We spoke with developer Svein Berge, as well as another Svein Berge, about Twintris on the Amiga.
In 1990, the German publisher Digital Marketing released an Amiga game called Twintris. It was essentially an attempt to recreate the legendary puzzle game Tetris, but specifically inspired by Atari’s arcade version of Tetris. As a result, much of the focus was on two players competing against each other simultaneously on a split screen.
Twintris had several unique features
But Twintris is not just a simple clone. It was one of the first games in this genre where one player’s success had direct consequences for the opponent. When one player performed well, the other would ‘feel’ it through intense screen shaking, which hopefully turned up the heat a bit.
Twintris also had other unique features. The tetromino pieces didn’t ‘hop’ down the screen as if it were a giant grid; instead, they glided smoothly toward the bottom. In single-player mode, the game even introduced a campaign where, in later levels, predefined obstacles would appear on the board, quickly creating a sense of panic. The result is a game as addictive as its inspiration, and unlike most Tetris clones, it feels like it has a real reason to exist as its own thing.
However, Twintris was not a success. It reportedly sold only a handful of copies, and aside from a preview in the French gaming magazine Joystick, it doesn’t seem to have received any press coverage at launch. This was far from unique in an Amiga market flooded with games, but unlike the vast majority of obscure Amiga releases, Twintris wasn’t forgotten. Those who managed to get their hands on the game discovered it was incredibly fun, and it soon became a hit within the piracy scene.
The fact that it later appeared on the cover disk of an issue of the (surprisingly) popular gaming magazine Amiga Power also helped spread its reach. Today, Twintris is remembered as a true Amiga classic, with a reputation on par with games from the biggest publishers. Our own Martin Gjesdal is one of those who has fond memories of the game:
– Many people think of the Amiga as a multiplayer machine, but a lot of the games that supported multiple players were turn-based. Twintris could be played simultaneously and was incredibly fun and easy to get hooked on. I remember we held tournaments against each other, and went home to practice Twintris solo on our own Amigas. You’d get a special reward for a quadruple slam (as we called it), since it created a massive disruption for the other player.
The game was made in Norway
Twintris was created by the Norwegian Svein Berge. And no, not the Svein Berge who started Röyksopp with Torbjørn Brundtland – more on this later – but a namesake from Leira near Fagernes.
The story behind Twintris begins with a confirmation and a good purchase. Berge explains:
– It must have been in 1985 that the Amiga came to Fagernes. A computer store – the only computer store – had bought one machine that stood in their window and tempted passersbys. It was, of course, far too expensive for a young boy, but fortunately, the interest in this wonder machine was almost non-existent in Valdres. Thus, two lucky events occurred simultaneously: A teenager raked in Confirmation money, and an Amiga was offered for a quarter of the original price. This set the stage for years of nerdy bonanza, from 1987 to 1991. This was the very first Amiga model, later known as the Amiga 1000. It had 256 kB of RAM, with an expansion to 512 kB.
As with many Amiga users in Norway, it didn’t take long before Berge started doing more with his machine than playing games or writing school essays. He became interested in programming and thus ended up as part of the early demo scene. One thing led to another:
– To get the most out of the machine, it was necessary to acquire a hardware manual, a 68000 book, and an assembler. Equipped with these, it felt like you could create anything. After making some demos, tools, and sound software, my attention turned to the arcade machines in Fagernes. Valdres is not known for video games, so these machines represented something quite exotic, almost magical. The thought of being able to recreate something like this felt unreal, but at the same time almost achievable. Most of the games would take too long to make, but Tetris seemed manageable.
A summer in front of a computer screen
Thus, he got started, and the summer of 1989 was mostly spent in front of the screen with one goal in mind: to recreate the arcade version of Tetris, including the possibility for two players to play simultaneously. But with the basic mechanics in place, the game, which eventually got the name Twintris, began to take on its own twist:
– When I made this game, I had no ambitions to create something new – it was fascinating enough to be able to recreate something as foreign and magical as an arcade machine. But there was no point in making a 100% accurate copy, so there were some differences. The biggest was perhaps that the pieces moved smoothly instead of dropping down one row at a time. This probably came from my background in the demo scene. If there are such things as religious dogmas and commandments among demo programmers, the first and most important is that the screen must be updated for each frame. Pieces that stand still for several tenths of a second between each movement are dangerously close to blasphemy.
Svein Berge did most of the development on his own. The only thing he didn’t feel capable of doing himself was the music, and fortunately, he had contacts in the demo scene. Thus, Tor Gausen, who called himself “Walkman” in the demo scene, came into the picture:
– We hadn’t met each other, and I don’t remember how the contact was established, but there was a kind of network in the demo scene that we both belonged to. At this point, I had decided to try to sell the game – that’s what you did with games. So Tor and I negotiated a deal on the distribution of the income. It turned out there wasn’t much to distribute, and that’s the only thing that felt a bit sad in this whole story.
As you can understand, Twintris was not a sales success. But Berge made an honest attempt:
– This was the time for computer magazines, and sometime in 1988 or 1989, one of these magazines printed a world map with the names and addresses of the largest publishers of software for Amiga. So I copied a bunch of disks and letters that were sent out into the world. Back came polite rejections. Some sent back copies of their own games – those were probably the only original games I possessed, apart from the ones I made myself. These were, of course, duly cracked. Now I don’t remember if it was because I had developed a vague sense of morality or because these games were not entirely new releases, but these copies were at least not shared.
