HAIRY BEASTS, BANGING SOUNDTRACKS AND A WHOLE LOT OF BLASTING – JEFF MINTER AND IVAN ZORZIN TAKE US ON A FOUR-DECADE TOUR OF LLAMASOFT’S UNMISTAKABLE BACK CATALOGUE
Few software houses can boast a history stretching back over four decades and we can think of only one that has remained broadly unchanged, in terms of personnel and its approach to game design: Llamasoft. Founded by Jeff Minter in 1982, his company has spent 42 years making games for a bewildering array of computers and consoles and shows no signs of stopping. “I think part of the reason I call myself ‘Ox’ is that I’ve been persistent, just plodding along, really,” says Jeff, musing on Llamasoft’s impressive longevity. “I’m not a particularly smart beast, but I’ll carry on until I get the job done. And I’ve just been doing that for years.”
For over half of those years, he was essentially a one-man band, creating games at home, first from his parent’s house in Tadley, Hampshire, before moving to rural Wales in 1987. Apart from a few years in the mid-Nineties when he joined Atari in California, Jeff has maintained his status as a UK-based independent developer, though in 2004, Llamasoft doubled its size when Ivan Zorzin joined the fold. Leaving his hometown of Monfalcone in Italy, Ivan became both Jeff’s coding and life partner, and for the last 20 years, the pair have been producing their distinctive brand of psychedelic shooters out of a remote farmhouse near Carmarthen, surrounded by fields, sheep and, yes, llamas.
“It’s really true about persistence,” agrees Ivan. “Jeff can be very obstinate. When he wants to do something, he wants to do it his own way, but when we say we’re going to do something, we do it, whatever it takes”.
Llamasoft’s rich legacy is now the subject of a new compilation, meaning many more gamers can appreciate its superb history.
ANDES ATTACK
Not Jeff’s first game nor the first to appear under the Llamasoft label but this Defender clone showed he was willing to take on the task of converting a major coin-op to a humble home micro, adding some distinctive Minter motifs in the process. In short, the shape of things to come.
JEFF’S MEMORIES
The ship is the size of a bus, there are loads of bugs, it controls horribly and it scrolls horribly. It’s a bit of a mess really, but it was enough to get us noticed. An American firm saw it at a show in London and they ended up publishing my stuff in the USA. I mean, the rest
