42 of the weirdest, trippiest, sheepiest games ever created. Enter the mind of Jeff Minter, the legendary creator of Attack of the Mutant Camels, Gridrunner, and Tempest 2000, in this interactive documentary from Digital Eclipse.
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I adored this, but I’m gonna dunk on it because I desire more out of Digital Eclipse’s interactive documentaries in the future. Also, this form of interactive documentaries mixed with video game museums are absolutely the future and I hope there’s hundreds of them years from now.
So yeah, Llamasoft’s history is over forty-two years long, but this thing spends 95% of its documentation efforts in those first seven years. Then, right as things start getting challenging and difficult for Jeff, we get a last flash of light in 91 as Jeff finds a life raft with shareware. Then another highlight in 1994 with his Tempest update on the Atari Jaguar. And by then it’s like Digital Eclipse ran out of runway on this whole story.
Then we see a video introducing Llamasoft’s second team member before the whole last thirty years are flown-through like nothing important happened in that time. There’s some brief callouts, but as a whole documentary, this thing eludes the dramatic tension; then drops the dang ball.
I bought this in tandem with Llamasoft’s newest game, Akka Ahrr, thinking this doc would give me the full context leading up to the studio’s latest. Instead, it felt like I got an appetizer — and desert — with no entre. I still don't know exactly how Akka Ahrr fits in the history exactly, but I guess that's what Wikipedia is for.
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It’s clear that most of the games in this collection feel rather displaced by the span of thirty plus years , but it still feels like a treasure trove of discoveries as I worked my way through them all. It’s magical and delightful and also a little insanely unstructured. I recommend it and I’ll be hopping into Digital Eclipse’s prior releases soon!
So yeah, Llamasoft’s history is over forty-two years long, but this thing spends 95% of its documentation efforts in those first seven years. Then, right as things start getting challenging and difficult for Jeff, we get a last flash of light in 91 as Jeff finds a life raft with shareware. Then another highlight in 1994 with his Tempest update on the Atari Jaguar. And by then it’s like Digital Eclipse ran out of runway on this whole story.
Then we see a video introducing Llamasoft’s second team member before the whole last thirty years are flown-through like nothing important happened in that time. There’s some brief callouts, but as a whole documentary, this thing eludes the dramatic tension; then drops the dang ball.
I bought this in tandem with Llamasoft’s newest game, Akka Ahrr, thinking this doc would give me the full context leading up to the studio’s latest. Instead, it felt like I got an appetizer — and desert — with no entre. I still don't know exactly how Akka Ahrr fits in the history exactly, but I guess that's what Wikipedia is for.
,
It’s clear that most of the games in this collection feel rather displaced by the span of thirty plus years , but it still feels like a treasure trove of discoveries as I worked my way through them all. It’s magical and delightful and also a little insanely unstructured. I recommend it and I’ll be hopping into Digital Eclipse’s prior releases soon!
A true original. The package is a little less complete than the Atari 50 collection, but it's still well worth checking out.
Another quality installment in Digital Eclipse's series and a neat historical look at the UK computer scene of the 80's through Jeff Minter's experiences, especially for me as an American who had little knowledge of it; but man just like with Karateka I just don't like the vast majority of Jeff Minter's games in this collection. A good chunk of them are obnoxious sensory overload that go way too fast and/or are overly complex to a trollish degree. Also didn't change my opinion that Commodore games just sucked. Tempest 2000 is cool though and I definitely can see why it was the only reason to get a Jaguar. Funny thing is I felt Jeff's visualizer programs were more of an interesting topic when it came to his games because even if I wasn't totally into them Jeff had a clear passion for them as well as an ambition that was ahead of his time with them. Just as with Karateka, Llamasoft is a great historical piece but I just wish they could cover games that are mostly fun to play. Regardless I'm completely locked into with this series and definitely will be Day 1 once again for the next installment.
My exposure to Jeff Minter is honestly quite limited; I remember accessing TxK and a few other contemporary reimaginings from him in the early days of Playstation Plus and wondering what the fuck they were thinking but now, being around a decade older and learning just how much of an outlaw and champion he's been for originality and complexity I truly believe there is a lot to appreciate about this man and a lot to thank him for when it comes to pushing the envelope against the commercial.
I really like these expansive collections/interactive documentary packages from Digital Eclipse because they truly put you in the shoes of a time you may not have had the pleasure to experiencing in real time. I'm a 90s Brit, so I never really got to experience any of the craze of the Commodore 64, the rise and fall of Atari etc; I grew up on the tail end of the Mega Drive and then really found my gaming stride with the polygon era of the Sony Playstation.
Digital Eclipse's presentation and timeline truly do manage to place people like me in a temporary time capsule to really entrace ourselves in an era like we're really there in a condensed sense, which I think it genuinely amazing. I find a lot of these games stimulating and challenging and a lion's share more sheer frustrating and over-intensive but I think ultimately that is a best case scenario for love letters like these, that present a complete picture of a career or company, for better or worse.
One thing I don't like in these compilations though is the the colour footage and supplementary material tends to hype you up for a treat that either spoils later playable functions or amps you up for something you can never experience in the... well, experience. Most notably in this especially is the constant bombardment of Jaguar and 2000s+ footage in video segments where you're still running through the 80s and learning about how Minter was learning code for the Commodore 64 or Atari ST.
More importantly there's a chunk of these projects that you're shown gameplay and promo material for and, understandably, you feel excited for but they never show up. I understand not including a lot of Minter's most recent projects in an attempt to make us fund his independent creativity, but please tell me where the fuck I'm supposed to buy Trin-a-Tron after several entries detailing how it was his magnum opus of music technology and his one-year baby? Somehow I don't think I can run and buy an Atari ST and a copy for a reasonable price in our lord and saviour's 2024.
