Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story - Co-op Review

This collection of classic games from Jeff Minter features 4 co-op titles, including Tempest 2000.

Jeff Minter is a long-haired English video game developer who got his start creating games for European computers in the early 1980s. Nowadays, Minter is best known for the Tempest series, but he has created an astounding number of games, usually by himself or with very small teams. Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story from Digital Eclipse celebrates the life and works of Mr. Minter, compiling tons of biographical material and 42 classic games in one robust package.

The user interface of LTMS, as we’ll abbreviate the collection’s title, will be familiar to any retro enthusiasts who have played Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection or The Making of Karateka, also from Digital Eclipse. Both LTMS and The Making of Karateka are part of Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master series, software titles that are designed to be interactive documentaries. The mileage that modern gamers will get from these Gold Series titles will vary depending on the individual gamer’s interest in the subject matter.

The collection is divided into three sections: “The Jeff Minter Story” (the documentary section), Games Library, and Gameography (a simple list of all of Minter’s games, including some that are not part of this collection, such as Defender 2000 and 2023’s Akka Arrh).

The documentary section is broken up into four chapters covering the stages of the Mint-man’s career. Within the chapters, you’ll find photos, video interviews and other footage, and even 3D replicas of cartridges and floppy discs. The documentary section is a great way to learn the history of the British indie developer scene and how Minter has navigated it over the years.

The library is where you’ll go to play the actual games of the collection. Games can be sorted by year or title. Each game has cover artwork, a brief description, and instruction manual scans or screenshots of the original instructional file. All games have remappable controls, save states, and video and border options as well.

The 42 games included here run a wide gamut, but they often involve llamas and/or camels – signs of Minter’s personal style and sense of humor. It must be stressed that many of these games come from the era in which developers were still figuring out how to make games fun. Some of these games are just too old and clunky to be enjoyable, even to someone like me who still likes games from the NES era.

One of the Mint-master’s most respected games is Gridrunner, a shoot ‘em up that started on the Commodore VIC-20 computer and spawned many ports and sequels. Several iterations are playable in this collection, with the most notable being Gridrunner: Remastered. Digital Eclipse has taken the core gameplay of the Commodore 64 version and added slick modern visuals and sounds. Remastered is a cool way to play Gridrunner, though the option of updated gameplay would have been a nice inclusion.

Four of the collection’s games support 2-player local co-op; let’s take a look at them.

In Laser Zone, an alien armada is attacking the walls of a Terran outpost. Two satellite dish-shaped guns located on the wall and floor of the outpost are the only defense. If playing solo, one player controls both guns. In co-op, each player gets a single gun.

During every level, enemies descend from the sky and advance towards the outpost walls. Touching an enemy means death. Each gun can only shoot in one direction, so the two players really have to look out for each other. Laser Zone is a bit simple and dated, but the intuitive gameplay and cooperative element can still be fun for a while.

Minter’s take on the classic arcade shooter, Robotron, stars a heroic llama and camel as they try to rescue their animal friends from hordes of evil humanoid foes. When playing solo, the gamer can choose single-stick or twin-stick mode (the more authentic Robotron experience).

Co-op only works in single-stick mode, unfortunately. In this mode, the character normally fires in the same direction in which it’s moving. Firing while standing still, however, lets the player lock in a direction for strafing. Llamatron is actually pretty enjoyable despite the old-fashioned controls, and with 100 levels, players can get a LOT of llama shooting from it.

If Llamatron leans towards a conventional game design, its contemporary brother, Revenge of the Mutant Camels, veers towards the experimental. Revenge is a remake of a Commodore 64 game that adds co-op and other enhancements. This one qualifies as a run-and-gun shooter, but a most bizarre one.

One player controls a mutant camel and the other controls a goat-man. The loveable pair will run and jump through 42 strange levels filled with interesting background objects like GameBoys and Atari Lynx consoles. Between levels, the camel fills its hump with water from a spigot, much like real-life camels do. The goat can actually ride on the llama somehow (a cool co-op maneuver), but we couldn’t figure out how to do it. Depending on your tastes, Revenge will either be too strange and clunky or just strange enough for a full playthrough.

The centerpiece of this collection, especially among the co-op titles, is Tempest 2000. The first Tempest originated in arcades in 1981 and used a spinner instead of a joystick. Minter’s sequel retains similar gameplay but vastly improves the graphics and sound and adds several modes, including the “Tempest Plus” co-op mode.

Whether playing solo or co-op, players move their pincer-shaped ships around the edges of various vector-based levels. Enemies descend from the end of the level and advance towards the screen and the players. Should a foe reach the boundary of the level where players are located, they will advance and kill the player. Only the use of a “Superzapper” (bomb-style attack) will save the gamer in that scenario.

Tempest 2000 is stylish and interesting enough to warrant some solo and co-op attention, though this series has never been my cup of tea. It frustrates me that you can’t dodge enemies once they reach the front of the screen. Still, this game was considered a killer app in its day, and many old-timers will still love it. Oddly, Mintner dropped the co-op feature in his sequels, Tempest 3000 and Tempest 4000, neither of which are included in this collection.

Video game archiving and preservation is an important thing, and Digital Eclipse has done an excellent job of ensuring that gamers can experience the majority of Jeff Minter’s library of games on modern platforms. The documentary and emulation features are all as finely tuned as anyone could hope for. The only things holding Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story back are the obscurity and design of many of the collection’s games.

Most of the games here would be totally unknown to anyone who didn’t play European computer games in the 1980s and 1990s. Even if you’re open to playing new retro games, some of these titles are just too old-school and unintuitive to get into nowadays. Still, there ARE enough semi-modern and/or approachable games here to get your money’s worth. Heck, some folks might justify the purchase for Tempest 2000 alone, though that one is also available on the more mainstream Atari 50 collection. Bottom line: anyone who appreciates Minter’s works will have fun while learning from Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story costs $29.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam.

An Xbox download code was provided by the publisher for this review.