the series went the way of the original Jurassic Park trilogy, where each subsequent release in the franchise was worse than the one before.
That's just my opinion tho.
Fable suffered from the same issues as The Elder Scrolls, with the methodic removal of RPG elements and a general "dumbing down" of game mechanics with each iteration. The 3rd Fable game doesn't even have an inventory.
I tried playing Fable 2 recently and the motion blur made it literally unplayable. Can’t turn it off either
The I call franchises like that "Highlanders"
I found Fable 2 to be the best of the three. Gameplay systems were the most fun, character options the best, etc. The first one frankly had the major issue of gender locked character. Female protagonist should absolutely have been an option in that game.
Project Natal/Milo was the grift that impreseed me the most...
Like the big brass balls needed to lie about having made Sentient AI
Why is it that everything that happens on Lemmy revolves around Star Trek and beans?
The moment I read this comment, Julian on Trailer Park Boys started talking about beans on my second screen. (Yes, really, S8E2@15:30)
It must be a sign
Someone should make a movie about this, Matrix/Inception vibes.
I just minutes ago finished up the new season of Disenchantment before coming across this post. The main character's name is Bean.
I also had a taco salad for lunch today and one of the main ingredients was... beans.
This is spooky.
i had no idea about the beans, it's been a confusing education and i won't do it again 😬
edit: perhaps it's bean a confusing education, i don't even know anymore
Hey that’s the guy that made Godus.
Wish they finished the game because it was pretty fun.
Wish they finished the game because it was pretty fun.
Were we playing the same game?? When I played it in 2013 it was a tedious, RSI-inducing cow-clicker with lootboxes and "premium" gems, and according to Steam I played for less than an hour before abandoning it.
I played the hell out of Populous and Populous II back in the day... Including a fair bit of multiplayer too - running a link cable between Amigas in our flat.
I wonder if I'd enjoy an upscaled port today as much as I did then.
Powermonger did it for me.
Didn’t he make some spherical MP Tetris where you can like win the world if you found the centre?
molyneux is one of the weirdest names in game development. that boy makes lots of promises about how epic his new game is, and it always feels like the mcdonald’s happy meal toy version of whatever big thing he claimed it was.
Black&White 1/2 are the biggest examples of this. was proclaimed as some huge advancement of ai in games, and it was just “if you pet this giant cow every time it either eats its own poop or throws poop at your villagers, it will eat and throw its poop like crazy, desperate for more validation from you. meanwhile you keep using your giant literal hand of god to pick individual people up and throw them into the ocean because you’re god in this game” and then two hours in you’re bored and stop playing.
Black and white was a huge advancement in ai in games.
That's the wild thing about Molyneux. He doesn't come anywhere near what he promised and still makes a revolutionary game.
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After his first game venture failed, Peter Molyneux started a baked bean export business. Commodore International mistakenly offered him ten free Amiga systems . . . .
Molyneux's fate like, Get over here!
I just want a new Fable game already... Even if he doesn't own the IP anymore.
They announced one and it made everyone angry..
Usual reason. Protagonist was shown as a non white woman not wearing bikini
Shit like this is why I believe in fate.
Bullfrog was my all time favorite game company, they made:
- Syndicate
- Magic Carpet
- Theme Park
- Theme Hospital
- Dungeon Keeper
After EA bought Bullfrog he moved to Lionhead and did the games people are criticizing on this thread. They are probably younger, and didn't see his games when he was at his peak
Honestly I have never heard of this guy and suddenly today he is filling up my feed.
yeah I didn't know who he was so I looked it up. that paragraph just struck me as the weirdest origin story so I shared it.
trying to keep Lemmy interesting for the people
You should've seen the articles in gaming magazines about him and his games. B&W and Fable mostly. Always these grandiose claims of whatever new tech was being built in then they'd release and be, well, none of that. Innovative sometimes, sure, but nowhere near what was promised. He was treated like a god and always got massive articles to build up hype. I wish I still had my old Maximum PC collection.
