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Minter on the History of Llamasoft

Posted by michael on from the got-llama dept.

Tmuk writes "Just thought I'd bring to your attention the first of a new series of articles by Jeff Minter over at the mighty Way of the Rodent. For the first time ever, the complete history of Llamasoft is being brought together by the man himself, with new articles appearing regularly. Enjoy!"

7 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Curious... by Threni · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > The one I remember most is "Attack of the Mutant Camels" on the Amiga.

    Are you sure you don't mean the C64?

    And has anyone mentioned `the curse of Minter` yet? Any console he got involved with failed to materialize. I'm sure it would be worth Sony's while getting him an Xbox2 dev kit...

  2. Interesting article by gilesjuk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A good insight into how things were at the start of the home computer revolution.

    People take things like RAM, disk space and CPU cycles for granted these days. A readme file for a piece of software these days is likely to be bigger than a game on some of the first 8-bit home computers.

    One thing that is sad is how 3D games programming is out of the reach of the hobbyist these days. Purely down to the complexity of modern games, they take too long to create if one person tries to do all the work. Then there's the SDK and development hardware required if you want to develop for a console.

    1. Re:Interesting article by MooseByte · · Score: 2, Insightful


      OpenGL can actually make 3D programming relatively simple, actually. Same for other APIs, or even wholesale game engines that are available.

      Granted one person sure won't be creating a Tribes2-class title, but some great stuff can be done.

      Almost seems like many gamers are geared more toward eye-candy and FPS rather than pure gameplay. Not the crew here probably, but the mass market at large. And the Big Companies push exactly that since they can spit it out and make a profit.

      Some of my favorite games are still the older ones ('80s vintage), simplicity and all. *sigh*

    2. Re:Interesting article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It's the artwork, not the programming that gets you. It is really hard to crank out all the models and textures and other misc artwork needed for a modern title. It really takes a couple people doing it as their full-time job to do the job properly.

  3. Re:See that guy gates? by hyphz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And there have been such "hidden features" in MS software ever since..

  4. Small Developers - Drowned Out? by MooseByte · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Reading stuff like this always makes me ponder the fate of the small developer over the years. I know they're out there (Ambrosia on the MacOS side, etc.) and that they still create some fun stuff. But in the current sea of endlessly rehashed titles by Big Corporate Game Houses(tm) it sure does seem like they get lost in the noise. Can't afford to buy shelf space? Sorry. Can't afford to buy a review in a fanboy game rag? Sorry.

    Seems like the same dilemma as the book publishing industry. Anyone can write, most creations are crap but some real gems do get produced. The problem comes in gettings the freakin' thing on a shelf. Big publishers (dead tree and computer games) generally seem to filter out anything innovative by focusing on tried-and-true regurgitated themes.

    The alternative is to go with a Web presence and skip the Big Publisher filter altogether, but even today that seems to be a compromise at best.

    So... a very long-winded way of asking what small developers are doing these days? Self-publishing? Reluctantly tailoring titles to please the Big Publishers?

    How I yearn for the days of People Pong and Aztec....

  5. Re:My favorite quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Except pascal was actually pretty cool. I learned it first, and I used it to make games. Sure, they were stupid dungeon-crawling adventure type things where you moved around trying to get deeper and avoid randomly placed traps. But it was a game and it was pretty damn cool :D