Category Archives: Gremlin Graphics

Impossamole, PC Engine

The 1991 PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 version of Gremlin Graphics‘ classic Monty Mole game is a rare treat: it’s a British-developed PC Engine game, and an alright one at that. And, believe it or not, but the PC Engine version of the game is the one that’s currently available on Steam and GOG.com.

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Re-Bounder, Commodore 64

Re-Bounder is the 1987 sequel to the brilliant ball-bouncing game, Bounder. It was once again developed and published by Gremlin Graphics and this time features both horizontally and vertically-scrolling gameplay, whereas the previous game scrolled only vertically.

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Impossamole, ZX Spectrum

Impossamole on the ZX Spectrum is a multi-load expanded re-imagining of Gremlin Graphics‘ classic first Monty Mole game: Wanted: Monty Mole. It was developed by Core Design and first published by Gremlin in 1990, which was very late in the Spectrum‘s lifespan.

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Switchblade II, Atari Lynx

Switchblade II is a platform action game that originated on the Amiga; was developed by Gremlin Graphics, and published for the Atari Lynx by Atari Corporation in 1992. It is similar in some respects to Capcom‘s Strider, although the main character – Hiro – isn’t quite as dynamic as Strider Hiryu. The first Switchblade wasn’t released for the Lynx – just the sequel was.

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Switchblade II, Amiga

The sequel to Switchblade, Switchblade II originally came out on the Amiga and was developed and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1991. The designer/programmer of the original Switchblade, Simon Phipps of Core Design, had no involvement in the creation of this follow-up.

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Switchblade, Atari ST

Created by Simon Phipps (co-founder of Core Design), and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1989, Switchblade is a platform action game that could be described as a ‘spiritual successor’ to the Rick Dangerous games (also created by Simon Phipps). Switchblade features similar gameplay and graphics to Rick Dangerous, although it is more refined, less cartoony, and is far less frustrating to play. Switchblade came out on the Atari ST first and ports for the Amiga, C64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum followed.

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Shadow of the Beast, Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC version of Shadow of the Beast was developed and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1990 and is similar to the ZX Spectrum version (which was also created by Gremlin), but with more on-screen colours. It requires 128K of RAM to run, so is for Amstrad 6128 machines and compatibles only, and is spread over two floppy disks.

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Shadow of the Beast, ZX Spectrum

Shadow of the Beast is a scrolling fighting/action game originating on the Amiga. It was enough of a success for publisher Psygnosis to convert it to various home computers and consoles. The ZX Spectrum version was developed by Gremlin Graphics and published in 1990, and it is not a bad port overall.

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Thing Bounces Back, Commodore 64

Thing Bounces Back is the 1987 sequel to Thing On A Spring and it is more of the same platforming action, starring ‘Thing‘, the spring-with-a-head-and-feet, and similar mechanics to the first game.

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Thing On A Spring, Commodore 64

Thing On A Spring is a fondly-remembered Commodore 64 game first published in 1985 by Gremlin Graphics. It was written by Jason Perkins and Anthony Clarke, with graphics by Mark Rogers and catchy music by Rob Hubbard.

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