T H E P R A I S ED

T H E LOV E D
The Praised, The Loved, The Deplored, The Forgotten
A View into the Wide History of Finnish Games

Annakaisa Kultima & Jouni Peltokangas

THE DEPLORED
2019 (digital)
2017 (print)

ISBN 978-951-609-967-8 (digital) ISBN 978-952-03-1546-7 (Trepo)

T H E FO RG OTT EN
ISBN 978-951-609-873-2 (print)

Tampereen museoiden julkaisuja, 145

ISSN 2342-2904 (digital)
ISSN 1237-5276 (print) A V I EW I N TO
T H E W I D E H I STO RY
Mediamuseo Rupriikin julkaisuja, 6
O F FI N N I S H GA M ES
ISSN 2670-1081 (digital)
ISSN 1459-8329 (print)
A N N A K A I SA K U LT I M A
Publisher: Rupriikki Media Museum & J O U N I P ELT O K A N GAS
©Tampere Museums and the authors

Translator: Ella Lopperi

Photos: Saana Säilynoja (p. 20, 32, 36, 60), Annakaisa Kultima (p. 10, 39, 70, 120, 128, 182),
Taru Muhonen (p. 24, 98), Mari Lind (p. 8), Sampo Savolainen (p. 160) and Janne Käpylehto (p. 140).

Photo source (p. 17): Jukka Raunio, 1947. Vapriikki photo library.
Photo source (p. 28): Andersin, Hans: NIM-peliä - pelaava kone. Abacus, 4/1967.

Screen captures: Jouni Peltokangas, Joni Rokkanen, SPSN-group, Annakaisa Kultima, Amistech,
Colossal Order, Facepalm Games, Frogmind, Mindfield Games and RedLynx.

Graphic design: Annakaisa Kultima

INDEX
Punaisten ja valkoisten taistelu Suomessa 1918 …. 8
Perspective: Kimmo Antila …………………...... 10
Pesäpallo ………………………………………... 16
Pajatso …………………………………………... 20
Afrikan tähti …………………………………..… 24
Nim ……………………………………………... 28
Kimble ………………………………………….. 32
Chesmac ………………………….………….….. 36
Ässä-arpa ……………………………………...… 40
Painterboy ………………………………….….… 44
Sanxion ……………………………………….…. 46
Uuno Turhapuro muuttaa maalle …………….….. 48
Miekka ja Magia ………………….………….….. 52
Netherworld ……………………………….…..… 56
A lias … … … … … … … …………………….…..… 6 0
BatMUD………………………..………….…..… 64
Coloris …………………………………….…….. 66
Lohikäärmepuu …………………………….….… 69
Perspective: Andy Pilke …………………….…... 70
Slicks ’n’ Slide ……………………………….….. 76
Stardust ……………………………………….…. 78
Inva-taxi ………………………………….….…… 82
Perspective: Åkesoft ……………………….….… 84
Alien Incident / Muukalaisten yö …………….….. 90
Wings …………………………………….…..….. 92
Eläin aktivisti …………………….………….…... 96
Matopeli ………………………….………….…... 98
Drop Mania ……………………………….……. 102
Supreme Snowboarding ………….………….…. 104
Areena 5 ………………………….………….…. 108
Max Payne ………………………………….…... 112
Rally Trophy …………………….………….…... 114
Stair Dismount / Porrasturvat …………….…..… 118
Perspective: Markku Reunanen ….………….….. 120
Mikämikä-TV ………………………….…..…… 126
Perspective: Jaakko Kemppainen ………….…… 128
AirBuccaneers ……………….………….……..... 134
Pathway to Glory ……………………….……….. 136
Dragonbane ………………….………….……...... 140
Angry Birds …………………………….……...... 144
Crayon Physics Deluxe ……………….…….....… 146
Trials HD ……………………………….……...... 148
Trine ………………………………….…….....… 150
Floorball League …………………….…….....… 154
King of Opera ………………………….……..… 156
Eclipse ………………………………….……..… 160
WildChords …………………………….……...… 162
Clash of Clans ………………………….……..… 166
Hill Climb Racing ……………………….…….... 168
Legend of Grimrock …………………….……..... 170
Badland ………………………………….……..... 174
The Swapper ………………….………….…….... 176
Cities: Skylines ……………….………….…….... 180
Perspective: Tuija Lindén …..………….……...… 182
P.O.L.L.E.N…………………………….……...… 188
My Summer Car ……………………….……...… 190
I N T RO
T h e h is t o ry o f Finnis h ga m es is d ivers e.
I t c o n s i s t s n o t o n ly o f c o m m e r c i a l ly
successful digital games or board
game classics that have knit together
generations. Finnish game history
is multifaceted both in terms of
technologies and execution, as well as
content and impact. The reception of
ga m es va ries : s o m e a re h igh ly pra is ed,
o t h e r s b e c o m e d e a r ly l o v e d , s o m e a r e
deplo red a nd m a ny w ill s im ply beco m e
fo rgo t t en. A ga m e is a vers a t ile fo rm a t
for a variety of works, by different
creators and for different types of
players. Games are valuable fixtures
of cultural histories around the globe.
Finnis h ga m es a re in a precio us ro le in
t h e cult ura l h erit a ge o f Finla nd .
T h i s b o o k o f f e r s o n ly a s m a l l s a m p l e
of games. The idea for the book
was conceived during an exhibition
o rga nis ed in a lo ca l m us eum d uring t h e
N o rd ic DiGRA 2 01 2 co nference, Ta m pere
F i n l a n d . F o u r r e s e a r c h e r s a n d r o u g h ly
20 students joined efforts to build an
exh ibit io n t o int ro d uce fo reign vis it o rs
to local games. Game developers,
journalists, historians and collectors
lent a h elping h a nd in p ut t ing every t h ing
together. The multiform exhibition
reflected the different backgrounds of
t h e m em bers o f t h e t ea m – w e end ed up
o pening a d ivers e view t o w a rd s Finnis h
games. Although the exhibition was
o pen o nly fo r a s h o rt t im e, t h e s ucces s
surpassed all expectations. The work
conducted for the exhibition has been
upd a t ed fo r t h is bo o k, a nd it h a s s erved
as a basis for the Finnish Museum of
Ga m es o p ened in 2 01 6.
Game history is common knowledge,
but not always easy to access. It is
time to put more effort in recording
the history for future generations
as well as to trace the paths already
forgotten. Games cannot, however, be
u n d e r s t o o d s i m p ly b y r e a d i n g – t h e y
m u s t b e e x p e r i e n c e d . H o p e f u l ly t h i s
b o o k w ill s h o w a guiding ligh t t o w a rd s
understanding games in a wider
s p ect rum a nd bring every o ne clo s er t o
t h e a ct ua l experiences .
Tam pere, Finland, 2 / 4 / 2 01 7
A nnakais a Kult im a &
Jo uni P elt o kang as
Punaisten ja
valkoisten taistelu
Suomessa 1918 Punaisten ja Punaisten ja valkoisten taistelu
Suomessa 1918 (‘The Battle of the

valkoisten Reds and the Whites in Finland 1918’)

ca me ou t in time for C hristma s in 19 18.
taistelu I t i s r e p u t e d ly t h e f i r s t b o a r d g a m e t o
b e c o m m e r c i a l ly p u b l i s h e d a f t e r t h e
Suomessa Finnish Declaration of Independence in
De ce mbe r 19 17.
1918 The game describes the events of the
Finnish Civil War which ended earlier
TYPE in 1918. The verse form rules are
Board game rather difficult to understand, and the
movements of the Whites are depicted
PUBLISHER in much more heroic terms than those
of the R e ds. De spite the sl ig htly ske w e d
Juusela & Levänen
w orl dvie w , the g a me ca n stil l be w on by
e ithe r pa rty.

T he g a me fol l ow s re a l historica l e ve nts

ve ry cl ose ly. T he l oca tions a nd borde rs
are in the right places and the final
battles have a clear significance. An
inte re sting de ta il of the g a me is tha t the
he a dqu a rte rs of the White s is l oca te d in
Ge rma ny, w hil e the R e ds re side in R u ssia .
T his proba bly ow e s to the fa ct tha t ba ck
in the da y the re w e re ta l ks tha t F inl a nd
should have a king of German descent
a s a ru l e r.

9
Perspective: Kimmo Antila I worked as a project manager in Museum
Centre Vapriikki between 2006 and 2012
and my job was to develop permanent
exhibitions, particularly ones related to
Kimmo Antila
the history of Tampere. We bumped into
Punaisten ja valkoisten taistelu Suomessa
1918 (‘The Battle of the Reds and the
talks about Whites in Finland 1918’) when we were
working on the Tampere 1918 exhibition
the board game
closely with various parties in 2007. I’ve
played digital games to some extent in
my youth, Donkey Kong type games and
Punaisten ja a variety of recess games, I mean. I’ve
never really been absorbed by playing,
valkoisten taistelu
and I don’t use my time on gaming. My
children are now in their twenties, they
have of course been playing more, and
Suomessa 1918 through them I’ve gained a whole new
perspective of gaming, different from
and the related
what I had back in the day.
I became interested in history at a young
museum work. age. It tells us where we are now and
what is going on, why we live in such
a country, in Europe or in the world.
“ History is a social science. It is wonderful
and important that past phenomena are
examined, as they help us explain the
present day. My personal interest was
kindled through my grandparents. My
grandparents were born between 1909
and 1910, so they had recollections of
what happened in Tyrvää, one of the
arenas of war, in 1918. They had some
horrifying stories, too. My grandfather
recalled seeing the city burn down with
his own eyes as a child. Recollections may
arise either from witnessing an event first-
hand, or being told about it. It may well be
that he’d only heard stories of the incident.
Nonetheless, it created a strong emotional
10
experience that someone familiar, whom
my grandparents had bought sweets
from, was stabbed to death and thrown
off a bridge. It’s very likely that he did
not actually see it, but the story that a
familiar person experienced such a fate
was strong.
For the Tampere 1918 exhibition, we had
people from the university doing back-
ground research, and then a core group
formulated the storytelling for the exhi-
bition. At an early stage, the exhibition
began to form into a kind of dramatic
arc. It had a prologue leading into the
subject matter, then the actual turbulence
of events the exhibition would focus on,
and finally an epilogue of the importance
and reminiscence of the war. Punaisten
ja valkoisten taistelu Suomessa 1918,
which we placed in the epilogue, was
discovered by Robert Alftan, with whom
we had collaborated before. Robert is a
long-time journalist and researcher, and
he happened to have a summer house
near Tampere. He was working on a
documentary about a Swedish volunteer in
Tampere. We were, of course, able to pro-
vide Roope with something and Roope was
able to return the favour. In the winter of
2007-2008, he told us he had found this
game, or game board, in a second-hand
shop. We were naturally very interested
in it, so Roope kindly donated the game
board of Punaisten ja valkoisten taistelu
Suomessa 1918 for the museum collection.
We didn’t have any clue of what this game
was, whether a number of these would
exist or whether we would find any infor-
mation about it. We began to investigate,
and not long after we realised that one
11
copy existed in the National Library. So
we went to the National Library, took a
look at what they had, but their game did
not include the game pieces either. The
second-hand version, which we got from
Roope, didn’t have anything besides the
game board. So we used the game from
the National Library to copy the protective
case where the game had been stored,
and most importantly, the rules. Thus, in
the version displayed in our exhibition
only the game board is genuine. The case,
rule book and game pieces are copies, or
to be more precise, the game pieces are
made on the basis of assumptions and
conclusions.
We read the rules very carefully. They, in
fact, described the game in great detail:
there’s a die, and these sorts of red and
white game pieces. In addition, it should
have pins, which are used to mark dif-
ferent strengths on these pieces. We’ve
attempted to play the game a couple of
times, but the rules are very complicated,
at least at first glance. If you try to think of
what age groups the game might be aimed
at, it cannot be for very young children at
least, since the player must be able to do
calculations and manage strategies. The
game was made already in 1918, which is
perhaps the most astounding thing about
this – that it was made in the same year
the war ended. After all, this was still a
time when, in perhaps the greatest tragedy
of the war, a lot of people were still held
in prison camps. It is a pity that not much
information has been found about the ar-
tefact. We know that the game was made
by the printing house Juusela & Levänen in
Helsinki. Later on, Juusela & Levänen also
12
released some of the first publications by
the Academic Karelia Society, so perhaps
they were leaning somewhat towards the
White heritage.
If you look at the rules of the game, you
will notice that they are written in verse
form. They also include a rather cleverly
built-in hidden story about who has been
right. However, this is not too highly
emphasised. Still, the fact that the Reds
will always start the game, for example,
is already a clear reference to who it was
exactly that made the first moves. The
game includes historically correct places
of battle, and it is well demonstrated
throughout whether it was the Reds or
the Whites who prevailed. Finally, as the
representative party of the Whites arrive
in Tampere, a convenient die roll will flat-
ten the entire Red troops, and the final
victory is very close.
I have been thinking about the rules and
read them through several times, and
made a couple of attempts to play the
game. By reading through the rules a few
times, you may notice that they have a
sort of educational aspect. Similar to how
children’s books and other educational
literature in the 1920s were used to
bolster the nation and the tale of White
Finland, it is clear that the Reds were
the bad guys in the game. The Reds are
described as a bunch of bandits, while
the Whites get to be the noble sons. The
sympathies clearly lie on the White side.
In a way, this is of course obvious. History
is written by the winners, and this is a
game made in a certain way by the winning
side. However, one could imagine that the
game may have been played from another
point of view. The interesting thing is that
either side can win the game in principle,
so it does have that kind of playfulness
and opportunity. Then again, it would be
silly to make a game where the other side
would win by default.
Playing the game also made you consider
what the creator of the game has actually
been thinking. What are they trying to say
here? How strongly is the game building
up the winning story of the Whites, or
could it take an objective look at what
happened? We also thought of strategic
issues. In a way, playing the game gave a
sort of a moment of clarity to the role of
the Germans specifically. This is related
to the result of the subsequent research
and interpretation of why Mannerheim
attacked Tampere at that exact point.
The charge takes place in order for there
to be sufficient time to reach a settle-
ment before the German entry, so that
the Germans would not be able to take a
larger grip on Finland. This is also included
in the game.
Interestingly, a few games similar to this
one exist. One example is Helsingin valtaus
(‘The Occupation of Helsinki’), of which
one of the local associations of history
teachers produced a new edition. There
is also a game depicting the events of
the First World War, where the whole of
Europe provides the game board. Juusela
& Levänen published all of these games.
Recently, I have seen at least Helsingin
valtaus for sale, at a steep price, of course.
These are naturally quite the rarities.
These items are, of course, stored in the
National Library, for example, but it had
not even crossed our minds back then
that a game with such a subject matter
would even exist.
We tried to dig up material and combed
the year 1918 in many ways. We studied
the newspapers of the time, contemporary
stories, and so on. However, we did not
come across any story where someone
would have played this game or that the
events of 1918 were handled in a game
such as this. For instance, it is quite well
known how children’s literature was
used as an instrument in attempting to
build a sense of national pride and the
story of White Finland. One would have to
imagine that if this game was more widely
available, someone would have surely
mentioned it somewhere. Perhaps an
advertisement or an announcement that
such a game was now available. However,
we found nothing. This is pure conjecture,
but if the game were terribly popular, we
probably would have encountered more
copies or mentions of it. Today, all manner
of items related to the events of 1918 are
highly collectible. I do believe that the
value of the game has been understood
as it was taken to the second-hand store.
Generally speaking, this game astonishes
people, as they tend to perceive board
games and gaming as a modern or even
a welfare state era phenomenon. Afrikan
tähti (‘The Star of Africa’) is thought of as
a really old game, for example. Another
important thing is that the exhibition itself
creates an oppressive vibe that awful
things have taken place. Bringing such
playfulness and frivolity into the picture
13
towards the end of the exhibition, at the
epilogue, almost feels a bit macabre. How
can we, and how have they been able to,
deal with the subject at the end of the
year in this manner? This is usually the
strongest reaction we get from the game.
I probably emphasise it myself in some
ways while giving guided tours, putting it
out there that on Christmas 1918 people
could play something like this. One can
paint the image that the game would be
revealed unwrapping Christmas presents
and everyone would play it together.
However, we do not actually know who
played it and how.
leaving it as just another occurrence. By
the time we get to the game, the story
is ending and we are beginning to look
back. This is just one example of it. The
exhibition paints a strong picture for both
sides of the story, and also depicts the
story of the civilians. In that sense, this
kind of a game in the epilogue is linked to
the story of the civilians. The stories of
civilians on both the Red and the White
side intertwine here. The game fits the
ending of the exhibition in this interesting
way rather well.”

