A new publishing label dedicated to the games of Gremlin Graphics will debut this autumn. Branded Gremlin Graphics Classics, the imprint is the work of Allan Turvey, founder of the homebrew outfit Midnight Brew, who is collaborating directly with original Gremlin founder Ian Stewart on the venture.
The label’s stated philosophy pushes back against pure nostalgia mining. Rather than simply repackaging classic titles for aging audiences, the team is positioning the project as a way to keep the company’s creative lineage active and producing new work, not merely preserving it under glass.
Dreamtime Monty Returns
The first tangible evidence of that approach is “Dreamtime Monty,” billed as the first official Monty Mole adventure in more than three decades. The whiskered digger-turned-mascot first appeared on British home computers in the mid-1980s through titles such as Wanted: Monty Mole, becoming one of the most recognizable characters in Gremlin’s 8-bit lineup and a recurring face across later releases of the era.
Why It Matters
Gremlin Graphics Classics is scheduled to launch at CRASH Live in October, an event rooted in the legacy of CRASH, the long-running British magazine that championed the ZX Spectrum scene and adjacent 8-bit machines. Stewart is expected to appear alongside other Gremlin alumni — Peter Harrap, Tony Crowther, and Shaun Hollingworth — programmers and designers whose work helped shape the publisher’s identity through the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.
The new label carries weight for retro enthusiasts for several reasons. Gremlin Graphics spent roughly fifteen years as a fixture of the British gaming industry before being absorbed by Infogrames in the late 1990s, and stewardship of its properties has been scattered since. A heritage imprint operating with Stewart’s direct involvement — and fronted by an established homebrew publisher rather than a pure reissue house — offers a more credible path to genuinely new entries than the standard retro-compilation route. If Dreamtime Monty delivers, it could set the template for how a catalogue like Gremlin’s gets a second life without leaning entirely on rose-tinted reverence. Readers tracking similar revivals can find more coverage on the RetroArcade news section.
Source: Time Extension