Jeff Minter facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jeff Minter
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Minter at the Game Developers Conference in 2007
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| Born | 22 April 1962 Reading, England
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| Other names | Yak |
| Occupation | Video game programmer Video game designer |
| Employer | Llamasoft (founder) |
| Known for |
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Jeff Minter (born April 22, 1962) is a famous English video game designer and programmer. He is also known as Yak. Jeff started his own game company, Llamasoft. He has made many games since 1981. His games are often "shoot 'em ups." They also feature animals like llamas, sheep, and camels. This shows he really likes these animals!
He also created Neon (2004). This program creates cool visuals for music. It's even built into the Xbox 360 console! Some of his most famous games include Gridrunner, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Tempest 2000, and Polybius.
Contents
Becoming a Game Developer
Early Days and First Games
Jeff Minter was interested in computers from a young age. He wrote a game called Deflex in 1979. This was for the Commodore PET computer.
His skills really grew when he was sick. From November 1981 to January 1982, Jeff had to stay in bed. To fight boredom, he started programming computers seriously.
After he got better, Jeff worked with a friend, Richard Jones. They made games together on their school's Commodore PET. Later, they went their separate ways.
Starting a Game Company
In 1981, Jeff began making and selling games on his own. His first computer was the ZX80. He even made some games for a company called dk'tronics. But he left them after a disagreement about money.
Then, he teamed up with his mother, Hazel Minter. Together, they made and sold 20 games! These games were for computers like the ZX81, VIC-20, Atari 8-bit computers, ZX Spectrum, and Commodore 64. Jeff was studying physics at university. But his success in games made him leave school. He decided to make games full-time.
The next year, he started his own game company, Llamasoft. His first Llamasoft game was Andes Attack for the VIC-20. It was like the popular game Defender. But instead of spaceships, little llamas attacked the player! Jeff loved Defender so much, he later remade it as Defender 2000.
His game Gridrunner was a big hit. He wrote the original Commodore version in just one week! It became his first big success in both the UK and the US.
Jeff continued to make many games for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit computers, and Atari ST. People heard about his games through friends and computer magazines. Some of these games were Abductor, Hover Bovver, Attack of the Mutant Camels, and Sheep in Space.
Later Game Projects
Working with Big Companies
In 1989, Jeff helped with a console called the Konix Multisystem.
He also worked for Atari and VM Labs. For Atari, he made Tempest 2000 (1994) for the Atari Jaguar. This was a new version of the classic 1981 game Tempest. He then made Defender 2000 (1995) for the Jaguar. It was a remake of the 1981 arcade game. A magazine called Next Generation said he was the Jaguar's "leading developer."
Jeff also created the Virtual Light Machine (VLM-1) for the Jaguar CD. For VM Labs, he made the VLM-2 and Tempest 3000.
He later made games for Pocket PCs. Some of these also worked on Windows computers. These included Deflex, Hover Bovver 2: Grand Theft Flymo, and Gridrunner++.
In 2002, Jeff started a music game for the GameCube called Unity. This game would combine his light shows with arcade shooting. He worked on it for Lionhead Studios. But the project was stopped in 2004. However, the light show part, Neon, was later used in the Xbox 360.
In 2007, Jeff released Space Giraffe. This action game was similar to Tempest. It came out for the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade.
In 2008, Llamasoft helped with the visuals for the Xbox 360 version of Space Invaders Extreme. The game was released that same year. Space Giraffe also came out for Windows in December 2008. In September 2009, he released Gridrunner Revolution for Windows.
The Minotaur Project
Around 2010, Jeff wanted to make games faster. He chose the iOS platform (for iPhones and iPads). Llamasoft announced "The Minotaur Project." The idea was to make games that felt like old computer or console games. But they would not have the old hardware limits.
- On January 5, 2011, he released Minotaur Rescue for iPhones and iPads.
- On March 2, 2011, Llamasoft released Minotron: 2112. This was a remake of his game Llamatron.
- On September 17, 2011, Llamasoft released GoatUp, their first platform game.
- Caverns of Minos came out on January 27, 2012.
- Gridrunner iOS followed on March 24, 2012.
- Super Ox Wars, a shooting game, was released in July 2012.
- The last game in the series, GoatUp 2, came out in March 2013. It was special because it had a level editor.
Jeff later decided to stop making mobile games. He felt it was hard for games to be found. Also, many free-to-play games and copies of other games made it difficult. He said that the Minotaur Project actually lost money. Because of this, these games were removed from the App Store.
However, the code for these games could be used for Mac and PC. Gridrunner was released for Mac in August 2012.
Back to Consoles
In April 2013, Llamasoft signed a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment. They would make a "tube shooter" game for the PlayStation Vita called TxK. This game was like a new version of Tempest 2000. TxK was released on February 11, 2014.
In 2015, Atari threatened to sue Jeff. They said TxK was too much like Tempest 2000. Even though Jeff wrote Tempest 2000, Atari owned the rights. Sony did not support Jeff. So, future versions of TxK were stopped. But the PS Vita version is still available.
Jeff and his partner Ivan "Giles" Zorzin released Polybius for the PlayStation 4 on May 9, 2017. It worked great with the PlayStation VR headset. Soon after, the band Nine Inch Nails used visuals from Polybius for their music video "Less Than".
In August 2017, Atari announced they would work with Llamasoft. They would make Tempest 4000 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. It was released in July 2018.
In March 2018, Jeff said the Minotaur Project games would come to PlayStation 4. These improved versions would be in bundles called Minotaur Arcade. In December 2018, Minotaur Arcade Volume 1 came out on Steam. It had better versions of GoatUp and Gridrunner. A PlayStation 4 version was released in October 2019.
Jeff then made a new game using this framework, Moose Life. It came out on Steam in August 2020 and on PlayStation 4 in February 2021.
