Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

The Gold Master Series by Digital Eclipse is one of the best things to ever happen to video games, and when all is said and done, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story may just be its magnum opus.

In the latest from the team behind The Making of Karateka, a true genius gets an interactive museum for the ages

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is a fascinating exploration of a unique voice in video game history. It's an exhaustive, albeit sometimes overwhelming, homage to Minter's prolific early career. For those willing to dive into this psychedelic rabbit hole, the collection offers a rare opportunity to witness the evolution of a video game auteur in real-time. The narrative's abrupt conclusion and th...

Though I am so far impressed with these Gold Master Series, this one is ranked 3rd out of 3, if I include the amazing Atari 50. I respect the hell out of Jeff Minter for being THE indie game creator. There are some games missing that may come at a later date, and some that I'll never play again. But I think that's what Jeff wants. Stay weird, Mr. Minter. Stay weird.

Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series continues with a look at one of videogames’ most known figures, Jeff Minter, in yet another excellent game-doc chronicling the life of a ridiculously fascinating developer I was not really familiar with prior. While my personal history with Karateka, the game whose development was the subject of the very first entry in this exceptional series, was quite deep, I...

The Making of Karateka feels like it was told by someone who really loves video games, whereas Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story feels more like it was told by someone who loves Jeff Minter. It’s more interested in showing the man and less about telling his story. Instead, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story just feels like an organized box of stuff. It’s a pretty great box of stuff, but it should hav...

As a hub for video game preservation, Digital Eclipse's latest is fine. It does the absolute minimum and not a bit more. As a piece of history, though, it’s baffling, incomplete, and rushed. I can’t help but think that perhaps the Jeff Minter story that Digital Eclipse wanted to tell proved too unwieldy and maybe too expensive to fit into this release, and what we end up with is this pared down ve...

Minter’s intense, techno-driven remix of the classic vector-graphic Atari arcade cab — in which enemies crawl up a 3D tube toward your craft, clinging to its outer lip — is simply one of the greatest shmups of all time. There’s something about staring down the playing field into the void that is the perfect match for his psychedelic, flow-state sensibilities.