Ocean Software
Video game developer and publisher | |
Fate | Acquired by Infogrames in 1996 and renamed to Infogrames UK in 1998. |
Successor |
Infogrames UK (1998) Atari UK (2004) Atari, Inc (2009) |
Founded | 1983 |
Defunct | 1998 (Renamed) |
Headquarters | 6, Central Street, Manchester, England |
Key people | David Ward, Jon Woods, Paul Patterson,Gary Bracey, Marc Djan (Ocean France) |
Ocean Software Ltd (also known in the United States as Ocean of America, Inc.), commonly referred to as Ocean, was a British software development company, that became one of the biggest European video game developers/publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. It was acquired by a French holding company, Infogrames in 1996 and renamed to Infogrames UK in 1998, and again in 2004 to Atari UK, and once again in 2009 now known as Atari, Inc.
The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchester. Ocean developed dozens of games for a variety of systems such as the ZX Spectrum, Oric 1, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16, Atari ST, Amiga, PC, and video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System and Sega Mega Drive.
History
The company started out as Spectrum Software in 1983 selling arcade clones for various home computers including the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and VIC 20.[1] Although not named after the ZX Spectrum, the name became confusing and had to be changed so the company became Ocean Software. Some of their Spectrum Software games were re-released on Ocean with different titles so the Berzerk clone Frenzy was reissued as the Ocean game Robotics and Missile Attack became Armageddon. Their early releases (Moon Alert, Hunchback, High Noon, Gilligan's Gold, Daley Thompson's Decathlon etc.) were developed in-house, but later in 1984 Ocean Software 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 Software managed to secure the first movie licences, such as Rambo, Short Circuit and Cobra, as well as the TV show Miami Vice and RoboCop which spent about a year on the top of the charts.
In 1986, a deal was signed with Taito and Data East for home versions of their arcade games such as Arkanoid, Renegade, Operation Wolf and The NewZealand Story. Also in 1986, Ocean Software created with Marc DJAN Ocean Software France. This 16-bit studio would create most of the 16-bit arcade conversions between 1986 and 1991 then became the French marketing and sales subsidiary of Ocean Software Ltd.
In 1987, Ocean Software published original games again, after a marginal season filled with licences, resulting in Head over Heels, Match Day II and Wizball. Ocean was voted Best 8-bit Software House of the Year 1988 at the Golden Joystick Awards.[2]
In 1996, Ocean Software published Cheesy for the PlayStation. Ocean was acquired by Infogrames in 1996[3] for £100,000,000 and renamed to Infogrames UK in 1998. Ocean acquired Digital Image Design in 1998. The last games released by Ocean were GT 64: Championship Edition and Mission: Impossible, between mid 1998 and early 2000.
Tape loaders
One of the most recognizable features of Ocean games on the Commodore 64 was the Ocean Loader. Since this computer used cassettes as storage, loading a game could take several minutes. Ocean used a special loading system that displayed a picture based on the game and played music 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.[4] 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.[5][6] Freeload served also as a copyright protection mechanism.[5]
On the ZX Spectrum, games after 1984 generally used the Speedlock protection system, which eventually included a countdown timer showing the time left to load a game.[7]
In 2004 for some of the Ocean development tools, among them Freeload, the 6502 source code was released by Paul Hughes into the public domain.[5][8][9]
Licensed games
Ocean was famous for often buying the rights to make video games from different arcade, movie and television franchises. Many license games combined several styles for example featuring platform action and car driving. The most well received license games by Ocean were RoboCop (1988), 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. The 1986 game Batman got a rating of 93% in Crash magazine.[10] Among Ocean's license games are:
- The Addams Family
- The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
- Addams Family Values
- Batman
- Batman: The Caped Crusader
- Batman: The Movie
- Cobra
- Cool World (1992 video game)
- Darkman
- Dennis The Menace
- Eek the Cat
- The Flintstones
- Highlander
- Hook
- Hudson Hawk
- Jurassic Park
- Knight Rider
- Lethal Weapon
- Manchester United Championship Soccer
- Miami Vice
- Navy Seals
- Platoon
- Rambo
- Rambo 3
- RoboCop
- RoboCop 2
- RoboCop 3
- Short Circuit
- Street Hawk
- Total Recall
- The Transformers
- The Untouchables
- Waterworld
- WWF WrestleMania
- WWF European Rampage Tour
Other titles
Although Ocean was best known for its licensed games, it had many other releases.
