Uploaded March 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Llamatron was released in 1991 by Llamasoft and in case that you can't guess, this is a Jeff Minter game. It was initially put out for the Atari ST with ports to the Amiga and DOS PC coming later. The game is a shareware title and the ST version that I was most familiar with came on a cover disk for ST Format Issue 24.
The game is an obvious rip-off of the arcade classic shooter Robotron: 2084, just with the lead character being a llama and the enemies being an assortment of strange beings from green exploding hedgehogs, toilets that shoot toilet paper, blue brains that create green zombie llamas and a multi coloured Mandelbrot fractal that is one of the toughest enemies to beat. The simple task of each single screen level is to simply wipe out all the enemies before they get you. Along the way you also have to rescue your animal friends wandering around the stage and will start to follow you about. This is entirely optional as it’s only a way to gain more points, which ultimately is what the game is about.
The game is unfortunately single player only and is controlled as you’d expect via the joystick. The Llama automatically shoots the direction that he is facing, but you can hold the direction that you are currently facing by holding down the fire button. If you want to replicate the true arcade experience then the developers have nicely put in an option to allow for two joysticks for one player. What this is trying to replicate is a duel disk control scheme with one stick controlling movement and another the direction you are firing in. This is a great feature to have, I couldn’t tell you how many times I wanted to shoot the swarm of enemies directly behind me but couldn’t due to my one joystick setup. Unfortunately I can’t actually test this mode as I only have one working joystick at the moment with the other one busted (it has trouble going right).
Gameplay is fast paced and more often than not you’ll die if you stand still as a one hit kill system combined with the large amount of enemies who want you dead means that you are constantly on your toes. You don’t even get a few seconds of invulnerability after you die. There are power ups hidden throughout each stage, however unfortunately you lose them between each level. Whilst the game is tough and unforgiving, I didn’t find it frustrating. The controls are spot on and the title is enjoyable enough to want to give it another go, just to get that little bit further.
I’ll be honest I’ve never finished this game and to be honest I don’t think I ever will. There are 100 levels and I struggle to get even a quarter of the way there. There are so many enemies on screen at any one time the whole thing becomes complete anarchy and often your llama will escape death by a near fingernail from the menacing red exploding mushroom that is hunting you down with hundreds of his best buddies.
If you're interested in seeing more retro or current game videos then feel free to subscribe or check out some of my playlists:
Atari ST: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzF1WNCk2yjFs9SNEZUf6o3
Sega Mega Drive: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzY6iR6W6cRsFRt7zUlgHIE
Sega Master System: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfySbjh71hXweL28cqu-DbR5
Windows PC: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfxkkqPP6dWcSarH94BPrbvr
Llamatron was released in 1991 by Llamasoft and in case that you can't guess, this is a Jeff Minter game. It was initially put out for the Atari ST with ports to the Amiga and DOS PC coming later. The game is a shareware title and the ST version that I was most familiar with came on a cover disk for ST Format Issue 24.
The game is an obvious rip-off of the arcade classic shooter Robotron: 2084, just with the lead character being a llama and the enemies being an assortment of strange beings from green exploding hedgehogs, toilets that shoot toilet paper, blue brains that create green zombie llamas and a multi coloured Mandelbrot fractal that is one of the toughest enemies to beat. The simple task of each single screen level is to simply wipe out all the enemies before they get you. Along the way you also have to rescue your animal friends wandering around the stage and will start to follow you about. This is entirely optional as it’s only a way to gain more points, which ultimately is what the game is about.
The game is unfortunately single player only and is controlled as you’d expect via the joystick. The Llama automatically shoots the direction that he is facing, but you can hold the direction that you are currently facing by holding down the fire button. If you want to replicate the true arcade experience then the developers have nicely put in an option to allow for two joysticks for one player. What this is trying to replicate is a duel disk control scheme with one stick controlling movement and another the direction you are firing in. This is a great feature to have, I couldn’t tell you how many times I wanted to shoot the swarm of enemies directly behind me but couldn’t due to my one joystick setup. Unfortunately I can’t actually test this mode as I only have one working joystick at the moment with the other one busted (it has trouble going right).
Gameplay is fast paced and more often than not you’ll die if you stand still as a one hit kill system combined with the large amount of enemies who want you dead means that you are constantly on your toes. You don’t even get a few seconds of invulnerability after you die. There are power ups hidden throughout each stage, however unfortunately you lose them between each level. Whilst the game is tough and unforgiving, I didn’t find it frustrating. The controls are spot on and the title is enjoyable enough to want to give it another go, just to get that little bit further.
I’ll be honest I’ve never finished this game and to be honest I don’t think I ever will. There are 100 levels and I struggle to get even a quarter of the way there. There are so many enemies on screen at any one time the whole thing becomes complete anarchy and often your llama will escape death by a near fingernail from the menacing red exploding mushroom that is hunting you down with hundreds of his best buddies.
If you're interested in seeing more retro or current game videos then feel free to subscribe or check out some of my playlists:
Atari ST: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzF1WNCk2yjFs9SNEZUf6o3
Sega Mega Drive: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzY6iR6W6cRsFRt7zUlgHIE
Sega Master System: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfySbjh71hXweL28cqu-DbR5
Windows PC: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfxkkqPP6dWcSarH94BPrbvr
