Ocean Software

• Name — Ocean Software Limited • Type — Video game developer Video game publisher • Fate — Acquired by and later folded into Infogrames • Predecessor — Spectrum Games • Successor — Infogrames United Kingdom, now Bandai Namco Entertainment UK • Founder — David Ward Jon Woods • Hq Location — 6 Central Street, Manchester, England • Key People — Paul Patterson (Sales Director) Gary Bracey (Development Director) Steve Blower (Art Director) Colin Stokes (Operations Manager) Marc Djan (Ocean France) • Parent — Ocean International Ltd.

Jon Woods and David Ward created Spectrum Games as a mail-order business in 1983 after being inspired by the success of Liverpool-based software houses Imagine Software, Bug-Byte and Software Projects. Their initial catalogue was based around clones of arcade video games like Frogger and Missile Command for various home computers including the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. While trying to sell its titles into high street stores it became clear that the company name was confusing to owners of machines other than the ZX Spectrum. The company was renamed Ocean Software leading to some of its games being re-released with different titles so the Berzerk clone Frenzy was reissued as Robotics and Missile Attack became Armageddon. By September 1984, the success of Ocean allowed Woods and Ward to invest £50,000 in a new software house in return for a 50% stake in the company. U.S. Gold was created by Geoff Brown, owner of Centresoft software distribution, and specialised in importing American Commodore 64 games for the UK market. U.S. Gold had no developers to port the Commodore games for the UK's most popular home computer, the ZX Spectrum, so Ocean produced the conversions of titles such as Beach Head, Raid over Moscow and Tapper through its external development team, Platinum Productions. In October 1984, Ocean bought the name and branding of Imagine Software from the liquidators of the failed software house. Although originally intended to be a label exclusively for arcade conversions, the Imagine logo would also be used on a number of original titles, as well as on UK releases of games licensed from Spanish developers Dinamic Software. The company funded an independent game developer in Liverpool, Denton Designs, which was an investor until Denton and Ocean split away later that decade. In 1985, Ocean and U.S. Gold collaborated again to launch a new label, The Hit Squad, for releasing compilation packages. The first release featured Ocean's Daley Thompson's Decathlon, U.S. Gold's Beach Head, Jet Set Willy from Software Projects and Sabre Wulf by Ultimate Play the Game — all titles which had sold over a million copies — which led to the title They Sold A Million. The compilation went on to sell over a million copies, as did the second and third instalments in the series. Over half of Ocean's releases for 8-bit home computers were coin-op conversions and licensed games. While initially focused on British licences, such as Hunchback from Manchester's Century Electronics, Liverpool's Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Olympic decathlete Daley Thompson, its attention soon shifted to film licences, with The NeverEnding Story becoming its first movie tie-in in 1985. In 1986, a deal was signed with Taito and Data East for home versions of their arcade games, such as Arkanoid, Renegade, The NewZealand Story and Operation Wolf. Operation Wolf was the first title to be converted to 16-bit platforms by Ocean France, a company created by Ocean and Marc Djan in 1986. The studio produced most of its 16-bit arcade conversions until 1991, when the company became Ocean's French marketing and sales department.

In 1996, Ocean's parent company Ocean International Ltd. announced it would be purchased by and merge with French publisher Infogrames for £100 million. This was the first key purchase in Infogrames' "Expand through Acquisition" policy. After the merger, Ocean remained as a separate division of Infogrames, continuing to publish and distribute its own games, such as F-22: Air Dominance Fighter., with the UK subsidiary beginning to distribute titles from Infogrames, such as V-Rally. In 1997, Infogrames' French publishing division Infogrames Télématique launched a European-focused online gaming website under the Ocean brand called Oceanline. The website offered up simplified online versions of a majority of Infogrames' game catalog. On 8 February 1998, Bruno Bonnell announced that Ocean Software Limited would be rebranded as Infogrames United Kingdom Limited in order to standardize its various subsidiaries under the Infogrames banner. Ocean of America, Inc. was later renamed as Infogrames Entertainment, Inc. Infogrames continued to use Ocean as a brand name for specific titles until the end of the year when the company quietly retired the brand in favour of its own. The last title published under the Ocean brand altogether was the North American release of GT 64: Championship Edition for the Nintendo 64.

