Jeff Minter at Assembly 2004

Jeff 'Yak' Minter (born in Reading, April 22, 1962) is a British computer/video game designer and programmer. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and his most recent work is the light synthesizer (called Neon) built into the Xbox 360 console. Jeff Minter at Assembly04 - Picture taken by Gergely Szelei (Gargaj / CNS) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Jeff Minter at Assembly04 - Picture taken by Gergely Szelei (Gargaj / CNS) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Overview of the Assembly 2004 party hall. ... Reading is a town, unitary authority (the Borough of Reading) and urban area in the English county of Berkshire. ... April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a cultural phenomenon. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... A game programmer is a software engineer who primarily develops computer or video games or related software (such as game development tools). ... A light synthesizer is a computer program, or other piece of hardware, designed to create attractive animated abstract visuals. ... Neon is a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter (Yak) and Ivan Zorzin (Giles). It was based on an enhanced version of the graphics engine originally to be included in Unity (video game), which became an independent project after Unity was cancelled in 2004. ... The Xbox 360 is the successor to Microsofts Xbox video game console, developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, Samsung and SiS. Information on the console first came through viral marketing campaigns and it was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged...

Many of his games include certain distinctive elements—they are often arcade style shoot-em-ups. His fondness of llamas, sheep, camels etc. often leads to them appearing in his games or the titles (Llamatron, Llamazap, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Revenge of the Mutant Camels, Sheep in Space, etc.). Also many feature something of a psychedelic element, as in some of the earliest 'light synthesizer' programs such as his Trip-a-Tron. A fixed shooter game, also known as a 2-D shooter or shoot-em-up (shmup for short), is a video game where the player has limited control of their character and the focus is almost entirely on annihilation of their enemies. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Species See text. ... Species Camelus bactrianus Camelus dromedarius Camelus gigas Camelus hesternus Camelus sivalensis Camels are even-toed ungulates in the genus Camelus. ... Llamatron is a computer game written by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC (DOS). ... Attack of the Mutant Camels was a surrealist computer game released for the Commodore 64 in the 1980s by Jeff Minters Llamasoft. ... Screenshot from the Amiga version of Revenge of the Mutant Camels. ... The word psychedelic is a neologism coined from the Greek words for mind, ψυχη (psyche), and manifest, δηλειν (delein). ... Trip-a-Tron is a light synthesizer written by Jeff Minter and published through his Llamasoft label circa 1988. ...

In online forums and informal game credits pages Minter usually signs as "Yak", which is, in his own words

"a pseudonym chosen a long time ago, back in the days when hi-score tables on coin-op machines only held three letters, and I settled on Yak because the yak is a scruffy hairy beast - a lot like me ;-)." Binomial name Bos grunniens Linnaeus, 1766 Subspecies Bos grunniens grunniens Bos grunniens mutus The yak (Bos grunniens) is a long-haired humped domestic bovine found in Tibet and throughout the Himalayan region of south central Asia, as well as in Mongolia. ...

Jeff currently writes a monthly column for UK-based digital game magazine EDGE. Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. ...

Early years

Jeff Minter became interested in computers while attending secondary school. He teamed up with Richard Jones, a fellow pupil, and together they started writing their own games on their school's Commodore PET. They soon parted ways. Jones went on to commercial projects, some of them in the software market (e.g., Interceptor Micros). A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ... The PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home-/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in the late 1970s. ... Interceptor Micros also known as Interceptor Software (and later as Interceptor Group) was a developer/publisher (mainly of adventure games) for various 8bit and 16bit computer systems popular in Western Europe during the eighties and early nineties. ...

Games

In 1981 Jeff Minter started writing and selling Sinclair ZX80 video games. In 1982 he founded software house Llamasoft (a company that creates games rather than sells or distributes them is often called a house). His first game through Llamasoft was Andes Attack (US version: Aggressor): a Defender clone for the Commodore VIC-20, but with little llamas instead of spaceships (a fan of Defender, he would remake it again as Defender 2000). His second Llamasoft game, Gridrunner, was written in a week and was his first commercial success both in the UK and in the USA. 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Sinclair Research of Cambridge, England. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... An Opposing Force is a military unit tasked with representing an enemy, usually for training purposes in war game scenarios. ... This page is about the arcade game Defender. ... The VIC-20 (Germany: VC-20; Japan: VIC-1001) is an 8-bit home computer. ...

Minter went on to develop a number of classic games, all written in assembler, for the later home computers (such as the Commodore 64, Atari 400/800 and Atari ST) which were marketed mainly by word of mouth and by the odd magazine advertisement. These games included: Gridrunner, Matrix^{[disambiguation needed]}, Hellgate, Hover Bovver, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Revenge of the Mutant Camels, Revenge of the Mutant Camels 2, Laser Zone, Mama Llama, Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time, Sheep in Space, Void Runner, and Iridis Alpha. An assembly language is a low-level language used in the writing of computer programs. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... An Atari 800XL, one of the most popular machines in the series. ... The Atari 520ST Atari 1040STF with SC1224 color monitor The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ... Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet. ... Look up matrix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Shortcut: WP:D or WP:DAB Disambiguation in Wikipedia and Wikimedia is the process of resolving the conflict that occurs when articles about two or more different topics have the same natural title. ... Hellgate: London is a computer game under development by Flagship Studios, the founders of which not only worked on, but were the principle designers and visionaries of the Diablo series. ... Hover Bovver is a 1984 game written by Jeff Minter released for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit and a Windows version for the PC was released by Idigicon Limited in 2002. ... Attack of the Mutant Camels was a surrealist computer game released for the Commodore 64 in the 1980s by Jeff Minters Llamasoft. ... Screenshot from the Amiga version of Revenge of the Mutant Camels. ...

