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| There are many versions of Gridrunner including this remastered version by Digital Eclipse |
| Quick Info | |
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| Reviewed by: | Mark Goninon |
| Developer: | Jeff Minter, Digital Eclipse |
| Publisher: | Digital Eclipse, Atari |
| Release Date: | 13 Mar 2024 |
| Time played: | 4.6 hours |
An Interactive Documentary
Digital preservation of video games is important and that's why I respect the work that Digital Eclipse is doing, regardless of which game or game developer they choose to focus their efforts on. I have already tried out Atari 50 on the Nintendo Switch and The Making of Karateka on PC, so when there was an opportunity to learn more about Jeff Minter, the indie dev behind many classic games of the 80s and 90s, including one I played at boarding school called Llamatron, curiosity got the better of me.
Like other interactive documentaries in the Gold Master series, information about the topic is presented on a timeline: along this timeline will be a series of quotes, notes, photos, videos, artwork and games that you can interact with. For Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, you'll learn much about Jeff Minter's game development journey, starting in the late 1970s all the way to now.
The timeline is split into four chapters.
The first chapter deals with the start of his career in the late 70s up until 1982. It provides some background on who Jeff Minter is (such as his affection for llamas) along with examples of his earliest computer games released on the Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum and VIC-20.
The second chapter covers 1982 to 1984 and Jeff's foray into Commodore 64 games. One thing I noticed is that Jeff was really prolific during the early 80s, meaning the first couple of chapters contain most of the collection's games.
The third chapter covers the late 80s where Jeff started to experiment with music visualisation software called "light synthesisers" along with a few more weird and wonderful games.
The fourth and final chapter covers the 1990s until now. Despite it covering a few decades, it's the shortest of the chapters and covers the shareware era of Llamasoft as well as the last big success for Jeff, Tempest 2000 released in 1994 on the Atari Jaguar and often considered a "killer app" for the platform. Digital Eclipse usually include a remake or remaster of a retro game in each of their collections and for Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story they decided to remaster Gridrunner which you can try out when visiting Chapter 4.
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| One of Jeff Minter's more controversial titles |
A Treasure Trove of Information on Jeff Minter
Remember that my first and really only experience of Jeff Minter's games was the shareware version of Llamatron on DOS, a game that came out in 1992 which is after Jeff's heyday during the 1980s. Going through this interactive documentary I learned a lot about Jeff Minter and if we are to judge Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story by how well it educates the player about Jeff's life, influences and games, it definitely succeeds in this regard.
Jeff is portrayed as an eccentric rock star/hippie programmer who started programming BASIC on a Commodore PET at school but would eventually learn the benefits of assembler. You can understand why he's been portrayed as a bit of a hippie thanks to his frequent use of vibrant psychedelic colours and even the development of a bomber game called Bomb Buenos Aires in protest of the Falklands War (it was later renamed due to criticism that British bombers destroying Argentinian buildings was in poor taste).
Jeff is also portrayed as a prolific game developer in his early days (releasing at least a couple of games a year), one that espouses iterative game development. Many of Jeff's games are his own takes on games he's previously played but with minor improvements. He also ported many of his games onto different platforms, and the documentary allows you to see the differences between some of these versions. By having the same game on different platforms, you're able to experience the pros and cons while playing each of them and it reminds me of when I was given the opportunity to play the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari 8-Bit versions of Karateka during The Making of Karateka.
The documentary also informs us that Jeff was a bit of a pioneer when it came to music visualisation with the likes of Virtual Light Machine (VLM) on the Atari Jaguar CD in 1990 and Neon which was used on the Xbox 360 in 2005.
And while the documentary is mainly about Jeff Minter, it does occasionally go into the details of other programmers that helped Jeff along the way. One of my favourite finds is an acknowledgments blurb by Aaron Liddement for the C64 version of Meta-Llamas where he not only thanks his girlfriend, family and friends, but also his stomach for enduring many litres of cola. It's moments like this that remind you why the UK games development scene of the 1980s was considered a cottage industry.
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| Jeff Minter is the main interviewee but fans and critics are also reviewed |
Calibre of Interviewees
One of the major drawcards to experiencing these interactive documentaries by Digital Eclipse is to hear the thoughts of not only the developer (which you get to hear plenty of) but other famous developers (contemporaries and ones inspired by Jeff's work). This was the case in previous documentaries like Atari 50 and The Making of Karateka but in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story most of the interviewees besides Jeff himself are not developers but fans and game critics. They did manage to grab famed writer and game designer Gary Whitta though (of “Star Wars: Rogue One” fame) so at least that's something but again, it'd be good to get a fellow developer's viewpoint on the technical aspects of the games as well as how they fit into the history of various genres.
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| Mama Llama is a tough one to figure out |
A Curious Collection of Games
Do you ever fall in love with a particular song by a particular artist and become curious about their back catalogue, only to find the song you like was an oddity or a fluke? This is how I feel with respect to Jeff Minter's back catalogue of games. I only really got into games in the late 80s and early 90s, and, as mentioned earlier, the only experience I had with Jeff Minter's games prior to Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story was Llamatron. Despite the fact it's essentially a remake of the 1982 arcade game Robotron: 2084, I loved the psychedelic colours, zany sprites and sound effects (they bundled the Atari ST version of the game instead of the DOS one I originally played, but I'll forgive them for that). The gameplay was simple too, a basic SHMUP where you went around the screen shooting enemies and rescuing animals.
Unfortunately, Llamatron is quite different to Jeff's other games and in terms of difficulty is probably one of the easier ones. Some of Jeff's games are actually quite complex and they suffered for it too: there's even a video on how complex gameplay may have been responsible for the mixed reactions to Mama Llama.
Also, while I enjoyed playing Digital Eclipse's Gridrunner Remastered, other games by Jeff are hit or miss. As mentioned before, many of Jeff's games are inspired by older arcade games and while he did make some alterations to the formula, these games were originally released back in the 70s and early 80s, an era of gaming I'm not too familiar with: mix this with Jeff's propensity in developing difficult or complex games, and it's sometimes hard to get into them, no matter how many cute llamas, alpacas and camels are in them.
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A deep dive into the life, motivations and games of legendary UK indie developer, Jeff Minter, as told by his fans. While it's chock-full of interesting content, Jeff's games are an acquired taste. Recommended for Jeff Minter fans and those interested in gaming history, particularly the UK PC gaming scene in the 80s. |
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Thanks to my brother and Luke for providing the funds to purchase this as a Christmas 2025 gift!
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