Jeff Minter and Llamasoft

[m.sniffles.esq]

Speaking of Space Giraffe, I've discovered I like it WAY more than I thought I did.

I've been on the Xbox as I've been playing through Like a Dragon, and since I have Minter on the brain --for some strange reason-- I decided to fire it back up, as it's been awhile.
I think before, I was just constantly trying to keep my multiplier maxed. And if way you play that way, it's kind of a frustrating experience. However, if you just go for survival --and just let whatever happens, happen-- it's really a lot of fun.

[Fingolfin]

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story trailer
https://youtu.be/4uIW8Qd-7rE?si=1JvoEYZNJYkA7q1t

Drops in two days!

Callooh-Callay!

[Fingolfin]

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
Digital Eclipse Developer Preview Stream

from Monday 3/11/2024
https://youtu.be/WotorpI1B1M?si=hPYDXeasEFpjD4wN

an hour plus of Digital Eclipse dorks talking about and demoing some of the collection of games and light synthesizers as well as playing some sneak peeks at documentary sections; offers a good deal more than anything previously available for Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

[Fingolfin]

Just downloaded Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story!

Going to see Dune Part 2 this am so not sure when but by tomorrow or Friday — if not sooner — I’ll post impressions, highlights, etc.

Glad you’re revisiting and enjoying Space Giraffe m.sniffles!

Certainly one of Minter’s oddest offerings: he reinvents and completely inverts most of the time tested mechanics of Tempest. Confusing to start — bewildering even — Space Giraffe is probably his most challenging game, at least until his remake of Akka Arrh; most of Jeff’s games are relatively easy and straightforward to pickup and play, and typically don’t require reading/knowing instructions. However both Space Giraffe and Akka Arrh do require some reading about and retention of some complex (situational) game mechanics.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Space Giraffe definitely contains his most egregious applications of 'use the force' gameplay. Which I can see driving some people absolutely nutty (especially around these parts). For instance, he purposefully creates playfields so that sections are obscured, requiring a jump (or super-zap) to ensure safe impasse. BUT since jump pod spawns are randomized, you're very likely to be forced to cross blindly, hoping for the best. So yeah, I can see why the 'memorize, micro-dodge, must be perfect' crowd despises the game. And I suppose I was initially approaching it from roughly that standpoint, but have since lightened up.

I dl'ed the Switch version of LS:TJMS (as I will refer to it), and there's a slight sync issue with the videos. Not enough to declare them broken, but enough to be a low level irritant. I hope it gets patched (but accept that it probably won't)

[FunktionJCB]

In case anyone is interested, the soundtrack to the in-game documentary was released on bandcamp.
It has some cool tracks.

https://tonylongworth.bandcamp.com/albu ... rt-of-neon

[m.sniffles.esq]

Thus far, all the games have been okay in LS:TJMS, but the whole 'story' aspect has A LOT of bugs (mostly really dumb stuff like the links taking you to the wrong game)
That said, the sheer amount of 'stuff' makes up for the annoyances.

[Kyper]

Enjoyed the documentary part and exploring the old games. Can't speak to the quality of the emulation, but I'm running into some random freezing (I'm playing the Steam version). It's not a complete lockout/freeze as the music is still playing and graphics are being animated in-place. The pause menu still works, and I can pick reset/load game and everything seems to runs fine after that. This has happened a few times; off the top of my head it's happened with Metagalactic Llamas and Gridrunner Remastered. I'm trying to see if I can trigger this consistently...

Funny enough, I ran into a crash-to-command-line with Iridis Alpha that was noted in Jeff Minter's newsletter: the early versions crashed if you died in the bonus phase. Looks like the compilation has said early version.

[MJR]

I really love this "interactive museum" type of approach. It feels really nice to be able to look at original packages, read trivia, and then try out the games quickly. It also does justice to Jeff, considering how exceptional career and history he has. I could easily recommend this even if you were not a Llamasoft fan in general. This is a delight.

[Fingolfin]

Good stuff!

Have spent about 10 minutes playing each game except more like 15-20 minutes on Hover Bovver (both C64 & Atari versions), all the different versions/incarnations of Gridrunner and the various Attack & Revenge Mutant Camel games. Everything plays well and sounds good.

For me there are a number of additional standouts/highlights throughout the collection including Iridis Alpha, Hellgate, Sheep In Space,
Voidrunner and Laser Zone. I never owned a C64 so these are all new to me.

