The Story and Games of Gremlin (full) | Kim Justice
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- #retrogaming #documentary #gremlin
One of the parts of this documentary got a claim on it, so I thought it good a chance to re-upload it as it should have been the whole time - all three parts in one video detailing the history of Gremlin, one of the great UK software companies. Enjoy, if you've not watched it already :)
This series was made possible by the excellent "A Gremlin In The Works" by Mark Hardisty, which you can buy here: www.bitmapbooks...
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gremlin was based on caver street in Sheffield so was a games shop called just micro. gremlin would most often bring prototypes down to just micro as their were two addresses away . i used to wag school and spend most of my time in just micro and i got to play a lot of gremlins games before they were sent out for retail. they ended up being bought by infograms and ended up moving to a back street running along a place called the moor in Sheffield until that was shut down.
I've been working at Sumo now for over a decade and it's kind of amazing to me precisely how many of my coworkers are ex-gremlin.
A bunch of names mentioned in this video are people i still work with, and the are just awesome human beings.
I hope they got to see this video.
Kim should have a million subscribers. Very refreshing to hear a British perspective of computer game history
I had a work colleague in the mid 1990s that worked for Gremlin Graphics (or later just 'Gremlin' / 'Gremlin Interactive'), worked on Monty on The Run; he had nothing bad to say about the company. The Gremlin stand out game for me was Thing On A Spring on the C64. Thanks Kim for being the premier videogame historian.
Monty on the Run is one of my earliest gaming memories - 5 years old and my uncle gifted me his old ZX Spectrum and big box of games as he'd just got himself a C64! It's something I feel I should revisit, but those Speccy games are just brutal these days!
I work with Pete Harrap and Tony Crowther now; they're still making games today at Sumo Digital.
@Joe Blow Tony C saw the vid playing on my screen one lunch and asked about it so I pointed him at a link. Hopefully he'll get a chance to watch it :)
@Joe Blow Where are you situated? If you check out our career's section, maybe there's something for you?
jobs.lever.co/sumo-digital
Sumo Digital also have a mobile studio opening in Lemmington Spa, UK which you might be suited to :)
I used to hang around that Just Micro shop as a child and knew workers. I had a vague memory of its connection with Gremlin upstairs and even carried some stuff up there from the shop once or twice. I had a number of these games mentioned for the Spectrum, but I was clueless to this background story, thanks was very interesting.
These documentaries are so well put together. I've really been enjoying them. They've really got the old nostalgia going.
Nigel Mansel being called "somewhat sellable" in 1992 is a bit of an understatement considering he was F1 World Champion
Yes, but he wasn't a "cool" racing driver, he was a tedious man who was devoid of all glamour or personality.
Your documentaries are so good that I like first, then watch :)
I know how much effort you put into these and how well-researched they are and how nobody else tells these great stories about the early UK gaming industry.
Bravo and thanks
Oh my god, I'd *completely* forgotten K240! That game was incredible!
And Utopia!
Still got my copy of Hogs of War still kicking about in my collection, Brilliant game, one of my favorite things to do was have a squad of engineering, run up to opponents and give them a ''candle on a cake'', where I'd put a land mine under them followed by a dynamite, then run.
I also found if you adjust the health percentages on the skirmish mode, then continued with the campaign the health modifiers would still be in place for both the player and the CPU, at least it works on the PAL version anyways.
The best 2 hours spent on RUclips in ages 👍
I'll definitley second that.
I third that amigo!
What a comprehensive video and not an advert in sight.
My introduction to Gremlin as an American were the Lotus games on the Genesis. The first one (which is the second on the Amiga) is an excellent Outrun-like (though the music didn't make a great transition unfortunately) and the second is a solid racer and one of my favorites on the console. I remember I asked my parents for Virtua Racing for my birthday and they got me Lotus II R.E.C.S. and while I was disappointed at first I ended up falling in love with the game's attractive graphics, smooth gameplay and its killer soundtrack. I always enjoyed them more than the Top Gear games personally.
The Nigel Mansell games were pretty good but Sega's Super Monaco GP games spoiled me.
Really enjoyed this. I hung out at Just Micro as a kid and later worked at Gremlin as an artist. Great company.
Which games?
I have 37% battery left and no charger!..... c'mon phone you can manage a gremlin marathon!!
The spirit of Gremlin is alive in Sumo Digital, and the Psygnosis spirit is alive in SIE XDev. But System 3, Rare and Codemasters outlived them all.
Jack the Nipper I & II - both awesome games in their own right.
