Digital Eclipse has announced Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, the second entry in its interactive 'Gold Master Series' documentaries.
Arriving in 2024, the compilation will contain 42 games across 8 different platforms developed by Llamasoft and Jeff Minter. Classics such as Sheep In Space, Andes Attack, Matrix, Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time, Hellgate, and Laser Zone will all be included, in addition to a Digital Eclipse-developed remaster of Gridrunner.
Not only that but Attack of the Mutant Camels will also be included and fully playable. The particular significance of this one is that it was originally planned for the Konix Multisystem, a video game system that was ultimately cancelled before it was ever released, thus making this the first instance the game will be playable to the public.
Much like Atari 50 and The Making of Karateka, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story will be crammed to the rafters with vintage photos, design documents, and interviews to give users a comprehensive history of one of the UK's most iconic developers.
Here's a brief glimpse at what Digital Eclipse itself has to say:
Gridrunner. Revenge of the Mutant Camels. Tempest 2000. Llamatron. In the British gaming universe of the 80s and 90s, nobody made games like Jeff Minter. Now, in a new interactive documentary from Digital Eclipse, you can play the history of one of the weirdest, wildest game developers to ever exist – a man who loved shooters and sheep, lasers and llamas.
Journey back in time to an era of cassette tapes, photocopied zines, and README.TXT. An era in which a kid with a Commodore VIC-20 and dreams of radioactive sheep could become one of Britain's best-known game makers. A virtual museum of design documents, playable games, and all-new video features tell the fascinating story of a true independent game designer.
We'll have more information on the release date for Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story as soon as we hear more.
What do you make of this latest entry in the Gold Master Series from Digital Eclipse? Will you be picking it up? Let us know with a comment.
Comments 25
Bloody HELL! Pardon my french but this is MINT! (no pun intended!)
Yes! Yes, yes, yes. Llamayes.
Always wanted to see the cancelled GameCube project he was working on- rumours say the concept was lightyears ahead of its time
Definitely getting this
Oh, wow! That is such a cool choice! He certainly deserves to be celebrated! I am excited for this.
This is pretty awesome! I wasn't sure who Digital Eclipse was going to do next but this is a pretty awesome thing to do. The fact they even have a game from the Konix Multisystem and so many different titles makes this a must buy for me
ST Format Issue 24. Llamatron on cover disk and cool interview. I was in love.
Holy fing crap this is awesome news! Can't wait to play this!
I have definitely played a few of these over the years , never been much good but I do love the wackiness of a Jeff minter game. Hopefully tempest will be on there in some form ! Great to see a konix multi system game getting a release too !
Hmmm. I'm disappointed there's no IOS stuff on there. That version of Gridrunner, plus Llamatron and GoatUp are some of his absolute best.
Amazing, Space Giraffe too?
Oh my world, this is completely unexpected but absolutely incredible!!
Why in that first photo of Jeff Minter, he looks so much like YouTube celebrity Pat Contri's sidekick Ian Ferguson?
Holy <swearwords> this is about as exciting a choice as they could have made, from my fogey perspective. Really can't wait!
This is absolutely stellar news! Being able to play Llamatron and Iridis Alpha (my fave 16- and 8-bit Yak games) on the Switch is a dream come true, and there is so much more to boot!
(My only disappointment is lack of iOS stuff, as SpringDivorce already noted. For me the Minotron Project was an absolute peak period of output, creativity and sheer fun, but seeing this coming gives me hope that the door is still open to seeing those games re-released at some point down the track, as some kind of anthology release... I can but hope.)
Oh Yes!!! Cippy on the Run on OLED switch!! I need this.
Love this. Hope it does well and other individual game developers or small studios get the same treatment.
Great stuff and a very interesting choice. I haven't heard some of thenames on here mentioned for the best part of 40 years!
This article mademe go and look up an old game - Batalyx, anybody remember that on C64? Didn't see it here but it was like six games in one that you could flick between. Hope it is here, I was too young and confused to have any hope of finishing back in the day!
Well this is best gaming news I’ve heard in years. Really hope we get a physical release. The only downside is the lack of iOS games which are currently lost to us and of course no Space Giraffe which I have wanted on the Switch since it was released. I’ll more than happily take this with open arms though.
@Warioware I remember Batalyx very well! While I had other Llamasoft games before it, that was the first one I ever bought (on cassette, haha). And the good news is it's definitely on there, at least according to.a list posted on the YakYak forum, which listed the included C64 titles as:
Ancipital
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Batalyx
Gridrunner
Hellgate
Hover Bovver
Iridis Alpha
Laser Zone
Mama Llama
Matrix: Gridrunner 2
Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time
Psychedelia
Revenge of the Mutant Camels
Revenge of the Mutant Camels II
Rox 64
Sheep In Space
Voidrunner
the hairy years? have there been non hairy years?
but great news... a tribute he deserves
@CivilMadman YEEESS!! Thanks for confirming (hopefully)! We had it on C64 cassette too back in the good old 80s when I was still in my single digit ages. I didn't have a clue what was going on or what the point of it was (especially the rolling grid game) but it was still bizarrely fun and it stuck in my mind. I would love to give it another go and if this is true then I think this is a must-buy (although frankly it was already).
Might be quite an experience with some wine or some such, not that I'm advocating such things (hic).....
And in fact, whilst I'm here, and should anybody notice this post - wasn't there a company a couple of years ago talking about bringing C64 games to the Switch? Having them on the Wii was a massive win and it was a great disappointment when they took them off. I didn't bother to renew my NSO subscription yet but that might entice me. Better yet would be if whoever owns the rights to all those games that were on Wii VC put out a collection though.
I only found out about this forthcoming release a couple of days ago, couldn’t quite believe it! Seeing Sheep in Space on a TV in a branch of John Menzies sold the C64 to me back in 1984. Avidly followed the progress of Iridis Alpha in Zzap!64 magazine every month until its release (it didn’t disappoint - absolutely fantastic game). Looking forward to giving Mama Llama another chance and spending more time with Psychedelia!
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