A game such as this would have required

wealth at a time when people could barely
afford food. It might have been a middle
class or upper class pastime, and the
middle class of the time can be thought of
as the bourgeoisie. We should also keep
in mind that it is, of course, not clear cut
that all the representatives of the Reds
were poor. We can only make assumptions
and, therefore, these things are usually
communicated to the audience through
the exhibition texts, which sum up our
perspective and what we’re trying to say.
The introduction text for this game is very
short and laconic. No tools exist to explain
it further, so we have not even attempted
to do so. We simply have not been able to
find out more about it.

The Tampere 1918 exhibition will tell

you what happened in Tampere in 1918.
In effect, this too is told from the point
of view of people, and what happened to
some of them. As said earlier, the game is
on the epilogue side of the dramatic arc,

14
Pesäpallo
Pesäpallo A ccording to cu rre nt know l e dg e , va riou s
bat-and-ball games played on the
territory of what we now call Finland
TYPE da te ba ck to the 17th a nd 18th ce ntu rie s.
Sport Influences from Germany, Sweden and
Russia, among others, fused into ‘king
DEVELOPER b a l l ’ i n t h e l a t e 1 8 0 0 s . L a u r i “ Ta h k o ”
Lauri “Tahko” Pihkala Pihkala added some extra spice from
US baseball, which resulted in a game
ca l l e d ‘l ong ba l l . ’

Through various experiments and

changes to the field, long ball
developed into the Finnish national
sport, the modern day pesäpallo
(‘Finnish baseball’). The first official
matches were played in 1922, and the
first Finnish championship was won by
H e l s i n g i n P a l l o n ly ö j ä t ( ‘ t h e H e l s i n k i
Ba l l -ba tte rs’) .

T he de ve l opme nt of pe säpal l o w a s tie d to

the spirit a nd e ve nts of its time . Be tw e e n
the wars, the sport was favoured by
the Civil Guard, as it was thought to
develop the skills needed in wartime.
Since then, the rules of the sport have
been modified on several occasions in
order to make it more interesting for
the conte mpora ry a u die nce .

17
Pajatso
Pajatso Familiar to all Finns from the corners
of restaurants and petrol station bars,
Pajatso (‘Payazzo’) is an important
TYPE pie ce of the na tiona l g a me history. T he
first of these types of slot-machines
Gambling arcade game a rrive d in F inl a nd in the 19 2 0s, brou g ht
from Germany by private businessmen.
DEVELOPER Domestic production of payazzo
RAY ma chine s sta rte d in 19 31 by A u toma a tti
Te ol l isu u s Oy.
PUBLISHER
RAY In 19 37, the F innish pa rl ia me nt de cre e d
that the maintenance of these slot-
m a c h i n e s s h o u l d o n ly b e a l l o w e d f o r
an association founded for this exact
purpose. Thus, payazzo machines
p r e v i o u s ly o w n e d b y e n t r e p r e n e u r s
w e re tra nsfe rre d u nde r the ma na g e me nt
o f t h e S l o t M a c h i n e A s s o c i a t i o n ( R AY ) ,
f o u n d e d i n 1 9 3 8 . R AY a l s o b e g a n t h e
production of their own payazzo
ma chine s the sa me ye a r.

Perhaps the most classic of these

machines was the 50 penny payazzo of
1966, which stayed in use up until the
e a r ly 1 9 9 0 s . T h e t a l e o f t h e p a y a z z o
came to its end in March 2015, when
it was reported that the machines
would be discontinued. The last coins
w e r e f e d t o s l o t s o n R AY p r e m i s e s o n
11 March 2015. The payazzo machines
ma na g e d to produ ce a tota l of ove r one
a n d a h a l f b i l l i o n e u r o s f o r R AY o v e r
the years. Since their discontinuation,
various mobile and online versions of
the pa ya zzo g a me s ha ve be e n pu bl ishe d
in F inl a nd.
21
Afrikan tähti
Afrikan Tr a n s l a t e d i n t o s i x t e e n l a n g u a g e s ,
Afrikan tähti (‘The Star of Africa’) is a

tähti cl a ssic of F innish boa rd g a me s a nd ha s

sold over four million copies. This all-
time favourite of Finnish board games
TYPE w a s o r i g i n a l ly i n s p i r e d b y H u m p h r e y
Board game Bog a rt movie s a nd pl a ce na me s fou nd on
the ma p of A frica . T he na me of the g a me
DEVELOPER itse l f ca me to Ma nne rl a a fte r the Sou th
Kari Mannerla A frica n discove ry of the w orl d’s l a rg e st
diamond, whose largest polished piece
PUBLISHER is know n a s the Gre a t Sta r of A frica .
Peliko
In 19 8 5 , A me rsoft re l e a se d a C ommodore
6 4 ve rsion of the g a me , w ith Ma nne rl a ’s
consent. Other publications include a
ca rd g a me ve rsion de sig ne d by Ma nne rl a
himself, as well as adaptations for
Android and iOS. In 2014, an expansion
called Retkikunnat (‘Expeditions’) was
published. Mannerla, who made his
actual career in advertising, developed
othe r g a me s a s w e l l , incl u ding a va rie ty
of solitaires and the board game Inkan
aarre (‘T he Tre asu re of the Inca ’) w hich
ta ke s pl a ce in Sou th A me rica .

25
Nim
Nim The history of digital games in Finland
da te s ba ck to the 19 5 0s, w he n e ng ine e r
Hans Anders, as a member of a group
DEVELOPER working to design the first Finnish
Academy of computer ESKO, came up with the idea
Finland of constru cting a g a ming ma chine .
Mathematics
Committee In Nim, pl a ye rs ta ke tu rns to re move a ny
nu mbe r of sticks pl a ce d in se ts of row s,
and whoever gets the last stick loses.
Due to its simplicity, Nim was suitable
for execution on the technologies
characteristic of its time: relays and
diodes. Similar machines had already
been built earlier in the United States
a nd E ng l a nd, a mong othe r pl a ce s.

The Mathematics Committee gave Nim

to the head of the committee, Rolf
Nevanlinna, in celebration of his 60th
birthday. The game did not see much
use and was left to gather dust in
Nevanlinna’s possession, unlike, for
example, the Norwegian NUSSE. NUSSE
piqu e d the inte re st of a u die nce s w he n it
pl a ye d the Nim g a me a g a inst the pu bl ic
on “the world’s first data days” in the
spring of 19 5 4.

29
Kimble
Kimble The popular Finnish children’s board
game Kimble is based on a licence
o f Tr o u b l e , d e v e l o p e d i n t h e e a r ly
TYPE 1960s by the US Kohner brothers and
Board game A l S t u b b m a n n . T h e H e l j a k k a f a m i ly
r e c e i v e d Tr o u b l e a s a g i f t f r o m t h e i r
DEVELOPER American relatives, and in 1967 Aarne
Aarne Heljakka Heljakka applied for an official licence
to pu bl ish the g a me in F inl a nd. He l ja kka
PUBLISHER picke d the na me for the g a me from the
Nelostuote protagonist of the 1960s TV series The
F u g itive , R icha rd K imbl e .

Ga me s l ike Trou bl e a nd K imbl e ha ve be e n

pl a ye d u nde r diffe re nt na me s a l l a rou nd
the world, and the basic principles are
based on the national game of India,
Pachisi. K imbl e ’s spe cia l ty is the pop-o-
ma tic me cha nism: the die is e ncl ose d in
a dome in the middl e of the g a me boa rd,
and pressing on the dome causes the
die to roll, accompanied with a snappy
popping sou nd.

Within the pop-o-matic resides also

pe rha ps the most controve rsia l fe a tu re
of the g a me : the rol l s pe rforme d u nde r
the dome a re not in fa ct tru ly ra ndom. In
2 014, F innish sta tisticia n Tu oma s K u kko
researched the matter and found the
dice would end up on its opposite end
more ofte n tha n it shou l d if it rol l e d in
a n a bsol u te ly ra ndom ma nne r.

33
Chesmac
Chesmac The first commercial Finnish computer
g a me a ccording to cu rre nt u nde rsta nding
is Chesmac, programmed by Raimo
PLATFORM Su onio. It is a che ss g a me prog ra mme d
Telmac 1800 for the Te l ma c 18 00 microcompu te r.

DEVELOPER I n i t i a l ly t h e p r o g r a m m i n g o f C h e s m a c
Reino Suonio was an experimental hobby for Suonio,
bu t his a ctivitie s took a comme rcia l tu rn
PUBLISHER a s Su onio l a nde d a job in F inl a nd’s first
Topdata computer store, Topdata. The game,
pu bl ishe d on a C -ca sse tte ta pe , w a s sol d
t h r o u g h To p d a t a a t a p r i c e o f F I M 6 8
(F innish ma rkka , the cu rre ncy of F inl a nd
up until 2002), and sold a total of 104
copie s.

Programmed in Telmac’s own CHIP-

8 l a n g u a g e a n d p a r t ly d i r e c t ly i n
he xa de cima l ma chine l a ng u a g e , the g a me
was a respectable feat considering the
computing power and memory capacity
of the Te l ma c. It is a l so note w orthy tha t
Suonio published separate instructions
on how to save the game’s current
situation for later use in Prosessori, a
professional electronics magazine of
the time. This came in handy, as the
g a me re a l ly took its time conte mpl a ting
the ne xt move ; on the most cha l l e ng ing
l e ve l , this cou l d ta ke u p to a n hou r pe r
move .

37
Ässä-arpa
Ässä-arpa Ässä, the most popular and longest
running scratchcard in Finland, is
an integral part of Finnish everyday
TYPE gaming. The scratchcard, now having
Scratchcard re a che d ove r 35 ye a rs of a g e , w a s first
introdu ce d in 19 8 1. Ba ck the n, the price
DEVELOPER for one was FIM 10 and the jackpot a
Veikkaus w hopping F IM 6 6 6 , 6 6 6 .

PUBLISHER The beginnings of Ässä were mottled

Veikkaus w ith issu e s w ith the printing te chnol og y,
which is why the production was
tra nsfe rre d from the printing pre ss of the
Ba nk of F inl a nd to E ng l a nd. T he mode rn
Ässä is printed in security printing
presses specialised in scratchcards in
Canada and England. After its launch,
Ässä gained rapid popularity, and
a l re a dy in 19 8 2 it produ ce d 9 . 5 pe r ce nt
of the tota l sa l e s for Ve ikka u s.

Veikkaus scratchcards have become

available as online versions since
2006. The range includes a number of
scra tchca rds ba se d on diffe re nt the me s,
a l l the w a y from sa u na to ice hocke y.

41
Painterboy
Painterboy Painterboy is a promotional game
commissioned by the major paint and
l a cqu e r ma nu fa ctu re r T ikku ril a in 19 8 6 .
PLATFORM The game features the adventures of
Commodore 64 Mestari and Poika (‘Master’ and ‘Son’),
who were the stars of the company’s
DEVELOPER 1980s television commercials and
Chart Top Design various events. According to Tikkurila,
this is the first promotional game
PUBLISHER produ ce d for compu te rs in F inl a nd.
Tikkurila
Painterboy was distributed on both
cassette and diskette, and the purpose
of the game is to perform a variety of
contract painting works in accordance
with the customers’ wishes. The player
must select the suitable paint for each
situ a tion, ste e r cl e a r of a ccide nts on the
w a y t o t h e s i t e a n d f i n a l ly s u c c e s s f u l ly
pa int w hil e a voiding obsta cl e s.

The technical aspects of Painterboy

w e re qu ite insig htfu l ; ma na g ing to fit a n
entire village and digitised audio clips,
among other things, to Commodore
64’s memory called for extraordinary
c r e a t i v i t y . B a c k i n i t s d a y , o n ly a f e w
hundred copies of Painterboy were
produced, and it has since become a
col l e ctor’s ite m.

45
Sanxion
Sanxion Sanxion, developed by the legendary
prog ra mme r Sta vros F a sou l a s, is know n
as the first Finnish computer game
PLATFORM intended for international distribution.
Commodore 64 It is a side-scrolling space shooter
Sinclair ZX Spectrum g a me , w hich is re me mbe re d pa rticu l a rly
for the music tracks produced for the
DEVELOPER game by Rob Hubbard. One of these,
Stavros Fasoulas pl a ye d in the ba ckg rou nd of the g a me ’s
title screen, is an adaptation of Dance
PUBLISHER of the Knights, a piece from Sergei
Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet. In
Thalamus
fa ct, Sanxion w e nt on to w in the Gol de n
Joystick A w a rd for the Be st Sou ndtra ck
of the Ye a r in 19 86 .

Like other games of its time, Sanxion

is very difficult and fast-paced, and
de fe a ting the g a me re qu ire s syste ma tic
learning of several sections and
s i t u a t i o n s . I n t e r e s t i n g ly , t h e s c r e e n o f
the game is also split into two parts.
The upper displays the player’s ship
from a bird’s eye view while the lower
and larger screen displays events from
s i d e v i e w . S a n x i o n r e c e i v e d r e a s o n a b ly
positive reviews back in its day, and it
e ve n cl imbe d to the top position on the
British sa l e s cha rts for a w hil e .

47
Uuno Turhapuro
muuttaa maalle
Uuno The Finnish people’s favourite comedy
film character of the 1970s and 1980s,

Turhapuro U u n o Tu r h a p u r o , h a d t h e h o n o u r o f
playing the main role on the first
muuttaa Finnish licensed game. Borrowing its
theme from the film of the same title,
maalle U u n o Tu r h a p u r o m u u t t a a m a a l l e ( ‘ U u n o
Tu r h a p u r o m o v e s t o t h e c o u n t r y ’ ) i s
remembered in particular for the high
PLATFORM
level of difficulty. Game developer
Commodore 64
Pa si Hytöne n himse l f ha s a dmitte d tha t
the level of difficulty was “perhaps
DEVELOPER exaggerated a little bit.” Mechanics
Pasi Hytönen w ise , Uu no Tu rhapu ro mu u ttaa maal l e is
simpl e : the pl a ye r control s Uu no a cross
PUBLISHER three side-scrolling levels while trying
Amersoft to dodg e incoming obsta cl e s.

