Jeff Minter, the reclusive developer of trippy and surreal arcade games like Storm 2000, space giraffe, and Polybiusannounced their next project: a “hypnotic new wave shooter” (surprise!) called Acre Depositcoming in early 2023 on Atari VCS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
Acre Deposit reunites Minter with Atari, the company he collaborated with on Storm 2000his dazzling 1994 reimagining of the 1981 vector graphics arcade game Storm. Minter and Atari then fell out, and the company effectively blocked the release of its spiritual sequel. TxK on some platforms. But it looks like current Atari boss Wade Rosen has straightened things out with the legendary coder.
Acre Depositdescribed by the press release as “a chaotic explosion of synthwave madness” and “a frenzied kaleidoscope of neon madness”, is an adaptation of an incredibly rare 1982 Atari arcade machine – a prototype that was tested but never fully released after players found it too difficult. Only three originals Acre Deposit cabinets are known to exist, but the game was recently made available as part of the 2022 compilation Atari 50: the anniversary celebration.
Minter, who lives in a remote part of rural Wales and has been making games since he was a teenager in the early 1980s, seems to have supercharged this vintage curiosity with his murky acid travel visuals, mischievous humor and chaotic energy. . It’s also not the first time he’s adapted a legendary lost arcade game – although the inspiration for Polybiusits 2017 VR shooter, was actually an entirely fictional urban legend.
