Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

First of all, I will always show up for the Digital Eclipse interactive docmentaries, regardless of the topic. The timeline format is a genius method for archiving and communicating history in a logical, entertaining, and informative way. I've played Tempest 2000 before, but otherwise I was not very familiar with Jeff Minter because I am not a 60 year old British man. I really only knew him by name and reputation. My experience with The Jeff Minter Story followed something of an upside down bell curve. The beginning was fascinating and promising. Some of the things Minter accomplished with such primitive equipment and limited programming knowledge are mind boggling (3d3d is particuarly impressive). As the story progressed though, I found myself surprised and disappointed. I had assumed, based on reputation, that Minter's games were more ground breaking than this. Nearly everything is derivative of better known games, and while he usually puts a twist on the gameplay, it is always to the game's detriment. Sometimes less is more. More alarmingly, he continues to port and iterate on the same games and concepts repeatedly. In particular I was shocked how many times he returned to the well of copying the 2600 Empire Strikes Back game (a game that is okay, but hardly an all-time great in its own right) to diminishing returns. As I approached the end though, I began reflecting on everything I had played, read, and watched, trying to suss out why he was so regarded. There are a couple of things that come into relief in the latter half of the timeline that, I think, ultimately complete the arc and offer an explanation. The first is direct engagement with fans. Many of the zines/newsletters Minter published are included, and were perhaps my favorite inclusion, reading for all the world like a blog 20 years before that became a thing. The second is Minter's work on interactive visualizers. Watching and playing how he evolved this format from it's earliest, crudest beginnings, to modern platforms, was an absolute delight, and in my mind was his greatest creative accomplishment. It's important to understand that documenting the history of gaming is a noble pursuit, whether a particular collection of games is enjoyable to me personally or not. Even though I didn't really enjoy the majority of the games included here, the experience was, as always for Digital Eclipse, worthwhile.

It doesn't get any more retro than this. Yes, you can outdo even that one guy on Rumble with the Intellivision gameplay videos and play something even more obscure and precious. Vic 20, Commodore 64, Atari, and all the weirdest games including grid shooting and ruminating animals. I enjoy trying the different versions of Grid Runner from all the different systems. Llamatron 2112 is cray. Hover Bovver is weird and hilarious. There is another game that starts with a B that is five other games inside and the shooter is wild. What kind of a freaking game is that! Yo, you gotta try them all including Jeff Minter's "Centipede-at-home" as I call it. You memers will know what I'm saying. Mom, can I play centipede? We have centipede at home. You have to get this compilation.

Whether or not to buy the bundle of games depends on if you want a bunch of older / classic videogames that have some bugs in the games that may never be fixed, There are a nice spread of games for various systems. But modern and younger games who never played 8 bit computer games may not be as excited or interested as Gen X gamers who enjoyed the games. I picked it up for under $10 after tax and am happy with what I purchased. There is a 2 hour 2 week refund policy if players are unsure and want to try the games.

Gridrunner freezes randomly, and the developer/publisher looks like they're never going to fix it.

I got this out of loving Digital Eclipse's docu-games, but this is an incredible, and informative game. Following the 40+ year journey of Jeff Minter through not only through his growth as a game developer, but as a vertical slice of the entire industries history from his perspective. I really loved this, and found many of his games that are playable within to be really delightful, and the live action interviews are all both entertaining, and very enlightening as to what development was like. By the end, I was invested in Jeff's story, and felt inspired by it. I highly encourage this Game compilation / documentary for anyone who's interested in the history of gaming, classic games, or aspiring developers.

While the documentary is fun and interesting, this collection's a mess and is a massive disservice to Minter's legacy. 30 dollars isn't worth a documentary (that you can already just look up instead) lumped in with a bunch of poorly-emulated deceptive ROMs, and it's a shame too since the Atari 50 Collection is pretty decent apart from the glorified "after-market sequels" which are just fan ROM hacks. I refunded this game for a reason.