Back in its day, the game sold around

2,000 copies, of which less than a
hundred were floppy disk versions.
Despite the reasonable volume of
sa l e s, the g a me ha s since be come qu ite
the collector’s item within the game
enthusiast community, and even the
more common cassette version along
with its supplementary material has
fe tche d a price of u p to 5 00 e u ros in a n
onl ine a u ction.

49
Miekka ja Magia
Miekka De sig ne d by R isto “Nordic” Hie ta , Mie kka
ja Magia (‘Sword and Sorcery’) is the

ja Magia f i r s t c o m m e r c i a l ly p u b l i s h e d F i n n i s h
language role-playing game, and thus
an important milestone in the history
TYPE of Finnish games. The rules of the
Tabletop role-playing game game are based on Hieta’s earlier role-
playing game Acirema. While the rules
DEVELOPER are similar to the popular role-playing
Risto Hieta game Dungeons & Dragons, Hieta’s are
in ma ny w a ys simpl e r.
PUBLISHER
Ultimate At its heart, Miekka ja Magia is quite
stra ig htforw a rd in its fig hting me cha nics
and use of spells, and unlike more
recent role-playing games, it contains
ve ry l ittl e socia l inte ra ction.

Hie ta orig ina l ly cre a te d Mie kka ja Mag ia

a s the re w e re no F innish l a ng u a g e rol e -
playing games available at the time.
The game is a rather typical small
publication of its time, and it sold a
fe w hu ndre d copie s. A s the first F innish
language translations of role-playing
games (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons,
R u ne Qu e st) e nte re d the ma rke t, Mie kka
ja Magia was destined to fade into a
fa irly ma rg ina l produ ct.

53
Netherworld
Netherworld L ike his conte mpora ry Sta vros F a sou l a s,
J u k k a Ta p a n i m ä k i w a s a m o n g t h e m o s t
famous Finnish game developers in the
PLATFORM 1980s. During his rather short-lived
Commodore 64 (and others) ca re e r, Ta pa nimäki ma na g e d to produ ce
f o u r c o m m e r c i a l ly p u b l i s h e d g a m e s , a l l
DEVELOPER o r i g i n a l ly d e s i g n e d f o r t h e C o m m o d o r e
Jukka Tapanimäki 64. Netherworld was the second in
orde r.
PUBLISHER
Hewson I n N e t h e r w o r l d , Ta p a n i m ä k i c o m b i n e d
elements from problem-solving and
space shooters. The player must
na vig a te the ir ship throu g h ima g ina tive
levels while collecting diamonds. Back
in its day, Netherworld received praise
not only for its distinctive ide a , bu t a l so
for its implementation. The controls
of the game are precise, and although
t h e l e v e l o f d i f f i c u l t y i s f a i r ly h i g h , i t
is balanced in such a way that it feels
re w a rding to pl a y.

Ne the rw orl d is a l so re me mbe re d for the

music track by Jori Olkkonen, as well
as its cover art, onto which the game’s
p u b l i s h e r H e w s o n p l a c e d Ta p a n i m ä k i ’ s
f a c e u n b e k n o w n s t t o Ta p a n i m ä k i h i m -
s e l f . Ta p a n i m ä k i w a s g r e a t ly s h o c k e d
t o f i n a l ly d i s c o v e r t h i s a t t h e p r e s s
confe re nce he l d for the g a me in L ondon.

57
Alias
Alias Va riou s g u e ssing g a me s a re a n inte g ra l
pa rt of the l ong history of re cre a tiona l
and party games. A prime example
TYPE of these, Alias, developed by Mikko
Board game Koivusalo, first spread into Finnish
home s in the 19 9 0s. K now l e dg e of trivia
DEVELOPER i s n o t r e a l ly r e q u i r e d t o p l a y A l i a s , b u t
Mikko Koivusalo verbal dexterity and social intelligence
de finite ly come in ha ndy. It ha s be come
PUBLISHER one of the most popu l a r boa rd g a me s in
Nelostuote F inl a nd.

The name Alias comes from the Latin

word alias, meaning “also known as.”
The aim of the game is for the players
to explain words on the game cards to
me mbe rs of the ir te a m. F or e a ch corre ct
guess made within the time limit, the
te a m g e ts to move the ir g a me pie ce one
ste p cl ose r to the g oa l .

Numerous and various versions of

Alias have been made since its original
publication – a Sami language Alias to
na me one e xa mpl e . T he ma nu fa ctu re of
the game still continues by Nelostuote
Oy (now ca l l e d Ta ctic Ga me s Oy) a t the ir
fa ctory in Pori.

61
BatMUD
BatMUD Opened in 1990, BatMUD is one of the
largest text-based online games ever
ma de . A t the sa me time , it is a l so one of
PLATFORM the first a nd the ol de st re pre se nta tive s
Cross-platform of the genre still in operation. BatMUD
derives its name from the first server
DEVELOPER the g a me w a s hoste d on (ba tma n. cs. hu t.
B.A.T. ry fi) combine d w ith the w ords Mu l ti Use r
Dungeon. These types of MUDs were
PUBLISHER p r e c u r s o r s t o t h e m o d e r n m a s s i v e ly
B.A.T. ry mu l tipl a ye r onl ine rol e -pl a ying g a me s.

BatMUD is a mu l tipl a ye r fa nta sy a dve n-

ture, offering numerous possibilities
and freedom of choice. For instance,
the game includes 44 different races,
experience levels up to a hundred, de-
ta il e d spe l l -ca sting a nd ba ttl e syste ms,
trading between players as well as a
large and open world with mountains
and oceans. The game is played by
typing comma nds su ch a s “tra ve l sou th, ”
and the game responds with detailed
explanations of what follows from the
pl a ye r’s a ctions.

H a v i n g r e s p e c t a b ly s u r v i v e d f o r o v e r
a quarter of a century, BatMUD still
continues to be updated and hosts
thou sa nds of a ctive pl a ye rs.

65
Coloris
Coloris Coloris is a puzzle game similar to
Te tris, a nd did not a chie ve mu ch su cce ss
back in the day. The game was never
PLATFORM e xporte d ou tside of F inl a nd du e to fe a r
Amiga of legal issues, as Sega had released a
Atari ST very similar game called Columns not
l ong be fore C ol oris.
DEVELOPER
Signum Victoriae L ike Te tris, C ol oris a l so fe a tu re s va riou s
type s of bl ocks fa l l ing into a sha ft, w hich
PUBLISHER the pl a ye r a ims to ke e p cl e a r for a s l ong
a s p o s s i b l e . H o w e v e r , u n l i k e Te t r i s , t h e
Avesoft
blocks in Coloris are uniform in shape,
and consist of three parts, the colours
of which the player can alternate. As
three of the same colour are stacked,
the bl ocks disa ppe a r from the scre e n.

Coloris garnered positive attention in

hobby ma g a zine s, a nd Ju kka Ta pa nimäki,
a well-known game developer himself,
gave it top marks in his review for
Mikrobitti (a Finnish computer maga-
zine ) , for e xa mpl e .

67
Lohikäärmepuu
L o h i k ä ä r m e p u u ( ‘ T h e D r a g o n Tr e e ’ ) ,
Lohikäärmepuu aired on the young-adult oriented
na tiona l ra dio cha nne l R a dioma fia (Yl e X
TYPE since 2003) at the beginning of the
Call-in radio show 1990s, is a unique part of both Finnish
g a me a nd ra dio history.
DEVELOPER
Andy Pilke Lohikäärmepuu was an adventure role-
Jari Pauna playing game broadcast on the radio,
to which listeners could participate by
PUBLISHER calling in on the live show. The show’s
hosts dou bl e d a s story te l l e rs a nd g a me
YLE
ma ste rs. T he rol e of the ca l l e rs w a s to
try and advance the story by thinking
c r e a t i v e ly a s t h e y e n c o u n t e r e d v a r i o u s
pu zzl ing situ a tions in the g a me .

Scripting the show was done by the

creators of Lohikäärmepuu drawing up
various maps of the adventures. Live
transmissions and unexpected choices
made by the players caused constant
fl u ctu a tions in the g a me a nd se t va riou s
challenges for the hosts. A large part
of the game’s popularity was indeed
owed to the real-time insights and
improvisa tiona l skil l s of the hosts, A ndy
Pil ke a nd Ja ri Pa u na .

69
P e r s p e c t i v e : A n dy P i l k e “I’ve been working in radio as a journalist,
but moved on to online and new media
business – as it was called back in the
Andy Pilke reminisces
day – as early as the 1990s. I created
content, multimedia implementations
and web pages and, during the first half
about the era of of the 2000s, I taught these things in
technical colleges and universities of
one unique radio
applied sciences. At the moment, I make
a variety of online training solutions from
videos and interactive implementations to
show and a staple of varied mobile content. I started working
in radio in the early 1990s. I worked as a
Finnish game history,
quiz writer, music programme editor and
interviewer for the Finnish radio station
Radiomafia. Later on, I worked on an
the role-playing evening programme called Kaapparilaiva
(‘Privateer’) at a local radio station, among
game Lohikäärmepuu.
other things. The programme involved a
game similar to Ariadne’s thread, where
people had to guess what really happened
after hearing the story that aired.
Lohikäärmepuu (‘The Dragon Tree’) was
a role-playing game played on the radio.
I had dabbled in some classic role playing
before, and pondered whether it could
work on radio. My initial concept was a
pre-scripted story with all its twists and
turns, plus some additional freeform bits.
This, however, turned out to be too com-
plex to really work. In any case, I’d been
thinking that I would not do this alone. I
called up people here and there in hopes
of finding someone with experience in be-
ing a game master and with whom to mull
over the programme’s script. I managed
to get a hold of Jari Pauna, who became
the other host for the programme.
70
I believe the statute of limitations has
passed, so I suppose it is okay to admit
that the name Lohikäärmepuu was picked
after a US role-playing brand Dragon Tree.
Jari thought of the name and it just clicked
immediately. We produced Lohikäärmepuu
on a weekly basis on Radiomafia from
autumn 1990 to late summer 1991, after
which I continued solo on a version called
Seikkailupuu (‘Adventure Tree’). It aired
once a month on Saturday mornings.
The radio producer initially asked us to
do a test transmission, a so-called dry
run, of Lohikäärmepuu, where a previ-
ously determined caller would participate
in the show. The run was a success, we
gained the producer’s approval and the
programme was slated to be aired. The
first transmission was unnerving and it
seemed at first that no one would call.
Re-listening to that first broadcast af-
terwards, it does sound a little uncertain.
Our confidence grew as soon as people
started calling in, and the show eventually
took off really well.
We always broadcast live; the story was
never recorded beforehand. The story that
initiated the programme was usually quite
short. It roughly outlined the genre and
the situation of the protagonist, whether
it would be set in a Middle Age fantasy, a
Tolkien style story, somewhere in the Wild
West in the 1800s or a spacecraft. The
current situation, characteristics and age
of the protagonist were also disclosed. We
take pride in the fact that even if we’d say,
for example, “a young warrior,” this was
by no means gender-focused. There were
a handful of courageous girls or women
71
who called in to participate. In these cases,
the protagonist would then turn out to be
female. In general, the characters could
be of either sex, this made no difference.
We alternated between taking in the first
caller before reading the initial story and
reading the story first before waiting for
calls to come in.
It must be emphasised that this was the
beginning of the 1990s, everything was
mechanical, landline phones were used
for calls and so on. We usually only saw
some lights flashing, which indicated
there were callers on the lines. Then we’d
press a switch to pick a caller. Later on,
we moved to another studio and a sound
engineer came along who would then take
the calls. This engineer was able to do a
little pre-check on the next caller, ena-
bling us to greet them by name and so on.
U s u a l ly t h e a m b i e n t s o u n d s f o r
Lohikäärmepuu were played from cas-
sette tapes. They ran on an endless sound
loop, which I had compiled. If a special
effect was required, we’d run that single
sound separately. The cassette was placed
in the slot beforehand and played from
there. On the table, we had a massive pile
of these cassettes, which we then played
alternately. It was a kind of guessing
game for us to divine what the player
would do next – will they shoot or make
a run for it. Then, we’d quickly replace the
cassette and adjust the story around this;
“well your weapon is jammed and didn’t
fire yet, oh, now it fired, but the bullet
strayed and hit a wall.” The technological
constraints, therefore, contributed to the
kind of story we were telling. I also made
72
some of these sound effects on synths,
by my own voice, or by other means. For
example, the sounds of someone dying
were usually my own rattles and wheezes.
Being a call-in radio show meant that
the mechanics of Lohikäärmepuu were
quite different from regular tabletop
role-playing games. The why and how
things which affect each other in tabletop
games are usually regulated. They use
dice or similar to measure the success of
actions and the game master tells what
will happen based on the numbers. We did
not use dice to decide our storytelling, but
might roll bone dice on a stone table for
special effects.
We would normally create a map, or an
approximate floor plan, of the game’s
events in advance. I usually had such a
strong vision for a particular story that
we were able to empathise with different
situations quite spontaneously. Sometimes
we would intentionally plant honeypot
traps to corner the players, but I will
never admit to trying to cause anyone to
fail. However, if other players were trying
to, say, crush some orcs, and one player
would say, “I’ll run away,” we might say,
“You cannot run away, you will die.” Then
they’d be on the line for maybe two sec-
onds. We could afford to do this because
we had so many people calling in.
Sometimes we’d have to cut corners and
leave out previously planned steps in
order to advance the story far enough
over the course of the transmission. I
don’t think there was ever a time when
we would have reached a certain point too
quickly. We were always able to drag it out
and come up with more relatively credible
stuff. Of course people are different, so
we just had to try and guide the players
on a case by case basis.
We got next to no prank calls, which was
pretty amazing. On some of the very first
shows we’d have stuff like a young kid
calling in, getting through, and saying
“crap” in a hushed voice. There was also
an older man, who participated in more or
less all of the phone-in and song request
shows on the radio. You could almost
hear him sitting in his rocking chair and
being completely confused about our
whole concept. That was alright, though,
as he seemed like a really likable guy.
Nonetheless, we had to move on pretty
quickly and think of something nasty that
would happen to that character, maybe
that he acted too slowly and thus got his
head chopped off.
Working together with the callers was re-
ally nice. Afterwards, I’ve heard that there
were a lot of people who did not take part
in the game themselves, but listened to
the broadcast or recorded it on a cassette
to discuss the show with friends the next
day. We also got quite a lot of varied fan
mail. Some had drawn cool stuff, really
put some thought and effort into it. The
whole thing had a real communal feel
to it. After a year of doing the show, the
producer and the channel decided that
the show would be cancelled, and there
was a huge outcry from people saying it
was the best show ever and “I will never
listen to Radiomafia again.”
Although the early 1990s was rather
experimental in terms of interactive sto-
rytelling, I don’t know of anything quite
like Lohikäärmepuu. It really did receive
high praise in the world of radio. When
executives from European national broad-
casters were visiting, the station’s then
chief introduced them to our show. It was
pretty awesome to sit there in the studio
while the execs applauded and cheered for
us. Our producer said he’d heard of some
European guy who was doing a show in
the same vein. It wasn’t fantasy, but had
various everyday situations. For example,
a person would have to go to the kiosk,
but had lost their wallet. Our producer
told me that the host of this show was
very skilled in manipulating people and got
them to cry or lose their temper. People
really had to struggle in those situations,
and it was pretty harsh, but that was the
idea of it. Our producer then thought that
we, too, should be more like that. Sure, we
killed everyone, but we should have been
more ruthless, to wring more emotional
reactions from our callers.
I feel that at its best Lohikäärmepuu was
an experiment based on the tradition of
storytelling, combined with role-playing.
Although it was in a way a product of
its time, many have subsequently said
they feel it’s a pity that stuff like this is
not done anywhere anymore. A lot has
changed in the radio business; nowadays,
it’s either hit music only or some special
speech programmes. In the 2010s, we did
two remakes of Lohikäärmepuu on Radio
Moreeni (a local radio station in Tampere).
It was very nostalgic, and a nice experi-
ence. Of course, at first you’re thinking
73
about what it will feel like and will this
amount to anything; but sure enough, I
still had the touch for it. I was able to pull
it off with a good vibe.”