Infogrames Entertainment, Inc. began to publish games under its own banner, replacing Infogrames' previous United States subsidiary I-Motion Inc. Infogrames Entertainment, Inc. was soon folded into Infogrames North America, Inc. — a renaming of Accolade — which then became Infogrames' United States division before being merged and folded into Infogrames, Inc., a renaming of GT Interactive. The UK subsidiary continued to publish and distribute Infogrames' titles in the country, later being renamed as Atari United Kingdom Limited in 2003. In 2009, Bandai Namco Entertainment purchased Atari SA's European assets, and the remains of Ocean Software currently lie under the hands as Bandai Namco Entertainment's UK publishing and distribution division.

Starting with Daley Thompson's Decathlon in 1984, games on the ZX Spectrum used the Speedlock protection system, which eventually included a countdown timer showing the time left to load a game. On the Commodore 64, Ocean added a full-screen graphic to look at and some catchy music to listen to during the loading of the tape. Several different Loaders were implemented over the years. Eleven loaders are known to have been created for Ocean games. Some of the composers who created the music for the Ocean Loaders were Martin Galway, Jonathan Dunn, and Peter Clarke.

• Illustration — Highlander for the Commodore 64 • The Addams Family • The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt • Addams Family Values • Batman • Batman: The Caped Crusader • Batman: The Movie • Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Action Game • Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie • Cobra • Cool World • Darkman • Dennis the Menace • Eek the Cat • The Flintstones • Frankie Goes to Hollywood • Highlander • Hook • Hudson Hawk • Jurassic Park • Knight Rider • Lethal Weapon • Manchester United Championship Soccer • Miami Vice • Navy Seals • Platoon • Rambo • Rambo 3 • Red Heat • RoboCop • RoboCop 2 • RoboCop 3 • Run the Gauntlet • The Shadow • Short Circuit • Street Hawk • Terminator 2: Judgment Day • Top Gun • Total Recall • The Transformers • The Untouchables • V: The Computer Game • Waterworld • WWF European Rampage Tour • WWF WrestleMania

• Arkanoid (1987, Imagine) • Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh (1988, Imagine) • Athena (1987, Imagine) • Cabal (1989) • Chase H.Q. (1989) • Chase HQ II (1990) • Combat School (1987) • Donkey Kong (1986) • DragonNinja (1989, Imagine) • Green Beret (1986, Imagine) • Galivan (1986, Imagine) • Gryzor (Contra) (1987) • Guerrilla War (1988, Imagine) • Hunchback (1984) • Hyper Sports (1985, Imagine) • Konami's Golf (1986, Imagine) • Konami's Tennis (1986, Imagine) • The Legend of Kage (1987, Imagine) • MagMax (1987, Imagine) • Midnight Resistance (1990) • Mikie (1985, Imagine) • The NewZealand Story (1989) • Operation Thunderbolt (1990) • Operation Wolf (1988) • Pang (1990) • Ping Pong (1986, Imagine) • Psycho Soldier (1987, Imagine) • Rainbow Islands (1990) • Rastan (1988, Imagine) • Renegade (1987, Imagine) • Salamander (1988) • Shadow Warriors (1990) • Slap Fight (1987, Imagine) • Space Gun (1992) • Terra Cresta (1986, Imagine) • Toki (1991) • Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1985, Imagine)

