Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Part 2 of Jeff Minter's History of Llamasoft Published

Posted by michael on from the insert-credit-to-continue dept.

Tmuk writes "The second part of Jeff Minter's Complete History of Llamasoft has just gone up over at The Way of the Rodent. Straight from the man himself, it's a fantastic read after the previously Slashdot-covered first part. Enjoy!"

17 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Anyone know where to find Llamatron? by StandardCell · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I haven't been able to source a working copy of this game since 1995 - at least not one that will run under the later versions of Windows. Anyone know?

    1. Re:Anyone know where to find Llamatron? by hyphz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      AFAIR what happened was that the titles were licensed to Kool Dog, who farmed them out to various people to write in Blitz.. some of them did a good job (like, the Iridis Alpha port is excellent), but some of them didn't (like their Hover Bovver port).

      Slightly complicating the fact was that nobody (not even Jeff) has the source to those games anymore, so they had to write them based on playing the emulation versions, and some of them didn't bother to play for long enough (like their version of Ancipital, which lacks many of the features found in the original)

      KoolDog was a brand of Idigicon, who pulled it after getting some serious flak from shareware authors (they bought up shareware and tried to sell it in stores.. problem was, since they didn't pay for shelf space, no stores wanted to sell them. So the shareware authors signed up hoping to get their stuff in stores, and actually got no store coverage and garnished online sales.. they also offered to market any game written in Blitz Basic, which kinda messed up when they managed to hack off the owner/author of Blitz as well)

      AFAIK Jeff's emulated games still are, and always have been, freely distributable with his permission... I think the downloads were pulled from llamasoft.co.uk for image reasons, not a permission removal.

    2. Re:Anyone know where to find Llamatron? by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Luckily his enough of a man to not be a greedy bastard so that's unlikely :)

      I remember when he was at the alternative party in 2003 and arranged/permitted everyone who was there a free download of special version of gridrunner++(afaik he had done the same thing at some other small party/convention).

      man, that was just awesome of him. ..and I've never before realised 'down in the park' was a gary numan song.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  2. Commodore 64 anyone? by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Jeff Minter made some really whacked out games back in the day. No one could ever accuse him of being unoriginal with some of his titles.... (except maybe in the Llama department) in fact most of the games he made MUST have been done when he was high or something... and usually had something to do with Llamas.

    So maybe "Attack of the Mutant Camels" was an Atari2600 "Empire Strikes back" rip-off and "Sheep in Space" was a weird "Defender"-like game, but just fire up your C64 emulator and look at "Batalyx" or "Anticipal". I suppose the experience of those games is multiplied further if you've downed a few magic mushrooms beforehand.

    "Hovver Bovver" must have been one of the most interesting third-person mow-the-lawn-ups I've ever played too. Gimme back my mower!

    --
    READY.
    PRINT ""+-0
  3. Does any one around actually own a working PET by vinit79 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just wondering if any gamers actually own a PET. Reading the article tempts me to own one (esp if I can get it for really cheap).

    I have played only a couple of time on a tabletop aracade , wonder why they got phased, I for one would like to play on one today too( maybe with fancier graphics with alpha blending and all !!)

    PET therapy works

    1. Re:Does any one around actually own a working PET by Pxtl · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Used a PET - had a few at my school. Think Commodore 64, sans colour. That's all. C64's are plentiful, if that's what you want to play with.

      And tabletops are common in the arcade-rebuilding industry. We're all nostalgic for that old form factor. Still, only ancient games get made that way. Nothing modern. IMHO, I'd love to try that myself - make a fun little top-down 3d four-player console-style arcade game. Maybe a simple Combat-style tank game with an FPS-style weaponspread, and then build a decent 4-player cocktail cabinet for it. Hell, if I find myself disgustingly rich, use a projector and mount the projector above it, facing downwards onto a white table, with trackballs, joysticsk and buttons for each player. Could make lots of 4-player games with that much playspace - combat, sports games, spacewar/starcontrol games, maybe a simple RTS (think Z or DuneII). Could be a fun toy. Pricy to build though.

    2. Re:Does any one around actually own a working PET by martin-boundary · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I've got one. I turn it on every couple of years, for nostalgia. It usually takes two or three flicks of the switch to *actually* turn on, sometimes you just open up the hood (works like a car hood) and press some of the components.

      When it's on, you've got to wait for ages for the game to load from the cassette, and the keyboard is completely nonstandard. Doesn't use ASCII (PETSCII instead), has characters in a completely weird layout, and you have to press the keys really hard (especially the T key on my machine, which doesn't work too well anymore. Try typing LIST with a recalcitrant T).