After the collapse of the home computer market he worked for Atari and for (now-defunct) VM Labs. For Atari he produced Tempest 2000 (1994) on the Jaguar, a remake of Dave Theurer's classic Tempest of 1981. Minter also produced Defender 2000 (1995) on the Jaguar, a remake of Eugene Jarvis's classic Defender. Minter also produced the Virtual Light Machine (VLM) for the Jaguar CD-ROM add-on. For VM Labs, Minter designed software for the Nuon chip. Jeff Minter also created the VLM2 (Light Synth) & Tempest 3000 for the Nuon. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... VM Labs was the company behind the Nuon technology which was used in several DVD players from Samsung, Toshiba, & RCA. The Nuon technology bought features which other DVDs players didnt have at the time, this was around mid 2000, such as playing games created for Nuon, VLM (Virtual... Tempest 2000 was a 1994 remake for the Atari Jaguar of the classic 1980 arcade game Tempest by Dave Theurer. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... The Atari Jaguar was a video game console introduced to the U.S. market in November 1993 against the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a powerful next generation platform. ... David Theurer is a game designer. ... Tempest is an arcade game by Atari, originally designed and programmed by David Theurer. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Atari Jaguar was a video game console introduced to the U.S. market in November 1993 against the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a powerful next generation platform. ... Eugene Jarvis at California Extreme 2006 Eugene Peyton Jarvis (born 1955) is a game designer and programmer, producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics. ... Defender is a horizontally-scrolling shoot em up arcade game created by Williams Electronics in 1980. ... VLM aka Virtual Light Machine is a lightsynth used on the Atari Jaguar & Nuon systems. ... Nuon was a technology that adds additional features to a DVD player. ... Tempest 3000 is a remake of the Tempest game, and a sequel to Tempest 2000, written by Jeff Minter for Nuon. ... Nuon was a technology that adds additional features to a DVD player. ...

Later came a short spell writing games for the Pocket PC platform, some of which also had PC conversions (using a customized Pocket PC emulator). During this time, Minter released three games: Deflex, Hover Bovver (ports/remakes of his own early 80s games of the same name), and the PC/Macintosh game Gridrunner++. The Dell Axim x30, a Pocket PC A Pocket PC, abbreviated P/PC or PPC, is a handheld-sized computer that runs a specific version of the Windows CE operating system. ... Hover Bovver is a 1984 game written by Jeff Minter released for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit and a Windows version for the PC was released by Idigicon Limited in 2002. ... Gridrunner++ is a shooting game written by Jeff Minter for Windows. ...

In 2002, Jeff began work on a project for the Nintendo GameCube with the name of Unity — the combination of the two main threads of Jeff's work: light synthesis and classic arcade style shooting. Jeff was writing this game for Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios but the project was canceled in December 2004. The Nintendo GameCube (Japanese: ゲームキューブ; originally code-named Dolphin during development; abbreviated as GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the 128-bit era; the same generation as Segas Dreamcast, Sonys PlayStation 2, and Microsofts Xbox. ... Having been one of the privileged few who were allowed to play with the game. ... Peter Molyneux OBE (born 1960 in Guildford, Surrey, UK) is a computer game designer and game programmer, responsible for well known God games Populous and Black & White, among others, as well as Business Strategy games such as Theme Park and most recently, The Movies. ... Lionhead Studios is a United Kingdom-based computer game development company led by industry veteran Peter Molyneux, and taken over by Microsoft Game Studios in April 2006. ...

The version of the VLM to be used within Unity has since been reprogrammed and significantly expanded. Now named Neon, it has been used in the Xbox 360 media visualization. [1] VLM aka Virtual Light Machine is a lightsynth used on the Atari Jaguar & Nuon systems. ... Neon is a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter (Yak) and Ivan Zorzin (Giles). It was based on an enhanced version of the graphics engine originally to be included in Unity (video game), which became an independent project after Unity was cancelled in 2004. ... The Xbox 360 is the successor to Microsofts Xbox video game console, developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, Samsung and SiS. Information on the console first came through viral marketing campaigns and it was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged...

He's now producing another Tempest variant Space Giraffe. [2] Space Giraffe is the work-in-progress title for the latest project from Jeff Minter of Llamasoft. ...

External links

• Llamasoft official website – With Llamasoft's history, among other resources
• MobyGames' Rap Sheet on Minter
• Jeff Minter's Google TechTalk, March 2007
• "the history of llamasoft" – By Jeff Minter
• An interview with Jeff Minter
• A netmeeting/interview with Jeff Minter – held by B3ta
• Blog
• The Inquirer article on his early games
• Gamasutra Interview, April 2007