74
Slicks ‘n’ Slide
Slicks Sl icks ‘n’ Sl ide is one of the be st-know n
F innish sha re w a re g a me s. In this ra cing

‘n’ Slide game, players compete either against

the compu te r or e a ch othe r in tiny motor
vehicles ranging from motorcycles and
PLATFORM ra cing ca rs to UF Os a nd ta nks.
PC
T he top-dow n vie w of the tra cks a l l ow s
DEVELOPER the m to be fu l ly displ a ye d on the scre e n,
Timo Kauppinen a nd it is e a sy to g e t a g ra sp of the g a me .
Juha Kauppinen The responsive feel of driving in the
game has received particular praise.
PUBLISHER A l thou g h Sl icks ‘n’ Sl ide is a pu re ra cing
Timo Kauppinen game at heart, newer versions of the
g a me a l so ca me to incl u de w e a ponry a s
w e l l a s da ma g e to the ve hicl e s.

While Slicks ‘n’ Slide can be played by

u p to fou r pl a ye rs simu l ta ne ou sly on the
same machine, another popular feature
is the track editor, which accounts for
the longevity of the game’s popularity.
Thanks to new tracks produced by the
fan community, there’s no shortage of
ma te ria l to pl a y throu g h.

77
Stardust
Stardust O r i g i n a l ly a h o b b y p r o j e c t , S t a r d u s t i s
a s p a c e s h o o t e r , w h i c h s u b s e q u e n t ly
g re w into the l ong -l ive d Su pe r Stardu st
PLATFORM fra nchise . Bl oodhou se a nd Te rra ma rqu e ,
Amiga hailing from the Finnish demoscene,
Atari STE merged in 1995 to form Housemarque,
PC which has continued to develop the
franchise. Housemarque is the oldest
DEVELOPER Finnish video game company still in
ope ra tion.
Bloodhouse
Compared to its contemporaries,
PUBLISHER
Stardust was graphically quite
Team 17 impressive and received praise for its
gameplay. The player must shoot at
asteroids and enemies floating on the
scre e n w hil e dodg ing the m a t the sa me
t i m e . C h a r a c t e r i s t i c a l ly o f i t s g e n r e ,
the ship may be enhanced with more
powerful weapons, protective shields
and other accessories to facilitate this
ta sk.

Ove r the ye a rs, a nu mbe r of se qu e l s ha ve

be e n ma de to Stardu st. Of the se , Su pe r
Stardust, published in 1994, received
the honour of being the first Finnish
console game along with its 1995 port
to the A mig a C D32 .

79
Inva-taxi
Inva-taxi Åke soft w a s a g rou p forme d by te e na g e rs
a ctive in the mid-19 9 0s, w hich du ring its
r e l a t i v e ly s h o r t l i f e c y c l e m a n a g e d t o
PLATFORM produce a host of games and software
PC a p p l i c a t i o n s w h i c h w e r e m a i n ly b a s e d
on rather questionable humour. Rather
DEVELOPER than gameplay or gaming itself, this
Åkesoft tongue-in-cheek style was also the
driving force be hind Inva-taxi (‘Taxi for
PUBLISHER the disabled’). However, this cult game
Åkesoft ma na g e d to find its a u die nce , a s se ve ra l
people who spent time with computers
in the 19 9 0s stil l re me mbe r it.

The game itself is rather simple: the

player is the driver of a taxi for the
disa bl e d, w ho mu st drive the cu stome r to
the requested location. The customers’
s p e e c h h a s b e e n d e l i b e r a t e ly m a d e
difficu l t to u nde rsta nd, a nd inte rpre ting
the se spe e ch sa mpl e s is a t the he a rt of
the g a me .

T he me mbe rs of Åke soft ne ve r re ve a l e d

their true identities, but appeared un-
der pseudonyms. Some may also re-
member Åkesoft from the questionable
Be paqu e st re l e a se , w hich e ve n e nde d u p
in cou rt du e to ha ra ssme nt a ccu sa tions.

83
Perspective: Åkesoft
The members of
“Åkesoft was born out of a few young
lads’ desire to cultivate strange humour
and publish their own, deliberately quirky
Åkesoft talk of software. The group was in operation
from the spring of 1993 until early 1996.
their teenage
The demoscene was quite lively back then,
and far too serious in our opinion. The
level of skill on the PC side also began to
hobby of game climb up to rather high standards for that
time. I do not think there were groups of
making, share
game developers quite like ours, at least
not with a similar attitude. There were
some individual humour games, but no
current thoughts real long-standing groups. Our group was
pretty much outside the demo and game
on their games’
scene, and we were certainly thought of
as quite the nuisance. Then again, that
was exactly our aim. I believe nowadays
vulgar humour this is called ‘trolling.’ Some Åkesoft
members had contacts with other groups
and explain
in the demoscene, but more as individuals
rather than as Åkesoft. However, some of
us also “represented” at industry events.
why they wish From the start, Åkesoft worked without
revealing the members’ identities, so
to remain
our contacts were minimal. We still ac-
tively hung around the BBS world and the
demoscene. In 1996, we had quite a few
anonymous. unfinished projects, but they were never
finished as life was taking us in different
directions, and the whole thing began to
seem too childish.
Our two original founding members
learned the basics of programming lan-
guages in the early 1990s, and made a
variety of text-based adventure games.
Soon, text-based games turned into
84
rudimentary games with graphics. The
first of these was a simple construct in
which the player swam around the pool
as a yellow rubber ducky, dodging various
obstacles. The duck was named Åke, and
thus the name Åkesoft was born.
Our game ideas were the outputs of a
rebellious teenage mind. Inventing vulgar
and offensive humour is relatively easy.
The game ideas often came as a side
product of joking around, since we were
a group of friends rather than a real game
company. Our ideas were limited by our
minimal programming skills, so we invest-
ed in what we knew best: absurd humour.
We made games on subjects that would
not cross the minds of anyone else, and
parodied the more serious game and demo
groups. Game ideas were formed both as
a result of individual brainstorming and as
by-products of the time spent together.
The software and games by Åkesoft were
jokes. We were learning to program, and
we wanted to publish software, but we
could not be bothered to do anything
well. Any serious release might have felt
wrong anyway, so we ended up taking the
role of the jester. Åkesoft was taunting
the seriousness and self-importance of
the BBS world and the demoscene. We
made fun of how each release package
had to include certain types of files, and
what they said; how the same patterns
were repeated and greetings sent in intros
and demos. Åkesoft’s own “demos” were
mainly meant as tools of jeering for our
demoscene enthusiast acquaintances. It
was amusing to watch how seriously and
with great passion some acquaintances
and enthusiasts we met at Assembly, a
Finnish demoparty, for example, took the
demos. Making our own demos with our
unique style seemed like a good way to
rile them up.
One of our key ideas was to test the
patience of people and how far we
could push the boundaries. The game
Sokkomato (‘Blind Worm’) was actually
not even a game. The idea was to test
whether we could make people believe
it would be some kind of a game. In real-
ity, Sokkomato was twenty lines of code,
and as you ran the application it waited
a random amount of time between 0-5
seconds, after which it told you that you
had died. We only made one issue of the
fabricated news web-zine Ilta-Panomat
(a cheeky pun on the Finnish tabloid Ilta-
Sanomat). As for the real-time Tampere-
Rovaniemi train simulator, we meant for
it to be experienced through the eyes of
the passenger, but with our skills all we
could manage was to create a map of
Finland’s railways. We found this mishap
much more fun than the original idea. In
Last Animal Action Hero, the player had
to escape their pursuers and try to get
to “boning” in peace. This was perhaps
the most technically advanced work by
Åkesoft. Kehkeytyksen riemulähteet (‘The
Gleeful Founts of Emergence’) was a
never-ending, epic story generator, which
naturally had no rhyme or reason. A large
part of the humour was vulgar and bad,
but we also had some fun stuff. For exam-
ple, Kuolinilmoitusgeneraattori (‘Obituary
Generator’) just gave us a laugh, and was
not meant for bullying anyone. We kept
our bar for releasing games very low.
85
The culmination of our operation was
perhaps the Assembly ‘95 4k Intro com-
petition, to which we churned out four
works worth of garbage.
Games were crafted by each member
on their own computers. Our tools of
the trade were mainly QuickBasic, Turbo
Pascal and Assembler. Scream Tracker
was used for producing music. Some of
the works were created by one person on
their own from start to finish, and some
were joint efforts by the whole group.
Only about half of the games ended up
being ever released. Ideas that were too
complex for us to implement or a single
programming bug we could not figure
out could mean the project was left un-
finished. Sometimes we would all gather
around, especially when making sounds
for the games. Brainstorming for games
probably took place in school during re-
cess or just hanging out together.
Inva-taxi (‘Taxi for the Disabled’) most
likely turned out the way it did precisely
due to a lack of programming skills. The
simple displaying of graphics, playing
sounds and controlling the game with a
mouse was barely within our capabilities.
If we would have had more skills, the
game would likely have been more seri-
ous. Skill had to be replaced with rude
humour. Moreover, with our attention
span we could only tackle ideas that took
a couple of nights to finish up. Back then,
there was a popular show on the radio
on Friday nights, hosted by this foul-
mouthed presenter Pertti Salovaara. He
had a competition for the worst joke of
the week, which was won by, “Stick your
86
tongue out of your mouth and say, ‘What
are we taking?’” As the listeners did the
aforementioned, the response was a joy-
fully squealed, “The taxi for the disabled!”
The joke was in such poor taste that it was
repeated over and over in school during
recess. We pretty much knew right away
that we would have to make a game out of
it. Inva-taxi was not, however, a malicious
game. It was not meant to offend anyone
and we do not recall anyone giving nega-
tive feedback. The epic starting screen
was made by one of our members, whose
Åkesoft name we cannot remember and
the real name we will not disclose. The
cutscenes were directly lifted from the
remake of Leisure Suit Larry. We believe
the decisive factor for the game’s success
was a short article published in Mikrobitti
(a Finnish computer magazine). The com-
edy in other Åkesoft software and games
focused mostly on the nether regions,
so they might not have humoured larger
audiences for long. That’s possibly why
Inva-taxi was the one to emerge instead
of some other title.
As for Bepaquest, it was just another
project for us. The tasteless and offen-
sive humour targeted many parties, but
we were used to shooting up in every
direction. Bepaquest was an unfortunate
incident, and the subsequent trial was
surely a tough process for all the parties
involved. The legal process also contrib-
uted to the fact that our enthusiasm for
publishing more Åkesoft works waned.
During our time in Åkesoft, we could
not see the games we made as tools for
bullying in the same way we can today.
Bepaquest was an unfortunate episode,
a result of recklessness at a young age.
Intellect and judgement are still quite poor
at the age of 14.
We do not know how much and what
kind of bullying exists among schoolchil-
dren and young people of today. Back in
the day, we never thought of Åkesoft’s
works as bullying, with the exception of
Bepaquest. Even then, we did not fully un-
derstand the gravity of that game. Today,
looking back to just over twenty years
ago, we can see how we did bully various
parties through our activities. Any form
of bullying is unacceptable, of course,
and no bullying should be tolerated. It is
unacceptable.
The reputation of Åkesoft may not have
been particularly positive. Secret identities
were a part of Åkesoft and came with the
territory. We worked anonymously from
the beginning, and with the attitude that
our identities would never be revealed.
We also did not want to associate our
names to the kinds of stories published
back then, and neither do we want it now.
Our everyday selves are not related to
Åkesoft, and it would be quite a drag to
reveal our identities now.
As for the post-Åkesoft time, we can
reveal that one of us has worked as a
programmer in international projects all
over the world for about 15 years, and
another has worked as a software archi-
tect and engineer in various companies as
well as made their own product develop-
ment. A third person works in the theatre
and music industry, both as a performer
and on the technical side. The group of
friends that formed around Åkesoft is a
little scattered around, but as our activi-
ties were based on friendship in the first
place, all the members continue to keep
in touch on a more or less regular basis.
Making games inspired us to learn pro-
gramming, and delve deeper into the inner
workings of computers. In 1995, coding
was not yet a trendy skill to teach chil-
dren in primary schools. Our know-how
has been easy to commercialise in the job
market, and breaking into the industry
without an education in IT was actually
quite easy, thanks to the basic skills we
learned while making games. Åkesoft
gave us courage and taught a lesson in
how software in general is published.
Similarly, our graphic design skills from
logos to fonts originated during Åkesoft,
unintentionally of course. We can make
use of a lot of these skills at work nowa-
days. In other ways, the influence on our
lives has not been that considerable.
Due to its inappropriate humour, we can-
not really say we are proud of Inva-taxi. In
any case, it is amusing to see how much
attention our hobby has attracted. We
were quite baffled and humbled to have
our game chosen for the Finnish Museum
of Games. It is great that a humorous
game also gets to be included. On the
one hand, we are rather embarrassed, but
still you have to admit all of this makes
you laugh, a lot. We are not laughing at
the fact that we made a game poking fun
at people with disabilities when we were
young. We laugh at the fact that such an
absurd piece of work has achieved such
a status over the years.
87
Åkesoft seems to have been an experience
of the generation for youth at the turn of
the 2000s, which is quite baffling. It seems
that it is part of the popular culture of its
time, which is now wistfully reminisced by
men approaching their forties. In recent
years, we’ve been quite surprised to see
how many Finnish people of our age ac-
tually know Åkesoft. The reputation of
Inva-taxi is living a life of its own.

The reputation and significance of Åkesoft

has stretched much further in Finland
than we ever dared to imagine. Since
games were distributed by copying and
downloading from BBSs, we had no clue
of how many games were downloaded and
played at the time. We thought Åkesoft
was a marginal phenomenon within our
neighbourhoods and small circles. It be-
came evident much later that the games
had spread to the whole country, and that
especially Inva-taxi had gained renown.
Some were appalled, and some amused
by this. One of us was once on an assign-
ment on the other side of the world and
was listening to the YleX web radio during
their workday. All of a sudden, Inva-taxi
and Åkesoft were reminisced on the show.
It felt bizarre that our humorous hobby
garnered so much attention that some
people still remember it.”

