A fascinating insight into life and works of a true coding legend
Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story PS5. Also on Xbox, PC, Switch
★★★★★
FEW software houses can boast a history stretching back over four decades and we can think of only one that has remained broadly unchanged, in terms of personnel and its creative vision: Llamasoft.
Jeff Minter founded the company in 1982 and has been making games for a bewildering array of computers and consoles ever since – last year’s Akka Arrh was one of our favourites of 2023.
The Jeff Minter Story brings together 42 of his titles, from early experiments on the ZX81 right up to 1994’s Tempest 2000, a marvellous reimagining of Atari’s classic blaster.
Highlights include Revenge of the Mutant Camels and Sheep in Space for the Commodore 64 and Llamatron: 2112, which originally appeared on the Atari ST and Amiga.
All three show what Minter does best – taking inspiration from established arcade titles of the Eighties and adding a whole load of psychedelic visuals, hairy beasts and very British humour to create some distinctive and compelling shooters.
There are some sweet surprises here, too, such as the unreleased version of
Attack of the Mutant Camels for the illfated Konix console and a remastered version of Gridrunner, the game that first brought Llamasoft to the attention of the playing public.
It’s not just the games that make this such an appealing package. There are sketches from Jeff’s school notebook, behind the scenes photos from game shows, glimpses into his bedroom coding set up, scans of the in-house fanzine, tributes from industry luminaries and interviews with Jeff and his coding and life partner, Ivan, on their approach to game design. It offers a fascinating and often touching insight into what makes Llamasoft so unique and so loved.
Of course, it would have been wonderful if this collection included more recent Minter games like TXK and Polybius, released in the last decade, but that’s just being greedy – and anyway, that means we will have lots to look forward to in the 50th anniversary collection, due out in 2032.
I can hope, can’t I?