He continues:
– Several of the companies claimed that the rights to Tetris belonged to Mirrorsoft, and therefore they couldn’t publish the game. Later, documentaries have been made about Tetris and the complicated circumstances surrounding these rights. But this was 1990, there was still a year left before I would get internet access, and I was still a teenager. So all this was unknown to me. Naturally, I wrote to Mirrorsoft as well, but they were not interested.
Released in Germany (and Norway)
As previously mentioned, Twintris was released, though not by any of the publishers Berge had personally reached out to. Here’s how it happened:
– After a while, a letter appeared from a guy named Dieter Mückter. He ran a one-man company in Germany called Digital Marketing. He thought he could publish the game, and since I didn’t have many alternatives, I agreed. He reported a handful of sales once and sent a check. The bank clerk who was supposed to cash the check had such sympathy for me that she did the job for free. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been anything left.
Berge also sold some copies in Norway:
– I was allowed to sell the game myself in Norway and made an effort in that direction. First, I called the importer of Amiga software (I don’t remember their name) and asked if they wanted to sell the game. It didn’t go so well – this wasn’t the way they usually did business. So I asked Commodore Norway for a list of their dealers so I could bypass the importer, but they couldn’t give me that. For some reason, they instead agreed to send out a bunch of letters to the dealers for me. A few orders came in that way, and I sold some games at a couple of demo parties.
While the game’s lack of commercial success was sad, Berge has no hard feelings about it being embraced by pirates. After all, this helped ensure the game had a legacy, which he finds very amusing.
– As I hinted at, I wasn’t the most eager buyer of computer games myself, so it was never a surprise or annoyance that the game’s widest distribution was through informal channels.
Twintris was Berge’s first and last attempt at making commercial games, but it was still a useful experience:
– After Twintris was finished, I started studying. Whether I learned anything concrete from this project is hard to say. If nothing else, you got to know yourself. I have continued to work in much the same way since. Most of my projects involve a lot of programming and little teamwork. As I studied and learned how things are made in the real world, the original, intoxicating feeling of being able to create anything paradoxically faded. Most of the projects you could work on involved many people, long time horizons, and a lot of bureaucracy. But in recent years, the good feeling has started to come back. I enjoy makerspaces, like electronics design and FPGA programming. With this combination, you can create anything – it feels like. My latest project is called spcmic and is a microphone array for making 3D recordings of sound.
But … what about Röyksopp?
So back to this thing with Röyksopp. The rumor that it was namesake Svein Berge who created Twintris has been surprisingly persistent. One of the reasons might be that Twintris had exceptionally good music, even though it is credited to Tor Gausen. It has to be said that the developer himself wasn’t really aware of this, though:
– Once, I corrected a Wikipedia article that said he [the other Svein Berge] had made the music for the game, but apart from that, I haven’t noticed this rumor. Sometimes I have to deny that I’m in Röyksopp when people google me. It’s fine – I’m a big fan of Röyksopp, I just hope Svein behaves and doesn’t do anything people think I should be ashamed of!
The other Svein Berge has, however, noticed the rumor, as he has had to deny it several times:
– I can start by denying the rumor regarding Twintris; I had no part in the creation of this game – neither with the game itself nor the development of the music. My namesake should have all the credit! And yes, I have been confronted with this rumor before, on several occasions actually, and have denied it every time. Naturally, not because of the game’s quality (I think competitive Tetris is great!), but because I don’t want to take credit for another man’s work, says Svein Berge from Röyksopp to Spillhistorie.no.
He is, however, not entirely surprised that the rumor has arisen:
– The most obvious reason is, of course, the similarity in names. Furthermore, in some interviews over the years, I have expressed that computers and video games, as well as anything that could be categorized under new technology, sci-fi, and the future, were of great interest to me as a child. In elementary school in the 80s, I also tried simple programming on both C64 and PC (in BASIC). In addition, Röyksopp’s musical foundation and origin are in electronic music. And as the genre name suggests, this involves extensive use of computers, synthesizers, and the like.
He continues:
– In the 90s, we also released a song called “The 64-position,” as a kind of tribute to the C64. In short, my expressed interest in video games, computers, and new technology has gone hand in hand with my interest in electronic music and synthesizers; from early childhood to the present day. In sum, these things listed above (and possibly others) have probably contributed to creating the connection between Twintris and me.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to contact the man who actually created the Twintris music, Tor Gausen. If you are him, please do get in touch! In any case, you can enjoy the Twintris soundtrack here:
A little mystery to end with
When Berge (that is, Twintris-Berge, not Röyksopp-Berge) sent us some digitized physical material from the game release, we got a small surprise. The German manual, which you can take a look at below, contains information about a Commodore 64 version. Not only that, but the information is quite detailed, including a list of contributing developers.
What makes this mysterious is that there is no official Commodore 64 version of Twintris … as far as we know, at least. And Berge himself can’t remember ever seeing it. We are continuing to work on the mystery and have also informed C64 Games that Weren’t about the discovery (they have now added a Twintris entry to their database), so we will keep you updated on what we find out.
Here is the manual:
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