| abstract
| - Gremlin Interactive was a British software house based in Sheffield and working mostly in the home computer market. The company was established in 1984 as Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd. and renamed in 1994. Gremlin's early success was based on games like Monty on the Run and Thing on a Spring. Their primary market then was 8-bit computers like the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. Gremlin scored big with the Premier Manager series in the early 1990s, and then with Actua Soccer, the first football game in full 3D, while having success with other games such as the Lotus series, Zool, Motorhead or Hardwar. Following EA's success with the EA Sports brand, Gremlin also released their own sports videogame series, adding Golf, Tennis and Ice Hockey to their Actua Sports series. In 1995 Gremlin also released a stunt car racing game called Fatal Racing. In 1996 Gremlin acquired DMA Design (creators of Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings). Gremlin's titles were published in the United States by Interplay. In the UK, Gremlin distributed directly to large multiples while in Europe, the company sourced individual territory distribution deals on a product by product basis whilst still retaining Funsoft as its default distributor. In December 1997, the company signed a new publishing deal for its Actua Sports series and two non-sports titles with Fox Interactive. In 1999 they themselves were bought by French publisher Infogrames 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.
|