88
Alien Incident /
Muukalaisten yö
Alien Incident/ Alien Incident is the first commercial
F innish point-a nd-cl ick a dve ntu re g a me ,
Muukalaisten yö and continues to be one of the few
Finnish representatives of the genre. A
F innish l a ng u a g e ve rsion of the g a me w a s
PLATFORM pu bl ishe d u nde r the na me Mu u kal aiste n
PC yö. This was rare in the sense that,
due to the rather small language and
DEVELOPER market area, Finnish-language releases
Housemarque of games were few and far between,
e spe cia l ly ba ck in those da ys.
PUBLISHER
Toptronics A l ie n Incide nt tips its ha t to the tra dition
of adventure games, throwing humour
and witty remarks into the mix with a
va rie ty of pu zzl e s, l ike its pre de ce ssors.
T h e m a k i n g o f A l i e n I n c i d e n t o r i g i n a l ly
b e g a n b a c k i n 1 9 9 2 , a n d i t w a s i n i t i a l ly
developed under the wing of the game
company Bloodhouse. The developers
a l so inte nde d to cre a te a ve rsion for the
C ommodore A mig a . In the e nd, how e ve r,
the g a me w a s only re l e a se d for the PC ,
a n d s o f a r r e m a i n s t h e o n ly a d v e n t u r e
g a me de ve l ope d by Hou se ma rqu e .

91
Wings
Wings I n t h e 1 9 9 0 s , v a r i o u s c a v e - f ly e r s w e r e
popular among home PC enthusiasts.
Ty p i c a l ly f o r g a m e s o f t h i s g e n r e ,
PLATFORM players must take on each other while
PC flying a rou nd in cra mpe d ca ve s on sma l l ,
bu t he a vily a rme d ships. Wing s, re l e a se d
DEVELOPER in 1996 for the MS-DOS operating
Miika Virpioja system, was one of the most popular
re pre se nta tive s of this g e nre in F inl a nd.
PUBLISHER
Miika Virpioja Wing s offe rs tw o diffe re nt g a me mode s,
‘de a thma tch’ a nd ‘l a st ma n sta nding ’ a s
w e l l a s more tha n thirty diffe re nt type s
of weapons. In addition to the solo
mode , u p to fou r pl a ye rs ca n join e ithe r
on the same machine or by connecting
computers to each other via a null
mode m ca bl e or mode m.

O r i g i n a l ly , W i n g s w a s r e l e a s e d a s a
shareware game, and the field editor
and other additional features were
a v a i l a b l e o n ly i f t h e y w e r e p a i d f o r
s e p a r a t e ly . S i n c e t h e n , t h e g a m e w a s
released as freeware, which increased
its popu l a rity.

93
Eläin aktivisti
Eläin Characteristic of the computer subcul-
ture of its time, Eläin aktivisti (‘Animal

aktivisti A ctivist’) ca n ha ve a pol itica l ly incorre ct

tone, but it also serves as an example
of news games. Eläin aktivisti took its
PLATFORM inspira tion from a w ide ly re porte d con-
PC frontation in 1997, where a fur breeder
from Orima ttil a ope ne d shotg u n fire on
DEVELOPER the Animal Liberation Front activists
Mikko “Bemmu” Sepponen w ho ha d inva de d his fa rm.

PUBLISHER In Eläin aktivisti, the player controls

Mikko “Bemmu” Sepponen a fur breeder, whose fox farm is the
target of animal rights activists. The
aim is to prevent the release of foxes
by shooting the activists before they
ma na g e to re a ch the a nima l ca g e s.

The game can be seen as a comment

on a topical, controversial discussion
concerning the incident, and there are
various interpretations of the game’s
meaning. Depending on your point
of view, the game can be viewed as a
response to the actions of the animal
rights activists, or it can be thought
to suggest fur breeders are reckless
shoote rs.

97
Matopeli
Matopeli The first version of the well-known
‘ s n a k e g a m e ’ i s p r o b a b ly t h e 1 9 7 6
arcade game Blockade. A couple of
PLATFORM decades later, Matopeli (Snake) by
Mobile Ta n e l i A r m a n t o s p r e a d f r o m t h e N o k i a
6110 model to almost all Nokia mobile
DEVELOPER phones. Nokia also held Finnish Snake
Taneli Armanto cha mpionships in 19 9 9 a nd 2 000.

PUBLISHER The concept of the game is simple: the

Nokia player controls a snake that eats dots
a ppe a ring on the scre e n. E a ting the dots
ma ke s the sna ke g row in l e ng th, a nd the
g a me is l ost w he n the sna ke hits e ithe r
the side s of the fie l d or its ow n ta il .

The Nokia 6110 version offered a

multiplayer mode, which was made
possible by connecting two phones to
each other via the infrared port. Snake
was the most widespread Finnish game
of its time, and the phones containing
the game were the bestsellers of their
time .

99
Drop Mania
Drop The puzzle game Drop Mania is
re me mbe re d for its u nu su a l distribu tion

Mania cha nne l . You cou l d not bu y it in store s,

but instead it was sold by Suomen
Kotijäätelö Oy (a Finnish ice cream van
PLATFORM c o m p a n y ) . D r o p M a n i a w a s n o m i n a l ly
Windows priced at FIM 180, and owners of the
Kotijäätelö club card could purchase
DEVELOPER one for F IM 15 .
Ninai Games
D r o p M a n i a i s a Te t r i s - l i k e a c t i o n a n d
PUBLISHER pu zzl e g a me in w hich bl ocks drop dow n
Suomen Kotijäätelö from the top of the scre e n. T he pl a ye r’s
task is to get these blocks removed
before the space is filled up. This is
achieved by arranging the blocks of
the same colour into groups that can
be demolished with a special explosive
bl ock.

Ninai Games made further use of Drop

Mania for their game Rampage Puzzle
Attack, published for the Nintendo
Game Boy Advance in 2001 as the first
Finnish handheld game. Drop Mania
also received a sequel in 2005 called
Super Drop Mania. It was published for
the Symbian OS and Windows Mobile
pl a tforms.

103
Supreme Snowboarding
Supreme Supreme Snowboarding (published as
Boarder Zone in the United States)

Snowboarding is remembered as one of the most

impre ssive g a me s of its time . T ha nks to
its spe cta cu l a r visu a l s, 3dfx Inte ra ctive
PLATFORM a nd Inte l , for e xa mpl e , u se d the g a me to
Windows showcase the performance capabilities
of the ir ha rdw a re a t the 19 9 8 E 3 a nd the
DEVELOPER Game Developers Conference, among
Housemarque other events. Supreme Snowboarding
also marks the first Finnish digital
PUBLISHER g a me to se l l more tha n a mil l ion copie s
Infogrames inte rna tiona l ly.

In addition to its graphics, Supreme

Snowboarding also received praise for
i t s g a m e p l a y , a n d m o r e s p e c i f i c a l ly f o r
its well thought out controls which
comprised the arrow keys and three
a ction bu ttons. T he pl a ye rs de l ig hte d in
the opportunity to pick their downhill
r o u t e s f r e e ly w i t h i n t h e g a m e ’ s f i e l d s ,
which was quite rare back in the day.
Supreme Snowboarding received a
s e q u e l , Tr a n s w o r l d S n o w b o a r d i n g , i n
2 002 , w hich w a s the first F innish re l e a se
de sig ne d for the Xbox g a ming consol e .

105
Areena 5
Areena 5 Orig ina ting from a te xt g a me e xpe rime nt
ma de for the C ommodore 6 4, the A re e na
franchise has established itself in the
PLATFORM he a rts of F innish pl a ye rs. A re e na 5 is the
Windows l a st of the se rie s ma de for the Window s
ope ra ting syste m, a s the ne w e r re l e a se s
DEVELOPER a re brow se r-ba se d.
Seppo Suorsa
Game developer Seppo Suorsa has
PUBLISHER sta te d tha t the A re e na e me rg e d from the
Seppo Suorsa idea of combining a football manager
game and fantasy themed role-playing
game. This idea gave birth to a series
of inventive management simulations,
where the player’s task is to guide
their band of gladiators from humble
beginnings to the big leagues. The
Areena games never sought to impress
by their visuals, but rather focused on
the gameplay. In addition to thinking
of suitable strategies, the management
of the team’s finances also requires
a tte ntion.

The latest and seventh part of the

franchise was published in 2014. All of
the games, save for the very first one,
have been available for download from
the game developer’s website free of
cha rg e .

109
Max Payne
Max A third-person action game, Max Payne
was both a critical and commercial

Payne success and the best-selling Finnish

computer game of its time. The
production values of Max Payne were
PLATFORM high and the game was made in grand
Windows (and others) style. For instance, the developers
v i s i t e d N e w Yo r k t o f i l m l o c a t i o n s t h a t
DEVELOPER were used to help provide an authentic
Remedy a tmosphe re .

PUBLISHER In addition to its storytelling, Max

Gathering of Developers Payne is remembered for the bullet
time fe a tu re . Inspire d by the Hong K ong
action flicks of the 1990s, the bullet
time mode slows down the events of
the game world, allowing the player to
a c t m o r e q u i c k ly t h a n t h e s u r r o u n d i n g
w orl d. T he ra the r da rk pl ot of the g a me
presents the player with a revenge
story, where Max wages his one-man
w a r a g a inst crimina l s.

In 2 002 , R e me dy sol d the rig hts to Max

Pay ne to R ocksta r Ga me s, w ho w e nt on
to pu bl ish su bse qu e nt se qu e l s. T he g a me
came full circle in terms of its movie
inspira tions in 2 008, a s Max Pay ne w a s
m a d e i n t o a H o l ly w o o d m o v i e s t a r r i n g
Ma rk Wa hl be rg .

113
Rally Trophy
Rally R a l ly Tr o p h y i s s t i l l f o n d ly t h o u g h t o f
a mong st F innish ca r e nthu sia sts a nd ca r

Trophy game lovers alike. Unlike conventional

racing games which tend to focus on
m o d e r n v e h i c l e s , R a l ly Tr o p h y h o s t s
PLATFORM historic ca rs from the 19 6 0s a nd 19 70s.
Windows T he g a me incl u de s a nu mbe r of cl a ssics
of the era, such as the Mini Cooper,
DEVELOPER t h e V o lv o A m a z o n a n d t h e F o r d E s c o r t .
Bugbear T he pa rt of the co-drive r of the F innish
language version of the game was
PUBLISHER pe rforme d by F innish ra l ly l e g e nd R a u no
JoWood A a l tone n.

R a l ly Tr o p h y i s e s s e n t i a l ly a f a i r ly
serious game; it could almost be
t h o u g h t o f a s a r a l ly s i m u l a t o r . T h e
realism of the game is not limited to
ju st the su pe rficia l a spe cts, a s the ve ry
believable handling of the various car
models provides a tough nut to crack
e spe cia l ly for ine xpe rie nce d pl a ye rs.

R a l ly Tr o p h y m a r k e d t h e f i r s t r e l e a s e
for Bugbear, which has been focusing
on ra cing g a me s. Bu g be a r l a te r be ca me
k n o w n e s p e c i a l ly f o r t h e F l a t O u t
franchise, which in turn was all about
re l a xe d a nd re ckl e ss driving .

115
Stair Dismount /
Porrasturvat
Stair Porrasturvat is an interesting example
of the creativity of game creators

Dismount / operating in the margins. The player

mu st nu dg e a fig u re ca l l e d Spe ctor dow n
Porrasturvat the sta irs, ca u sing him a s mu ch inju ry a s
possible. The more injured Spector is,
the more points the player scores for
PLATFORM the ir pe rforma nce .
Windows (and others)
According to the game’s programmer,
DEVELOPER Jetro Lauha, he came up with this
tAAt exceptional idea for a game as he
was about to stumble on the stairs at
PUBLISHER his workplace. Published under the
tAAt demoscene group tAAt, established in
1992, Porrasturvat was made for the
2 0 0 2 A s s e m b ly g a m e d e v e l o p m e n t
competition, which it also went on to
w in.

Porrastu rvat is one of the first compu te r

games to make use of realistic physics
modelling and the so-called ragdoll
effect. Versions for Mac, Linux and a
va rie ty of sma rtphone s ha ve since be e n
made, and the game has also received
a nu mbe r of se qu e l s ba se d on the sa me
the me .

