E3 2005: Minter's madness on Xbox 360

News - Neon bundle mooted

A side-project veteran developer Jeff Minter has been working on for twenty-years will be included in the Xbox 360 firmware, the designer confirmed today. Based on 1984 classic 'Psychedelia', Minter's 'light synthesiser' program can be controlled by up to four joypads or will generate ambient or insane visual symphonies based on music. Minter's own Llamasoft studio are behind the project, something of a coup for the British firm given the scale of the Xbox 360 launch.

Twenty years on, Psychedelia has become Neon, and is apparently "capable of generating anything from soothing ambient swirls to strobing multicolour explosions," whilst demonstrating the power of the Xbox 360 to dramatic effect. "Without giving any secrets away and getting myself into trouble with Microsoft," beams Minter, "I can tell you that the Xbox 360 can bring to bear an absolutely *staggering* amount of computational power on each and every pixel, and never drop below 60 frames a second."

Minter goes on to describe the 360 as a 'monster', before waxing lyrical on the joy of seeing his creation reaching such a wide audience. It's good to see his twenty years of tinkering and waiting paying-off. More on this soon.