To the late free jazz composer Sun Ra, space wasn’t merely the place, but a metaphorical stage where he could claim to be an alien from Venus, dress like an Egyptian god, and geek out to an “arkestra” of cosmic sounds. A similar assessment can be made of Jeff Minter’s universe. Like so many of Minter’s games, Caverns of Minos (for iPhone) is set in outer space. But the locale is merely a reason for him to do his own thing—that is making seriously twisted takes on classic games. This mental version of Lunar Lander absolutely would not fly outside of Minter’s private la-la land. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
-Jason Johnson
