Erik Simon
Co-founder · Musician · Producer
Erik Simon - known in the demoscene as Mad Max - was a founding member of Thalion
Software and one of the most celebrated musicians in the Atari ST underground before
the company existed. As part of The Exceptions, he helped define what the Atari ST's
Yamaha YM2149 chip could sound like.
At Thalion, Simon contributed to production, music direction, and the overall creative
identity of the studio. He departed in 1993 as financial pressures mounted. His
influence on the studio's demoscene-rooted technical ethos is evident across the
entire catalogue.
Simon went on to further work in the games industry. His demoscene compositions remain
widely respected in tracker and chiptune communities.
Jochen Hippel
Composer · Sound Engineer
Jochen Hippel - also known as Mad Max in the demoscene, sharing the handle with Erik
Simon - is the composer of Thalion's most celebrated soundtracks. His work using the
TFMX (The Final Musicsystem eXtended) format on the Amiga produced some of the finest
music ever heard on 16-bit hardware.
His soundtrack for Wings of Death is
considered a masterpiece of Amiga music. The score for
Lionheart matched Henk Nieborg's visuals
with equal brilliance. Dragonflight and
Ambermoon also benefit from his distinctive
compositional voice.
Hippel's TFMX compositions are archived at the
Thalion Webshrine
and the ExoticA TFMX archive.
He departed Thalion in 1993. See the music page for a full
catalogue of his Thalion work.
Henk Nieborg
Pixel Artist
Henk Nieborg is the artist responsible for Lionheart's
extraordinary visuals - widely cited as the finest pixel art ever produced for the
Amiga platform. His character sprites, background artwork, and animation work set a
standard that has rarely been approached, let alone surpassed, on 16-bit hardware.
Nieborg's career continued after Thalion. He created the visuals for Flink (Psygnosis,
1994) and has worked on numerous retro-inspired titles in the decades since. His
influence on pixel art aesthetics extends far beyond his Thalion work.
Lionheart remains the most-cited example of his abilities: every frame of the game's
sprite animation was drawn by hand, with a level of detail that still astonishes
modern pixel artists studying the game's artwork.
Matthias Steinwachs
Programmer
Matthias Steinwachs is the programmer behind
No Second Prize - the 3-D motorcycle
racing simulation that stunned reviewers and players alike in 1992 with its
exceptional smooth polygon rendering on standard Amiga hardware.
The engine Steinwachs developed for No Second Prize achieved a level of 3-D
performance that appeared impossible on the Amiga 500. His technical approach
drew on the same demoscene tradition of pushing hardware beyond its documented
limits that characterised Thalion's broader output.
Steinwachs also contributed programming expertise to other Thalion projects.
His work on No Second Prize alone secures his place among the great Amiga
programmers of the era.
Erwin Kloibhofer
Programmer · Designer
Erwin Kloibhofer was a key programmer and designer on several Thalion titles,
contributing to the studio's RPG output including Amberstar and Dragonflight.
His work on game systems and world design was integral to the depth of Thalion's
adventure and RPG titles.
Kloibhofer's contributions helped establish the design language that distinguished
Thalion's RPGs from their contemporaries - a commitment to world-building,
narrative depth, and technical polish that ran through Amberstar and into Ambermoon.
Michael Bittner
Programmer
Michael Bittner was among the programmers who worked on Thalion's later titles,
contributing technical expertise during the studio's most ambitious phase.
His work on Ambermoon's engine - particularly the seamless transition between
outdoor exploration and 3-D dungeon environments - was a significant engineering
achievement.
The Ambermoon codebase, released publicly in 2023, gives a direct window into
the engineering decisions made by Bittner and his colleagues during the game's
development. The code reflects the same performance-obsessed approach that
characterised the broader Thalion style.
Jurie Horneman
Programmer · Designer
Jurie Horneman worked at Thalion during the studio's final years, contributing
to programming and design on late-period titles. He went on to have a notable
career in the games industry following Thalion's closure in 1994.
Horneman has written and spoken publicly about his time at Thalion, providing
valuable first-hand testimony about the studio's working culture, creative process,
and the difficult circumstances of its closure. His recollections are among the
most detailed primary sources available on Thalion's internal history.