Gremlin Interactive was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 software house

Software house

A software house is a company whose primary products are software.- Types :There are a number of different types of software houses:*Large and well-known companies such as Microsoft, SAP AG, Oracle Corporation, HP, Adobe Systems, Apple Inc...

 based in Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 and working mostly in the home computer

Home computer

Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...

 market.

History

The company was established in 1984 as Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd by Ian Stewart. In 1994 it was renamed as Gremlin Interactive. Gremlin's early success was based on games such as Wanted: Monty Mole

Wanted: Monty Mole

Wanted: Monty Mole is a platform game that was published in 1984 by Gremlin Graphics. Versions were released for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers.-Gameplay:...

for the ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

 and Thing on a Spring

Thing on a Spring

Thing On A Spring is a side-scrolling platform/puzzle game produced in 1985 for the Commodore 64 by Gremlin Graphics. Gameplay involves controlling a character resembling Zebedee from The Magic Roundabout through a toy factory while avoiding evil toys....

for the Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

. Like many software houses established in the eighties their primary market was the 8-bit

8-bit

The first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...

 range of computers such as the ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

, Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

, MSX

MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

 and Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

.

Gremlin scored big with the Zool

Zool

Zool is a video game originally produced for the Amiga by Gremlin Graphics in 1992.Zool was intended as a rival to Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. It was heavily hyped upon its initial release, including being bundled with the newly launched Amiga 1200, although not the AGA version with enhanced...

and Premier Manager

Premier Manager

Premier Manager is the name of a football management video game series started in 1992. Published by Gremlin Interactive, it was first developed by Realms of Fantasy, later passed to Spanish company Dinamic Software...

series in the early 1990s, and then with Actua Soccer

Actua Soccer

Actua Soccer is a football video game series that was developed by Gremlin Interactive as part of their Actua Sports series, and was the first football game to use full 3D graphics...

, the first football game in full 3D

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

, while having success with other games such as the Lotus

Lotus (computer games)

The Lotus series consists of three racing computer games based around the Lotus brand, released between 1990 and 1992 on various formats.. Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, and Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge were developed by Magnetic Fields and published by Gremlin...

racing series, a futuristic racing game Motorhead, a stunt car racing game Fatal racing

Fatal Racing

Fatal Racing, known as Whiplash in the USA, is a 3D stunt car racing game developed by Gremlin Interactive and published in 1995 for the MS-DOS OS.Fatal Racing can be considered to be a hybrid of Stunts and Destruction Derby...

(1995) or a 1998 flight simulator Hardwar

Hardwar

Hardwar is a 1998 science fiction flight simulation computer game developed by The Software Refinery and published by Gremlin Interactive. In the USA, the game was distributed by Interplay under license...

. Following EA

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

's success with the EA Sports

EA Sports

EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...

 brand, Gremlin also released their own sports videogame series, adding Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 and Ice Hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 to their Actua Sports

Actua Sports

Actua Sports was a sports video game series published by Gremlin Interactive which competed with Electronic Arts EA Sports label during the second half of the 1990s, until Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames...

series.

In 1996 Gremlin acquired DMA Design

Rockstar North

Rockstar North is a British video game developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland, best known for creating the Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings franchises in its earlier guise as DMA....

 (creators of Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto (series)

Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...

and Lemmings).

In 1999, they themselves were bought by Infogrames

Infogrames

Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...

 and renamed "Infogrames Sheffield House", for a reported fee of around £21m, but the studio closed in 2003. The building they occupied has since been demolished when Infogrames Sheffield House was supposed to be renamed "Atari Sheffield House".

Crew

In its heyday the core of the Gremlin's crew consisted of:

• Ade Carless - Designer/graphics artist
• Ian Stewart - Managing director
• Patrick Phelan - Software manager/sound engineer

See also

• Zoo Digital — Digital media company founded by Ian Stewart (founder of Gremlin Interactive).
• Sumo Digital
  Sumo Digital
  Sumo Digital Ltd. is an independent game development studio based in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Set up in 2003 following the closure of Infogrames Studios Sheffield/Gremlin Interactive...
  
   — Game developer founded by former members of Gremlin management.
• Jeep Jamboree: Off Road Adventure — for the Nintendo Game Boy.

External links

• Gremlin Interactive profile from MobyGames
  MobyGames
  -Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...