But fate intervened when Taurus mistakenly received some free Amiga computers from Commodore. Molyneux was so inspired by the graphic capabilities of the legendary multimedia machine that he started a new company called Bullfrog to capitalize on it.

He set up shop in the Guildford, a suburb of London, and after a couple false starts embarked upon a game that would mark not only his career, but also computer gaming in general, Populous.

In Populous the player assumes the role of a deity trying to further its influence by helping its followers settle land. As the number of followers increases, the player takes on more powers and subsequently has more influence over the game's world.

The ultimate goal in the game is to thwart rival deities by attacking their followers and inciting your own followers to attack them.

Populous stood out over all other games at that point not only because it was real-time -- as opposed to the static turn-based games of the time -- but also because the player never had direct control over the followers in the game.

This was to become a trademark of Molyneux's games.

"I have always found this an interesting mechanic, the idea that you influence the game as opposed to controlling the game; also the idea that the game can continue without you is a concept that still fascinates me," he said.

Molyneux's vision, both in Populous and his later games, fascinated others as well. Bullfrog eventually grew into a multimillion-dollar company, winning every accolade imaginable in computer games. In 1997 British Prime Minister Tony Blair singled out "Bullfrog electronic games" as one of the products that marked England as a world class innovator.

Unfortunately, this accolade came at a rather inopportune time.

In 1995, after selling Bullfrog to computer game behemoth Electronic Arts, the builder of virtual worlds found himself in a situation he didn't like.