Twister is probably one of the more historic GTW titles that we have come across, not for its gameplay, but for the troubles it caused around the time of its publicity…
Firstly the working title for the game was “Mother or Harlots”, which caused controversy, and was then changed to “Mother of Charlotte”. Eventually this was deemed to boring, and “Twister” was tagged on. Then, the game was advertised quite a lot with scantly clad females helping to promote the game’s story line. At a computer convention in the United Kingdom, System 3 were famously asked to remove the females from the hall.
The game itself was kind of similiar to Discs of Tron in terms of look and feel, and the rest of the Jazz was purely there to get sales I think. As for the game…
Moby Games tells the story of the game…
“The evil Twister has a plan to ruin humanity, and only you can stop her. This involves travelling through your inner thoughts to gather the required symbols.
The first level is platform-based and scrolls into the screen, with platforms arranged as with the grid in hopscotch, with one in the middle followed by one to either the left and right, then another in the middle. You must collect crystals, as well as packs of 8 shots (you start with 20), whilst shooting as many of Charlotte’s minions as you can.
On the second level you must collect ‘Ultimate Power’ by collecting each of those 13 levels, from a 3D room with full floor and ceiling interaction, by quickly swapping between the 2 surfaces, shooting and avoiding enemies in the process. Level four (of six) adds a rocket launcher, allowing you to move around the whole screen. Eventually you must face down and shoot the Twister in the throat to kill her. “
So the game never surfaced on the C64, but it did eventually surface on the Spectrum, created by Chris Yates and Jon Hare. Jon Hare also did the graphics on the C64 version, and mentioned that he doesn’t recall too much about it.
It still begs the question why the game never got released if other versions did make it. We know that something must have been in production, due to the mention of the C64 in almost everything Twister based. Was it a poor conversion?
Jon confirms to us that the game was commissioned by System 3 via LT Software (who seem to have had a poor run of getting any games completed). Jon and Chris designed and completed the Spectrum version, but the C64 duties were handed to someone else (who Jon cannot recall), and it seems it fell by the way side.
Mark Cale then added a little more:
“Twister was to have gone to C64 but again finding a good team to convert it was the problem. The original team that did the Spectrum version was John and Chris that went on to set up Sensible Software after they wrote Twister for us. They tried to do IK before leaving LT Software but for what ever reason they left LT Software. LT Software did the awful Spectrum and Amstrad versions. Archer stepped in and did IK for us and the rest is history.”
So it seems that LT Software were dropped, but possibly the game wasn’t shaping up well on the C64. It is hoped that something may be found, but its looking increasingly unlikely now!
Contributions: Sven Dahl, Martin Jamesmith, Jon Hare, Jazzcat, Mark Cale, Martin/Stadium 64
Supporting content
Gallery
Creator speaks
Jon Hare talks about Twister …
” am not sure Twister was ever completed on the C64…. but I remember seeing something of it… I might have even done some graphics for it… it could well have been John Twiddy who coded it… I think he is working at Konami now if you want to ask him.”
A later quote…
“Twister was done by myself and Chris in it’s entirity on Spectrum.. I may also have done some C64 graphics for it, although I cannot remember. I did do some graphics for both Trivial Pursuit and RMS Titanic for ODE on C64. I did Skyfox and Flyerfox and Lonewolf & the Icehalls of Terror on Spectrum.”
Jon Hare.
Update history
- 19/01/17 – Improved scans added thanks to Martin/Stadium 64
- 03/11/15 – Mark Cale adds some details about the C64 edition
- 20/04/15 – Jon Hare gives details about the C64 edition and links LT Software.
