1. Who is Jeff 'Yak' Minter?
The best explanation is from the man himself, Jeff Minter:
I should firstly introduce myself. I am the individual referred to on this forum (and others) as Yak - 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
. I first started writing games on an old Commodore PET at the end of the 1970s, and in 1982 I founded a company called Llamasoft, developing games for the Commodore Vic-20 and 64.
As the videogame market evolved, self-publishing became unfeasible for a small company like Llamasoft, and I began to look at other ways of getting my stuff published. I was instrumental in helping to break the concept of shareware into the UK with my Atari ST, Amiga and PC game Llamatron.
[PVB says "Yak is known for creating some of the best computer games of the 1980s, including Llamatron, Grid Runner, and the original Llamasoft virtual light synthesiser, Psychedelia."]
I also did some contract work for Atari; perhaps my best-known creation for them being Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar.
More recently I spent five years working for a company called VM Labs, and I produced Tempest 3000 for the Nuon DVD players whilst employed by them.
I then experimented with programming games for the Pocket PC, and created Deflex and a new version of Hover Bovver for them.
Our philosophy is simply to create games that are easy to learn, humorous, and which draw on my 20 years' experience as a game designer and therefore are hopefully fun to play, as well. The games will also be cheap, at five pounds for the full versions.
I don't think the price of a couple of beers is too much to ask for games that hopefully will provide a fair few hours of enjoyable amusement.
Anyway - welcome to the world of Llamasoft :-). We hope you'll like what we do. And if you do, spread the word :-).
2. What was 'Unity'?
The Unity project on Nintendo Gamecube was being produced for Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios:
http://www.lionhead.com
Unfortunately the project was cancelled due to a number of factors:
http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=28896
2b. What has Llamasoft done lately?
The latest is the Neon VLM/lightsynth/visualiser built into the Xbox 360.
The next project (currently in production) is tentatively titled Space Giraffe (SG), a shoot-em-up which will be distributed via the Xbox 360 Live Arcade service, with a PC version to follow in due course.
http://www.medwaypvb.com/giraffe1.html for more info, screenshots and video files.
A PC version of the Neon lightsynth will be released (hopefully) at the same time as SG on the 360.
3. What is a VLM?
VLM is the abbreviation for the Virtual Light Machine(s), which is a generic description for the light synthesizers that Yak has been working on since the days of Psychedelia on the VIC-20. Simply put a VLM is a means of expressing music as patterns on the screen. Early examples such as Psychedelia and Colourspace were entirely manually controlled, but the VLM's on the Atari Jaguar and Nuon DVD players included beat detection algortithms to automatically generate patterns on the fly, as well as manual control if required.
But isn't that just like Winamp plugins?
No. Winamp took the idea from the Jag VLM and copied it, although the Winamp one cannot be manually controlled, it only reacts to the beats of the music. It would be more accurate to say that Winamp plugins are like the VLM.
But what about the Winamp llama?
They have their own reason for that, look here:
http://www.winamp.com/team/
So what VLMs are available?
Virtual Light Synthesisers were the first versions, and Psychedelia, Colourspace and Trip-A-Tron are available for download for various 8 and 16 bit computer systems from the Llamasoft Archive web site.
The first VLM was on INMOS Transputers:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=842696 The site's down at the mo.
The Jaguar VLM was the next VLM and came built into the CD Player add on for the Atari Jaguar.
Atari's Virtual Light Machine (VLM), is a sound to light hardware/software combo that was intrinsically part of the Jaguar CD add-on unit. It synthesized interactive abstract light patterns based on the audio data in the CD. It has 81 effects, and although it's not a documented feature, you'll be pleased to know that you can edit the effect settings on the VLM, although saving them is not an option, as this feature was used essentially for debugging. Look here for moredetails:
http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/atari/ ... tions.html
http://www.audiovisualizers.com/toolsha ... m_hack.txt
The next iteration of the VLM was only available on Nuon DVD players such as the Samsung N501, N504 and N505. Look here for all you need to know:
http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=9490
and here:
http://members.cox.net/jfuture/vlmjournal1.htm
Okay, so where next for the VLM?
Llamasoft have just finished the latest lightsynth for the new Xbox 360 console. The lightsynth uses a programming system called Neon, which will also enable other software, including games to be created from it.
7. Is there a complete list of Llamasoft games available anywhere?
You know, I'm sure there is somewhere, but can I find it?
Try the Llamasoft Archive Downloads Section.
Other links:
http://www.llamasoftarchive.org/
http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/
8. Can I play old Llamasoft games on emulators then?
Yes you can. Yak has very kindly made the entire Llamasoft back catalogue freely available for emulation purposes. You can download the individual games from the archive site mentioned above.
13. Who was Flossie?
Flossie was the prettiest sheepie in the world. We will all miss her, but her spirit lives on.
Yak has these animals at his residence at the moment:
5 Sheep: Shaggy, Shy, Ginger, Ewenity and Butterbean.
1 Goat: Alice
2 Llamas: Maya and Iki
1 Dog: Vindy (named after the curry)
All of the animals are particularly fond of McVities Digestive Biscuits.
Nobody post in here please.
If you want to add/suggest something, please post in another thread in Bleatings. Thank ewe.