Ocean Software (or Ocean Software Ltd. and sometimes Ocean of America, Inc. but generally only referred to as Ocean) was one of the biggest European video game developers of the 1980s and 90s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and were based at 6, Central Street, Manchester. Ocean developed dozens of games for a variety of systems such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Amiga, PC, and video game consoles such as the NES and SNES.
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History
The company's early releases in 1984 (Moon Alert, Hunchback, High Noon, Gilligan's Gold, etc.) were developed in-house, but later in that year Ocean acquired its former Liverpool rival, the defunct software developer Imagine, and focus shifted from development to publication of games. Also in 1984, Ocean struck a deal with Konami to publish their arcade games for home computers.
- In 1985, Ocean managed to secure the first movie licenses, such as Rambo, Short Circuit, Cobra and Miami Vice.
- In 1986, a deal was signed with Taito for home versions of their arcade games such as Arkanoid and Renegade
- In 1987, Ocean published original games again, after a marginal season filled with licenses, resulting in Head over Heels, Match Day II and Wizball, which are considered to be classics by many old school gamers.
- The last game released by Ocean was GT 64: Championship Edition in 1998, for Nintendo 64.
- Ocean acquired Digital Image Design in 1998.
- Ocean was acquired by Infogrames in 1998 for £100,000,000 and renamed to Infogrames UK.
Ocean Loader
One of the most recognisable features of Ocean games during the 8-bit era was the Ocean Loader. Since most 8-bit computers used cassettes as storage, loading a game could take several minutes. Ocean used a special loading system that displayed a picture and played music (Commodore 64 only) while the game was loading. The Ocean loader music is still popular by fans of chiptunes. Five versions of the tune exist; 1 and 2 were composed by Martin Galway, 3 by Peter Clarke, 4 and 5 by Jonathan Dunn. The Ocean Loader was first used in the game Hyper Sports. Up to 1987 the Ocean Loader was written by the in house Ocean programmer Bill Barna, from 1987 to the end of the Commodore 64's commercial life the loader was replaced by "Freeload" written by in house programmer Paul Hughes.
License games
Ocean were famous for often buying the rights to make video games from different movie and television franchises. Many license games combined several styles for example featuring platform action and car driving. Perhaps the most well received licence games by Ocean were Batman The Movie (1989) and Robocop 3 (1992) which featured 3d graphics in 16-bit versions. Also the adventure game, Hook (1992) got positive reviews. Among Ocean's license games are
- The Addams Family (in The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt)
- Animal
- Batman
- Cool World
- Darkman
- Highlander
- Hook
- Jurassic Park
- Knight Rider
- Lethal Weapon
- Rambo
- Rambo 3
- RoboCop
- Salamander
- Short Circuit
- The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
- The Terminator
- Total Recall
- Transformers
- The Untouchables
- Waterworld
Well received titles
Although Ocean was best known for its usually high quality licensed games, it had many other releases which were well received by the public and computer game magazines.
- Addams Family (1992)
- Addams Family Values (1994)
- Batman the Movie (1989)
- Beach Volley (1992)
- Cabal* (1989)
- Chase HQ* (1988)
- Chase HQ II* (1989)
- Cobra (1986)
- Combat School (1987)
- Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984)
- Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge (1988)
- Eco (1987)
- EF2000 (1997)
- F29 Retaliator (1990)
- Gryzor* (1987)
- Head Over Heels (1987)
- Hook (1992)
- Hunchback* (1984)
- Ivanhoe (1990)
- Lost Patrol (1990)
- Midnight Resistance* (1990)
- Mr. Nutz (1994)
- New Zealand Story* (1989)
- Operation Wolf* (1989)
- Operation Thunderbolt* (1990)
- Pang* (1990)
- Parasol Stars (1992, computer conversion of PC Engine game)
- Platoon (1988)
- Pushover (1992)
- Rainbow Islands* (1990)
- Robocop 3 (1992)
- Shadow Warriors* (1990)
- Sleepwalker (1993)
- Space Gun* (1992)
- The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (1991)
- TFX (1993)
- Toki* (1991)
- Total Recall (1990)
- Where Time Stood Still (1987)
- Wizball (1988)
- Wizkid (1992)
- Worms (1994)
- WWF Wrestlemania (1990)
* Titles marked with asterisk are arcade conversions
External links
- The Ocean Experience
- Paulie's Ocean Loader Page
- Ocean Software profile on MobyGames
- Company Details
- Ocean Software at World of Spectrum
- Ocean 1987 family photo at cpcrulez.free.fr
