Talk:Jeff Minter

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[edit] VfD discussion from March 2004

Vanity page. Even though I edited this page long ago, looking at his body of work, it is not notable and the entry was probably created by Minter himself (written by anon user). If he were notable, it'd be a valid entry. But I can't see that he is or even was. —Frecklefoot 14:59, Mar 29, 2004 (UTC)

  • Keep. 10,000 hits as game designer. Niteowlneils 17:09, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. Not significant???? Jeff Minter is a god! To think he's insignificant, you'd have to be... ooh, American or something. Search Google.uk for his name, on the other hand... Average Earthman 17:16, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. Jeff Minter is a legend. To delete his entry, 75% of the listed game designers (anyone who's not a Sid Meier or a Miyamoto) would have to go as well. Not notable? See Slashdot's articles of today (March 29). Dehumanizer 17:29, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep - the above arguments aside, Exploding sheep links to him. And if that's not justification for inclusion, I don't know what is -- Cyrius | (talk) 17:56, Mar 29, 2004 (UTC)
  • Okay, I relent. However, his body of work is rather spurious. Just looking at the entry, I couldn't find one title I could recognize (and I've been a gamer for 26 years). It just looked like vanity to me. I'll remove the VfD message, but I don't agree that he is as notable as his article claims. Most of his titles were knock-offs of popular games and I can't find any that had any significant impact on the industry or game design as a whole. —Frecklefoot 18:55, Mar 29, 2004 (UTC)
    • I don't think games designers need to have penetrated the US games market in order to have articles here. Minter is very famous in the UK. Morwen 19:42, Mar 29, 2004 (UTC)
      • I don't think locality has anything to do with it. I'm sure Sid Meier is recognized in the UK. Peter Molyneux is well-known here, as well as several UK-based game development companies. Minter just doesn't show up on the radar. —Frecklefoot 21:56, Mar 29, 2004 (UTC)
        • Minter's games, except perhaps Tempest 2000 and the upcoming Unity, aren't "mainstream". Most of the world isn't ready for games with llamas, sheep and camels. :) But those who know him, love him and his games. Dehumanizer 22:34, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Definite keep. Minter is instantly recognizable for anyone who grew up in the UK playing on Vic-20s and C64s. -- DrBob 22:41, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. Minter is well-known and loved in the UK for his eccentric and original games. — Gdr 14:53, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. A reasonably important part of the game business in general -- Wirehead 21:53, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. Jeff Minter was a highly significant figure in the games industry in the 80's, and well worthy of a wiki writeup. Stormie 05:42, Mar 31, 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. Minter didn't really play the games industry in the commercial sense that we know now. He always writes games for the fun of it, not for the money. This may have led him to have had less notoriety than most, but he certainly was well known in the 1980's (and even in to the 1990's). Kabads
  • Keep. Your personal unfamiliarity with him is your problem. Jeff Minter pioneered light synthesizers, direct forebearer of all "visualisations" found in every single media player. That seems massively significant, IMHO. Microsoft knew so because they hired Jeff Minter, the pioneer of the whole genre, to create the light synth / visualisation that's hard-wired into the X-box 360 console. When Atari released their 64-bit Jaguar console, they also turned to Minter to supply the obligatory "free game". Also significant is that Minter was among the early shareware pioneers, proving the viability of the concept. In the UK, he was a programming superstar in the '80s and, unlike most of the others, he still produces work and still has a following - significant industry reputation - and still is involved with serious and important projects (Jaguar, Nuon, X-box 360 that we're talking over a decade where the leading big industry names - Atari, Microsoft - all go to Minter first). Sorry, if you don't know Minter or think this pioneering programming superstar - who helped put visualisations into your media player and shareware onto your hard drive - doesn't qualify then you merely reveal your ignorance. He qualifies culturally, influentially and on actual technical innovations and pioneering work, across three decades and still going strong. If Minter doesn't qualify then no-one does. PetrochemicalPete 23:02, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
    • The article hasn't been up for deletion for two years... JIP | Talk 10:20, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks for B3TA interview lk

A resounding thank you! goes to User:Pritch for contributing the external link to the outright hilarious Minter netmeeting/interview held at the B3TA website! :)))) --Wernher 15:18, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Keep

Keep: Never heard of him? You will soon. His software is part of Microsofts new Xbox 360 console. The man is a legend.

Erm, look at the date on that VfD discussion. You're a bit late. ;) Sockatume 02:00, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Gosh, I'm still quite shocked about the initiator of the VfD two years ago. The guy has supposedly played digital games for 20++ years, been a worker in the games industry and written a lot of Wikipedia articles about classical computer/video games, and has STILL managed to completely miss Minter's work. Perhaps this indicates that the difference between the European and American gaming cultures in the 1980s was more profound than usually thought. --Viznut 08:54, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I dont think it was. UK games like Elite were well known from at least 1984 for their quality, and Mastertronic games were widely available here for cheap. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk) 19:16, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Jeff Minter games category?

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but would it be appropriate to start a category just for Minter games, seeing as how they're an important aspect of computer games history and all connected by a single unique creative vision? I seem to recall he's released about 30 in total, so there are plenty to be written about. --Thoughtcat 16:30, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. JIP | Talk 09:44, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nuon Work

Minter's interview in an issue of Edge ages ago (this was long before Unity) stated that he was responsible to some degree for the design of the Nuon hardware itself, and not just Tempest 3000. He talked about how it was an interesting new challenge. Anybody got the issue? No. 95 I think. Sockatume 01:11, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The early years.

Not sure how to correctly edit this page, so I thought I would just put in the info I have, and let someone else correct the real page.

In Home Computing Weekly Issue 4, March 29-April 4th 1983 on page 11 it has a article on Jeff minter (Who was quite well known by most kids of the 80's who used commodores, or read computer magazines. Even I had heard of him, and I was a Sinclair Guy...)

The article states [start partial quote from article] "Business Born in Bed" Jeff Minter was so bored at being forced by illness to spend three months on his back that he learned programming. Now in partnership with his mother he has 20 games on sale for the ZX81, VIC-20, Atari, Spectrum and Commodore 64. Jeff, 20, was due to return to his physics studies at the University of East Anglia in January. But he will not be going back now. His mother, Hazel, said: "He was on his back from November to January so he decided to learn computing. He already had an interest in it." ... [end partial quote] there is more to the article, but the main point is the above does not agree with the early years section on the wikipedia entry. 86.156.206.197 03:37, 6 September 2007 (UTC) ken