However the three Atari ST games — Llamatron: 2112, Revenge of the Mutant Camels and Super Gridrunner — along with Tempest 2000 and Grindrunner Remastered are the games that’ll likely be played the most: not only do they look really good — much better than the 8 bit games — the gameplay for these games is substantially more interesting, complex and compelling than Jeff’s earlier games.

FWIW, I plan on spending some time this weekend playing/testing Tempest 2000 on both
Atari 50 and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story and will report back on my observations.

I really enjoyed the Konix Multi-System Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 but it was never completed; not sure how much gameplay this will offer over time but what there is looks and sounds fantastic.

Really enjoyed my time going through the four timelines in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story last night. Perhaps not quite as compelling as the documentary parts/segments in Atari 50, there’s still lots of good narrative components and interviews stitched together that make for an interesting, engaging and entertaining documentary. Also cool that Colourspace is used throughout the entire documentary running in the background/behind the text, photo and video components.

No problems with links in documentary/Story mode on PS4: they take you to the correct game.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is another excellent Digital Eclipse Gold Master Series release (Atari 50 was great and with the addition of Warbirds back in December 2023, Atari 50 now is everything it was advertised to be pre-launch).

Edits for clarity

[gray117]

documentary aspect is weak ... where's the dr4ma?

[Fingolfin]

documentary aspect is weak ... where's the dr4ma?

Not sure if you’re joking about that gray117.

From my previous post…
”Perhaps not quite as compelling as the documentary parts/segments in Atari 50, there’s still lots of good narrative components and interviews stitched together that make for an interesting, engaging and entertaining documentary.”

If drama is the linchpin criteria for a good documentary, then the documentary aspect of Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is weak I guess: it would seem that aside from Jeff getting sick with pericarditis in Fall ‘81 (around the time Jeff got a Vic-20) there wasn’t much drama.

There could have been more “drama” added or conveyed when Llamasoft started to struggle with marketing and selling Jeff’s games and light synth software on their own (after HESware folded). But perhaps the only additional/added drama there would relate to financial concerns and Llamasoft’s shrinking bottom line — no personal or interpersonal drama.

There definitely could have been more in the documentary about Jeff and Llamasoft vs Atari in the 1990’s (and perhaps Jeff and Llamasoft vs Sony in the 2010’s, but the last game chronologically in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is Tempest 2000 so that would’ve caused continuity issues). But perhaps that wouldn’t make sense with Atari now owning Digital Eclipse.

The documentary used herein is “Heart of Neon”; not sure if low levels of conflict/drama was a creative decision by those who made “Heart of Neon”; lack of added/embellished drama seems very Jeff Minter too — “nothing to see here folks….” — and thus biographically accurate.

Also worth noting that Atari was a large company with lots of employees: lots of employees = lots of potential stories and conflict laden drama. Not to mention Nolan B selling Atari and then the Tramiels and the colorful stories of personal conflicts and drug use (rampant — or Rampart — or not) @Atari.

[MJR]

documentary aspect is weak ... where's the dr4ma?

Not sure if you’re joking about that gray117.

From my previous post…
”Perhaps not quite as compelling as the documentary parts/segments in Atari 50, there’s still lots of good narrative components and interviews stitched together that make for an interesting, engaging and entertaining documentary.”

If drama is the linchpin criteria for a good documentary, then the documentary aspect of Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is weak I guess: it would seem that aside from Jeff getting sick with pericarditis in Fall ‘81 (around the time Jeff got a Vic-20) there wasn’t much drama.

There could have been more “drama” added or conveyed when Llamasoft started to struggle with marketing and selling Jeff’s games and light synth software on their own (after HESware folded). But perhaps the only additional/added drama there would relate to financial concerns and Llamasoft’s shrinking bottom line — no personal or interpersonal drama.

There definitely could have been more in the documentary about Jeff and Llamasoft vs Atari in the 1990’s (and perhaps Jeff and Llamasoft vs Sony in the 2010’s, but the last game chronologically in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is Tempest 2000 so that would’ve caused continuity issues). But perhaps that wouldn’t make sense with Atari now owning Digital Eclipse.

The documentary used herein is “Heart of Neon”; not sure if low levels of conflict/drama was a creative decision by those who made “Heart of Neon”; lack of added/embellished drama seems very Jeff Minter too — “nothing to see here folks….” — and thus biographically accurate.

