The answer to that is: I hope not, and I don't feel that I have; I guess I have had to compromise to an extent, and have had to modify the idealistic stance that I maintained so fiercely back in the glory days. Read the Brief History of Llamasoft, if you want to have some idea of the change in the games scene which has persuaded me to do this. My main reason for the compromise is so that I can carry on writing games and developing interesting software, and also stand a decent chance of getting it published sufficiently well that it'll reach a wide audience.
I guess that if I am to ally myself with anyone, it would be Atari. I don't care much for Trip Hawkins, and I couldn't ever see myself working for the Segas and Nintendos of this world, in the kind of environment where you've got to have everything storyboarded to the hilt before you write a drop of code. Atari allow me to carry on much as I have done before - namely, to work in my own place, in my own time, and llargely to write a game in my own way. They trust me to do the work and deliver the goods without having to go sit in an office and be there at nine in the morning and cease at five. They have also given me the pleasure of working on some great hardware, and the privilege of working with some of the best classic game designs ever, with the freedom to bring them to a new generation along with a generous dose of Yakly spin. And they let me keep the llamas and yaks in the games. Atari have also enabled me, after ten years of development, to bring forth the first mass-market implementation of the lightsynth concept.
Llamasoft has a long history of championing the Tramiel-produced machines, through the Vic-20, the C64, the Atari ST and Falcon - indeed some of the guys who I'm hanging around with out here had a hand in the design of that original PET which first dragged me by the horns into this whole weird, exhilarating, sometimes frustrating biz in the first place..
Over the years Llamasoft has had an increasing amount of dealings with Atari, and the guys at Atari seem to enjoy the kind of stuff Llamasoft produce. I can still remember an enthusiastic Leonard Tramiel bringing people over to see an early Colourspace version at the first Comdex show at which the ST appeared in force. We worked with Atari UK on Photon Storm and Defender ][, but I suppose things really started to fall into place for the current setup when I was asked to do Llamazap on the Falcon. It was the first time I got to work with my current producer, John Skruch, who is an excellent dude, and knows how to coax the best out of me. Then, when the Jaguar came along I fell for it, totally; and Atari offered me the chance to bring up to date one of my all-time favourite classic game designs, Tempest. The results, most people would agree, weren't too shabby.
So, Atari gave me the shot I needed to complete my return from the wilderness and back to the mainstream. Sure, the Jag is not as mainstream as the Snes or the Sega, but it's getting well-established now, and if my games can help the success of the machine I'll be happy. Thanks to Atari giving me that break, the name of the Yak is known by people who never had a C64 or an ST, and there are a few more people on the planet thinking about llamas.
Why the move to Sunnyvale? Well, it's convenient for me to be within striking distance of Atari, as I work with Atari graphic artists and game testers; and it's a lot easier for me to explain how things are progressing to my producer when I can nip in and demonstrate the latest version of the game and discuss things face to face. The feedback loop is tightened. There was just not enough bandwidth in the modem link between my remote Welsh valley and the bunker in Borregas Avenue. I won't be in this apartment for too long, I intend to move out to the hills somewhere around here and live with a llama. I'll still have a degree of rural isolation and a beastie, yet I'll be close enough to Atari to do the things I mentioned. Which isn't to say that I don't miss Wales - I do, a lot. I can definitely see myself returning there in a few years' time. I miss my local pub, I miss the friends I left behind there, and oh, how I miss Flossie the Prettiest Sheep in the World....
What is to become of Llamasoft? It will continue to exist, to deal with the shareware products, and will receive income from royalties on games that I produce here. Llamasoft will be the entity through which I undertake any non-Atari projects - for example I may do some more shareware one of these days. And, when my time at Atari ends, Llamasoft will be my representation for whatever else I may then go on to do. Fear not, the fluffy beastie is not yet dead.
So don't worry. The llamas may be emerging from a different stable but they're going to be around for a long while to come.