In December 2022, Jeff announced he was making a new version of Atari's old 1982 game Akka Arrh. In 2023, a company called Digital Eclipse announced they would release 42 of Jeff's games. This collection is called Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.
Other Appearances
Jeff Minter appeared in the interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch in December 2018. The film was about the 1980s video game industry in the UK. Jeff played Jerome F. Davies, a book author.
He also helped with the documentary film From Bedrooms to Billions. Jeff also briefly appeared in the film Ashens and the Polybius Heist.
About Jeff Minter
Jeff often signs his name as "Yak" online. He chose this name because "the yak is a scruffy hairy beast – a lot like me ;-)." This was for old arcade game high score tables that only had three letters.
Since 2015, he uses "Yak" less often. He usually signs as "Stinky Ox" or "Jeff Minotaur".
He lives in Wales with his partner Ivan "Giles" Zorzin. They have four sheep, two goats, two llamas, and a dog. Ivan Zorzin helps Jeff make the newer games.
Jeff enjoys Indian food, especially chicken vindaloo. Sheep are his favorite animals. He has kept them as pets for many years.
Games Jeff Minter Made
Early Games (1980s)
- Deflex (VIC-20, Commodore PET)
- Centipede (ZX81, 1982)
- 3D Labyrinth (VIC-20, 1982)
- Abductor (VIC-20, 1982)
- Andes Attack (VIC-20, 1982) a.k.a. Defenda
- Bomb Buenos Aires (VIC-20, 1982; Atari ST, 1988) a.k.a. Aggressor, Bomber, Blitzkrieg
- City Bomber (ZX Spectrum, 1982)
- Gridrunner (VIC-20, Atari 8-bit, ZX Spectrum, 1982; C64, 1983)
- Matrix: Gridrunner 2 (VIC-20, 1982; Atari 8-bit and C64, 1983; C16, 1986)
- Rat Man (VIC-20, 1982)
- Rox III (VIC-20/ZX Spectrum, 1982)
- Super Deflex (ZX Spectrum, 1982)
- Turboflex (Atari 8-bit, 1982)
- Attack of the Mutant Camels (Atari 8-bit and C64, 1983) a.k.a. Advance of the Megacamel
- Headbangers Heaven (ZX Spectrum, 1983)
- Hover Bovver (C64, 1983; Atari 8-bit, 1984; Galaxians/Scramble hardware, 2022)
- Laser Zone (VIC-20/C64, 1983; C16, 1986)
- Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time (VIC-20, 1983; C64, 1984) a.k.a. Meta-Llamas
- Revenge of the Mutant Camels (C64, 1984)
- Rox 64 (C64, 1983)
- Traxx (VIC-20/ZX Spectrum, 1983)
- Ancipital (C64, 1984)
- Hellgate (VIC-20/C64, 1984)
- Sheep in Space (C64, 1984)
- Batalyx (C64, 1985)
- Colourspace (Atari 8-bit, 1985), light synthesizer.
- Mama Llama (C64, 1985)
- Yak's Progress (C64, 1985) - a collection of eight older games.
- Iridis Alpha (C64, 1986)
- Made in France II (C64, 1987)
- Return of the Mutant Camels (C64, 1987; Atari 8-bit, 1988) a.k.a. Revenge of the Mutant Camels 2
- Voidrunner (C64/MSX, 1987)
- Trip-a-Tron (Amiga/Atari ST, 1988)
- Super Gridrunner (Amiga, 1989; Atari ST, 1991)
- Defender II (Amiga/Atari ST, 1990)
- Photon Storm (Amiga/Atari ST, 1990)
- Llamatron: 2112 (Amiga/Atari ST, 1991; PC, 1992)
- Revenge of the Mutant Camels (Amiga/Atari ST, 1991; PC, 1994) an improved re-release
- Hardcore (Atari ST, 1992)
Games for Newer Consoles (1990s - 2000s)
- Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar, 1994)
- Virtual Light Machine (Atari Jaguar, 1994) a.k.a. VLM-1
- Defender 2000 (Atari Jaguar, 1995)
- Llamazap (Atari Falcon, 1995)
- Tempest 3000 (Nuon DVD, 2000)
- VLM-2 (Nuon DVD, 2000)
- Gridrunner++ (PC, 2002)
- Hover Bovver 2: Grand Theft Flymo (PC, 2002)
- Unity (GCN, Cancelled)
- Neon (Xbox 360, 2005) a.k.a. VLM-3
- Space Giraffe (Xbox 360, 2007; PC, 2008)
- Space Invaders Extreme (Xbox 360, 2009)
- Gridrunner Revolution (PC, 2009)
The Minotaur Project Games
- Minotaur Rescue, (2011) like an Atari 2600 game.
- Minotron: 2112, (2011) like a Mattel Intellivision game.
- GoatUp, (2011) like a ZX Spectrum game.
- Caverns of Minos, (2012) like an Atari 8-bit computers game.
- Gridrunner iOS, like arcade games from the Namco System 86 era.
- Five A Day
- Super Ox Wars, like the Namco Galaga platform.
- Deflex, a puzzle game and remake of an early Llamasoft title.
- GoatUp 2, a sequel to GoatUp with a level editor.
Modern Games (2010s - Present)
- TxK (PlayStation Vita, 2014)
- Minotaur Rescue VR (Oculus Rift, Windows, 2014)
- Polybius (PS4, PlayStation VR, PC, Oculus Rift, 2016)
- Tempest 4000 (PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Atari VCS 800)
- Minotaur Arcade Vol. 1 (includes remakes of Gridrunner iOS and GoatUp) (PC, PS4)
- Moose Life (PC, PS4)
- Akka Arrh (PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Atari VCS 800)
