Among ZZAP!s best-known features is issue 16’s “The Musician’s Other Ball”. This was an interview with Ben Daglish, Tony Crowther, David Whittaker and Rob Hubbard, talking about composing music for games and how they got into it.
At the end of the article was a box listing musical credits for all the composers. Within Rob Hubbard’s list is a credit for the forthcoming “Gremlins”, an arcade-style game and not the Adventure International text adventure, even though Adventure International is referenced. Is it possible that Rob’s music was intended to go into the adventure game, but was dropped? Not quite – please read on.
There was a Gremlins arcade game, based on the Atari 5200/7800 game and released in 1984. However, it wasn’t known originally if Rob’s music was intended for this game or a separate release. However, Mat Allen confirmed that the game was indeed released by Atari for the C64, disk only and therefore was not the same game.
Chris Abbott in 2015 got in touch and confirmed as well that Rob’s music was not for the AtariSoft game, but another Gremlins title contracted and invoiced by an “R. Gibson”. This was the very same Roy Gibson who went on to found Canvas with Ian Weatherburn. The work was commissioned in 1985 for Rob to do, and was one of his earliest commissions.
Rob remembered producing a set of tunes using banjo style instrument sounds and there were a number of western tunes… “I remember doing some tunes with a small town America theme. I went out and bought a book on how to play blue grass banjo! I was dedicated back then! They must have been from the Gremlins game.”
Therefore the tunes from Final Synth Sample 1 were from the game which is currently unreleased and have been there all along. All the tunes were intended for the game, and the SFX could well have been too! (Tunes were later used in Shoot Out by Martech).
We learn thanks to Zzap64 issue 6 that it was being worked on just after Monty on the Run, as it is mentioned by Rob that he was working on a set of tunes with grass banjo effects and that it was his best work yet (see scans).
With the game itself, Roy tells us that it started as a side scroller game prototype (most likely side on platformer) for Adventure International UK. Nothing particularly innovative was attempted. Roy recalls that there was some confusion over the licence, and all that he can remember is being disappointed that they didn’t go on to completion. The initial prototype is all that is thought to have been created.
It might be possible that Adventure International UK decided not to do a non-adventure game, and rejected the idea – but its hard to confirm these days. However, an article with Adventure International in Your Computer magazine confirms that there was to be an arcade game due to the success of the adventure game. There was also news about there being a second adventure game too – so another GTW entry!
Sadly Roy feels that there are no copies of his demo still existing, as he jettisoned a great deal of stuff when he moved to the US in 1987. He may still find something, but it is looking unlikely after all this time. At the very least, Rob’s music is preserved and we now know a lot more about this once mysterious Gremlins game. We hope some day to present something more!
Contributions: Jan Harries, Ross Sillifant, Gamebase 64, Mat Allen, Chris Abbott, Roy Gibson, Lee Bolton, Anonymous Contributor, Archive.org
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Music_Gremlins (zip)
Gallery
Update history
- 30/05/24 – Further tidy ups and new scans added thanks to Anonymous Contributor.
- 09/03/22 – Tidy up of page and correction, where 2600 version was mentioned instead of 5200/7800 (thanks to Lee Bolton for heads up).
- 16/04/15 – Confirmed author and more details about the game
- 06/04/15 – Final Synth Sample 1 tunes added, as these confirmed as Gremlins tunes, plus more details about game and credit confirmations.
- 03/04/15 – Chris Abbott confirms who the real game was by and not Atarisoft.
- 01/05/14 – Mat Allen confirms ownership of Atari Gremlins game on the C64. Download and screenshot removed as a result and review updated.
It wasn’t the Atarisoft version. For this version, Rob was contacted by (and invoiced) an “R. Gibson” (this is from his invoice book). This was one of his earliest commissions in 1985. We need to find R. Gibson.
That’s brilliant, cheers Chris! Hopefully we’ll work out who R.Gibson was exactly. I have “Roy” stuck in my head for some reason…
This game was released on the C64, but it was a clone of Robotron 2084… See screenshots here:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/gremlins/screenshots
No Rob Hubbard music though!
http://www.elisoftware.org/index.php?title=Gremlins_(C64,_5_1/4%22_Disk)_Atari_-_1984_USA,_Canada_Release
Assume this is the version in question that Mayhem has?.Maybe like Rescue On Fract.Publisher thought piracy was ‘less of an issue’ on C64 than A8, so released it there?.
It’s entirely possible Atari could have cancelled the Atari 8-bit release of the game due to leakage, but it still came out on C64, PC and Apple. And eventually the 5200 as well, post sale to Tramiel. As Atarisoft pretty much had contracts with third party developers, and did almost nothing in-house, it would have only affected that one format; the other versions would have all been done in other locations by other people.
Gremlins, the arcade game version as per the screenshot in this entry, was released on the C64, I own an original of it. It and Track & Field were the only C64 games that Atarisoft released on disk, all the others were cartridge.
Thanks for confirming Mat, i’ve updated the review – removed the download and screenshots and stuck in a credit. Cheers! :)
Seems it appeared on A8 piracy scene before the official 5200 version was released, so Atari (rightfully) thought well screw you guys then.
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/194557-atari-8-bit-gremlins/
Not C64, but Lost games related….
:-) Err, yes, i can ‘help’ here somewhat.C+VG’s Hot Gossip (Tony Takoushi) Issue 55 Page 13 is your friend.
Reason it was never released (on A8 at least) or so i’ve been told is it was leaked to the pirate circuit months before official release, so Atari never bothered releasing it.
Assume this is the same arcade style game we are talking about?.
Thanks Ross – I think it is indeed the very same game, and that story seems to make sense. Adding it now.