Also worth noting that Atari was a large company with lots of employees: lots of employees = lots of potential stories and conflict laden drama. Not to mention Nolan B selling Atari and then the Tramiels and the colorful stories of personal conflicts and drug use (rampant — or Rampart — or not) @Atari.

..I think you are giving the previous commenter more time and attention they really deserve
There was some genuine (if not very long lasting) drama back in the day associated with review of Mama Llama in Zzap!64, and that is adressed also in the Minter Story.

[Fingolfin]

..I think you are giving the previous commenter more time and attention they really deserve
There was some genuine (if not very long lasting) drama back in the day associated with review of Mama Llama in Zzap!64, and that is adressed also in the Minter Story.

Fair enough MJR.

Forgot about the Mama Llama kerfuffle….

[m.sniffles.esq]

I could easily recommend this even if you were not a Llamasoft fan in general.

I concur. As I said elsewhere:

If Atari 50 was video game history in macro on a corporate level, then Llamasoft is video game history in macro on an independent level.

That said, the video portions --while being slightly out of sync-- are mostly pretty terrible. Who is the purple-haired "presenter" that they use for every other talking head, even though she says nothing but things such as "Like, I look at that game, and I'm like... 'wha?' And it's like... Y'know?" (this is an actually quote, and fairly representative of everything she says)?

[Fingolfin]

I could easily recommend this even if you were not a Llamasoft fan in general.

I concur. As I said elsewhere:

If Atari 50 was video game history in macro on a corporate level, then Llamasoft is video game history in macro on an independent level.

That said, the video portions --while being slightly out of sync-- are mostly pretty terrible. Who is the purple-haired "presenter" that they use for every other talking head, even though she says nothing but things such as "Like, I look at that game, and I'm like... 'wha?' And it's like... Y'know?" (this is an actually quote, and fairly representative of everything she says)?

Agree completely m.sniffles.

The corporate macro Atari of Atari 50 vs indie macro Minter of Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story; and also the majority of the talking heads present in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story being less than beneficial to what’s being presented. Purple hair retro collector/seller lady is the worst offender though she’s not alone in contributing nada. Aside from Jeff himself and Giles talking and a few — very few — others, most of the folks talking seem to be filling space in the video sections of Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Gotta wonder if less of “Heart of Neon” here in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story would’ve been for the best.

[Now we need a making of Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story documentary — no, no we do not need that. ]

Plenty to be critiqued in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story though plenty of good info about Jeff and Llamasoft history, in addition to some really enjoyable Minter games.

Personally, I would’ve enjoyed seeing more of his light synth work included and explored with greater depth; especially concerning Jeff’s progressing from Psychedelia and Colourspace to Trip-A-Tron and Virtual Light Machine/VLM.

To clarify: we do get two videos demoing Trip-A-Tron and Virtual Light Machine/VLM — a through the years history — as well as versions of Psychedelia and Colourspace to play with, which is very cool. However two of the primary text docs for Trip-A-Tron — “The Games Machine” article and the Trip-A-Tron ST manual — are really hard to read (I guess OCR to digital applications still has its limitations; certainly that is the case here).

[m.sniffles.esq]

Update today seemed to fix the link issues I mentioned above.

[Marc]

Oh. So Gridrunner reimagined is a port of the C64 game with new visuals, and therefore not a patch on the PS4 version I already own. Disappointing.

And the Konix game is basically an unfinished hot mess.

[Fingolfin]

And the Konix game is basically an unfinished hot mess.

Yes. The Konix Multi-System Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 is barely even a demonstration.

My previous comments about it…
“I really enjoyed the Konix Multi-System Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 but it was never completed; not sure how much gameplay this will offer over time but what there is looks and sounds fantastic.”

I spent a few hours Friday night playing LS:TJMS and played The Konix Multi-System Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 for about 10 minutes of which 8+ minutes were simply a repeat of the gameplay offered in the first minute and a half.

It does look and sound great but there is literally NO GAMEPLAY: you can fly around and shoot a variety of different upgradable shot types, there are small saucer enemies to destroy and a camel will appear which can also be destroyed. That’s it though.

Would’ve been really cool if Jeff had added even just a little more gameplay. As is it is barely a demonstration. Oh well!

[m.sniffles.esq]

I spent WAY too much time with Abductor (aka the cheapest game possibly ever)

Polygon actually posted a review this weekend (and I don't even think it was paid for, which is shocking for Polygon nowadays)

My favorite was a middling review on one of those 'semi-pro' blogs (Destructor?), where the reviewer starts off by stating they've recently just bought a c64 (where on earth did they find one with a working power brick??? Anyway...) and they found the process of loading games from floppies "fascinating". So you probably have a good idea of the reviewer's age, but at any rate...

