Digital Eclipse Gold Master Series 02 - Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

M

ManaByte

Banned
Following Atari 50 and the first Gold Master Series documentary/game The Making of Karateka, Digital Eclipse revealed the second game... LLAMASOFT!!!!

www.digitaleclipse.com

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

Journey back to an era in which a kid with a Commodore VIC-20 and dreams of radioactive sheep could become one of Britain's best-known game makers.
www.digitaleclipse.com www.digitaleclipse.com


Really like what they've been doing since Atari 50. Getting this day 1.
 
ReBurn said:
I will buy this. Minter's work is some of my favorite and he deserves the honor.
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arnold schwarzenegger predator GIF
 
I'm in for this day-1. Jeff is a true legend of the industry. So ridiculously talented and humble. His games hit a spot for me that few others do... just pure adrenaline and arcade perfection.

Akka Arrh is sweet, Polybius: best PSVR game by a mile. I have one of my OLED VITAs dedicated to TxK.

I really hope that he ports Polybius to PSVR2 so I can finally unhook my PSVR1.
 
Sweet, I'm really looking forward to this. I bet the extras will be interesting too.

It seems like Llamasoft is quite busy lately and their next game is gonna lean back into the lightsynth stuff like Space Giraffe.
 
Evil Calvin said:
Do we have a game list?
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Yeah it's not in the press releases but someone leaked it a while back. Pretty good list and includes some deep cuts. Defender 2000 is probably the biggest omission (understandable since rights are split up but still disappointing). Would have liked to see some of the old Windows 95 era stuff like Gridrunner++ since those aren't really commercially available anymore but I'll deal.

Also worth noting that the Gridrunner remake is done by DE, not by Minter and stays mechanically close to C64 version. If you want Minter's own remake, I highly, highly recommend getting Minotaur Arcade Vol 1 on Steam.

Sinclair ZX81
3D3D
Centipede

Commodore VIC-20
Abductor
Andes Attack
Deflex V
Gridrunner
Hellgate
Laser Zone
Matrix: Gridrunner 2
Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time
Ratman

Commodore 64
Ancipital
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Batalyx
Gridrunner
Hellgate
Hover Bovver
Iridis Alpha
Laser Zone
Mama Llama
Matrix: Gridrunner 2
Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time
Psychedelia
Revenge of the Mutant Camels
Revenge of the Mutant Camels II
Rox 64
Sheep In Space
Voidrunner

Sinclair Spectrum
City Bomb
Headbangers Heaven
Rox III
Superdeflex

Atari 8-bit
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Colourspace
Gridrunner
Hover Bovver
Turboflex

Konix Multi-System
Attack of the Mutant Camels '89

Atari ST
Llamatron: 2112
Revenge of the Mutant Camels
Super Gridrunner

Atari Jaguar
Tempest 2000

Reimagined
Gridrunner Remastered
 
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I've been gaming for almost 40 years but I've only played Mutant Camels and Tempest 2000. The lack of IBM PC ports has made Minter invisible to a large portion of gamers.
 
Definitely interested. I always liked Jeff Minter's overall aesthetic. And Jeff Minter Himself just seems like a cool dude overall.

Still need to play Akka Arrh. I kept forgetting to grab it while it was on sale, but I got it about a week ago.
 
SF Kosmo said:
Yeah it's not in the press releases but someone leaked it a while back. Pretty good list and includes some deep cuts. Defender 2000 is probably the biggest omission (understandable since rights are split up but still disappointing). Would have liked to see some of the old Windows 95 era stuff like Gridrunner++ since those aren't really commercially available anymore but I'll deal.

Also worth noting that the Gridrunner remake is done by DE, not by Minter and stays mechanically close to C64 version. If you want Minter's own remake, I highly, highly recommend getting Minotaur Arcade Vol 1 on Steam.

Sinclair ZX81
3D3D
Centipede

Commodore VIC-20
Abductor
Andes Attack
Deflex V
Gridrunner
Hellgate
Laser Zone
Matrix: Gridrunner 2
Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time
Ratman

Commodore 64
Ancipital
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Batalyx
Gridrunner
Hellgate
Hover Bovver
Iridis Alpha
Laser Zone
Mama Llama
Matrix: Gridrunner 2
Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time
Psychedelia
Revenge of the Mutant Camels
Revenge of the Mutant Camels II
Rox 64
Sheep In Space
Voidrunner

Sinclair Spectrum
City Bomb
Headbangers Heaven
Rox III
Superdeflex

Atari 8-bit
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Colourspace
Gridrunner
Hover Bovver
Turboflex

Konix Multi-System
Attack of the Mutant Camels '89

Atari ST
Llamatron: 2112
Revenge of the Mutant Camels
Super Gridrunner

Atari Jaguar
Tempest 2000

Reimagined
Gridrunner Remastered
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What would you say are the top 5 games on this list? I don't think I've played any of these....and I've been gaming since the 70's as a tot.
 
So this is out today. I have to say thw way it's presented is really lovely, a lot like Atari 50 but the archival content is great, all these old newsletters and magazines and a lot of these short 5-6 minute documentary videos. It's like walking around a museum exhibit.

Obviously early Llamasoft games are kind of a mixed bag, and they don't all hold up, but in this sort of presentation it's valuable to see how he evolved and learned as he went. And the best games are infinitely replayable as ever.