Your documentaries are so good Kim. This was fantastic, I had so many of these games and had the nice surprise while watching this to discover that the game I'm currently playing with my kids, Sonic All-stars Racing: Transformed, is made by a descendent of Gremlin. Keep up the fantastic work.
I'm always amazed by how well-researched your docs are
1:12:28 IK+ or International Karate Plus deserves a mention, though much less of a game, it was very fast and had a lot of replayability, on your own or with up to 2 other players. We often used to play it after going out raving and it was the perfect game to chill out to on the Amiga. Not on the same par graphics and gameplay-wise, but one of the best fighting games overall on the Amiga in the early '90s.
Hogs of War was one of my favourite games to play growing up. I spent so much time playing it. Other people had Worms and I played it on their Playstations but man Hogs Of War was astounding. It's one of the few Playstation 1 games that I've back to and still really enjoyed.
Also this video is probably your best work yet. Closely followed by the Sensible Software doc.
I thought I'd offer a little correction regarding a third zool game:
Kim says that there were never any plans for a third Zool game. Actually, there was! In 3d, no less! With spherical environments!
I know this for a fact because I've read the small concept document for it. It was light on details.The name was going to be something like Zorb and, I believe, that an extremely limited amount of prototyping was done before fizzling out into nothing.
This was towards the end of Gremlin's independence - before it was bought by Infogrames. At time when, sadly, they were mainly interested in churning out sequels to their Actua sports titles. Also, they has Soulbringer going through a painful, protracted development. Oh, yes, and *shudder* Hogs of War. I don't recall many people being too thrilled with what they were working on at this point.
and now we have Zool Redimensioned!
Utterly fantastic Kim! The king of videogame documentarys! Please never stop doing these!! 👍👍👍👍👍👌👌👌
Hardwar in VR would be an absolute dream!
You make the best documentaries about games and software houses I’ve seen! Ever since I found your channel I’ve been slowly working my way though them. I wish you did one about the composers of the 8 bit era, Rob Hubbard, Jonathan Dunn and David Whittaker. I’m not sure if you have the same fond memories, but they were heroes of mine back in the day.
Love your videos - rewatching all of them - really like it when you talk about your memories and relationship with your dad - he sounds like a great guy. Keep up the good work!
59:00 You know, some people had configurable foot pedal controllers in those days, which was likely what you would have used with a racing sim
Brilliant video... Loved the Gremlin games and hence why we are immortalising many of them on our journey of Tees. We have Zool and Monty Mole and more... Thanks for all your efforts with these great videos
BRILLIANT, ive watched most of your company history docs and i must say they are excellent, detailed and full of nostalgia , a few more to go but wish there were many more :-) keep up the great work
You should win awards for this Kim. What a brilliant effort this is. So profeasional and so knowledgeable. As a gamer in the 90s this is unmissable stuff. Sorry im so far behind but recently discovered your content and well, as you might say, its brilliant 👍👍
I should point out that croather was also involved with the development of the first monti game. he did the music for the c64 version.
City on the Move was my introduction to Sheffield. And even that was through Full Monty.
gremlin was based on caver street in Sheffield so was a games shop called just micro. gremlin would most often bring prototypes down to just micro as their were two addresses away . i used to wag school and spend most of my time in just micro and i got to play a lot of gremlins games before they were sent out for retail. i remember the day when they had their SGI work station were delivered yes i was hanging around then but i left school by then
Thank you I'm loving this combined videos cos I usually rewatch through a playlist on randomizer
I enjoy all your videos of this era, I was born in 71 and started playing games on my mates Atari 2600, then the C64 and ZX Spectrum. I think you sound like Adrian Mole by the way, who was also fom the 80's.
A fantastic history, with such deep knowledge. Thanks!
Some of my favourite games were by gremlin (most often on the pc).
I played these games as a kid here in Australia.. I had no idea where my c64 or amiga came from much less the games and the programmer houses.. magazines were super expensive for a young teen and the internet wasn’t what it is now so it wasn’t ignorance more than isolation from global information.. it’s great hearing about all this now though.. very nostalgic. Thanks.
I was kind of wondered why it is and how it is that lotus II is so amazing. It doesn't look like anything I can imagine on a 16-bit home machine at the time.
Thank you so much. Almost each frame of this video was a nostalgia-laden memory trigger :)
I had Gremlin Graphics compilation of their late 80s games (I think it was a Boots exclusive). TBH the only games on it were any cop were Deflektor and Cybernoid (mainly because it was a Hewson title)
Who filed a claim on what? Copyright trolls and DMCA claims are out of control.
youtube allows companies to falsely copyright flag anything that has their company name in it.... it doesnt matter what context, even fair use means nothing to youtube...
ive seen videos being flagged when they just TALKED about a company! but since youtube allows these false flags, companies will abuse it to the max
raafmaat I know, DMCA is broken and RUclips doesn’t help. I was just wondering what exactly was flagged.
