Games That Weren't^®

1993 Gremlin

Platforms: Super Nintendo, SEGA Mega Drive, Atari Jaguar, Atari ST, SNES CD, Mega CD

Litil Divil was a Gremlin title that had seen massive delays, but was worth the wait for the most part – scoring well across the board on the likes of PC DOS, CD-i and Amiga CD32 platforms. There were interestingly a number of conversions that would never see the light of day, including a version for the Super Nintendo CD (which was the original target platform). When things fell through, work was moved to PC and other platforms.

An Atari ST edition was also announced, but abandoned. Thanks to Ross Sillifant, we learn via Phil Plunket that Jason Dowling had done a lot of work on the ST version, but due to the amount of disks it needed and the declining ST market, it was cancelled. Hopefully some day, something of that conversion could be recovered.

Additionally, there were rumours that an Atari Jaguar version was finished – though Phil confirmed that Jason had considered a Jaguar development, but no code was ever started – with the focus being set on the other editions. There is also a suggestion that Mega CD version may have been on the cards, but this has yet to be confirmed.

What is perhaps most interesting is that both a SEGA Mega Drive and Super Nintendo version of the game was being developed, but not a straight conversion – instead a completely new game. Thanks to Mark Hardisty’s wonderful A Gremlin in the Works book, we learn via Damian Hibbard that the game was going to be a sideways scrolling platformer, with bold graphics in a Disney style.

A platformer route was chosen, as it was felt to be better suited to the systems. The game would be developed by Damian, with art and design by Paul Green and Phil Rankin. According to Damian, a lot of the game was made up as they went along, with Paul responsible for the character graphics.

Overall, development was going quite well, and a few levels were up and running – but Damian believes that it was decided that the game wasn’t strong enough and was canned as a result.

Thanks to contributor Inverse Skies, very rare screenshots were shown of the SNES edition within Nintendo Magazine System UK issue 20. It was early stages, but part of the main game could be seen, along with some sprite sheets.

It isn’t known if those involved still have anything of the abandoned versions, but we hope to find out soon and see if anything can be recovered and showcased. If you know anything more or know of more screenshots for the SNES/MD editions, please do get in touch.

With thanks to Inverse_Skies for the SNES screenshots heads up, Ross Sillifant for information the ST/Jaguar editions (via Phil Plunket and Jason Dowling) and Mark Hardisty for information from A Gremlin in the Works.

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