The History of Lamasoft/Jeff Minter

Puresox · 20:48, 23 February 16

Well he is not an Amstrad guy unfortunately and I don't think he has many nice things to say about the machine. But he has been an interesting character in the British Computer scene and I am a big fan of some of his games . I found this pretty interesting and it helped me to understand a little bit more on how machines work tbh. I am not a programmer of any level and have never delved into it , to a great depth other than messing around at type-ins. In recent times I am beginning to want to uncover the mystery of it all. (Sorry going off at Tangents) .Anyway thought I'd post this for anyone else interested and hasn't seen already, I am surprised a documentary hasn't been made about the guy yet , cos he has a pretty interesting history of development .
Lightsynth's History

Fessor · 21:51, 23 February 16

Tempest 2000 on Atari Jaguar FTW

dodogildo · 21:52, 23 February 16

Wow this reminds me an interview I read about Lamasoft in an issue of (if I remember correctly) Your Computer in 80s.

Inspiring company!

seanb · 23:19, 23 February 16

Was reading some comments on a YouTube video yesterday and c64 owners were slaging of the amstrad on a c64 video because the person who made the game did a crappy port to the Amstrad (it didn't seem that bad) and using his attitude as proof the cpc was crap.

Sad that happens but still.
Wish I'd thought of saying it was because he didn't have the skills to programme for it but I'd be as bad as them.

Puresox · 23:22, 23 February 16

Quote from: Fessor on 21:51, 23 February 16
Tempest 2000 on Atari Jaguar FTW

This is where I am not so keen , I know many people love this stuff , but I just find it a bit of an overload on the senses. I do respect what he is going for in it .

Puresox · 23:23, 23 February 16

Quote from: seanb on 23:19, 23 February 16
Was reading some comments on a YouTube video yesterday and c64 owners were slaging of the amstrad on a c64 video because the person who made the game did a crappy port to the Amstrad (it didn't seem that bad) and using his attitude as proof the cpc was crap.

Sad that happens but still.
Wish I'd thought of saying it was because he didn't have the skills to programme for it but I'd be as bad as them.

What game was this?

seanb · 23:36, 23 February 16

Infernal runner

Puresox · 00:04, 24 February 16

Ahh , yes a disappointing port , pretty much a completely different game some nice little death scenes, but could have been so much better .

Bryce · 09:31, 24 February 16

Jeff gets my vote just for Attack of the Mutant Camels! I wasted so much of my teen years playing that.

Bryce.

ukmarkh · 11:11, 24 February 16

He's a Leg-end!

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Dizrythmia · 15:21, 24 February 16

Is it wrong that I consider Jeff Minter to be highly overrated?

His games are quirky & a little left of field, it's true. Playability wise, however, they are average versions of other games that were already on the market.

Just my 2c...

Bryce · 15:30, 24 February 16

Quote from: Dizrythmia on 15:21, 24 February 16
Is it wrong that I consider Jeff Minter to be highly overrated?

His games are quirky & a little left of field, it's true. Playability wise, however, they are average versions of other games that were already on the market.

Just my 2c...

No, his status probably has more to do with his character rather than his programming. His Atari version of Attack of the mutant camels was extremely smooth, but the C64 version was mediocre.
His Colour Space program was the program that got me to build 8-bit hardware for the very first time (before that all my electronics interest was focused on Audio gear), but I think you had to buy your LSD from the same supplier as he did to really appreciate it.

Bryce.

robcfg · 15:45, 24 February 16

There are also Gridrunner and Laser Zone for the Dragon computers, designed by Minter.

Gryzor · 16:00, 24 February 16

He had done that light synth on the CPC, hadn't he?

I discovered him on my STFM. First time I played some camel/llama/attack/something I was like "what the faaaaaaa-that's awesome!"

Nich · 21:22, 24 February 16

Quote from: Puresox on 20:48, 23 February 16
Anyway thought I'd post this for anyone else interested and hasn't seen already, I am surprised a documentary hasn't been made about the guy yet , cos he has a pretty interesting history of development .
Lightsynth's History

Thanks for the link! I spent a good hour or two reading the entire story (which seems to be unfinished). It was a thoroughly entertaining and fascinating read.

TMR · 21:51, 24 February 16

Quote from: Bryce on 15:30, 24 February 16
No, his status probably has more to do with his character rather than his programming.

From a technical standpoint he was pretty adept; possibly not pushing the hardware as much as other people at the same time, but there was some pretty clever stuff going on in the more complicated attack wave drivers like Revenge Of The Mutant Camels or Iridis Alpha. Waves are defined in reasonably small amounts of commands and objects can mutate when a condition is met. There's a lot more complexity than just "go bang when shot" there.

Quote from: Bryce on 15:30, 24 February 16His Atari version of Attack of the mutant camels was extremely smooth, but the C64 version was mediocre.

The C64 version was written before the documentation for the C64 was even properly available in the UK on a Breadbin sent over from HES in the United States, the Atari port came a year or so after so that shouldn't be much of a surprise; have a look at the upgraded version which appears as a subgame in Batalyx because it's smoother again and extends the gameplay with things like leaping camels.

Puresox · 20:45, 25 February 16

Quote from: Nich on 21:22, 24 February 16
Thanks for the link! I spent a good hour or two reading the entire story (which seems to be unfinished). It was a thoroughly entertaining and fascinating read.

Glad you found it as interesting as I did, I am looking forward to the continuation coming , if it does?Should do

Nich · 21:24, 25 February 16

Quote from: Puresox on 20:45, 25 February 16
Glad you found it as interesting as I did, I am looking forward to the continuation coming , if it does?Should do

Well, the final part of the story (so far) is dated July 2006, so the chances of part 9 appearing online are pretty slim!

Puresox · 22:28, 25 February 16

The thing that gave me hope , was that I had been reading the history of Lamasoft from a different web page (obviously an earlier attempt) and the chapters were far shorter and didnt have as much detail as this web page , so it does look like he does sections at a time. So I do feel it will come through .

ivarf · 07:46, 27 February 16

Quote from: Fessor on 21:51, 23 February 16
Tempest 2000 on Atari Jaguar FTW

The Amstrad CPC Tempest is up there with Tempest 2000 on the PC. I played both back in the day, two excellent games

Puresox · 17:55, 27 February 16

Yeah Amstrad Tempest is brilliant , Strangely though had they made it more accurate to the Arcade , it may well have coped a lot better at the higher end levels . The channels' in the Amstrad layouts are virtually double the amount of the arcade , which surely would make the amount of sprites to be handled far more demanding on the machine . It makes it virtually impossible to beat the latter levels cos of the lag. Still it is a top game despite this , with some great music .

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The History of Lamasoft/Jeff Minter