2024 video game
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
is an interactive documentary and compilation video game developed by
Digital Eclipse
. The release chronicles the software of British developer
Jeff Minter
and over 40 of his programs developed between 1981 and 1994. It is the second release in Digital Eclipse's
Gold Master Series
that began with
The Making of Karateka
(2023), which chronicled the history of the game
Karateka
(1984).
Like Digital Eclipse's
Atari 50
(2022) and
The Making of Karateka
, features an interactive timeline that allows users to play games as well as view text, documentary footage, and photography involving the games. Some games, such as
3D 3D
have updated control schemes and can be played in their original form or with enhancements such as modern control schemes and updated frame rates.
It was released on the March 13, 2024 for the
PlayStation 4
,
PlayStation 5
,
Xbox One
,
Xbox Series X?S
,
Nintendo Switch
, and
PC
. General reception towards the game has been positive, with critics praising it for a high quality and standard for a retro game compilation while criticizing its lack of games made after
Tempest 2000
(1994).
Content
[
edit
]
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
highlights Minter's first fifteen years of game development, ranging across platforms that were primarily popular in Europe.
It goes through 42 games from 1981 to 1994 across eight different video game platforms. Among the games are two of Minter's "
light synthesizer
" programs:
Psychedelia
and
Colourspace
.
Digital Eclipse adjusted several games to be playing on contemporary control pads.
Some games, such as
3D 3D
are playable in their original form, as well as being updated to have boosted frame rate and contemporary
First-person shooter
-based controls.
The most recent game on the list is
Tempest 2000
(1994), with Digital Eclipse's editorial director Chris Kohler saying that the Jaguar was the extent of what they could emulate, as material for systems like the
Nuon
was "a bridge too far".
The game also includes a list of every Llamasoft title released, including titles not available on the collection.
The games are displayed in four interactive timelines which offer the games in along with video interviews, photos, and text quotes about the games.
Minter included much of his own collection of Llamasoft-related material in the release, going through his own catalogue of British video game magazines as well as reaching out to others to find material not in his own archive.
Video footage in the features Minter, industry peers,
YouTubers
, journalists such as
Gary Penn
of
Zzap!64
,
Gary Whitta
, Harold Goldberg and Bex Trista.
Development
[
edit
]
In 2023,
Digital Eclipse
announced they would adapt the interactive documentary and historical timeline format used in their
Atari 50
(2022) into further products under their
Gold Master Series
branding. Kohler stated that the audience immediately picked up the idea of going through a timeline within
Atari 50
and following the history, which gave the team at Digital Eclipse the confidence to continue with the format. The first
Gold Master Series
release was
The Making of Karateka
(2023), which chronicled the history of
Karateka
(1984) which also received favorable reviews.
Around the period final stages of development on
Atari 50
, Digital Eclipse signed on with Jeff Minter for a title documenting his studio Llamasoft.
Unlike
Jordan Mechner
with
The Making of Karateka
, Minter did not have as much his older design documents, leading to Digital Eclipse to focus more on showcasing his games first.
Digital Eclipse announced on
Double Fine
's Day of the Devs livestream in December 2023 that the next release in the series would be titled
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
focusing on the career of video game designer
Jeff Minter
.
[18]
Digital Eclipse's studio head Mike Mika described Minter as "the last indie developer", and that he was the last generation of bedroom coders that founded the British computer game industry. While most developers started this form and went on to form large companies, Minter continued to develop games on his own. Mika also stated that before entering the game industry, Minter had reached out and helped him get started.
New work was done to create emulation of computers such as the
VIC-20
,
ZX Spectrum
, and
ZX81
.
To emulate the
Atari ST
games, work was done to port these games to the
Jaguar
as they both share hardware. These ports of the games are originally fan works.
Kohler said that without the fanbase for these games archiving and creating fan ports, these games Llamasoft would not be able to keep working as it was just a two-person operation.
The
Konix Multisystem
, a British console that never released was emulated based on technical specifications of the system and Minter's source code for
Attack of the Mutant Camels '89
.
Unlike previous projects, Digital Eclipse partnered with filmmaker Paul Docherty who was developing a documentary titled
Heart of Neon
about Minter. Kohler and Docherty collaborated on collecting footage to apply into this release.
Minter commented on one item to be changed during development, involving a stock image of
tea
, which depicted a milk-free cup with the bag left in, which prompted Kohler to correct this with a newly made image per Minter's specifications "you would never even need to know that I used
PG Tips
to make the tea in that shot, but I guarantee you that's what's in there."
Other games, such as the political commentary in
Bomb Buenos Aires
are address and released in a form described as "less controversial" by
Retro Gamer
.
Games
[
edit
]
There are 42 games available in the collection.
Release and reception
[
edit
]
The game was released on March 13, 2024 and was published by Digital Eclipse.
It was made available for the
PlayStation 4
,
PlayStation 5
,
Xbox One
,
Xbox Series X?S
,
Nintendo Switch
, and
PC
. Physical copies will be available from
Limited Run Games
.
On the eve of the game's release, Minter said "I hope people don't rush through [the compilation] too much [...] I hope it doesn’t suffer too much from what I call 'emulator syndrome,' where you install an emulator on a machine, then you put a bunch of ROMs [digital copies of games] on there, and then you have five minutes on this, five minutes on that, five minutes on that. You don't really get the full flavor of any of them."
