HEART OF NEON (A Jeff Minter Documentary) Trailers & BCB Interview Promos, Nov 2023 - Jan 2024

have you played atari today? you are watching ballistik coffee boy I want my games to feel like the 1980s arcade  room you know that feeling when you walk in and there's just all these sounds going off all  around you that's what I went to sound like playing gridrunner cuz it's supposed to be  an a evocation of an arcade game that never existed video games are pretty much all  I've ever done I've been in it for the duration really I've been an Enthusiast ever  since they first became available t

he stuff I do I it's quite quite fair to call it  neor retro because it it takes a lot of the ethos and design philosopy from retro  games the kind of games I design are not really games full of narrative and not  telling a story as such it's all about feeling Jeff make eccentric almost  esoteric spins on a type of gaml that is too easily discarded  as being oldfashioned IE arcade games it's noticeable when I discuss arcade  games with students or people on mentoring that they don't have an unde

rstanding of  that because they don't really exist anym from the 8 Bits through the 16 bits  till the present day Jeff always kind of stayed doing his own thing because he's  got this vision of what he wants to [Music] [Music] make when I was 13 or maybe  younger than that remember but lying in the dark listening to music  and in my head I would imagine like sort of abstract geometric shapes sort  of doing stuff in time to the music [Music] I was like 14 years old sitting there daying in my  Eng

lish class you know people D dream about being a rockar and playing the guitar on the stage I  was D dreaming about doing something I didn't quite know what but with big screens with stuff  happening on them and lights going [Music] off it's just there as part of my imagination it's  a kind of voluntary synesthesia maybe you call it and I always wanted one day to make a machine  that would let me somehow perform these things that I have in my head and put them out on a  screen for other people t

o see after I've been doing video games for a while I just thought  why don't I try making this light instrument and that became this four player interactive  light syn and that could have been the start of something extraordinary the main problem was  that I could never sell it because nobody knows they want it and they won't know they want  it until they've actually tried it so in the end the only way I've been able to develop the  techniques is by bringing it into video [Music] guys Jeff M he

an indie video game Legend  he's been around the industry for many years and still makes Artful games that  have influenced a great number of people Jeff has been right at the top of  his game for over 40 years now how many other people in any industry if you named it have  been at the top of their game for that amount of time 80% of my life has been playing  appreciating making as well um um games and I can't name anyone else  but Jeff still doing his own stuff sometimes to his detriment but t

o the  benefit of all of us he's not really giving the monkeys about the markting side he doesn't  really care what's fashionable he's not chasing some weird piece of Fame he just wants to make  really good games everything Jeff creates is is Jeff in a game unashamedly there is no attempt  to be anything else other than here is a thing I thought was cool here is an idea I thought you  might enjoy what is's making and stuff he makes out of love and that's always been present  in everything that h

e does you can see this evolution of his ideas going through his work I  think it's just a really fascinating care to look at you know he just makes games at his cool  that's what he does he can't help it you know and he's absolutely unbelievably skilled of what  he does and he's expressing that by making things his career is a life affirming powerful profound  expression of what video game culture could be the simpler humbler more modest sense of just sharing  and creating and making games for

the pleasure of [Music] it [Music] basically there was Retro Gaming event  called or it it was a Commodore I I don't want to square on the show it was a Commodore game event  and the people who were running the event invited the filmmaker over of the documentary heart  of neon which is the Jeff Minter documentary that I'm writing the music for so they flying the  film maker over Paul docky and Paul's like to me you've got to be there as well because we want to  screen the intro to the movie and

then Jeff mint is going to be there Giles is goingon to be there  we're going to do a Q&A afterwards so I got to go along and it it was it was all really weird sorry  I'm not religious or anything like that but it was really weird because my mom passed away last  year and it happened this year on her birthday this event happened on her birthday which was like  really really weird and I I basically I went along and I I I was hanging with the the filmmaker who  I'd been working with for the last f

ew years and then Jeff M turned up and Gil so I was introduced  to them Jeff is like my you one of my heroes so I was really really nervous and all this happened  on my mom's birthday and I was like this is the craziest thing W so it it was so good so so the  filmmaker said to me he's like I'm going to do this 30 minute intro for the movie we're going to  screen the the the the first 30 minutes and then he said to me bear in mind Jeff is like a massive  hero of mine he says to me can while this

