Jeff Minter and Llamasoft

[Fingolfin]

@bcass the only option to save/retain high scores is to use save states — of which there is only one for each game — for each high score save, which is unfortunate b/c most all of Jeff’s games do allow for high score saves and would’ve retained high scores to disk on original hardware. The C64, Atari 400/800, etc and Atari ST stuff — in short Jeff’s computer games done on disk or put on cart — would’ve saved/did/do save high scores to disk or cart (for games that allowed for saving high scores).

This is really ridiculous especially for the Atari ST games and triple treble absurd for no high score saves for Tempest 2000 and Gridrunner Remastered on Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Again save states can be used but this is cumbersome and most inconvenient. Hard to believe this wasn’t addressed for a 2024 release.

More than a bit of a head scratcher as Atari 50 does offer high scores saves for the arcade titles in the collection though not for the console games. And to be fair Atari console games even thru the 7800 did not save high scores to cart (just something Atari never implemented); however all Jaguar games do save high scores on original Jaguar hardware (To be clear there are no high score saves for Tempest 2000 or any of the other Jaguar titles on Atari 50).

Digital Eclipse has done more than a decent job emulating all of the games on Atari 50 and here with Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story but not including saves for high scores even when high score saves were included in the original games represented in these collections is terribly weak and reflects very poorly on Digital Eclipse (and unfortunately also reflects poorly on Atari and Jeff Minter by extension).

Would’ve been really cool if Jeff had added even just a little more gameplay

I can't really slight Minter for ditching his Konix dev kit...

No slight at all…would never in the world consider slighting Jeff Minter: “Would’ve been really cool if Jeff had added even just a little more gameplay” — as in back in 1989 when he was working on Konix System Attack of the Mutant Camels…“As is it is barely a demonstration.”

Not suggesting Jeff add to or complete a game in development over 30 years ago on a dev kit for a system that never launched. Just too bad that he didn’t add any more than what was completed back in 1989 or thereabouts.

The more I play around with Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story and also return to Atari 50, the more I realize what all Digital Eclipse has done with and to the games in these collections vs the original Atari and original Jeff Minter games that are presented therein. More importantly, I realize what Digital Eclipse could have done but unfortunately did not.

[bcass]

This is really ridiculous especially for the Atari ST games and triple treble absurd for no high score saves for Tempest 2000 and Gridrunner Remastered on Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Again save states can be used but this is cumbersome and most inconvenient. Hard to believe this wasn’t addressed for a 2024 release.

Not hard to believe, but astonishing to believe. This seriously needs to be addressed, for all games, not just the games that originally supported it.

[BuckoA51]

It's a shame the Amiga versions couldn't have been used instead of the ST versions for those games, as the Amiga versions are significantly better. If you've not played Llamatron: 2112 or Revenge of the Mutant Camels on the Amiga it's well worth tracking down.