Like the first Gold Master Series entry, this has shed light on a figure I knew little about, & granted recognition of the unique, trippy games Llamasoft makes. It was fascinating to peer into the mind of such a one of a kind auteur.

I was hoping this would include more of Jeff Minter's newer games, many of which were digital releases that are now difficult or impossible to obtain legally. It has Tempest 2000 at least, which I quite enjoy, but I find myself questioning the value of this collection even at the discounted price I paid for it. I'd say Llamatron 2112 (MAJOR seizure warning if you look it up) would be worth getting this collection for as well, but instead of the DOS version with its crisp samples, they instead opted for an Atari Jaguar port of the Atari ST version, which has very scratchy audio. I guess it was easier than including DOSBox, not that Llamatron is particularly hard to run on DOSBox in the first place. IMO, don't pay full price for this. Even at 60% off, I have trouble recommending this for people who aren't diehard Tempest 2000 fans. I'll definitely take it over Tempest 4000 though. EDIT: Ended up refunding this about two weeks ago. EDIT2: Repurchased this for 70% off, since it's at least a somewhat convenient way to play Tempest 2000 and Llamatron. Not sure if it'll ever be cheaper than this.

[h1]History in the making...but...[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3615697943 Jeff Minter is, for nowadays people not something which might "clicks" somewhere somehow. Infact, even i forgot his name till i saw one or 2 games here on the collection where his name popped up and i was like "Oh yea, i remember that game...he did that one? Neat." ...But that was basically it to be honest. Its... not that i try to be disrespectful its just nowadays, he would be called crazy af or just some random indie dude, you know? Yes, for "Its time", he made story somewhat somehow but even this...story parts in this "Story" of Llamasoft are...well... barely there... And the games...oh boy...the games... [h1]A wierd mix of retro stuff... maybe even "to" wierd...[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3615697835 The problem i basically have with the whole thing is that it shows only the small beginnings of Minter, how he basically began. It shows how he started up to his first "good" games. Though, for what Minter got "known"... there it basically ends somehow. Yes, it shows his (very) early works but i have to be that guy and super honest here, which even Minter "kinda" admited himself in this whole story: Stuff wasnt really that great. Some of the games are basically SUPER old, barely "playable" and even as someone who really does enjoy retro stuff (i basically grew up with a C64), i duno how to explain this said 42 games on this collection. But since we "are" on it, what exactly "IS" on this collection, gamewise? Let me make a small list so you kinda know: - 3D3D - Centipide "prototype" - 3 Versions of the "Deflex" game - Ratman - City Bomber - 2 Version of the "Rox" game - Abductor - 4 versions from "Gridrunner" PLUS a revamped version - Andes Attack - Attack of the Mutant Camels 1 in 3 different versions - Headbangers - 2 Versions of "Laserzone" - 2 Versions of "Matrix" - 2 Versions of "Hover Bovver" - 2 Versions of "Meta Llamas" - 2 Versions of Revenge o. t. Mutant Camels 1 + One of its sequal - 2 Versions of "Hellgate" - Sheep in Space - Antipital - Llamatron - Psychedelina + Colourspace - Mama Llama - Batalyx - Voidrunner - Tempest 2000 As you can see, a lot games are already more than ones in here - and they dont play very different - infact, some are just ports like gridrunner which has basically