is going on can you Wrangle Jeff and Giles and get them  ready to come into the Q&A so I was so nervous Wrangle so I know so I was standing outside  this packed room this room was packed and I was like oh my God so the screen started just  Paul did the intro the screening of the first 30 minutes started and next minute Jeff and Giles  just wandered over just hung out with me outside this room so Jes was talking to someone else but  I got like this 30 minutes of just like chatting to Jeff and it

was just literally it was like it  was exactly like we were talking was like oh my God you know grid Runner absolutely loved 10 plus  2000 I spent so many hours playing that game I in fact I played that game and this is what I said to  I've played that game so much that there's times when I turned off the Jag walked away and I could  still see the tunnels and and he was like that's amazing but he was just telling me these stories  and we got on to how did Jeff Minter get that part in Black Mirro

r band snatch yes as well and  he's just like turns out um Charlie Brooker is a big fan of Jeff mters and he got his people just  to get in touch with Jeff and say do you want to part in this you'd be ideal you need to play the  crazy game designer and all that it was just like and Jeff's just telling me all this like it was  great and then the Q&A happened and then we got to hang out a bit more afterwards and then the  following day we got to screen the current edit of the entire movie to Jeff

and to Giles as  well so there was just Jeff Giles me and Paul in a room and it was it was nerve-wracking but  it was amazing and Jeff and Giles really liked it and there was there was so so bear in mind you  know he I I loved his games and he's such a great person and we're screening this movie and I can  see Jeff and I can see Giles tapping their feet to my music as I'm sitting there thinking oh my  God this you know it was it was it was just like an incredible weekend and then after that they

  needed a lift back to the the train station so I was like I I'll do it so I got taken to the  train station so the can get back to Wales and get back to the LL and the donkey and the sheep  and yeah yeah exactly so we had this amazing sort of drive back oh wow centry ra railway station  and we were just talking about everything it was just amazing it was just like this is what  a great weekend I get to meet you know one of my heroes I just talked to Paul uh doy the director  editor of Heart of

neon uh that's going to come out on the first I think and Brilliant yeah we  had a cool conversation earlier and uh about about you know working on this documentary and  um uh it sounds amazing I can't wait to see it it it although although I'm working on it it is  amazing let me tell you honestly I mean I've been looky enough to to watch so many different edits  of the the the the the movie as get it tightened up and it's it's it's just brilliant which  is which is great and then the big news

is um there's footage from horse of naon in the next  digital Eclipse release the gold Master Series in fact that's great timing because right behind  you is Jeff Minter I can see Jeff Minter right behind he perfect timing so it's llas off the Jeff  Minter story 40 I think it's 43 of his games whole load of information plus over an hour's worth of  footage from Paul which features my music as well I'm going to be releasing an album uh to coincide  with the release of of that as well so there'll

be a the album The llamasoft the Jeff Min Story  Album will be out H as well so it's been really exciting we've been working on it for quite a  while all this footage is slightly different edits to what is in heart of neon so you kind  of seeing slightly different stuff in there as well which makes it even more exciting and even  more collectible and was just I just I couldn't wait for the announcement earlier this week oh no  it was last last week was it this week no it was this oh my God I los

t right it was Wednesday uh  just gone I mean I know this is going out in the future but it was uh I was so excited for digital  Eclipse to tell the world that this is coming how did you feel when you discovered the next goldm  series is going to be Jeff Minter stuff I just couldn't believe it I was like well this is a good  timing I didn't know so it's we're all I know you probably couldn't say anything but at the time  but it was yeah I was like wow this is just what I was asking for because I

was talking to Paul  about this a lot of people in the states don't really know Jeff mentor's full catalog of work  yeah and that's just true and I'm I'm not sure if he understood that but I was trying to get  across in England you know he's well known and yeah um over here a lot of people would might have  to research it and go oh Tempest 2000 you know and that probably the first thing they would say but  you know he's put out such great content for 40 plus years now and on every system imagin

able um  you know including the iPhone even so uh you know just just everything and and and I've only played  a small percentage of these games because you know you can't really find them anywhere um he was  telling me that that that um he might have some on Steam um I'm not much of a steam player I like  I tend to stick with consoles so but um you know I yeah yeah I do play tippis 4,000 all the time  on my Xbox so yeah I play that on my PlayStation a lot um on Steam I think um the enhanced grid