119
Perspective: Markku Reunanen
Lecturer Markku
Reunanen sheds
light on the past
and present of the
Finnish demoscene,
which also had its
hand in giving rise
to the Finnish game
industry.
120
“I am a lecturer at the Aalto University
Department of Media, a position where I
ended up largely through demos. I’d al-
ready taken an interest in programming,
graphics and sound back in the 1980s
when I got my first home computer. I come
from the rather small town of Vammala,
which didn’t really have an active scene.
We saw some demos and the like in the
early 1990s, and together with some
like-minded, enthusiastic people, with
few contacts and limited knowledge, we
began to explore what this ‘demoscene’
was about. Eventually in 1994, we got to
experience the grand world style as we
took off to the Assembly demoparty in
Helsinki and the Abduction demoparty
in Rovaniemi. It was a slow and difficult
start, as we didn’t really have any con-
tacts; we had to build a team and learn
the tools, software and other technologies
more or less from scratch.
I was the founder of our demo group
called Fit (1991). The first demo by Fit
was Division by Zero (1993), to which
a friend drew some pictures, and then
the program displayed the pictures and
played music on the background. Soon
we began to learn things, making 3D
graphics and getting some multi-channel
music to play. When things really took
off, the development was rapid, and we
discovered some documentation and so
on. Later, as young researchers together
with Antti Silvasti, we wondered if demos
were ever researched academically. We
began to make a list, which grew into the
Demo Scene Research bibliography. My
licentiate thesis for Helsinki University
of Technology was about demos. The
number and quality of publications on
the subject was not terribly high at the
time, so I aimed to remedy the situation
on my part.
The origin of ‘demo’ is the word demon-
stration, in this case usually attempting
to showcase a new technology or audio-
visual expertise. Demos are executable
programs that display graphics and of-
ten play music. They are expressions of
expertise made both for the community
and for the makers themselves. An intro,
in turn, is a small demo, ranging from one
to sixty-four kilobytes in size. An intro can
also refer to ‘crack intros,’ which were
placed at the start of pirated games to
display prior to the actual game. The first
intros were often mainly customisations
of the starting screens of games, replac-
ing the original graphics and texts. These
began to appear as early as the start of
the 1980s. Various audiovisual effects in
crack intros became common in the mid-
1980s. Soon after this, there was a rise in
demos that were no longer associated
with games per se, but functioned as inde-
pendent works. Initially, for example, the
music might just be snatched off wherever
instead of being composed by the crea-
tors. By the 1990s, a sort of artistry had
begun to form, and people took pride in
the fact that the music, graphics and code
were home-made.
Of course, the thing about demos is that if
you’ve made some yourself, you’ll be able
to better appreciate and understand them.
At times, people have attempted to make
demos more visible and understandable
by taking them to an art museum, for
121
instance. On the other hand, some of the
demos made are so marginal that they
must be intended for a very limited audi-
ence. It’s difficult to talk about the scene
as a whole, as it is rather divided into a
variety of device-specific and national
scenes. Then, you have these old crackers,
and there may be multiple generations
inside the same devices or countries,
and so on. What you appreciate now,
what you’ve seen when you were young
and what left an impression creates this
kind of multidimensional nature. For my
own part, I best recall the State of the Art
demo (1992) on the Amiga, which had the
kind of techno video look, which at that
time was my favourite style of music, too.
Realising you could do such a different
type of demo, and that not everything
had to be cut from the same cloth, was
an awe-inspiring moment for me.
Back in the day, I mostly contemplated
demos on the basis of whether they were
technically feasible, new and amazing.
Nowadays, I observe the overall design
and rhythm more, and this is the direction
the demoscene has taken anyway. For
example, in the 1980s and early 1990s, a
new way to scroll would be considered
super cool. During the 1990s, the demo-
scene itself started talking about design
specifically. We began discussing design,
creating uniform colour schemes, pacing
the demos differently and so forth. The
sense of community was a natural part of
it all, and very few people would probably
be making demos if it weren’t for demo-
parties, demo groups and friends as well
as being a part of the scene.
122
The demoscene is, on the whole, a fairly
Western and Northern European phenom-
enon, whose heyday coincides largely with
Commodore computers. Countries where
Commodore 64 and Amiga devices were
abundant were the heartland of the demo-
scene. Since the demoscene has its roots
in crackers and pirated games, and the
Commodore 64 was once a very popular
computer, the development grew and then
continued quite naturally on the Amiga.
Demoparties, in turn, were initially called
copy-parties before any actual demoscene
existed. In the Netherlands and Germany,
homes to Europe’s largest piracy and
cracker scenes, people gathered at week-
ends to copy games from each other and
to show the latest titles they’d acquired.
Later on, as piracy had disappeared from
the mainstream, or at least from sight for
various reasons, these meetings started
to focus more on demos. In Finland, one
event rises above all others: Assembly,
which has been organised since 1992,
and can stand up to international level
in terms of its size, and especially earlier
also in terms of contests held for demos,
audio and graphics. Typically, these major
traditional parties, The Gathering, The
Party – which has since ceased – and
Assembly, have at some point began to
include gaming. They’ve come full circle
in a sense. However, the social aspect has
always been there, nowadays perhaps
even more than any real competitive
atmosphere.
The fundamental and obvious connection
between digital games and the demoscene
is that the cracker scene, of course, was
entirely dependent on games, and revolved
around them completely. The cracking
and circulating of games is the kind of
connection which exists historically, even
if in the case of the demoscene it has
practically died out. The other tie-in is
that many game companies of the 1990s
especially were founded by people in the
demoscene. After all, the people of the
demoscene have played a lot. Back in
the 1990s, this was not widely discussed,
as the demoscene aimed to stand apart
from mere players. Nowadays, gaming has
become more presentable, and of course
skills in performance oriented low level
programming languages as well as pixel
graphics and composing are well suited
for making games. Of course, today there’s
so much computing power and you can
always buy a new graphics card and so
on, that breaking the limits is no longer
really a thing, except perhaps in terms of
algorithms, style and space, how small
a space can you fit the demo into. The
hardware itself is not so constricted these
days, so it’s not as exhilarating to try and
squeeze every last drop out of it.
It’s hard to say how things went outside
of Europe, but in the 1980s there was al-
ready quite a large group of crackers and
early democoders moving on to making
games for the C64. This was not viewed
in any way strange. I personally recall
how in the 1990s, when these noticeable
game companies began to rise from the
demoscene, the surrounding discussion
had, not exactly a negative, but a rather
questioning tone, “oh, he’s commercialis-
ing his expertise now.” Then again this
was also seen as cool, since it brought
visibility for the scene. On the other hand,
the scene circles have lamented the fact
that many of the groups that used to
be active and prestigious disappeared
into the gaming business, possibly never
making demos again. The demoscene has
given rise to such Finnish game companies
as Housemarque, Remedy, Mr. Goodliving
and Riot-E. Similarly, Bugbear has its
background in the scene as well as the
now defunct Sumea, which even took its
name from a demo.
Thinking of the present and the future of
the demoscene, the skill level is high. All
the lessons learnt have accumulated over
the years due to the fact that the same
people who made demos back then are
still making them now. Of course nowa-
days they’ll have all the demands of real
life with families, jobs, and so on, weighing
on the background. New demos still keep
appearing at a fairly stable rate, so I don’t
see the demoscene going away in the
near future. When these old-timers start
nearing the grave, perhaps the demoscene
will pass away along with them. Not many
young, new groups appear nowadays. The
current high level may also scare people
into thinking that it’s not worth taking
years to learn new things in order to be
able to produce anything new or cool.
If you think about what your average
citizen of today should know about the
demoscene, the least would be the fact
that such a long line of digital culture
exists. Even if it’s quite hidden from the
123
mainstream, it has given rise to a huge
amount of talent. Another is the existence
of such media art and a community, of
which not much is known, but which has
been very active and played a significant
part for those involved. Rather than think-
ing of whatever useful business skills
were acquired, I would like the latter point
to be the takeaway from all this.”

124
Mikämikä-TV
Mikämikä-TV Around the mid-2000s, various SMS
based services and games had become
popular screen time fillers outside of
PLATFORM re g u l a r te l e vision broa dca sts in F inl a nd.
TV/SMS The Finnish Broadcasting Company
joine d the ra nks of se rvice provide rs in
DEVELOPER 2 003 w ith the Mikämikä-T V (‘Whatw hat
Outer-Rim T V’) qu iz, pl a ya bl e via SMS.

PUBLISHER The quiz was broadcast during night

YLE time on the T V2 cha nne l , a nd offe re d the
players four possible answer options
to va riou s qu e stions, to w hich the y ha d
one minute to respond. The players
cou l d a l so orde r hint me ssa g e s to the ir
phone s.

Mikämikä-TV was rather long-lived a

produ ction for its kind, bu t ne ve rthe l e ss
public interest in these expensive SMS
games began to decline over time. In
April 2011, The Finnish Broadcasting
Company ceased these types of paid
services and began to broadcast a
va rie ty of ne w s fe e ds in the ir ste a d.

127
P e r s p e c t i v e : J a a k k o K e m p pa i n e n “The earliest TV game I remember see-
ing is probably Vesisota (‘Water Wars’).
The players would send SMS commands
Game designer
to make the game characters move in a
grid and shoot at each other with water
guns. I don’t recall seeing anything like
Jaakko Kemppainen it before this. My career with TV games
began when I moved on from multimedia
reminisces about
and programming, and started working
for Outer-Rim in 2002. Our first projects
were also television games playable via
TV games, a game SMS, such as Putti mini golf, quiz games,
memory games and so on. The vast mul-
history curiosity
titude of such games came out between
2003 and 2006, as a sort of a golden age
for TV games. On one of the company’s
in Finland, some of summer outings, we visited a local home
electronics store and tuned all the televi-
which he also took
sion receivers to display the games we’d
made. Our games were broadcasted on
four different channels simultaneously,
part in creating. as I recall.
Starting the work on our first TV game
was exciting in all possible ways. We felt
like the project would be a dark horse, as
no one had done anything like it before,
and thus it was also uncertain whether it
would amount to anything. Expectations
were rather high and the project had
massive potential to grow into some-
thing really huge. The initial success was
indeed quite good, we made more games,
the company kept growing and so on. At
best, we had eight people making games,
and these TV games were at the heart of
everything.
128
TV games such as these no longer ex-
ist in the same sense as they did in
the early 2000s. At that time, YLE (the
Finnish Broadcasting Company), for
example, broadcast a test transmission
after programmes ended, and commercial
channels had nothing to air after official
broadcasts either. SMS playable games
were thought to be appropriate fillers for
these times. These games were broadcast
on television channels, which provided
a screen for the players. The players in
turn sent text messages from their mobile
phones to influence the game’s events.
For example, Putti mini golf appeared
as a miniature golf course on the televi-
sion screen, and anyone of the viewers
could start playing by sending an SMS
to the number displayed on the screen.
A golf ball would then appear, and after
this the game was controlled by sending
messages such as “strike by force 100
in the direction of 360.” The lane was
displayed for a few minutes and it could
host as many as fifty players making at-
tempts simultaneously. After a couple of
minutes, a new lane would load onto the
screen and new players could take their
turn in trying out the game.
Participating in these games was techni-
cally quite difficult. The player would
have to write a text message including a
specific, usually one-letter command for
the controls, followed by a series of num-
bers. This had to be sent to the correct
number, and there was a several-second
delay. Dozens of other players appeared
simultaneously on the same small televi-
sion screen. Every player’s operations had
to be presented in such a way that they
129
could make out what they were doing
and also got the idea of other players’
advancements. This proved quite the chal-
lenge for the developers of these games.
As I recall, back then, one SMS sent to
YLE’s channels would cost 70 cents, and
slightly more, maybe 80 cents, for the
commercial channels MTV3 and Nelonen.
Subsequently, prices climbed to 95 cents
per SMS. This was indeed quite expensive
and the topic was discussed, for example,
in an editorial of a Finnish tabloid news-
paper Iltalehti. The editor ruminated that
these idle, trivial games were depriving
children and the parents of children of
their money. And there were indeed some
players who must have sunk hundreds of
euros per month on these SMS games.
However, any profit from these games
was primarily pocketed by telephone op-
erators and television channels, and the
game developers received a rather small
percentage in the end. I was left with the
impression that a large part of the players
were adults who played on a workplace
provided mobile plan or similar. Peak hours
for Putti were in the afternoon before
the popular Finnish soap drama Salatut
Elämät, whereas Mikämikä-TV which, as
I recall, was broadcast during night-time
on YLE channels, attracted players evenly
throughout the transmission. The same
people might play this quiz game every
night for weeks on end, which is of course
terribly expensive. As far as I see it, a big
incentive for such games has always been
that people get their name to appear on
the TV, and it is kind of cool, especially if
you manage to place high on the score list.
130
The general public and media perceived
these games as a real gravy train, and the
makers of the games as rich tycoons, and
so on. These journalists had made some
calculations based on maybe an hour
of following the programme, counting
the number of text messages coming in,
multiplying the numbers by the prices and
pulling some more numbers out of their
hats. Then they figured all of the money
must go to the developers of the game,
concluding that they must earn tons. While
fingers were pointed mainly at the game
developers, broadcasting companies did
receive some of the blame, too. No one
seemed to notice the phone operators’
part of the business. In reality, we received
only a very small part while the phone
operators and television broadcasters
hogged the larger pieces of the pie.
The Finnish game company RedLynx
also made some successful games. Their
games were very pretty and often much
simpler than ours. Perhaps this was also
the reason behind their greater success.
Later on, games like the beach volley
game were introduced – I cannot recall
whether this particular game was pro-
duced by RedLynx. Anyway, the game
included a show hostess in a bikini play-
ing beach volley against the players. This
showed such direction in innovation that
the shine of our nerdy games began to
wane little by little at this point.
I suppose at this point the so-called early
adopters started to move on. New game
concepts were introduced and the players’
journeys would continue. Foreign trade
never really picked up either. We did have
some games broadcasting in Hong Kong or In Finland, this phenomenon was panned
wherever. There were, however, so many completely and sunk into oblivion. It is
intermediaries, that after all this I’m not such an oddity in our national game his-
even sure how much money eventually tory that only a few people would even
came back to us. Around this time, I was want to look back on the whole era, and
beginning to feel a little bored with this nowadays it is rather difficult to find much
job myself so, after taking a year off, I information about these games.”
went to work for another company to
create casual games, virtual worlds and
that kind of stuff.
Looking at the TV games of today, a
variety of guessing games and such, you
must admit they’re pretty lightweight
for games. Back when we were making
similar games, they would invariably in-
clude strong gameplay features. Although
they were designed to turn a profit, we
always tried to make the games fair to
an extent so that people had a genuine
possibility to succeed instead of simply
being cheated out of their money. Since
then, game hosts have gained a pivotal
role in trying to attract players to call in
and participate in the games. The medium
of television invites human interaction,
and the current trend with these games
seems to revolve quite strongly around
a living person.
In a way, these TV games were ahead of
their time. I believe that these SMS games
were a Finnish invention, but they never
got much coverage abroad. There are
times when you might be channel surfing
in a hotel room somewhere in the world
and happen to bump into something simi-
lar. Now, years later, I’ve met people who
are telling me they are doing “this kind
of interactive television, and they have
games on TV, and this is a rising trend.”
131
AirBuccaneers
AirBuccaneers Modding, aka modifying of computer
software and games, has long been a
g ood w a y of ma king the tra nsition from a
PLATFORM g a me e nthu sia st to a pro. A irBu ccane e rs
Windows b e g a n a s a m o d f o r U n r e a l To u r n a m e n t
2 004, a nd it pl a ce d third in the inte rna-
DEVELOPER tional Make Something Unreal Contest
LudoCraft in 2 005 .

PUBLISHER The game pits forest bandits and

LudoCraft notoriou s Viking s a g a inst e a ch othe r in
a ba ttl e for the domina tion of the North.
In the De a thma tch type ma tche s pl a ye rs
steer hot-air balloons equipped with
cannons, which are used to fight other
teams. The landscapes and themes of
the game have a strong basis in old
F innish or Northe rn mythol og y.

A irBu ccane e rs w a s born in the Unive rsity

of Oulu Game Research Unit, which has
operated as an independent company
under the name LudoCraft since the
beginning of 2007. Alongside other
projects, LudoCraft has also produced
t h e i m a g i n a t i v e D r a g o n f ly V a r i a t i o n s
(2005) and Spawns of Deflebub (2006)
mods for the UT 2 004 pl a tform.

135
Pathway to Glory
Pathway T his tu rn-ba se d stra te g y g a me , re l e a se d
e xcl u sive ly for the Nokia N-Ga g e g a ming

to Glory p h o n e , w a s a n e x c e p t i o n a l ly a m b i t i o u s
undertaking for a gaming device with
su ch a sma l l scre e n. T hou sa nds of ima g e s
PLATFORM of authentic venues formed the basis
Nokia N-Gage for the l e ve l de sig n of Pathw ay to Gl ory ,
and the developers consulted experts
DEVELOPER on the Second World War to ensure
RedLynx the accuracy of the historical aspects
fe a tu re d in the g a me . Move me nts of re a l
PUBLISHER F innish sol die rs w e re re corde d throu g h
Nokia motion capture technology in order
to make the characters as realistic as
possibl e .

P a t h w a y t o G l o r y w a s a l s o t e c h n i c a l ly
very complex, as it utilized the GPRS
network for its multiplayer game,
bringing together players from all
around the world. Pathway to Glory
attracted plenty of positive reviews,
a nd it ha s be e n conside re d a s one of the
be st g a me s re l e a se d for the N-Ga g e . T he
N-Gage itself, published in 2003, never
achieved wide popularity. However, the
de vice se e ms to ha ve be come qu ite the
col l e ctor’s ite m now a da ys.

