Babylonian Twins (1993, Amiga)
A downloadable game
In 1993, in Baghdad, three students made a video game.
Rabah Shihab wrote it in pure 68000 assembly on a single Amiga 500 — 512KB of RAM, no hard drive, plugged into a TV. Murtadha Salman painted the palaces of Assyria pixel by pixel. Mahir AlSalman composed the music, sampling real Iraqi instruments for the soundtrack. They worked under sanctions: no internet, no Amiga manuals — just one copy of the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual, which Rabah used to program the hardware directly — electricity a few hours a day. The 50°C summers killed the disk drive three times.
They finished it. It was the first commercial video game made in Iraq — and then Commodore collapsed, sanctions scared off every publisher, and a completed game had nowhere to go.
In 2008, the English Amiga Board found gameplay footage on YouTube and asked the question that became a 24-page thread: "Babylonian Twins — An Amiga game?!" They tracked down the team. A playable demo followed, downloaded in over 70 countries. One forum member wrote:
"Hail for the whole team behind that game. Extreme circumstances, and still they are creating somewhat special. Respect."
This page is the ending of that story. The full original game — the real disks, finally. Free. For the community that never stopped asking.
What you get
- The authentic full game on its two original disks — Disk 1 boots, insert Disk 2 when the game asks.
.ADFimages for FS-UAE / WinUAE, or real hardware (A500, 512KB chip + 512KB slow recommended) - The 1993 playable demo ADF — downloaded from over 70 countries after the 2008 rediscovery; kept here as history
- A README with the checksums, the credits and the sharing terms
- Manual & design-note scans are coming as a free devlog update
If you want more
- Babylonian Twins: Definitive Edition — the game rebuilt for today, with the original 1993 game included as a playable second launch option — wishlist on Steam · live now on iOS and Android
- The story & press archive: babyloniantwins.com/1993
- The 2006 footage that started the rediscovery: the original Amiga gameplay
- The 2008 rediscovery thread: English Amiga Board
Sharing and terms
Free for personal use. Share the disks unchanged and free of charge, with the README. WHDLoad installs, hard-drive (LHA) installs and CD32 images are welcome: credit Rabah Shihab, Murtadha Salman and Mahir AlSalman and link to babyloniantwins.com/1993. Videos and streams are welcome too. Selling copies, or using the graphics and music on their own, needs my permission: contact at babyloniantwins.com. The full terms are in the README.
Download
Install instructions
Amiga disk images (.ADF) — play in an emulator such as FS-UAE or WinUAE, or on real hardware.
Full game: boot from disk 1 in drive DF0:, then insert disk 2 when the game asks for it. Recommended machine: Amiga 500 with 512 KB chip + 512 KB slow RAM.
The demo .ADF is the standalone 1993 playable demo.
Also available on
Development log
Comments
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...and it has been successfully added to Speedrun.com! We have the very first speedrun for Babylonian Twins coming in at 45m 09s! :)
https://www.speedrun.com/Babylonian_Twins
I created two categories for the game on Speedrun.com: Any% and 100%.
Any% goes from the start until the final "Stage Completed" screen appears on the fifth and last stage.
100% requires collecting the Stone Palm in stage one, all extra lives, score items (stars, horned heads, etc.), and all keys (including the extra key in the first stage).
I’ve only done the Any% run so far, and there is a LOT of room for improvement. I really hope the speedrun community discovers Babylonian Twins—it's an amazing game to speedrun!
Would this be the first documented speedrun of Babylonian Twins? :) I believe so.
And what an EXCEPTIONAL game to speedrun! I'm sure that if more people from the speedrun community give it a chance, they'll realize how many opportunities for run optimization there are and how rich in possibilities it is.
I'd go even further and say that Babylonian Twins, the original Amiga version, is a true hidden gem for speedrunning! :)
So I wouldn't lose my 11 days of practice with the game, I did it in 45m 09s. It's my current PB, with PLENTY of room for improvement.
I submitted my run and the game to speedrun.com (obviously there was no Babylonian Twins category there yet), let's see if they approve it.
My run was done on the WHDLoad version, which saves a few extra seconds thanks to faster loading times between stages.
The long wait has paid off, this is an excellent Amiga game. I included it in the video alongside other Amiga games released in September.
That's great ! Been waiting for it for so many years ! :) Thanks !
Your game is exceptional. The design of each of the 5 stages is splendid, and the puzzles are very interesting to figure out AND to execute as well. Rabah (if I'm not mistaken, that's your name?), you're a genius, man. I hope you plan on making brand-new, original games in the future. I'm glad you're making it available on Steam (from what I gathered, it'll be a port of the iOS version, right?) and I hope it's a huge success over there.
I played through the entire game on the MiSTer FPGA Amiga 500 core, and I believe this might be the very first full playthrough by someone discovering your game completely blind — no save states, no cheats whatsoever.