  Runner is it called grid Runner plus plus is on there and space giraffes on there it's probably  all the the more recent ones like the the more recent Tempest the Moose life um AFA R and stuff  like that so there is a lot there but the digital Eclipse one is going right back to the the zx8 one  the Spectrum Commodore 64 and it although there's not a whole load of material it's all the well  a lot of the Atari stuff is on there so there's the Atari 8 Bits the Atari 16 bits the Atari Jag  um as

well which is great so it's just yeah it's just amazing it's just so exciting I couldn't  say anything me and Paul have been working on this for quite a while I was obviously stuck into  the music I mean basically um dig digital Eclipse you know wanted certain things from from the  videos to tell that story so and Paul worked really hard to sort of re-edit those bits for  them and then I had to work on the music H so a lot of work's gone into it and from what we've  seen so far it looks really r

eally good and uh I just can't wait to to get it I mean I'm not  sure the release date at the moment but I'm hoping first quarter of 20124 yeah along with B  of neon as well so 2024 is going to be the year of Jeff the year the Year of the Llama hopefully  so you know I mean it's great it's [Music] great have you been able to play all of his games  so far well I mean uh back when I first started uh so I started making this film in 2017 and then  there was a a started to engage like social media a

bit uh um to promote the film back in 2019  and I for for a year for 12 months I played a Jeff Minter game a day on Twitch um with special  exceptions being uh I played my two favorites uh on Wednesdays and Sundays Wednesday was aedis  Alpha on Corner 64 and Sundays was Tempest 2000 um I got pretty good at Tempest 2000 so so I  played I didn't do the Spectrum stuff or the ZX 81 stuff but everything else I played at least  once um that's just so much stuff just so much stuff four Decades of it f

avorites that like stand  out that you oh I mean like I said idus Alpha was my favorite Corner 64 game um I mean I I go around  and tell people that I wasn't really a fan of Jeff before I started making this film but that's not  strictly true I did get a comer 64 in anticipation of playing his games because I had anpal and cheap  in space on cassette before the com 64 showed up so I was ready um but um VI Alpha was the one  it was so blindingly fast and fly difficult and it's something about Jef

f's games where they are  difficult or can be but they they're not they sort of invite you to try harder so I've always been  trying trying to beat that game it's tough uh and Tempest 2000 um I wanted the goal for me was to  do the long run to to start at the beginning and go way to the end and I've gotten I never Managed  IT I got up to 70 something that's that's a long time I mean it's five minute five minutes a level  it's a long time yeah um but but I got okay I got okay at it it was my my f

inest my proudest moment  when I was doing interviews for the film and I was speaking to uh jedar Jim mcau he uh he said y yeah  I love playing temp 2000 I'm not as good as you are though and I went hey I'm better than jedra  that's great so um uh and his new stuff I mean every time Jeff releases a game there's something  magical in it you know maybe not everyone is as much of a slam dunk but uh I mean uh moose life  there this there's there's no way I can talk about moose life without sounding

like I'm a lunatic  this this I was playing it to begin with and it there's something about it's not I wasn't playing  in VR I wasn't playing in some special setup I was just sitting here in my chair and uh it felt  like I was in an 80s arcade there's something about it that really captures that atmosphere the  sound effects the way that the graphics move just the way draws you in yeah sound like a lunatic  right it's it's fantastic there's something about Jeff that's that's old and new at the s

ame time he  captures he's wanted to communicate these feelings that he had when he was playing uh standup arcades  in like the late 70s early 80s and put that into everything that he does today with new technology  and it's it's um it's sort of like Alchemy it's great I'm like I wasn't wasn't a hardcore fan  before the film I am that he's he's a fantastic he's he's a wizard he is he's creating magic yes  that's awesome uh so what was your uh obviously you you've met with Jeff because you know h

e doing  this film about him um what was the first meeting like you had with him for the movie was it um had  you guys met already before or was it um you want to talk about that about when you guys first  met so um yeah it was we had a mutual friend um somebody I used to work with back in the day  who's close friends with Jeff now he uh put me in touch with him when we spoke on Zoom for the  first time just to you know get Jeff's blessing um he said yes basically straight away and then it  took

18 months to get to agree on a date where I could go visit him um so when I went there finally  to to um to Freehold not it's a small farm uh in Wales uh our mutual friend went with me it's sort  of like a a go- between to smooth things over just in case cuz you know Jeff and I hadn't actually  met before M and uh Jeff's a very welcoming uh thoughtful guy it was it was very nice he was it  was a big deal because he was letting me into his private space this stranger with a camera and  a microph

one um I tried to keep my my film kit as as small and discreet as possible I didn't  want to be going in there with a huge camera on my shoulder um because you know it's a small  place and he doesn't need a huge 4k camera shoved in his face so it was um so it ended up being the  first day we just sort of hung out and played some games and went out for the traditional curry went  out for some drinks and played some pool and then we came back um yeah the first night the the the  most this one of t