137
Dragonbane
Dragonbane A live action role-playing game
org a nise d in Älvda l e n, Sw e de n, be tw e e n
J u ly a n d A u g u s t o f 2 0 0 6 , D r a g o n b a n e
TYPE h a d a b u d g e t o f n e a r ly o n e m i l l i o n
Larp euros, and is remembered for its high
produ ction va l u e s. On site the re w a s, for
DEVELOPER instance, a mechanical fire-breathing
International dra g on. T he produ ction of the dra g on’s
production movements caused the organisers
pl e nty of he a da che s.
team
L o o s e ly b a s e d o n F i n n i s h a u t h o r M i k e
Pohjola’s work, Myrskyn aika (‘The
Time of the Storm’), the setting for
Drag onbane ’s a dve ntu re s w a s the w orl d
of Va l e nor, w hich dre w inspira tion from
the Iron and Middle Ages. The players
could choose to take on the role of a
dragon worshipper, dragontamer or
w itch.

Drag onbane ha s g one dow n in the history

of Finnish and Nordic games as an
ambitious project, which also received
a l ot of a tte ntion from the pre ss ba ck in
its day. The Cinderhill set village, built
during the year preceding the event,
was left unused after the game ended.
In the e nd, the vil l a g e w a s bu rne d dow n
a nd cl e a re d by the l a ndow ne rs in 2 012 .

141
Angry Birds
Angry With over several hundred million players
a nd more tha n a bil l ion dow nl oa ds, A ng ry

Birds Birds is w ithou t a dou bt one of the most

su cce ssfu l produ cts of the F innish g a me
i n d u s t r y . W h i l e o r i g i n a l ly p u b l i s h e d f o r
PLATFORM Apple’s touchscreen devices, after its
iOS (and others) ra pid su cce ss the g a me ha s be e n porte d
to va riou s de vice s a nd syste ms.
DEVELOPER
Rovio The Angry Birds brand has been suc-
cessful throughout the world. Almost
PUBLISHER e ve rything ima g ina bl e from soft toys to
Rovio cookbooks a nd from ke y ring s to the me
pa rks ha s be e n ma de , sol d a nd ma rke te d
u nde r the w ing s of the se fie rce birds.

A number of expansions and various

themed add-ons or sequels have been
published after the game itself. For
example, Angry Birds Space, released
in March 2012, was marketed in
collaboration with NASA. Additional
releases include Star Wars and
Tr a n s f o r m e r s t h e m e d g a m e s , a m o n g
others. The actual Angry Birds 2 was
pu bl ishe d in 2 015 , a nd the a nima te d fil m
A ng ry Birds l a nde d in movie the a tre s in
the su mme r of 2 016 .

145
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Crayon Developed by Petri Purho, Crayon
Physics Deluxe is one of the most

Physics distinctive Finnish game releases. This

pu zzl e g a me w on the g ra nd prize a t the
Deluxe 2 008 Inde pe nde nt Ga me s F e stiva l . Pu rho
designed and programmed the first
version of Crayon Physics in five days
PLATFORM as part of his broader project focusing
Windows (and others) on the ra pid de ve l opme nt of g a me ide a s.

DEVELOPER In Crayon Physics Deluxe, the player

Petri Purho must carry a ball on the screen to a
predetermined goal. This is achieved
PUBLISHER by doodling among the figures and
Kloonigames shapes already existing on the screen.
T he doodl e s a re the n tu rne d into mobil e
e l e me nts in the 2 D w orl d by the g a me ’s
physics e ng ine .

The game’s graphics, as the name

suggests, look like they have been
drawn with a crayon. The sketchbook-
l ike l a you t e ncou ra g e s pl a ye rs to try a nd
doodle all kinds of different solutions
a nd stru ctu re s to a dva nce in the g a me .

147
Trials HD
Trials HD Vote d by Xbox pl a ye rs a s the be st a rca de
game and the best innovation in 2009,
Tr i a l s H D i s b a s i c a l ly a r a t h e r s i m p l e ,
PLATFORM b u t e x t r e m e ly c h a l l e n g i n g m o t o r c y c l e
Xbox 360 game, which has sold over two million
Windows copie s w orl dw ide .

DEVELOPER T h e p l a y e r m u s t p a s s t h e i n c r e a s i n g ly
RedLynx difficult tracks within the time limits
and with as few mistakes as possible.
PUBLISHER Whil e the g a me doe s not a im a t re a l ism,
the controls of the bike and driver
RedLynx
are still credible in its own way. The
controls, consisting of a couple of
bu ttons, a re e a sy to g e t a qu ick g rip of,
bu t tru e comma nd of the g a me re qu ire s
tria l a nd e rror.

Tr i a l s H D c o n t a i n s a l a r g e n u m b e r o f
different secrets and references; so-
called “Easter eggs.” All of these
c o m b i n e d r e p o r t e d ly f o r m a g r e a t e r
mystery, the brainchild of RedLynx’s
c r e a t i v e d i r e c t o r A n t t i I lv e s s u o , w h i c h
the g a ming commu nity ma na g e d to solve
in 2 012 . In tota l , five Trial s g a me s ha ve
be e n pu bl ishe d by 2 016 .

149
Trine
Trine Trine ha s sol d w e l l ove r a mil l ion copie s
a n d h a s b e e n w i d e ly a c c l a i m e d f o r
its gameplay, as well as its beautiful
PLATFORM graphics and dreamlike atmosphere.
Windows (and others) Tr i n e a l s o r e c e i v e d t h e E 3 E d i t o r s ’
Choice award for Best Downloadable
DEVELOPER Ga me in 2 009 .
Frozenbyte
Tr i n e , t h e t h i r d r e l e a s e i n l i n e b y
PUBLISHER Frozenbyte, is a platform puzzle game
Nobilis se t in a fa nta sy w orl d. T he pl a ye r mu st
solve va riou s pu zzl e s the y e ncou nte r by
alternating between and combining the
ta l e nts of the thre e pl a ya bl e cha ra cte rs,
a knig ht, thie f a nd w iza rd.

In 2014, Frozenbyte released an im-

proved version of the game under the
n a m e Tr i n e : E n c h a n t e d E d i t i o n . I t w a s
a l s o f o l l o w e d b y s e q u e l s Tr i n e 2 a n d
Tr i n e 3 , o f w h i c h Tr i n e 2 w o n t h e B e s t
A rtistic A chie ve me nt a w a rd a t the 2 012
Nordic Ga me A w a rds g a l a .

151
Floorball League
Floorball De ve l ope d w ith the he l p of fina ncia l a id
granted by the Nordic Game Program,

League F l oorbal l L e ag u e , l ike the 19 9 6 Sw e dish

MER Innebandy, is one of the few
fl oorba l l g a me s e ve r ma de .
PLATFORM
Windows Prodigium Game Studios managed to
acquire the official sports licence for
DEVELOPER the game, which was then made in
Prodigium collaboration with the International
Floorball Federation, the Finnish
PUBLISHER Floorball Federation and the Finnish
Prodigium Floorball League. The licence allowed
the game to include actual players
from the Finnish Floorball League as
well as the World Cup. Different game
modes include, for instance, show-
matches, league matches, the World
C ha mpionships a nd a pe na l ty shoot-ou t.

T he de ve l ope r of the g a me ha s g ive n the

gaming community access to the team
a nd l e a g u e e ditors of F l oorbal l L e ag u e ,
so players can create more content if
the y w ish, a nd ke e p compositions of the
te a ms e qu iva l e nt to re a l ity.

155
King of Opera
King of Party gaming on tablets or similar
mobile devices can be seen as a kind

Opera of continuum of traditional board

g a m i n g . F i n n i s h g a m e c o m p a n y Tu o k i o
has specialised in making a variety of
PLATFORM touchscreen playable multiplayer party
iOS games, of which King of Opera is the
Android first in l ine .
Windows Phone
In King of Opera, each player controls
DEVELOPER the ir ow n ope ra sing e r w ith the obje ctive
Tuokio of getting past the other players and
into the limelight. The game, based on
PUBLISHER one-touch mechanics, is a kind of an
e l e ctronic ve rsion of the K ing of the Hil l
Tuokio
chil dre n’s g a me . T he g a me ca n be pl a ye d
by u p to fou r pl a ye rs simu l ta ne ou sly on
the sa me de vice .

A fte r its re l e a se , K ing of Ope ra a chie ve d

mode ra te su cce ss. T he g a me tu rne d ou t
q u i t e p o p u l a r p a r t i c u l a r ly i n A s i a , a n d
e ve n spe nt a short w hil e on the top l ist
of pa id iPa d a ppl ica tions in Hong K ong .

157
Eclipse
Eclipse Various board games that require
time and concentration have become
incre a sing ly popu l a r. T he spa ce the me d
TYPE Eclipse is a great example of such a
Board game modern game aimed at a more mature
a u die nce .
DEVELOPER
Touko Tahkokallio In Eclipse, players control the civilisa-
Sampo Sikiö tions of the ir ow n e mpire s in a n a tte mpt
to e xpa nd a nd to de fe a t the ir oppone nts
PUBLISHER a t the sa me time . To a chie ve this, pl a ye rs
mu st re se a rch a nd de ve l op a va rie ty of
Lautapelit.fi
technologies, manage resources, wage
wars while conquering new areas and
so on.

E cl ipse ha s re ce ive d pra ise in pa rticu l a r

for its fu nctiona l re sou rce ma na g e me nt
a nd ba sic me cha nics. Some boa rd g a me
e nthu sia sts ha ve conside re d it a s one of
the best, if not the best Finnish board
g a me . T he w e bsite Boa rdGa me Ge e k, for
example, has ranked Eclipse as one of
the top tw e nty boa rd g a me s e ve r ma de .

161
WildChords
WildChords Va r i o u s e d u c a t i o n a l g a m e s a n d a p p l i -
cations have been developed for all
kinds of special purposes. WildChords,
PLATFORM developed by Ovelin, is an application
iOS a ime d a t be g inne rs inte re ste d in pl a ying
the guitar, and is played by strumming
DEVELOPER a real guitar. The aim is to learn the
Ovelin ba sics of pl a ying the g u ita r in a fu n a nd
e a sy w a y.
PUBLISHER
Ovelin T he pl ot of Wil dC hords is l oose ly ba se d
on the story of the Pie d Pipe r of Ha me l in;
the player is tasked with catching
a nima l s w ho ha ve e sca pe d from the zoo
by playing their favourite chords. The
game’s successful implementation led
it to be elected as the best European
e du ca tiona l g a me in 2 011.

Since the n, the de ve l ope rs of Wil dC hords

have published Yousician, a more
serious application aimed at learning
a n instru me nt. Tow a rds the e nd of 2 014,
Ovelin also changed its company name
to You sicia n.

163
Clash of Clans
Clash of The strategy and building game Clash
of Clans is one of the most profitable

Clans F innish g a me s e ve r pu bl ishe d. In C l ash of

C l ans, pl a ye rs g ove rn the ir ow n vil l a g e ,
which they defend from other villages
PLATFORM a nd cl a ns. Du e to its fre e -to-pl a y mode l ,
iOS starting and playing the game is free,
Android bu t a va rie ty of ite ms to boost prog re ss
or success may be purchased through
DEVELOPER micropa yme nts.
Supercell
The success of Clash of the Clans has
PUBLISHER brought wide recognition for its developer,
Supercell Supercell, which was founded in 2010 by
game developer veterans who previously
worked for Sumea (acquired by Digital
Chocolate in 2004). In 2012, Supercell was
honoured with both the title of Finnish
game developer of the year and best
Nordic start-up company of the year.

To give an idea of the scale of Supercell’s

growth and success, it is worth mentioning
that Chinese Tencent bought a little less
than three quarters of the company from
the previous owner, Japanese Softbank,
for 6.45 billion euros in June 2016.

167
Hill Climb Racing
Hill Hill Climb Racing is a racing game
se rie s for mobil e de vice s, ma de by Toni

Climb Fingerroos who programmed his first

g a me a l re a dy a t the a g e of 10. T he g a me
Racing has reached top spots on both the App
Store a nd Goog l e Pl a y dow nl oa d cha rts
in the Unite d Sta te s.
PLATFORM
iOS The controls in Hill Climb Racing are
Android limited to pressing the gas and brake
Windows Phone pedals. All of the vehicles are more or less
rickety, and the environments become
DEVELOPER more imaginative and more difficult as
Fingersoft the game progresses. The goal is to get
as far as possible before the fuel runs
PUBLISHER out or a fatal accident occurs.
Fingersoft
Following the success of Hill Climb
Racing, Fingersoft has grown from a one-
man bedroom code shop into a successful
game developer and publishing house. A
sequel containing a multiplayer option,
Hill Climb Racing 2, was released in late
2016.

169
Legend of Grimrock
Legend of Almost Human was founded by four
developers who had earned their spurs

Grimrock working for Remedy and Futuremark.

Their first game, Legend of Grimrock,
w a s pu bl ishe d in 2 011, only a ye a r a fte r
PLATFORM the company was started. Following in
Windows the footsteps of classics of the past
macOS decades, such as Dungeon Master and
Linux Eye of the Beholder series, Legend of
iOS Grimrock is a cl a ssica l du ng e on cra w l e r
w ith a mode rn-da y a ppe a ra nce .
DEVELOPER
Almost Human Legend of Grimrock is faithful to its
predecessors, right down to the game
mechanics: movements span the whole
PUBLISHER
l e ng th of the scre e n a nd the pl a ye r ca n
Almost Human
only tu rn by 9 0 de g re e s a t a time . Unl ike
its conte mpora rie s, L e g e nd of Grimrock
does not provide much help or advice,
and the player must figure the game
w orl d ou t on the ir ow n.

This debut game by Almost Human

received laudatory reviews around the
w orl d, a nd a fte r its re l e a se be ca me the
most downloaded game on Steam. A
se qu e l for the g a me , L e g e nd of Grimrock
2, has since been published, and the
g a me ha s a l so be e n porte d on to A ppl e ’s
mobil e de vice s.

171
Badland
Badland Badland, winner of the Apple iPad
G a m e o f t h e Ye a r A w a r d i n 2 0 1 3 , i s a n
atmospheric, side-scrolling action and
PLATFORM puzzle game. The gameplay of Badland
iOS (and others) h a s b e e n o p t i m a l ly r e f i n e d w i t h m o b i l e
devices in mind; touching the screen
DEVELOPER makes the game character rise higher,
Frogmind while lateral movement and falling
dow n occu rs a u toma tica l ly.
PUBLISHER
Frogmind T he l e ve l s of the g a me a re divide d into
themes according to seasons, which
change little by little as the game
prog re sse s. Badl and ha s g a rne re d pra ise
for both its successful appearance and
dre a m-l ike styl e a nd a tmosphe re .

F rog mind, fou nde d by Joha nne s Vu orine n

a n d J u h a n a M y l ly s w h o h a v e f o r m e r ly
w orke d on the Trial s g a me s a t R e dLynx,
be ca me one of the big g e st F innish indie
developer successes following the
release of Badland. Supercell bought
more than half of Frogmind in the
autumn of 2016 for the price of seven
mil l ion e u ros.

175
The Swapper
The Swapper One of the first g a me proje cts to re ce ive
funding from the American Indie Fund,
T h e S w a p p e r o r i g i n a l ly s t a r t e d a s a
PLATFORM leisure project for two students. This
Windows (and others) science fiction themed puzzle game
l e a ns on its strong storyte l l ing , a nd its
DEVELOPER specialty is levels and platforms made
Facepalm Games of cl a y. T he de ve l ope rs of T he Sw appe r
created scale models, which they shot
PUBLISHER and recorded into the game instead of
Facepalm Games resorting to conventional, computer
g e ne ra te d 3D mode l s.