Sometimes the RUclips algorithm is responsible for most of them, flagging music usually.
Another awesome video Kim. So much packed into that one. Thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt so much about this great games company. My fond memories were Monty Mole and Jack the Nipper... Oh those gaming years were great! 👍
The amount of work is incredible. Hope to see something about Zeppelin games software, as they made Zybex, Ninja Commando and Draconus. I remember Monty games, but we expected a port of Atari XE's Monty instead of a game about mole. The Normality was a good game to play back then.
Interesting look into a decent company, loved the Lotus games!
Great video very in formative. I remember going gremlin graphics ( just micro ) in the 80’s for my commodore C16 . I was sad when it shut down
A great history lesson. Brought back some awesome memories of a great company and great people. Working on the Hogs team was a privilege I'll never forget.
Looking forward to watching this! Loads of love for Gremlin and their games growing up.
"Infogrames, to put it lightly.....were not fucking around."
dude when you said that, i lol for real.
thanks so much
I remember why I didn't like Gremlin much now. I always hated licensed games and having the C64 look like the spectrum always struck me as being a lazy conversion.
Shaun Southern originally wrote Trailblazer for the C16
good to see something made by someone who knows what theyre talking about....and this nostalgy of those times....keep it up mate,great work!
Foft!!!!! I haven't seen that game in 30 years... damn, the nostalgia
i rewatched it just because you're so good at this!! great doc! i remember it took me years to progress in that He-man game Masters of the Universe. I liked the film so i just kept going back to it month after month...so many wasted hours/days spent wandering around!!
he missed Abu Simbel Profanation, developed by dynamic software in 1995 , and released by gremlin , it was on speccy only
This is excellent. Thank you. I always love the quality of your content as it covers everything I love and enjoyed from my first day's on the Speccy through all the years from 8 to 16 bit and more.. Such perfect quality provided every time from you. Great as always.
wow what a blast from the past i completly forgot about gremlin, great vid, thanks
I spent my early teens in just micro on Carver street.
I remember going upstairs and being given bounder and loads of thing returns posters. Having only a Toshiba msx. ('Ello dad, can I 'av a computer?), they only had bounder for me.
I learned to complete super Mario bros on NES in their shop. Great times!!
Do those posters still exist?
Thank you for rightly providing the societal context around these companies. The 80s and 90s were very different for better and worse. Gaming needs to be viewed through this filter - small companies could get up and going and competitive in this fledgling industry very easily for a variety of reasons, but there was also a real ground swell of subversive humour and genuine disgust with what the country was. Having lived through it, it’s difficult to adequately express how much gaming was both escape and social commentary (not always, but sometimes deliberately). I think the spectrum was the machine that nailed the zeitgeist best - even the really good stuff was cheap looking and feeling.
Fantastic documentary! So much work has gone into this, thanks!
wonderful doc! you have a terrific delivery to all your pieces.. so many memories.. cheers
Oh, and I'll NEVER forget their reaction when we uploaded to their C64 a gianna sisters hack with super Mario bros sprites!!! We were kicked out there and then! ,lol
Hats off to you man.. this was truly entertaining two hours. So much memories.. and what warms my heart is you praising Hogs of war, I fell in love with the game back then (I even did a trainer/save game editor for it). Keep on making these.. much appreciated
hogs of war was probably my favourite artillery game. it's a shame gremlin was already gone by the time it was released.
OMG, I remember it, and since perfecting the campaign with no losses and max medals, was eager to play something like that again for a long time: Worms 3D were so lame and lacked the spirit and quick pace of Hogs of War. Valkyria Chronicles is really the closest I got, being a game with personality, which has that 3rd person tactics/shooting/artillery World War game with unique squadmates full of character. Most tactical strategy games are still isometric, and artillery ones are 2D. Absolute majority lack the atmosphere or make soldiers bland and boring.
I've always wondered if there was an uptick in breast cancer in metropolis after Superman arrived. He must have been using his xray vision a lot to look at women's breasts.
FANTASTIC work Kim!
This is great work Kim, loved Monty On The Run, they also made a game for the Amiga, John Lowes Ultimate Darts, I loved it!
Are you going to make a video about codemasters?