It took me 11 days (averaging 2–3 hours per day), and all of it is available on my Twitch channel or on this stream archive channel, in case anyone is interested in checking out the process of solving all of Babylonian's puzzles:
Once again, truly congratulations on the game and on all the effort it took to develop it back in 1993 under such difficult circumstances. To me, it's one of the finest games on the Amiga and easily one of my all-time favorites now!
WoW, this is amazing! congrats! you are probably the first person completing the original Amiga game. I have completed it only a few times over 30 years ago. Thanks for sharing your experience and for the encouraging words!
Great platformer that also has plenty to offer on a technical level. It is strongly reminiscent of "Arabian Nights" from the same production year. The graphics and smooth scrolling hold their own against games from publishers of that era, such as Core Design. Unfortunately, the game is quite difficult, and there are no continues, passwords, or save function. Our German-language review can be found at 04:29:33. English subtitles are also available. Subscription to our YouTube and Twitch channel is welcome. 🙂
i'm beat it, the game is awesome !!! You can view the longplay here:
Wow! congrats! another achievement! Thanks for sharing!
A WHDLoad install has now been released by Paraj and me, available here: https://www.whdload.de/games/BabylonianTwins.html
will this be added to AGS :) ? (amiga game selector)
Would be great to goes into that colections :D
just raw talent and one manual. Stop scrolling and read this, its best dev story youll see today :D
Thanks for recovering it!
big +1
Please can you make a whdload version?
I'm not making one myself, but you or anyone else may. The terms are in the README that's now in the download: credit the three of us and link to babyloniantwins.com/1993, and the install is welcome. Thanks
thank You, very Much
Hello, what about supplying an ISO file for CDTV/CD32 ? It would be really great, as this game seems to be awesome.
I won't be making one, but the terms in the README allow it: anyone may build a CD32 or CDTV image from these disks as long as it stays free, credits the team and links to babyloniantwins.com/1993.
This game indeed has a long history, been reading about it ages ago. I think the whole things is so interesting, that we'd like to make it our title game for BrewOtaku #016. Are you one of the guys from the main team, or you just got permission to publish this game?
Even if you made the game free now, perhaps I can help with a trustable publishers, so we can have at least a physical release.
Thanks! I'm Rabah Shihab, I wrote the game. Murtadha Salman did the graphics and Mahir AlSalman composed the music, and I hold the rights to the whole game, so this is the team's own release. The README in the download spells it out. I'd be glad to see it as the title game for #016. On a physical edition, I'm looking at that right now, so let's talk by email: contact at babyloniantwins.com.
Sent an e-mail, please check your spam as well :)
No email, not even in spam!
i resent the email as new
Fancy littl' game :-). Thanks for sharing it with us!
What a surprise to see great news like that !
Can someone make a LHA file for Emulation ?
Thanks! For emulation the ADFs work as they are: put disk1.adf in DF0 in FS-UAE or WinUAE and swap to disk2 when asked. A hard-drive LHA install is allowed under the README terms if someone wants to build one.
Logged only to say thanks for this BIG gift to the Amiga community... It's a great game that deserve to stay among the best ones! Thank you so much for releasing the full version!
Still have the Android version, looking forward to the Steam remastered.. this is great!
finally came out. great stuff... look forward to playing it.
Great game. Played the demo years ago, bought it for the iPhone when it came out. Glad the full Amiga version is finally here! I wonder how quick a WHDload installer will come out.
I added a README to the download with the checksums and the terms, so whoever builds it knows it's welcome. Glad the iPhone version found you back in the day. Thanks
It is an honor to finally be able to play the full game; thank you very much for releasing it. *Babylonian Twins* is one of the best games ever created for the Amiga, and now all users of this incredible platform can enjoy it from start to finish. Sending a big hug from Spain!
Hi Rabah, Murtadha and Mahir,
Thank you so much for releasing the full game. It's been waiting for many years and it's awesome to finally play it. You've done an amazing game. Thanks!
Tadda! https://www.indieretronews.com/2026/09/babylonian-twins-unreleased-amiga-game.ht...
Great game, thanks.
Awesome!!! I'll write this up asap :) Keep checking the site for the feature.
WHDLoad version would be nice as well.
Agreed, and the README in the download now says so: anyone may build a WHDLoad install from these disks, with credit and a link to babyloniantwins.com/1993. I'm not doing one myself. Thanks
Wow, what a dream-come-true! This has been a truly blessed week for Amiga fans! Thank you so much, I am going to have so much fun playing and streaming this game to the world. Are you still planning on releasing a boxed version because I'd definitely buy it!
Thanks so much! Please stream it, I'd like to watch. The README in the download says videos and streams are welcome, monetized ones included. A boxed edition is something I'm looking into, but there's nothing to announce yet.
Wow...I was waiting for this for years.
I had the Android version on my tablet but this is amazing.
Thanks