WARP (Thalion)

After Chambers of Shaolin, the planet shooter Warp became Thalion's second international release. Unlike Marc Rosocha's well-received martial arts adventure, this debut game from the renowned Atari ST demoscene coder Michael Bittner was met with mixed reactions.

ST Format's Jerry Glenwright wrote the shoot'em up off as a boring tech demo and slapped it a lowly 20 points out of 100. "After initial amazement at the game's scrolling abilities, interest in Grandslam's latest baby falls to zero." (Grandslam being Thalion's publisher in the UK).

There is no doubt about the scene knowledge: Bittner built the game around his skills as a demo coder and finished it for the German Thalion debut (last picture: cracked version). 

Torsten Opperman from Aktueller Software Markt (ASM) had experienced a different game altogether. Opperman not only commended the unreal technical feats of the Atari ST version – such as the smooth multi-directional scrolling and four-channel digisound – but he also praised the polished gameplay. Having the best of both worlds made "Warp a unique gaming experience". Although ST Format and ASM disagreed on gameplay, they did find common ground on one thing: Thalion had produced a technical marvel for the ST.

What about the future? Would the German developer rise to the occasion with their third game and manage to wow even the toughest critics?

Warp was programmed by Michael Bittner. Graphics by Erik Simon. Soundtrack by Jochen Hippel. Game design by Erik Simon and Michael Bittner. Additional Graphics by Holger Flöttmann. Copy protection by Gunter Bitz. Cover Art by Steinar Lund.