In fact, DE seems to run of out steam the second they reach his 90s era, very similarly to how they did the Jaguar in Atari 50. Even more bizarrely so is that the every ST game they present are Jaguar ports. What is featured though is an incredible look into what could have been with an early prototype of Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 for the fraudulent Konix Muilti-System that never came to be. I appreciate that it may be a matter of realistic emulation but honestly I haven't currently seen an ST game that can't be emulated at this point so I have to assume it's just that they prioritised a historical era and things get pretty dicey legally in the mid-late 90s. As such thetimline ends on the Jaguar itself with Tempest 2000, his saving grace. I wonder how feasible it would have been to include at least some further inofrmative insight on his input in the fith gen, such as Defender 2000, Tempest 3000 and his early PC efforts, as well as even further into his Minotaur Project.
That's a shame, because you would hope that getting as many of the people involved on board as possible would result in something once in a generation. That being said though, I suppose this leaves room for its final documentary advertisement for Heart of Neon; I still feel that what is on offer is more than worth the asking price and I I look forward to seeing what obscure curiosity DE deep dive into next. I also absolutely plan to engross myself further into not only the Llamasoft games here on display but the works and life of Minter himself here on out.
I really like these expansive collections/interactive documentary packages from Digital Eclipse because they truly put you in the shoes of a time you may not have had the pleasure to experiencing in real time. I'm a 90s Brit, so I never really got to experience any of the craze of the Commodore 64, the rise and fall of Atari etc; I grew up on the tail end of the Mega Drive and then really found my gaming stride with the polygon era of the Sony Playstation.
Digital Eclipse's presentation and timeline truly do manage to place people like me in a temporary time capsule to really entrace ourselves in an era like we're really there in a condensed sense, which I think it genuinely amazing. I find a lot of these games stimulating and challenging and a lion's share more sheer frustrating and over-intensive but I think ultimately that is a best case scenario for love letters like these, that present a complete picture of a career or company, for better or worse.
One thing I don't like in these compilations though is the the colour footage and supplementary material tends to hype you up for a treat that either spoils later playable functions or amps you up for something you can never experience in the... well, experience. Most notably in this especially is the constant bombardment of Jaguar and 2000s+ footage in video segments where you're still running through the 80s and learning about how Minter was learning code for the Commodore 64 or Atari ST.
More importantly there's a chunk of these projects that you're shown gameplay and promo material for and, understandably, you feel excited for but they never show up. I understand not including a lot of Minter's most recent projects in an attempt to make us fund his independent creativity, but please tell me where the fuck I'm supposed to buy Trin-a-Tron after several entries detailing how it was his magnum opus of music technology and his one-year baby? Somehow I don't think I can run and buy an Atari ST and a copy for a reasonable price in our lord and saviour's 2024.
In fact, DE seems to run of out steam the second they reach his 90s era, very similarly to how they did the Jaguar in Atari 50. Even more bizarrely so is that the every ST game they present are Jaguar ports. What is featured though is an incredible look into what could have been with an early prototype of Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 for the fraudulent Konix Muilti-System that never came to be. I appreciate that it may be a matter of realistic emulation but honestly I haven't currently seen an ST game that can't be emulated at this point so I have to assume it's just that they prioritised a historical era and things get pretty dicey legally in the mid-late 90s. As such thetimline ends on the Jaguar itself with Tempest 2000, his saving grace. I wonder how feasible it would have been to include at least some further inofrmative insight on his input in the fith gen, such as Defender 2000, Tempest 3000 and his early PC efforts, as well as even further into his Minotaur Project.
That's a shame, because you would hope that getting as many of the people involved on board as possible would result in something once in a generation. That being said though, I suppose this leaves room for its final documentary advertisement for Heart of Neon; I still feel that what is on offer is more than worth the asking price and I I look forward to seeing what obscure curiosity DE deep dive into next. I also absolutely plan to engross myself further into not only the Llamasoft games here on display but the works and life of Minter himself here on out.
I've always held a prejudiced view of old UK games as being mid-at-best knockoffs of Japanese or American classics, made for silly, underpowered computers by insanely British goofs elevated to the status of rockstars by a quality-starved press and public. So, let's just say that this exhaustive exploration of the early work of Jeff Minter ... doesn't do a whole lot to change my mind.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of two good games in here, out of about forty. But then again, I'm not a Pink Floyd obsessed stoner living in the early 1980s with access to a Speccy and nothing else, so maybe they're just not for me.
But love what Digital Eclipse is doing, as always. God help me if they ever make one of these profiling someone I actually care about!
Somewhere in the neighborhood of two good games in here, out of about forty. But then again, I'm not a Pink Floyd obsessed stoner living in the early 1980s with access to a Speccy and nothing else, so maybe they're just not for me.
But love what Digital Eclipse is doing, as always. God help me if they ever make one of these profiling someone I actually care about!
Well, 100%-ed the history bits. I've completed this so far as giving everything a bit of a go, really enjoying seeing how he got from A-Z with his games iterating similar ideas adding improvements, to being on the more recent games to dip in for a laugh appreciating how we got there.
I'm never going to be good at these games but it's still a joy to play. It's pretty impressive how even in the early games there was a bit of weight and momentum to movement to give it feel.
I loved this and already have Atari 50 lined up for more of the same.
I'm never going to be good at these games but it's still a joy to play. It's pretty impressive how even in the early games there was a bit of weight and momentum to movement to give it feel.
I loved this and already have Atari 50 lined up for more of the same.