      My favourite game on this was a game called Pickup, where your cursor has to run around a lab, picking up spilled chemicals. If you mix the chemicals you lose them. Another cool game was Canyon, where you fly a jet in a scrolling, and narrowing canyon. Finally, there was a demo called Flight, which was a small animation of the moon rocket being launched from earth, coasting in space for 3 days, and landing on the moon. It climaxes with a small astronaut stepping out and playing a round of golf.

  4. Jeff is the man... by kiwioddBall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Jeff rocks - my first machine was a Vic 20 and my first game Gridrunner - my second machine was a C64 and my first game on that was Revenge of the Mutant Camels - Jeff has defined my decidedly warped computer existence!!

    1. Re:Jeff is the man... by walter_kovacs · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Those were the days... computers seemed so simple back then. ;-)

  5. This is a great read for those around 35 +/- 5yrs by GrpA · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A lot of old memories in his article... It brings it all back.

    Some of us followed different paths, but I guess if you're in that age group and reading slashdot, there's a very good chance you've probably had many of the same experiences, thoughts and memories that Jeff Minter shares...

    --
    Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
  6. Llama obsession? by Moocowsia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it just me or is there a lot of companies that have strange obsesessions with llamas... Maxis and Nullsoft for example.

    --
    Moo!
    1. Re:Llama obsession? by Archibald+Buttle · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

      Watch it. Read the opening credits. I'm pretty certain this is where they all get it from.

      Apple used to be one of the Llama companies too in their Newton days - Llama references popped up all over the place because almost all of the Newton team were big Monty Python fans.

  7. Yep, he nailed it. by PotatoHead · · Score: 4, Interesting

    His writing about simple discoveries like screen memory bring back floods of memories. We all used to sit around and try to figure the machine out. We all tried to make games, though nobody I knew had the sheer creativity Jeff demonstrated early on.

    Going from Basic to changing memory locations to assembly language was one of the best times I have ever had with computing. This article brings all that back as though it were yesterday.

    Damn good stuff.

    --
    Blogging because I can...
    1. Re:Yep, he nailed it. by Negatyfus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My first computer was a Commodore 64, so I guess a lot had already been figured out and documented by others back then. Still it was fun playing around with basic and later assembly, though I never really followed through on the latter. Rasters were the thing; how incredibly satisfying it was to finally be able to make my own and move them around screen in a sine wave. Ripping off intro music from others and using their music engine in your own primitive demos... I wish I had spent more time and effort in learning more of this stuff.

      The most nostalgic thing to me still are the intros and demos of the time. Nothing that is made in this day can match this unless it looks like the demos of that time. The appreggio-driven music was absolutely brilliant and brings back ancient history instantly.

      I never really was able to get into the demo scene of the PC, though it was still interesting nonetheless.

  8. Whee by SillyNickName4me · · Score: 1, Interesting

    More geek nostalgia..

    Damn, I wouldn't know how much of my time Jeff managed to steal with his silly but amazing games.

    1. Re:Whee by SillyNickName4me · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Heh, you moderators never fail to amaze me with what you consider interesting ;P

      Ah well, guess a +1 delightfull option is lacking eh?

  9. Great stuff. Brings back memories... by necronom426 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I learnt to program on a PET. What a fantastic machine it was. Our computer room had about 8 or 9 of them. Some had big screens, some small. Some had tape decks in them, some had external ones. Some had a funny white flat keyboard, some had a proper keyboard. All were amazing :-)

    We probably had the strangest computer room in England as well. I think it used to be a drama room, and the floor had a sort of pit in the middle with wooden steps up to the edge. The PET's were dangerously balanced around the room and in the pit.

    Me and a few friends used to arrive at school early and play on the PET's and also on our teachers VIC-20 (and later his C64). He made a game which we would play (and I later re-wrote on my Amiga 500 for fun).

    I feel honoured to have been around at the golden age of computing. It's not the same these days, and the magic has gone. I remember getting really excited when I managed to make my initials in three large sprites move around the screen with the joystick :-) I can still remember some of the C64 Pokes - Poke 53280/1 for the screen colours and the classic SYS 64738 to reset!

    The keyboard characters were brilliant as well. Without those it would have been totally different. Those characters allowed you to make almost anything you could imagine (like the Enterprise out of a club!).

    Atari 2600 -> Vic-20 -> C64 -> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 1200 -> PC

    The Commodore years were the best (and Zzap!64 was the best magazine I have ever read).

    Paul.
    (who, believe it or not, was listening to C64 remixes on the way to work in his car this morning)