The idea of The Swapper is also inno-

vative. The player can create synchro-
nou sly moving cl one s of the ir cha ra cte r,
a nd in orde r to su rvive the da ng e rs a nd
obsta cl e s of the g a me w orl d the pl a ye r
can change the places of, or “swap”,
the se cha ra cte rs. In a ddition to re ce iving
positive re vie w s from a rou nd the w orl d,
T he Sw appe r ha s w on nu me rou s a w a rds,
including the Best International Game
A w a rd a t the 2 011 F re e Pl a y e ve nt.

177
Cities: Skylines
Cities: The city-building game Cities: Skylines
took Finland by surprise in 2015. The

Skylines game, which has, for instance, reaped

the F innish Ga me De ve l ope r of the Ye a r
award for Colossal Order, was both a
PLATFORM critical and commercial success. On
Windows the week of its release, the game sold
macOS more than 500,000 copies worldwide,
Linux and by the end of 2015 it had already
s o l d a p p r o x i m a t e ly 1 . 8 m i l l i o n c o p i e s .
DEVELOPER It could almost be said that the game
Colossal Order has conquered the grandfather of the
genre as players disappointed with the
PUBLISHER latest instalment of the SimCity series
are known to have switched to Cities:
Paradox Interactive
Sky l ine s.

Built on the Unity engine, the game is

de sig ne d w ith possibil itie s for a va rie ty
of building and modifying in mind. The
game developers encourage players to
produce their own content and game
modifications. Cities: Skylines has also
been used as an aid to real-life urban
planning. Colossal Order has been
c o n t i n u o u s ly r e l e a s i n g m o r e c o n t e n t
for the g a me , a nd officia l pa tche s ha ve
added, for instance, a day-night cycle,
natural disasters and snow with many
othe r w inte ry e l e me nts.

181
Perspective: Tuija Lindén “I have worked as the chief editor of Pelit
(‘Games’) magazine for 25 years. I’ve also
been involved with various computer
Tuija Lindén,
magazines: starting up Mikrobitti, working
for Tietokone and being the managing edi-
tor for C-lehti. After sort of drifting on to
editor-in-chief this side, I’ve now worked with magazines
my whole life.
for Pelit magazine,
My own game history started by playing
Bubble Bobble, it must have been one of
talks about game the very first. We played it a lot at work,
and I’d still be quite happy to play more.
magazines and
Another game I enjoyed playing was
Rainbow Islands. Dungeon Master, of
course, made a lasting impression. Some
the Finnish game of my most treasured gaming memories
include LucasArts adventure games, such
industry.
as Monkey Island. As for Finnish games,
the Legend of Grimrock series is close to
my heart. Back in the golden age of the
1990s, games were quite literally played
until “worn out,” and that was part of
the fun. At some point during the 2000s,
a huge number of war games came out,
but in a kind of a backlash I didn’t want to
play them at all. Since then, gaming has
taken a bit of a back seat for me. I have to
confess that nowadays I don’t really play
much. I try to go through all these Finnish
games and mobile games as much as pos-
sible. The first mobile game that made an
impression was Angry Birds. I’ve probably
played through all of the possible levels.
I really enjoyed playing it, and still have
all of the games on my mobile. Somehow
I feel that the kind of long-term, all-night
gaming sessions are no longer part of my
world. It occasionally gets rather hard on
you that games often require quite a bit
of playtime before you can write a review
182
you can stand behind. Playing can feel
like work, for sure. I do still enjoy playing
games that are mentally challenging and
have a good plot, but I mostly tend to play
lighter games on the iPad.
Pelit magazine first came out in March
1992. Prior to that, we’d made a series of
computer game yearbooks, Tietokonepe-
lien vuosikirja, since 1987, from one to
three volumes per year. The first of these
books came to be when Risto “Nordic”
Hieta, Niko Nirvi and I rounded up all the
game reviews from Mikrobitti and C-lehti,
which was a Commodore magazine. The
first yearbook had a short review text
and one black and white image for each
game. There were also a few additional
pieces written specifically for the book.
The yearbooks were a success, and
people still recall them with nostalgia.
There’s this retro boom currently in the
game world: people are combing through
second-hand bookshops and such for
these yearbooks, but they are very rare.
The yearbooks were made until 1991, when
three volumes came out: the spring and
autumn editions, as well as a PC games’
yearbook. At this point, the need and
desire to have a magazine dedicated to
games was great. Around this time, C-lehti
was discontinued as the Finnish importer
of Commodores went bankrupt. We then
established the Pelit magazine, in a man-
ner of speaking at least. Tietokonepelien
vuosikirja went by the name Pelit at the
time, and we simply expanded it into the
magazine. This is the reason behind the
simple name of the magazine.
183
Other game magazines have come and
gone, but Pelit has been successful in
staying relevant and interesting. We have
monitored the market closely, and shaped
the magazine according to it. We’ve been
able to adapt, and we’ve worked together
with our community since the beginning.
In 1996, we set up Pelit BBS, and in 1997
we went online. In a sense, we built a com-
munity before such a word even existed.
This happened quite by accident, I don’t
think we could manage to do the same
again. We started as an Amiga, ST and
C64 magazine. At some point, the PC came
along, and towards the end of the 1990s
we turned purely into a PC magazine.
Then, along came the PlayStations and we
established a magazine called Peliasema
(‘Game Station’), which was published
for about four years. Subsequently, we
decided that Peliasema should be merged
with Pelit. That was the first time we
involved consoles. We were at our grand-
est at that time, and had a circulation of
about 40,000 for a long time. It was the
golden age.
Game magazines have been important to
the Finnish gaming enthusiasts, since prior
to the Internet information was not eas-
ily obtainable. There were some English
magazines for sale at Finnish kiosks, but
they did not sell significantly. We had
some licensed magazines, such as PC
Gamer and others, as well as a Nintendo
magazine called Super Power. Pelaaja
(‘Player’) was launched fifteen years
ago, and remains the only one to survive
alongside Pelit. The situation in Finland
is actually rather exceptional in the sense
that we still have two print magazines.
184
Game magazines were the first to migrate
to the Web, and since it is hard to make an
earning online, little by little they all went
under. Nowadays, YouTubers are the ones
who devour websites. People used to play
by themselves, but nowadays watching
other people play is great entertainment.
Long before Facebook, our discussion
forum participants always had to post on
their own name, and their accounts were
bound to their subscription number. You
must be a subscriber to join in. No one
could hide behind an alias. These mem-
bers then began to meet each other at
various gatherings and became friends.
Discussions were terribly tidy because
no one would fool around under their
own name. Of course it’s quite different
nowadays even on Facebook, but at that
time things were a bit different. The staff
also participated under their own names,
answered questions, were given direct
feedback and presented with wishes.
For example, we might ask what kind of
a cover the readers would like to see on
the next issue. It was rather simple, but
very important to them that they had a
direct connection with us. We genuinely
hear our readers out, and we interact
with them all the time. This was a pretty
big deal especially back in the day before
Facebook.
I’m grateful that I got to see the rise of
Finnish game companies, and that the
trade has evolved from this nonsense
industry into a significant export industry.
Remedy and others have done well in the
line of business, but prior to the success
stories of Supercell and Rovio no one
really paid any attention to the game
industry. At the end of the day, Remedy
and Housemarque weren’t really national
gems, but now they’ve started receiving
grand appreciation as well. The massive
success of the modern time mobile games
came almost out from the blue, as well as
the success of Colossal Order. It was an
amazing feat for a city-building game to
sell more than SimCity, which was thought
to have no competition on the market. We
knew that the Cities: Skylines was good,
but having it sell so rapidly at the time
was quite incomprehensible.
For 25 years now, we’ve been fighting
against the notion that games would
only be for children’s entertainment. All
the statistics show that adults play, and
they play a lot. Sometimes people say that
they do not understand anything about
games or playing. I’ve began to respond
that they must’ve played Afrikan Tähti or
something similar before. Therefore, they
can understand quite enough; it’s just the
same whether you play on a computer or
a board. It’s all gaming, having fun and
playing. Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka, taking
off in a grand way and declaring they were
the real deal and their game would be big,
was rather exceptional. Nothing like this
had ever happened in Finland before. In
that sense, Peter made a terribly good job
in daring to open up and to think globally.
The industry was, in a way, also misunder-
stood because, for example, Housemarque
and Remedy had foreign publishers and
the market was somewhere outside of
Finland. We’ve come far enough from
the image of games being nonsense that
Finns held a game seminar for the King
and Queen of Norway, and gave advice to
Norwegians on how to do these things.
Seeing the Norwegians humbly seeking to
learn from us really felt good. They called
us their big brother the whole time, and
for once we were thinking that we Finns
are really good at something. After all,
we’ve come a long way from having to
defend our works and doings to get to
meet the King and Queen of Norway.
Some Finnish games are perfected, world-
wide successes, but many fade straight
into oblivion. And you have to learn to
walk before you can run. Even Supercell
and Rovio made a multitude of games
before they hit the jackpot. As these wild
success stories become more common,
however, people actually start thinking
that making games is simple and easy.
This is, of course, not the case. But sure,
we’re great especially in the mobile busi-
ness. You can’t really deny it when, for
example, Supercell has three different
games constantly in the worldwide top
ten. And now Supercell and Colossal
Order, among others, are going to, or have
already, hit the Chinese market. If we can
break through there, we will genuinely be
global. It still won’t be easy, as there are
quite a few cultural differences.
I do believe and trust in our cooperative,
international game industry, and the fact
that we still have a lot to contribute to
the global game culture. We might yet see
some great success stories arising from
the field of serious games, for example.
I’m glad that we’ve already come so far
that there is a lot to present, and plenty
which we can be proud of. People should
185
understand that our history is much older
than Supercell and Rovio. Games have
been made in Finland for all computers
from the start, the Commodore 64, and
so on. People have had a burning desire
to make games and get into the game
business already back then. The Pelit
magazine celebrates 25 years of age on
the year of independent Finland’s 100th
anniversary. Back in the day, I wouldn’t
have dreamed of seeing this day. I think
we may be the world’s oldest print journal
about video games still in circulation –
perhaps with the exception of Famitsu.”

186
P.O.L.L.E.N.
P.O.L.L.E.N. P.O.L.L.E.N., a first-person sci-fi ad-
venture game, is the first release of
Mindfield Games. It is also said to be the
PLATFORM first Finnish game making use of higher
Windows class VR technology.
PS4
De ve l ope d spe cifica l ly for virtu a l re a l ity
DEVELOPER goggles, P.O.L.L.E.N. has garnered
Mindfield Games p r a i s e f o r i t s b e a u t i f u l ly e x e c u t e d
retro-futuristic world. Set on Saturn’s
PUBLISHER m o o n , t h e s t o r y l e a d s p l a y e r s t o s o lv e
the myste rie s of a spa ce ba se in homa g e
Mindfield Games
to cl a ssic scie nce fiction a dve ntu re s.

In te rms of u til ising the mode rn virtu a l

reality technologies in Finnish compu-
ter games, P.O.L.L.E.N. can be thought
of as a great and ambitious example.
Although the game is designed with
ne w te chnol og ie s in mind, it ca n a l so be
pl a ye d on conve ntiona l PC s.

189
My Summer Car
My My Summer Car, a game by Johannes
Rojola, who has made various game

Summer prototype s a nd mods since the 19 9 0s, is a

qu irky ca se in the fie l d of F innish g a me s.
Car It a l so offe rs e xhil a ra ting nosta l g ia a s it
ta ke s pl a ye rs ba ck a cou pl e of de ca de s
and into the car-tinkering (and other)
PLATFORM cu l tu re of the spa rse ly popu l a te d a re a s
Windows of F inl a nd.

DEVELOPER In the ca se of My Su mme r C ar, the w ords

Amistech “realistic simulation” almost fall short,
since before the player gets to cruise
PUBLISHER along rural dirt roads on their Datsun,
Amistech they must assemble the car with their
own hands, even down to the smallest
de ta il s of the e ng ine . T he g a me ne ithe r
guides nor holds the player’s hand,
and the player has to cope with the
challenges of everyday life all on their
ow n.

The truthfulness of the game, while

p e r h a p s p o l i t i c a l ly i n c o r r e c t a t t i m e s ,
ha s stil l de l ig hte d pl a ye rs from a l l ove r
the w orl d. T his is e vide nce d by nu me rou s
Yo u Tu b e v i d e o s a n d t h e n u m b e r o f
pe opl e l ive -stre a ming the g a me a s w e l l
a s E a rly A cce ss sa l e s of ove r one mil l ion
e u ros.

191
T H A N K YO U
Many people h av e bee n c om men t in g a n d wor kin g on th i s b o o k as w e l l as th e p r e l i m i n ar y
wo r k f or it. We w ould es p ec ia lly like t o t ha n k t he wo r k gr o u p s o f b o th th e 2 0 1 2 e x h i b i t i o n
Finnish Games Then and Now (Suomalaiset pelit silloin ja nyt, SPSN) and the Finnish T h e Finnis h Gam es T h en and N o w exh ibit io n
Museum of Games as well a s t he n u mer ou s g a m e d e v e l o p e r s an d o th e r p r o f e s s i o nal s f o r w a s h eld a nd o rga nis ed b y t h e Univers it y o f
thei r assistance and in t er views . Ta m pere Ga m e Res ea rch La b in co lla bo ra t io n
with Media Museum Rupriikki, the Manse
The Committee for Pu b lic In f or m a t ion in F in la n d Games project, the Nordic DiGRA 2012
has supported the com p let ion of t he b ook. c o n f e r e n c e , P e l i k o n e p e i j o o n i t a n d Ta m p e r e
Univers it y o f A p plied S ciences .

T h e S P S N w o r k g r o u p a n d pa rt n ers: The exhibition project was carried out

between 27 April and 17 June 2012. The
A nnak aisa Kultim a O u t i P en n in ka n g a s e x h i b i t i o n w a s o p e n t o t h e p u b l i c f o r o n ly
K ati Alha Nikla s Ny lu n d six days, during which it had a total of
1 , 01 8 vis it o rs . T h e fina l s elect io n o f ga m es
Erik a Kallinen J u kka O . Ka u p p in en co ns is t ed o f 4 5 ga m es m a d e o r im plem ent ed
Sampo Sav olaine n by Finnish makers, and more than 30 of
Taru M uhonen M a n u P ä r s sin en t h em w ere m a de a va ila b le fo r p la y ing.
R iina Ojanen M ikko H ein on en
El la Lopperi T h e w o rk do ne fo r t h e exh ib it io n a ls o s erved
Jouni Peltok ang a s S u vi L a t va as a basis for the crowdfunded Finnish
Vi lle Lindström Koop ee H ilt u n en Mus eum o f Ga m es w h ich w a s es t a blis h ed in
K laus Törnk v ist Ta m pere in 2 01 6.
Sami Junk k ari P et r i S a a r ikos ki
Vi lle Kank ainen J a a kko S u omin en
El ina Kosk inen
Mark o Ah lg ren Nu mer ou s F in n ish
Jark k o Laak sonen g a m e d evelop er s
Mik a Uusi-Kilpon en a n d en t hu s ia s t s
Vappu M ak k onen