Well, it's been some time since we've featured an unreleased game, so here we are with Iraq's very first Amiga video game, Babylonian Twins. A game that has officially been released for free on the Commodore Amiga, closing a tumultuous three-decade journey. The platformer was originally forged under gruelling conditions in 1993 Baghdad by three determined students—Rabah Shihab, Murtadha Salman, and Mahir AlSalman—who worked through strict international sanctions, scorching 50°C summer heatwaves that repeatedly broke their hardware, and severe rolling blackouts.
Coding entirely in raw language on a single, un-expanded Amiga 500 with a mere 512KB of RAM, the team built a remarkably smooth tribute to ancient Mesopotamia by drawing every Assyrian palace pixel by pixel and sampling authentic Iraqi instruments for the soundtrack. However, just as the project reached the finish line, Commodore collapsed, and geopolitical trade sanctions frightened off potential publishers, leaving the completed game completely stranded and locked away on physical floppy disks.
The game’s unexpected road to redemption began in 2008 when members of the English Amiga Board stumbled upon forgotten gameplay footage on YouTube. The ensuing discovery sparked a multi-page community investigation to track down the developers, eventually leading to a highly praised playable demo that was downloaded across more than 70 countries. While the game's concept was later adapted into modern editions such as on Steam, Amiga gamers continuously campaigned for the original 16-bit software. Now, the developers have finally answered that call by giving away the authentic, full two-disk experience as a free download for the community [“The full 1993 Amiga game — the real disks, finally free” — Itch.io Devlogs]. Retro players can experience the historical title firsthand using .ADF disk images on modern emulators or by writing them back onto physical disks for genuine Amiga hardware.
If you want more- The story & press archive: babyloniantwins.com/1993
- Babylonian Twins: Definitive Edition — the game rebuilt for today, with the original 1993 game included as a playable second launch option — wishlist on Steam · live now on iOS and Android
- The 2006 footage that started the rediscovery: the original Amiga gameplay
- The 2008 rediscovery thread: English Amiga Board
Links :1) Source
The most annoying game since Soccer Kid , there’s no password system or "Continue" option. I played through the first world, the prison. Still, it’s not a bad game; it’s surprisingly good.
ReplyDeleteLovely game - glad that the authors finally get to show their fine work to the world. It's got a unique visual style and it appears to run very smoothly. Given that it was developed on a 512K OCS Amiga, I'm assuming that's all it needs in order to run?
ReplyDelete(A500, 512KB chip + 512KB slow recommended) :D
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ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful game. This is a true 90s experience, just like any good game from that era. You wont find any new Amiga game that looks and plays this well and runs on OCS 512+512K. They just dont make them like this anymore.
ReplyDeleteKudos to the authors for creating this game in such difficult conditions. Besides it seems super smooth and state-of-the-art scrolling & animations.
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
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