• 90 Minutes European Prime Goal (SNES PAL) (1995) • Animal (1996) • Armageddon (1983) • Battle Command (1990) • Beach Volley (1989) • Burnin' Rubber (1990) • Cavelon (1984) • Central Intelligence (1994) (included in Ocean Classics on Steam) • Cheesy (1996) • Choplifter III (1994) • ClayFighter (SNES PAL) (1994) • Claymates (SNES PAL) (1993) • Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984) • Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge (1988) • Daley Thompson's Star Events (1985) • Daley Thompson's Supertest (1985) • Digger Dan (1983) • Doom (SNES PAL) (1996) • Eco (1987) • EF2000 (1997) • Elf (1991) • Epic (1992) • F29 Retaliator (1990) • FIFA International Soccer (SNES PAL) (1994) • Fighters Destiny (Nintendo 64) (1998) • Fighters Destiny 2 (Nintendo 64) (1999) • The Great Escape (1986) • The Games '92: España (1992) • GT Racing 97 (1997) • Head over Heels (1987) • Helikopter Jagd (1986) • Hunchback II (1985) • Island of Death (1983) • Inferno (1994) • Ivanhoe (1990) • Jelly Boy (1995) • Jersey Devil (1997) • Kid Chaos, also known as Kid Vicious (1994) • Kong (1983) • Kong Strikes Back! (1984) • Last Rites (1997) • Lost Patrol (1990) • Madden NFL '95 (SNES PAL) (1994) • Match Day (1985) • Match Day II (1987) • Micro Machines (SNES & Game Boy) (1994) • Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament (SNES & Game Boy) (1996) • Mr. Nutz (1993) • Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad (1994) • Mr. Wimpy (1984) • MRC: Multi-Racing Championship (Nintendo 64) (1997) • NBA Live 95 (SNES PAL) (1994) • Nightmare Rally (1986) • Parallax (1986) • Parasol Stars (1992) • Pushover (1992) • Renegade III: The Final Chapter (1989, Imagine) • Sleepwalker (1993) • Soccer Kid (1994) • Super James Pond (SNES & Game Boy PAL) (1993) • Super Soccer (ZX Spectrum) (1986, Imagine) • Super Turrican 2 (1995) • Target: Renegade (1988, Imagine) • TFX (1993) • Transversion • True Pinball (1996) • Tunnel B1 (1996) (Published by Acclaim Entertainment in North America) • Voyager (Atari ST, Amiga) (1989) • Weaponlord (SNES PAL) (1995) • Where Time Stood Still (1987) • Wizball (1987) • Wizkid (1992) • Worms (1995) • X2 (1996) • Zero Divide (1996)

The last few titles from Ocean before being renamed were published and distributed under Infogrames' umbrella, and consisted mostly of titles from Infogrames themselves. • Game || Developer || Platform || Release date || Note • I-War/Independence War — Particle Systems — Microsoft Windows — November 1997 (PAL) 18 August 1998 (US) — PAL release published by Infogrames Multimedia. North American release published as Infogrames Entertainment. • F-22: Air Dominance Fighter — Digital Image Design — Microsoft Windows — 1 December 1997 (PAL) — North American release published as Infogrames Entertainment. • Fighters Destiny — Opus Corp. — Nintendo 64 — 26 January 1998 (US) 1 March 1998 (PAL) — PAL release published as Infogrames United Kingdom. • GT 64: Championship Edition — Imagineer — Nintendo 64 — 14 April 1998 (PAL) 31 August 1998 (US) — PAL release published as Infogrames United Kingdom. North American release published as Infogrames Entertainment. • Lucky Luke — Infogrames Multimedia — PlayStation — 3 May 1998 (PAL) November 1998 (US) — PAL release published by Infogrames Multimedia. North American release published as Infogrames Entertainment. • Hexplore — Heliovisions Productions — Microsoft Windows — 1998 (PAL) September 1998 (US) — PAL release published by Infogrames Multimedia. North American release published by I•Motion and distributed by Infogrames Entertainment. • Wetrix — Zed Two — Nintendo 64, Microsoft Windows — Nintendo 64 12 June 1998 (US) 16 June 1998 (PAL) Microsoft Windows 1998 (US and PAL) — PAL release published as Infogrames United Kingdom. North American release published as Infogrames Entertainment. • V-Rally: Championship Edition — Velez & Dubail — Game Boy — July 1998 — PAL-regions only. Published by Infogrames Multimedia. • Viper — X-ample Developments — PlayStation — 15 July 1998 — PAL-regions only. Published as Infogrames United Kingdom Limited. • Mission: Impossible — Infogrames — Nintendo 64 — 16 July 1998 (US) 25 September 1998 (PAL) — North American release published as Infogrames Entertainment. PAL release published as Infogrames United Kingdom. • Snow Racer 98 — Power & Magic — PlayStation — 23 July 1998 — Europe only, published by Infogrames Multimedia. • Heart of Darkness — Amazing Studios — PlayStation — 31 July 1998 — European release, published as Infogrames Multimedia. Published by Interplay Productions in North America. • F-22 Total Air War — Digital Image Design — Microsoft Windows — Late-1998 — PAL-regions only. Published as Infogrames United Kingdom Limited.

The following is established of the heading itself. The register further records that ocean Software is associated with United Kingdom. It is also recorded that ocean Software is recorded from 1983.