Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is a vital piece of video game history

Depending on what era of gaming you grew up in, the name Jeff Minter could mean everything or nothing to you.

The visionary developer behind Llamasoft, one of the industry’s most eclectic studios, was practically gaming royalty from the 1980s to the mid-90s. He made a name for himself with titles like Gridrunner andRevenge of the Mutant Camels before creating a true magnum opus in 1994’s Tempest 2000. While he hasn’t stopped making games since then (he even released a new one last week), Minter isn’t exactly a household name outside of game history buffs these days. That’s not because he’s no longer producing great work; it’s the harsh reality of a commercialized industry he’s always revolted against.

Now, Minter is getting his due inLlamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, the latest interactive documentary from Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series. Like last year’s The Making of Karateka, the unique project preserves Minter’s classic games and contextualizes them with loads of archival material. The result is, unsurprisingly, another must-own package for anyone interested in video game history.

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What’s more vital, though, is the eerily relevant story that’s woven between games. The Llamasoft collection spotlights an almost prophetic Minter who accurately predicted the endpoint of the game industry’s quest for commercialization. It’s a sobering snapshot of how we got to where we are today, even if its Atari-washed happy ending obscures the truth a bit.

What a trip!

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story serves two distinct functions. On its most basic level, it’s a fantastic retro game collection that pulls together 42 Llamasoft games released between 1981 and 1994 (plus Digital Eclipse’s own modern remake of Gridrunner). These aren’t the kinds of games that you can buy in a dozen