the Vic 20-, C64- and Atari port on this collection and none play different but only look slightly different. This makes it...somewhat "weird" to look at some games since in this collection, just some "games" really f e e l like you play something, i would say from Hover Bovver forward which oddly was ONE of the games i know from "back than". Hover Bovver is kinda one of the "earlier" games from Minter which feels - between all the other older stuff on here - like an actual "game". Its not the best of the games on here but looking at other games which came BEFORE from Minter and AFTER Hover Bovver, it feels somewhat loose there, if you know how and what i mean. [h1]What else can we expect?[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3615697897 I think if you wanna "learn" about indie-gaming in the VERY "earlier" days, i think its nice to see how it kinda was but... it still feels kinda losely put together. Infos dont give a lot "infos" to be that honest, some background ideas, some pictures but it feels...not so good being honest. I own the Atari 50 collection which is from the same creators and oddly there, i love the whole collection, the background story, the games and all the small things - In this Collection from Minter? I duno. Maybe its the games which are VERY...well... "niche" if that would be a fitting word and some "games" can really be counted BARELY as "games" nowadays, mostly his earlier creations which doesnt really show or reflect what Minter "is" nowadays known for, which i doubt a lot people nowadays even know. So overall, you get some old games, some more than ones, some barely playable, some barely COUNTABLE as "game", some which feel and indeed are prototypes and some which are basically unclear how to touch them in the first place. I mean looking at games like all the "Deflex" ones... No offense but thats what noone would play nowadays anymore, if even - and im sure even back in the day i would be pretty bored by it in just 5 minutes. And for the info? If you really, really, REALLY wanna learn more and feel "engaged" in this whole story, i would recommend you to look out for the said Jeff Minter Story "Heart of NEON". Here a Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0G6dq-EayE Basically, most (or...all) infos are literally taken from there, at least the most intresting video parts... [h1] So...about that recommendation...[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3615697857 I duno. I already said so often in other reviews, steam, give me a middle ground somehow. Its not that it is bad for what it is somehow... but in the other hand, it feels all so losely put together. Background infos are only touched, video infos can be taken more from the actual Neon-Story, games are "odd" and a topic of its own - at least if you look at ALL of them. Sure some can be still played but as i said, others are...you know... Overall i would go more into the negative side than the prositive, not out of disrespect to Minter but more because i think Minter as for THIS collection could have done better - at least as what it is suppost to reflect which should have been a story about "some random english dude which began to work with llamas n stuff and ended up with lightsynth in the bigs" (keeping it SUPER short right now). I seriously duno. I would maybe say if youre a fan of Minter, sure go and have some fun but for people which either "duno" or think to look up some "retro stuff" and have literally NO CLUE what is on here, i would give them a hard pass. [b]Its odd to explain this collection as "whole" if the whole thing in itself is so off that even i duno if i would fully recommend it...or not.[/b]