Great stuff Kim. Aside from Switchblade, I can't day I'm a big Gremlin fan. However, I love hearing/reading about the studios of my youth.
another brilliant upload love these retro documentaries that you do, keep up the fantastic work
Brilliant, informative and entertaining video Kim! I grew up with their games for the Speccy and C64 in the 80s and enjoyed the sports games for the PS1 in the 90s. You did a totally comprehensive job. Bravo!
25:17 Slickie ... playing the micro at Just Micro
He worked at Wigfalls comp dept in the 80`s with my mates
we used to to play summer games 1 & 2 , winter games and leader board there
during the weekends
Someone you know, who might recall that TV visit?
Only just discovered your channel and watched all your videos. You my friend are awesome SUBSCRIBED!!!
Great doc,well worth a 2nd&3rd rewatch.
4th&5th
This video is an impressive body of work and an entertaining, and engaging documentary; well done! Side note: I hadn't heard of Deflektor before, I immediately thought of The Talos Principle when I saw it - I wonder if the Talos Principle developers had some inspiration there?!!
Zool's biggest failing on the A500 IMO was having to choose between BGM and SFX. When you're taking the fight to the likes of Mario and Sonic, that was never going to do!
Great work, as ever. It is a shame you don't get more views, you so much deserve it. Thank you .
Just epic. Love the research gone into this.
Buggy was one of my favourite gremlin games.
Jesus Kim! your vids are so damn interesting and well researched. It's 2.35 am, I'm on the school run but only half way through!
Gauntlet on the C64 was an abomination. It had so much potential but was such a let down. Apart from that, great video. Thanks :)
Yeah, it was a bit rough, but I still enjoyed playing. Druid was miles better though.
Interesting and fun documentary. Great last line, Many thanks!!!
I worked for a 'Company' that was making a game making package set to be published by Gremlin around the time they were bought out, the project was cancelled and needless to say it was bad for the 'Company', it would be my first and last development job after the whole experience.
Which package?
@@markhardisty8000 when I was there, initially known as G.O.D.S before having a name change to Gamemaker, no relation to the one that's available now.
Superb doc as always 👍
Well of course Geoff Brown is more laid back and chilled nowadays - he's made his 'fuck you' money now and probably won't have to worry for the rest of his life!
Hardwar is still receiving updates on steam!
Aw man, the number of Saturdays spent in Just Micro as a kid!!! Aw shit brother, happy fuckin days. Even with the Cold War scaring me shitless, and repeated nightmares of the nuclear holocaust....God damn,those rose tints are good....
It's weird how they all kept swapping and merging companies etc. It's pretty confusing really but it didn't matter when I was 10! Great video thanks
Zool 2 was best played on Jaguar as you could turn of inertia which makes the game more playable.
Have you ever played Fighting Spirits?.
I held off watching this documentary in particular for a while because at the time it was uploaded, I had just the US Gold documentary you did, and thought that the story of Gremlin wouldn't be that interesting because of how early they were bought out.
But after seeing just the intro to this video I realized this might be the most wrong about anything in my entire life! OK well that's probably a bit of hyperbole, but it certainly makes the top 5 at least!
Great job as always Kim Justice, and if I might make a suggestion, perhaps Infograms would make for a good subject if your looking for another big documentary series to make, especially considering how often they pop up in so many of your other videos. That said, I know you normally stick to UK based topics, so I understand if that's a bit outside your wheelhouse, and potentially too much work due to you possibly needing to translate a lot of French in articles and the like for the necessary material.
Either way, hope to see more from you in the future :)
Edit: So while watching the video I was looking in the comments and apparently this video actually covers Infograms ironically enough. I'll make another effort later if this turns out to be an exaggeration, but for now just ignore the suggestion portion of this comment if you ever do get a chance to read this.
Edit 2: Nevermind, it does certainly seem like there's more to cover with Infograms. So yeah, I can't speak for all your subscribers, but personally, I'd love to see an episode on them, I think it has alot of potential.
i remember many happy days in just micro in Sheffield during my youth, maybe even when i was supposed to be at school brought back a lot of happy memorys for an old man
What a shop!
Vortex, stuff. Interesting, playable, hard. Tornado Low Level. Ahh, Deflektor (Nice music too). Small studios, at least they got to gasp, back then.
No mention of Gremlin's involvement with publishing Desert Strike?
Or Jungle Strike on the SNES, which I developed ;-)
Well there goes my morning
I remember ZOOL and ZOOL 2. I had a blast when i was a kid.
Kim goes "full Vince Russo" at the 43 minute mark (totally awesome made up quotes Bro)
I loved thing on a spring so much
The Plus/4 was my first computer.