Today is Jeff Minter’s birthday. Happy birthday, Jeff!
I’m happy to celebrate Jeff because the games he makes are celebrations themselves. That’s what is remarkable about Llamasoft and what it represents. This thing that Jeff discovered in his childhood has been his muse his entire working life, that magical wonder he experienced playing those early video arcade machines, and he’s always found something new and wonderful to communicate about that experience in his own work.
His relationship with the classic video games of the late 70s and early 80s isn’t superficial. In Jeff there’s a profound understanding of what made those games special that informs everything he does. He has the kind of attention to detail that comes out of a sophisticated affection that is nurtured by intimate knowledge, never dulled by it.
I’m hosting THE HEART OF NEON LLAMATHON, a marathon livestream today that celebrates the parts of Jeff’s oeuvre that have been my touchstones over the years:
ABDUCTOR: I was a VIC-20 kid, and this was one of the first games I bought. Might have been the second, after WACKY WAITERS from Imagine. ABDUCTOR emulates the tropes of a classic arcade shooter - attack patterns that spiral on to the screen, the player locked on the bottom of the screen, moving left and right and firing vertically. It doesn’t ask much of the player and it was the kind of arcade-inspired action I was looking for. It put Llamasoft on the map for me.
GRIDRUNNER: This was the one that hooked me. The same arcade inspiration, but more polished, and just compelling as heck.
METAGALACTIC LLAMAS BATTLE AT THE EDGE OF TIME: Of these early games, this is the one I still find to be the most playable. Heresy, I know, but I adore this game. I wish I was better at it.
SHEEP IN SPACE & ANCIPITAL: I got the C64 specifically to play these games. Sonically abrasive, but the gameplay is sublime.
IRIDIS ALPHA: probably my favorite C64 game of all time.
LLAMATRON: When this first came out as a cover disc I hadn’t been playing Jeff games for a while, so this shareware release reminded me of how deceptively simple and excellent Jeff games are.
SPACE GIRAFFE: I bought a PC laptop to specifically play this game. So intensely unique looking and playing, this game was partly the catalyst for making HEART OF NEON in the first place. How could a game this extraordinary looking exist?
POLYBIUS: This game came out just before my first interview with Jeff. I got to play it in VR in the barn with Jeff & Giles and Gary Liddon in attendance. That was an unrepeatable moment,
MINOTAUR ARCADE Vol1: The first game Jeff released while HEART OF NEON was in production. I want to watch Jeff play MAV1 GRIDRUNNER all the way through because, as it stands, I don’t believe it’s possible. It’s ruthless! Has anyone beaten this game?
I’m playing these and other iconic games by Jeff throughout the day, sharing excerpts and outtakes from HEART OF NEON, giving away a few copies of the Digital Eclipse/HEART OF NEON interactive documentary LLAMASOFT: THE JEFF MINTER STORY, and raising some money for the International Game Developers Association Foundation!
Stop by and say hi! Let’s celebrate Jeff : )
#YearoftheYak