En novembre 2022, Digital Eclipse sortait "[b]Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration[/b]", qui allait révolutionner ce que l'on était en droit d'attendre d'une compilation de vieux jeux: au lieu de simplement fournir ce qu'offre déjà l'émulation gratuite avec comme seule valeur ajoutée une présentation plus ou moins sophistiquée, elle mettait en avant [i]l'importance historique[/i] de jeux qui n'avaient pas tous bien vieilli, à la manière d'un musée structuré en lignes chronologiques claires, où les jeux étaient accompagnés de leur manuel d'origine et d'une reproduction en 3D de leur packaging, mais étaient surtout complétés par de multiples publicités, flyers, citations, anecdotes, interviews, photos, documents de développement, concepts artistiques, critiques, etc. reconstituant un contexte et véhiculant un [i][b]sens[/b][/i] dont l'intérêt transcendait celui des jeux proprement dits. Ainsi, plutôt qu'une compilation de jeux agrémentée de quelques documents, il s'agissait d'un véritable récit historique complet que les jeux servaient à illustrer. Fort de son concept alors baptisé "[b]Gold Master Series[/b]", Digital Eclipse sortit ensuite dans le même élan "[b]The Making of Karateka[/b]" en août 2023, puis "Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story" l'année suivante en mars, suivi de "[b]Tetris Forever[/b]" en novembre de la même année! Personnellement, j'ai peu connu Jeff Minter lors de son heure de gloire dans les années 1980, même si je jouais déjà aux jeux vidéo: je possédais un Amstrad alors que Minter programmait surtout sur les machines Commodore, c'était donc pour moi une vague référence. Même si j'ai ensuite joué à "Space Giraffe" à sa sortie sur Xbox 360 (je n'avais alors pas compris le jeu), ce n'est qu'après être tombé amoureux de "[b]Moose Life[/b]" et son expérience hallucigéno-ludique stupéfiante en 2020 que je me suis véritablement intéressé à Minter, me régalant ensuite de "[b]Polybius[/b]", "[b]Minotaur Arcade Vol. 1[/b]", "[b]Tempest 4000[/b]" et "[b]Akka Arrh[/b]", (re)découvrant après dans la foulée ses anciens jeux du même style, "[b]Space Giraffe[/b]" (que je vois désormais comme un des meilleurs jeux à scores jamais créés), "[b]Gridrunner Revolution[/b]" et "[b]Tempest 2000[/b]". Pour mieux comprendre l'auteur, j'avais essayé de m'intéresser à ses périodes 8-bit et 16-bit par le biais de l'émulation, mais avec peu de succès: sortis de leur époque, j'ai trouvé ces jeux difficiles à pleinement apprécier. "Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story" tombe à pic: il restitue fidèlement l'ère 8-bit, et au-delà, la personnalité et le parcours de Jeff Minter, qui a réussi l'exploit de traverser toutes les périodes du jeu vidéo en conservant toujours son intégrité (mais en mûrissant néanmoins en tant que développeur et artiste). La collection se concentre surtout sur le début de sa carrière, depuis ses tout premiers jeux sur ZX81 et VIC-20 jusqu'à "Tempest 2000" sur Jaguar, on ne trouvera donc pas ici ses jeux ultérieurs disponibles par ailleurs sur Steam (jouez-y) ni ses jeux sur iOS qui ont depuis été perdus (et c'est vraiment regrettable). Par ailleurs, les jeux sur Atari ST ont ici paraît-il des soucis d'émulation, étant des versions Jaguar émulant le ST, mais ils sont peu nombreux (trois) et cette période est à mon avis la pire de Minter de toute façon (même son célèbre "Llamatron: 2112", que je trouve pénible à jouer et dont le seul intérêt est sa remise à la mode du twin stick shooter). Pour ce qui est des documents, le contenu est ici encore plus complet que dans "Atari 50" qui avait un sujet bien plus vaste: on comprend pleinement le phénomène Minter, devenu une star en Angleterre dans les années 1980, voire un gourou curieusement influent (on peut d'ailleurs deviner en filigrane que ça lui est monté à la tête) - on voit bien d'où il vient, le pourquoi de certains virages surprenants (ses [i]"light synthesizers"[/i] notamment), ses forces et ses faiblesses. Les jeux sont bien présentés et bien émulés ("Tempest 2000" est ici dans sa meilleure version, avec une option graphique supplémentaire par rapport à "Atari 50"), certains jeux restent très amusants ("Tempest 2000" et les variations de "Gridrunner" en particulier) et les autres sont rendus bien plus intéressants par tout ce qui les environne. Il y a plusieurs options d'affichage, l'ergonomie a été adaptée au pad (les jeux pouvaient utiliser le clavier des micro-ordinateurs), et on peut rembobiner l'action, ce qui est très pratique pour les jeux les plus durs ou les plus obscurs. Les bizarreries de chaque jeu sont bien expliquées (y jouer "en aveugle" est souvent suicidaire). En bonus, on peut jouer à un "remaster" de "Gridrunner", qui lui ajoute une couche visuelle moderne sympathique. J'ai adoré "Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story", qui non seulement m'a fait passer un très bon moment, mais me fait désormais encore plus apprécier les jeux de Jeff Minter sur Steam ainsi que la personnalité du bonhomme, et surtout et plus largement, comme tous les autres volets de la "Gold Master Series", il m'aura fait encore davantage apprécier le jeu vidéo en général. ([url=https://simbabbad.blogspot.com/p/steam.html]liste de toutes mes évaluations sur mon blog[/url])