Interview
Handle: Jeff Minter a.k.a. Y a K - Homepage
How did you come up with your alias ?
Well, YAK was a furry beastie that would fit into the 3 letters that you used to be allowed on high score tables... and I like my furry beasties... so it kinda stuck :-)
City / Country:
Currently somewhere near Watsonville, CA., USA
Born year:
1962
What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
Sinclair ZX80, got it in 1980. I had been hacking on a Commodore PET at college prior to that though.
How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
Well, I used to write games for me mates at college, and when I eventually got my own computers it seemed like the thing to do. Did a few games on the ZX80 and ZX81, but really got into it when I got my VIC-20, which is when I started Llamasoft. After that, people kept buyin' the games so I kept writin' them... I was never in any of the cracking groups, although I did get into the online demo scene on Compunet...
What was the proudest moment in your career ?
Ummm... probably the time I hired the London Planetarium for a party to llaunch one of my lightsynths. That was a total blast and a wicked party.
For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
Hopefully for creating some playable games, for developing the idea of the light synthesiser, and for having a somewhat unusual affinity for beasties :-)
What would you like to be remembered for ?
Good games. Good lightsynths.
What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
Kinda fell out of the Commodore scene when new hardware showed up and I moved on to the 16-bit systems... around the mid-80s I suppose... I think my llast Commodore game was in 1987. After that moved into the ST/Amiga scene and beyond...
Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
yeah, it was much more *fun* back then, less of a huge industry, a lot more scope for creative individuals to make a mark, and the emphasis was on originality of design... now all you tend to see is endless variations on DOOM, fighting games and bloody driving games. The games scene has got a bit boring. New ideas are needed (and I have a few :-))
What was your favorite
GAME(S)
ohhh... just about anything by AEB or TC, somea the early Lucasfilm stuff like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus, Thrust (God, I used to run 4 Commodores at once at my house so that me and my mates could play Thrust continuously [thinx: must ftp to a good archive site and d/l that for the C64 emu]), Sentinel by Geoff Crammond (that was a great game, cool and unusual design), Space Taxi (silly game, a lot of fun)... Encounter, DropZone...
DEMO(S)
hard to remember, saw so many... one trivial little demo that I really liked was one that TC once did in half an hour while we were up on Compunet that featured someone who looked quite a lot like me having intimate relations with a llama :-)
PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
AEB (Andy Braybrook), TC (Tony Crowther), Geoff Crammond, Paul Woakes, Archer Maclean... boss koderz all...
CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
definitely The Yak Society (which was basically a mate of mine who used to live in Norfolk, a cool guy and a top hacker called Aaron Liddiment). Even if he did crack somea my games! (g)
OVERALL GROUPS :
Oh... the guys I used to hang around with on Compunet... and the Llondon Llamasofties who I would always party with whenever I was doing shows in London.
COMPOSER(S)
Rob Hubbard... and that guy whose name I have forgotten now but who used to do the tunez for TC's games, he was pretty hot. But Hubbard was the king.
BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
Mosta Rob's tracks were pretty spot-on. Buggered if I can remember specific highlights now though... it's been awhile since I heard a SID chip...
BEST GRAPHICS
Mo Warden, who did some top stuff for me.. and TC was a pretty cool artist as well as a top koder.
EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY)
definitely all the London shows that we used to do... hanging out with everyone, playing the games, going out to the Laserium in the evenings, smoking a lot of pot and drinking a lot of beer... those days were tremendous fun.
MEMORY(S)
hehe... loadsa those.. that London Planetarium bash, going to Egypt on Concorde with the winner of our Revenge of the Mutant Camels hi-score competition, late nights playing Thrust back in the Yaklab, hanging out on Compunet with the regulars until it shut down in the wee small hours... hacking games at night and skiing all day out at my place in France...
DRINK ?
Definitely Inca Kola, which I got addicted to when I was in Peru, and which I can now get again, thanks to the US being such a polyethnic society - there are a few South American specialist supermarkets around that sell the Golden Kola. And, of course, copious amounts of llovely, warm British bitter beer, which I sadly miss in the lland of the chilled Budweiser.
What are you doing nowadays ?
Some very interesting work at a startup here in Silicon Valley, involving a new chip architecture that will just blow ya away. Several orders of magnitude more powerful than the ol' 6502 in the Commodore :-)
What are you doing on your spare time?
The usual.. playing games, hanging out on the net, going skiing, driving around in my MX5, going down the pub (although it is not exactly local, being 15 miles away, it is at least British)... hanging out with llamas when I get the opportunity, and traveling, when I get the chance... expanding my already colossal CD collection... just recently, tracking down some of those old Commodore games on the net and playing them on the emulator :-)
Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
You ain't seen nothing yet :-)
What is the meaning of life?
Harm no-one, but have a blast.

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    (:-) - the Beastly Boanthrope
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