Playing Tempest 2000 with analog controls at 60fps is a real treat too.

Evil Calvin said:
What would you say are the top 5 games on this list? I don't think I've played any of these....and I've been gaming since the 70's as a tot.
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Probably Matrix, Tempest 2000, Llamatron, and the Atari ST stuff.
 
Maybe it's weird to see a Jeff Minter compilation, and wish it had more obscure stuff...

But I remember reading about a supercharged PC version of the Xbox 360 light synth that he never released, for whatever reason. I've always wanted to see that. Then there was the Nuon version of Tempest that hardly anyone ever played.

Still, any Minter collection is most welcome.
 
calistan said:
Maybe it's weird to see a Jeff Minter compilation, and wish it had more obscure stuff...

But I remember reading about a supercharged PC version of the Xbox 360 light synth that he never released, for whatever reason. I've always wanted to see that. Then there was the Nuon version of Tempest that hardly anyone ever played.

Still, any Minter collection is most welcome.
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Neon is kind of this ever-evolving thing that he develops alongside his games even though it never gets released standalone. I don't think he's ever productized it in any meaningful way though. His current project is leaning back into the lightsynth stuff more than his other recent games I think.
.
I have played the Nuon Tempest 3000. It's the only thing worth playing on Nuon and it still struggles with framerate but it was impressive at the time. I'd love to see it ported somehow.
 
I love all of his games from Space Giraffe onwards and unfortunately there aren't enough (or any really) of those games on here. If his IOS, Vita and PS4 games were on here this would be a must buy. Sadly I'm going to have to pass.
 
Dr.D00p said:
Genuinely surprised that anyone outside of the UK games scene has even heard of him, TBH.
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Gridrunner sold well over here, but it was really Llamatron that started to make waves (the shareware market was HUGE in the US, unlike UK), and then Tempest 2000 really put him into the mainstream consciousness. Unity was hyped up in American mags just like in the UK.

To your point though, yeah, a lot of this collection covers the period where he wasn't as known in America and even I, as someone who has played a good amount of his games in retrospect am finding ones I missed or didn't spend much time with.
 
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Steam was offering me this in a bundle with Tempest 4000. I've got that on the Xbox, but does anyone know if the PC version has proper configurable spinner support? I know Minter's games can be somewhat barebones when it comes to configuration options, and I'd feel a bit guilty about refunding his stuff.
 
SF Kosmo said:
So this is out today. I have to say thw way it's presented is really lovely, a lot like Atari 50 but the archival content is great, all these old newsletters and magazines and a lot of these short 5-6 minute documentary videos. It's like walking around a museum exhibit.

Obviously early Llamasoft games are kind of a mixed bag, and they don't all hold up, but in this sort of presentation it's valuable to see how he evolved and learned as he went. And the best games are infinitely replayable as ever.

Playing Tempest 2000 with analog controls at 60fps is a real treat too.


Probably Matrix, Tempest 2000, Llamatron, and the Atari ST stuff.
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Bought it yesterday!
 
Jack Package said:
Is this the first video game autobiography? Awesome idea regardless!
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I wouldn't call it an autobiography since Llamasoft didn't develop it, Digital Eclipse did. But yeah it's the first compilation I've seen like this that is focused on a single creator like this rather than a company or platform.

Minter wrote an actual book autobiography some years back. I don't know where you could find it now, though. I have a copy somewhere.
 
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calistan said:
Steam was offering me this in a bundle with Tempest 4000. I've got that on the Xbox, but does anyone know if the PC version has proper configurable spinner support? I know Minter's games can be somewhat barebones when it comes to configuration options, and I'd feel a bit guilty about refunding his stuff.
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No, and it's a bit tragic. Atari has been a bit of a road block to things like this and VR support. The lack of spinner and mouse support really holds the game back from being my favorite version.

I actually think Minotaur Arcade Vol 1 and Moose Life are the best things he's done since Tempest 2000. Polybius too maybe. His VR period really led him to approach his sensory overload design a bit differently and those games are really brilliant.
 
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SF Kosmo said:
No, and it's a bit tragic. Atari has been a bit of a road block to things like this and VR support. The lack of spinner and mouse support really holds the game back from being my favorite version.
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That's a real shame. I just got my Taito spinner and trackball working in Windows, so Tempest 4000 would have been perfect. I know Llamasoft is about as small-scale as developers get, but they don't often seem interested in updating their stuff. Like relying on users to get games working on Steam Deck, or simply abandoning their entire iOS catalogue.
 
calistan said:
That's a real shame. I just got my Taito spinner and trackball working in Windows, so Tempest 4000 would have been perfect. I know Llamasoft is about as small-scale as developers get, but they don't often seem interested in updating their stuff. Like relying on users to get games working on Steam Deck, or simply abandoning their entire iOS catalogue.
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Jeff considers the iOS games to be a pretty big commercial disappointment, that they didn't make money the first time around.

That said, he did port most of them to Android, and those games can still be sideloaded, maybe even emulated. These versions are not always identical to the iOS, but it's the best you're gonna get.

I think it's probably pretty tough for them to devote a lot of time to updating old games, although they've certainly wasted time on dumber projects, like porting Hover Bovver to Galaga hardware or putting out a patch for an old C64 game.
 
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