Inteview with Sweinstein

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INTERVIEW WITH THE CODER OF TWINTRIS
------------------------------------

He  made  the hit 'TWINTRIS'.  The
game  has  become  one  of  the most
popular  arcade  games  in the Amiga
history.   Let's  us  talk  with the
programmer   of   this  game,  Svein
Berge......


Which  Amiga  groups  have  you been
in ?

Ok, here comes the boring story:  My
friends  back  home  and I founded a
group  with  the  silly  name Action
Force  some  years  ago.   Later  we
found  out  that  Action Force was a
silly  name  and changed it to Cult.
After  a while, Cult disolved and my
friends and I joined Network.

Have   you   made  any  other  known
productions on the Amiga?

I have, of course, made a few demos.
But the only thing I've made besides
Twintris,  which   has  been  spread
widely, is  a bitplane-ripper called
3rd  day.  I have actually made much
more  money  on  that  public domain
utility  than  on  Twintris.  It was
released   under   my  hacker  name:
SwEinstein.

Try  to  tell  the story of Twintris
from the start till the end?

It all started out the summer of '89
(By  Bryan  Adams!) when a shop back
home   got  the  arcade  version  of
Twintris.  I played it a bit with my
friends  it was great fun.  I played
with the thought of converting it to
the  Amiga,  and  when  I brought my
Amiga  with  me for holiday, I began
programming.

The  main  routines of the game were
finished   during  that  summer  and
autumn,  I  was  not sure what to do
with  the  game.   The  most  likely
possibility  would  be to release it
as  a demo.  But I thought that if I
could  make  money  on  it,  nothing
would  be  better  than that!  So at
Christmas-times  I  released a demo,
asking for publishers.

Nobody  responded  so  I  decided to
make  an  almost  finished demo with
music  and  send  it directly to the
software  house.  So I did.  Walkman
(Tor  B.  Gausen) made the music and
at  spring  '90  I sent 15 copies to
different software-houses all around
the  world.   I  only got 5 replies,
and  they  all  said " Your game was
great,  and  we  enjoyed playing it,
but unfortunately we can not release
it,  because  Mirrorsoft  holds  the
copyrights.   "  Mirrorsoft  replied
that" the game does not fit into our
current product line".  They did not
answer  to  the letter where I asked
what  they  would  charge  me  for a
licence.   That  was  about the time
Mirrorsoft went bankrupt.

Obviously,  one of the 15 copies had
leaked  out  of  the software-houses
and  was  widely  spread.   At  that
time,  I  was bored with programming
that  game  and  didn't  bother much
what happened to it.

But  then,  one  day, I got a letter
from  an  unknown german firm called
Digital  Marketing.  They wrote that
they had seen my game and would like
to  release  it.  They claimed there
was  no copyright problem.  I talked
to  the  guys and they guaranteed me
the  game  would  be  released  if I
finished  it.   They told me I could
expect  an  income  around  10000  -
20000 DM.  That sounded interesting,
and during the autumn '90 I finished
the  game.   The  german release was
delayed and delayed.

The   game   was   not  commercially
released before spring 91.  That was
when  I  decided  to  make  a try at
releasing it myself.  I printed 1000
4-color   copies   of   the  english
instructions and cover.  That costed
me  kr  6000.   None  of the english
firms wanted to distribute tha game,
still          frightened         of
copyright-trouble.   BJ electronics,
the  firm  which  imports nearly all
games  to  Norway  offered  me 90 kr
pr.game,  resulting in a price of kr
350  for  the  customer.   That  was
intolerable so I sent 100 letters to
different  Norwegian stores.  Out of
this I got FIFTEEN orders!  Not much
profit there.

How  much  did  you get paid for the
game ?

As I said, Digital Marketing told me
to  expect 10 - 20.000 marks.  I got
90.  Not 90.000 but 90 marks...  The
norwegian sales together with what I
made  in  Porsgrunn left me with the
total  balance  of  MINUS  4000  kr.
Walkman  was  to  have  18,5 % of my
income  from  Digital  Marketing.  I
sent him the symbolic sum of kr 100,
which  was actually more than he was
entitled to!


                         


Are  you  satisfied with the pay pr.
hour ?

All  but the Swedish readers should
understand  that  all questions were
made before the answers :-)

The   Norwegian   group  Razor  1911
cracked   your  final  version. What
is your comment to that?

Somebody  had  to crack it.  No game
has  stayed  uncrack yet.  I have no
hard  feelings  against  Razor 1911,
because they managed to do it first


What will you do now ?
I   have   begun   studying  at  the
Norwegian Institute of Technology in
Trondheim   (NTH),   department   of
electronics   and  computer  science
(specialicing  in electronics).  The
studies take 4 1/2 years.

What is the most important part of a
game ?

Different   games   have   different
attractions.    Just   like  in  the
movies.     Nobody   goes   to   see
Terminator   II  because  of    it's
brilliant  story.  And very few went
to see Dances with Wolves because of
it's stunning special effects.

Why   do  you  think  that  Twintris
became such a hit?

Twintris  is  as popular as it is ,
because  of  Brilliant  idea  (which
obviously  was not mine).  I believe
that games that completely lacks one
,  the  qualities which makes a game
will   be   forgotten   very   soon.
Shoot-em-ups   are   soon  forgotten
because   of   their   inorginality.
Adventure     games    written    in
AmigaBasic   are  forgotten  because
they   lack   graphics   and  sound.
Twintris  will be forgotten, because
it  has  too  little variation.  But
many  games that have been much more
expensive  to make will be forgotten
before Twintris because Twintris has
what  most  games  lack:   The  good
idea.

How  many  copies  of  Twintris are
sold worldwide?

About 30

How   good   are   you  in  Twintris
yourself, what is your highscore ?

Test-playing   took  at  a  time  a
pretty large portion of my time.  So
of course I can play Twintris pretty
well.   But I am not as good as many
of  my  friends.   I  don't know how
much  I  have  scored on the current
version  of Twintris.  Besides there
are many different highscores as you
know.

How   many   levels   are  there  in
Twintris?

18 sequencial levels, plus 3 special
ones.

Will  you  code  some  demos  in the
future or is it just gamecoding?

We'll  see if I continue programming
anything  releasable  at all.  There
is  too little time up here, and the
spare  time  seems much better spent
at other places than before my Amiga
(like  before some DECstations,  SUN
workstations (all connected with the
schools  own  CRAY  if  that  should
interest  anybody), at the student's
workshop,   or   even   at   student
parties)

Have you quit the scene completely?

I  am  highly inactive.  But I never
quit!

What  is  the  difference  between a
black baby and a white baby

The black one is darker

(The right answer should be 1 minute
in the micro oven Ed.)

Have  you  got  some  friends in the
scene

Lots of them

(Nice answer .Ed)

Last words

I   am   no  more  a  poor  computer
programmer.    I   am   now  a  poor
student.   So if you want to support
me  economically,  send  me a check,
will you!


If you feel guilty about your pirate
version  of  Twintris,  contact RAW.
We  will  give  you  the  address to
Svein Berge and you can buy the game
from him for a cheap price.