he most memorable parts of the entire trip they uh they showed me um pus uh in  VR because I don't have VR set up myself and um so I'm playing VR version of pbus with Jeff sitting  right next to me that was something absolutely something else I can remember like sitting  there daydreaming in my English class when I was like 14 years old and I'd been listening to  Pink Floyd and you know people ding about being a a you rockar and playing the guitar on the  stage I was ding about about doing somet

hing I didn't quite know what but with big screens with  stuff happening on them and lights going [Music] off Dark Side of the Moon that absolutely blew  me away the music was just say different it felt like a journey I remember lying  in my in my bedroom in the dark and listening to On the Run and it was  just like wow this is absolutely fantastic the Fast Wind this thing  here I can't remember how many years it's been since even seen that thing one one used [Music] it and in my head I would im

agine like  sort of abstract geometric shapes sort of doing stuff in times of the music I'm sure that is the  that's the Genesis of the whole license thing which became you know another another thread of  my career [Music] really I wanted to be able to externalize the things that I used to imagine in  my head where I listen to Pink Floyd and at first even when I was programming games that didn't  really occur to me that I I would could use the computer to do [Music] that and he he had a  definit

e goal in mind this was the like a backdrop to live band you know on a big screen and in some  ways I mean I I didn't grasp the whole concept of it because it was it was very personal to him and  probably still there was something purer and more Noble in making a performance instrument than  there was in making something that was entirely passive that you just sat back and put the music  on on fold your arms and watch it that to me the the the act of interacting with it was like  a little Act of

dancing if you like and it was almost like a a a dance you could do that  created some other stuff that would go into the space other people could see uh this is something  which we the peak of that came in 2002 when we took the the what was then the uh the GameCube  light synth VM 3.5 and took it down to the war records Christmas road with wireless controllers  we passed out the controllers to people in the audience said look there's the projection on  the wall there's the controller you're no

w in control take it away dance with it he made an  awesome set of technology that you could play as an [Music] instrument a lot time and effort went  into that with his friends testing it over the weekend and flying it you know cuz that that was  that's what it was you're flying this thing you in his barn a big projector some great chins like  someone probably DJing as well a bunch of people with controllers making this this this interactive  light show and like playing [Music] together I was l

ike I said to Jeff I said this is  incredible I can't believe what you made this is so [Music] special it was like an amazing  experience and then good came out of it you know it was ret and reused and ported and brought to  different platforms as well it was a thing open door that that to get the uh the gig for the Xbox  360 lights inside you say look this awesome thing here and then on your platform it'll be even more  awesome [Music] and in doing that I remember this cuz the the the code name

for the Xbox 360 with  Zen on we've got Zen on then we're going to be might as well be neon cuz we fit into the Xbox  360 we're a noble gas so you know why [Music] not it's the engine of what he makes  today like in a real literal sense as well [Music] when I was 13 or maybe  younger than that remember lying in the dark listening to music and in  my head I would imagine like sort of abstract geometric shapes sort  of doing stuff in times to the music I was like 14 years old sitting there  d in

my English class you know people D about being a rock star and playing the guitar on  the stage I was ding about doing something I didn't quite know what but with big screens  with stuff happening on them and lights going off it's just there as part of my imagination  it's a kind of voluntary synesthesia maybe you call it and I always wanted one day to make a  machine that would let me somehow perform these things that I have in my head and put them out on  a screen for other people to see after

I've been doing video games for a while I just thought  why don't I try making this light instrument and that became this four player interactive  light syn and that could have been the start of something extraordinary the main problem was  I could never sell it because nobody knows they want it and they won't know they want it  until they've actually tried it so in the end the only way I've been able to develop  the techniques is by bringing it into video [Music] guys Jeff Minter is's an India

n video  game Legend he's been around the industry for many years and still makes Artful games that  have influenced a great number of people [Music] Jeff has been right at the top of his  game for over 40 years now 80% of my life has been games and I can't name anyone else but  Jeff still doing his own stuff everything Jeff creates is is Jeff in a game what he's  making stuff he makes out of love Jeff has a Pur to his work it's always about the creation  it's always about the creative it's it's

never about the other stuff that comes along with  making something in a video game sense video games are his whole life but things have  changed around him the video game industry is worth something like $300 billion today  it's bigger than it's ever been most of that money is being controlled by the small number  of conglomerates they're not really interested in the kinds of smaller self-contained games said  Jeff makes and yet he survived how did he do that you are watching ballistik coffee

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