- Animal (1996)
- Armageddon (1983)
- Battle Command (1990)
- Beach Volley (1989)
- Burnin' Rubber (1990)
- Cabal (1989)[11]
- Chase HQ (1988)[11]
- Chase HQ II (1989)[11]
- Cheesy (1996)
- Choplifter III (1994)
- Combat School (1987)
- Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984)
- Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge (1988)
- Daley Thompson's Supertest
- Digger Dan (1983)
- Doom (SNES PAL) (1996)
- Eco (1987)
- EF2000 (1997)
- Elf (1991)
- Epic (1992)
- F29 Retaliator (1990)
- Fighters Destiny (Nintendo 64) (1998)
- Fighters Destiny 2 (Nintendo 64) (1999)
- Gryzor (1987)[11]
- Head Over Heels (1987)
- Helikopter Jagd (1986)
- Hunchback (1984)[11]
- Hunchback II
- Ivanhoe (1990)
- Inferno (1994)
- Jelly Boy
- Jersey Devil (1997)
- Kid Chaos, also known as Kid Vicious (1994)
- Kong (1983)
- Last Rites (1997)
- Lost Patrol (1990)
- Matchday (1985)
- Matchday II (1987)
- Midnight Resistance (1990)[11]
- Mr. Nutz (1993)
- Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad (1994)
- Mr Wimpy (1984)
- MRC: Multi-Racing Championship (Nintendo 64) (1997)
- Operation Wolf (1989)[11]
- Operation Thunderbolt (1990)[11]
- Pang (1990)[11]
- Parallax (1986)
- Parasol Stars (1992)[12]
- Pushover (1992)
- Rainbow Islands (1990)[11]
- Shadow Warriors (1990)[11]
- Salamander (1988)[11]
- Sleepwalker (1993)
- Space Gun (1992)[11]
- Super Turrican 2 (1995)
- TFX (1993)
- The Great Escape (1986)
- The NewZealand Story (1989)[11]
- Toki (1991)[11]
- Weaponlord (SNES PAL) (1995)
- Wetrix (Nintendo 64) (1998)
- Where Time Stood Still (1987)
- Wizball (1988)
- Wizkid (1992)
- Worms (1994)
- Zero Divide (1996)
Footnotes
- ↑ https://archive.org/stream/home-computing-weekly-001/Home_Computing_Weekly_001#page/n46/mode/1up
- ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=C+VG/Issue092/Pages/CVG09200062.jpg
- ↑ "Infogrames Entertainment S.A. History". Funding Universe. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
- ↑ http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displaypage.pl?issue=005&page=014&thumbstart=0&magazine=zzap&check=1
- 1 2 3 Hughes, Paul. "Freeload". pauliehughes.com. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
- ↑ "Interview with Paul Hughes". c64.com. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- ↑ Eddy, Richard (1987). "The One David" (44). Crash. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- ↑ Gasking, Frank (2004). "Ocean Sources". homepage.ntlworld.com/frank.gasking. Archived from the original on 2005-03-16. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
And as a result, Paul has kindly agreed to release sources to the public, for people to check out, to learn from, and to preserve and enjoy.
- ↑ Hughes, Paul. "Downloads". pauliehughes.com. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
- ↑ "Batman". Crash. Newsfield Publications Ltd. May 1986. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Arcade conversion
- ↑ Computer conversion of PC Engine game