They go on to complain that a large portion of the games are just poor arcade copies, and nothing more elaborate like 'Ultima'.

Because Ultima was obviously programed by one person in their basement...

It sort of confirmed my belief that when youngsters talk about 'indies', they mean developed by less than 15 people and with only a few hundred thousand of corporate funding.

---

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...

---

Double edit:

The update that fixed the links seems to have somewhat busted c64 emulation, as the games keep freezing on me. The controller still responds, so I can just reset the individual game. But it's a bit annoying. Also, I never owned a Vic-20 -- so I have nothing to compare it to -- but all the games seem insanely fast. Like emulator running at wrong speed fast. The speed differences been the Vic 20 and C64 versions of Gridrunner are very dramatic.

[FunktionJCB]

In case anyone is interested in checking it out, here's an Atari (video) Podcast episode with the guys from Llamasoft and Digital Eclipse about this release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcru4ev_Ksk

[bcass]

Are the high score tables saved for the games in the collection (including the special version of Gridrunner)?

[Lander]

They go on to complain that a large portion of the games are just poor arcade copies, and nothing more elaborate like 'Ultima'.

Because Ultima was obviously programed by one person in their basement...

In fairness, the first Ultima was two uni students on an Apple II. Affluent, astronaut-parent-having uni students, but I digress. It's still a bit reductive to pick at someone for specializing their craft.

Though, Minter's Ultima would certainly be a sight to see. Gold Box by way of Sluggish Morss

It sort of confirmed my belief that when youngsters talk about 'indies', they mean developed by less than 15 people and with only a few hundred thousand of corporate funding.

Yahtzee's recent-ish video on the dorito pope awards really put this into perspective for me; as far as the mainstream (and adjacent bloggers) are concerned, indie is a vibe - something that feels like it's made by a plucky underdog, without any real predicate on whether said canine is a well-connected industry veteran wearing Groucho Marx glasses.

This one about the current state of 3D Realms throwbacks hit on a similar note also; got me thinking that we've reached the point where nostalgia and 'indie' have been identified as a tenable source of profit by entities that typically deal in larger productions, the exploitation of which is beginning to ramp up to noticeable levels. All very cynical.

[Sima Tuna]

The thing about 3D Realms is they keep promising awesome shit and then never delivering anything. They're like the Strictly Limited Games of boomer shooter game dev.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Now that I think about it, my above comments may have been misdirected.

Perhaps they should have included one less of video of the aforementioned purple-haired girl saying non-sentences, and instead included a short video that showed how incredibly difficult it is to program anything in BASIC, let alone a game that actually works. One didn't doodle their 'assets' in Illustrator, then import them. But rather map them out on fucking graph paper, then code them in one pixel at a time.

Perhaps this would have been demonstrative to the younger audience members as to why making a Centipede clone by yourself in your basement was actually a pretty big achievement

[m.sniffles.esq]

There's an intriguing part of this:

In case anyone is interested in checking it out, here's an Atari (video) Podcast episode with the guys from Llamasoft and Digital Eclipse about this release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcru4ev_Ksk

Where Minter mentions what he's currently working on, and the Atari PR guy immediately cuts him off stating "we really can't talk about that yet"

Seeing that it's for Atari, there's a more than excellent chance it's a 'nu' version of an existing game (seeing that's all they do nowadays), and one that's hasn't already received a 'nu' version.

I, Robot?
It can't be Star Wars, can it?

(sorry for the double post)

[bcass]

Are the high score tables saved for the games in the collection (including the special version of Gridrunner)?

Nobody knows the answer to this? Surely at least one person here has bought it?

[m.sniffles.esq]

Nobody knows the answer to this? Surely at least one person here has bought it?

No
(as in, it does not)

[bcass]

Not even the updated version of Gridrunner? If so, then wow. Not even local score saving?

[m.sniffles.esq]

Not even the updated version of Gridrunner? If so, then wow. Not even local score saving?

I'll have to check when I get back to work. But since it's just running the c64 code with a graphical upgrade, and the c64 version most certainly does not (which is the reason I specifically checked it, in an attempt to kill two birds with the same stone), I'm going to go ahead and say it's very unlikely.

Edit: As expected, the updated Gridrunner is running the c64 code, so no