Critics such as Christian Donlan of
Eurogamer
, Ken Talbot of
Push Square
and Garrett Martin of
Paste
praised it as a high standard for retro game compilations.
Donlan, specifically highlighted the presentation of the timeline for its presentation, control guides, additional information and quick load times.
Martin compared the release to other compilations, noting that "ever since companies first realized they could make some money by bundling their old games together and tossing them back out to the public with minimal care or effort." and that that along with
Atari 50
and
The Making of Karateka
, and
Llamsoft: The Jeff Minter Story
release from Digital Eclipse "showed how utterly insufficient that kind of collection is" and that "proof that, yes,
games can be art
.".
These reviewers also complimented Minter's personality and games. Martin commented that the games show Minter's growth as an artist through the advancement of computer technology and that Minter's visuals and dreamlike logic were a unified body of work.
Donlan found that "Minter is so incredibly different...all different in some fundamental way, all fizzing with colour and energy and a very British sense of absurd humour."
Lewis Packwood of
Rock Paper Shotgun
found that even some missteps such as
Mama Llama
were interesting in context of Minter's career.
Ollie Reynolds of
Nintendolife
found the package was as broad as
Atari 50
or as focused as
The Making of Karateka
, but that was still strong as "Jeff Minter's is a much more intimate story"
Reynolds went on to state that "not every game included here is great, and some, like 1982’s Ratman, are particularly egregious even by Minter’s own admission. And sure, if you go into this collection and just dive straight into the list of playable games without experiencing the crucial context that the timeline itself provides, then you might struggle to find the fun. But learning the background behind each title included allows you to appreciate the thought and intent behind each game"
Reviewers also complimented on the non-games added, such as the light synthesizers such as
Colourspace
.
General criticism included the lack of later games.
Reynolds specifically lamented the lack of
Defender 2000
(1996) for the
Atari Jaguar
.
Zoey Handley of
Destructoid
stated that that the release "contains a lot of fascinating material and great games, it’s not a very good read", noting that a lot of the engaging material was Minter's long writing and documentation which affected the pacing of the product and that the interviewed individuals do not have a lot of insight most of the time.
[23]
Jeff Broadwell of
Shacknews
gave a generally negative review of the game finding it "baffling, incomplete, and rushed" stating that the historical aspects were vague and that Minter's career was a loose timeline of events without only a handful of informative asides, and required better editing and curation.
Broadwell specifically found that the handwritten notes are transcribed, making it hard to get any information from his personal notes.
Sources
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- "Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story"
.
Digital Eclipse
.
Atari SA
. Retrieved
February 15,
2024
.
- "Day of the Devs"
.
Double Fine
. Archived from
the original
on February 4, 2024
. Retrieved
February 15,
2024
.
- "Llamasoft the Jeff Minter Story - Official Release Date Trailer | IGN Fan Fest 2024"
.
IGN
. February 21, 2024. Archived from
the original
on February 21, 2024
. Retrieved
February 21,
2024
.
- "The Making of Karateka"
.
Metacritic
.
Fandom, Inc.
Archived
from the original on February 10, 2024
. Retrieved
February 15,
2024
.
- Besser, Paolo (March 13, 2024).
"Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story - Recensione"
.
The Games Machine
(in Italian). Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 13,
2024
.
- Broadwell, Josh (March 12, 2024).
"Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Review: A Little Better Than Wikipedia"
.
Shacknews
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 13,
2024
.
- Donlan, Christian (March 13, 2024).
"Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Review - Classic Games, Now with Fascinating Context"
.
Eurogamer
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 13,
2024
.
- Handley, Zoey (December 6, 2023).
"Digital Eclipse's Next Gold Master game is Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story"
.
Destructoid
. Archived from
the original
on January 19, 2024
. Retrieved
January 23,
2024
.
- Handley, Zoey (March 13, 2024).
"Review: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story"
.
Destructoid
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 20,
2024
.
- Machkovech, Sam (March 12, 2024).
"How the Iconic Jeff Minter Stays Inspired After 43 Llama-filled Years of Game Development"
.
Game Developer
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 14,
2024
.
- Martin, Garrett (March 12, 2024).
"Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Digs Into the Underground Past (and Future) of Games"
.
Paste
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 13,
2024
.
- Packwood, Lewis (March 13, 2024).
"Why Did Digital Eclipse Make Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story? It's a Tale of Centipedes, Psychedelia, and Tea"
.
Rock Paper Shotgun
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 13,
2024
.
- Reynolds, Ollie (March 13, 2024).
"Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Review"
.
Nintendolife
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024
. Retrieved
March 13,
2024
.
- Romano, Sal (July 11, 2023).
"Digital Eclipse announces The Making of Karateka for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC ? first entry in Gold Master Series"
.
Gematsu
. Archived from
the original
on July 19, 2023
. Retrieved
July 18,
2023
.
- Stewart, Marcus (May 2024). "Preservation Through Play".
Game Informer
. Vol. 34, no. 366. Sunrise Publications.
- Talbot, Ken (March 2024).
"Mini Review: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (PS5) - A Trippy Odyssey Through a Yak's Brain"
.
Push Square
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2024.
- Thorpe, Nick (2024). "The Making of: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story".
Retro Gamer
. No. 256. Future Publishing Limited.
ISSN
1742-3155
.
- Webster, Andrew (August 29, 2023).
"Digital Eclipse is Preserving Classic Games in the Most Entertaining Way Possible"
.
The Verge
. Archived from
the original
on August 29, 2023
. Retrieved
August 29,
2023
.