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Ancient Developers - Part II - Ocean Software

lancubap

Member
Hello everyone ! Today its Saturday, so its time for another dicussion about ancient developers.
This time, the subject is Ocean Software.

Ocean_Software_logo.png


History of Ocean:

Ocean Software was one of the biggest European video game developers ever. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and were based at Manchester. Ocean manufactured 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.

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, Renegade and Bubble Bobble.
In 1987, Ocean published original games again, after a marginal season filled with licenses, resulting in Head over Heels and Wizball, both 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Games Developed &/Or Edited:

Amiga: (1988 - 1997)

2 Hot 2 Handle
A-Train
A-Train Construction Set
The Addams Family
Alien Breed 3D
Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds
Amiga Champions
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Batman: The Movie
Battle Command
Beach Volley
Burning Rubber
Cabal
Chase H.Q.
Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation
Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Action Game
Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie
Cool World
Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge
Darkman
Dennis
Dream Team
Eco
Elf
Epic
European Champions
F29 Retaliator
The Games '92 - España
Head Over Heels
Hook
Hudson Hawk
International Open Golf Championship
Ivanhoe
Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike
Jurassic Park
Kid Chaos
Lethal Weapon
Lost Patrol
Midnight Resistance
Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad
NARC
Navy Seals
The New Zealand Story
Ninja Gaiden: Shadow
One Step Beyond
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Pang
Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III
PGA European Tour
Platoon
Plotting
Power Up
Pushover
Puzznic
Rainbow Islands
Rambo III
RoboCop
RoboCop 2
Robocop 3
Run the Gauntlet
Shaq Fu
SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony
SimEarth: The Living Planet
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
Sleepwalker
Sly Spy: Secret Agent
Smash T.V.
Space Gun
The Speris Legacy
Super Fighter
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
TFX
Tie Break
Toki: Going Ape Spit
Total Recall
The Untouchables
Voyager
Wizball
Wizkid: The Story of Wizball II
Worms
Worms: The Director's Cut
WWF European Rampage
WWF Wrestlemania

Amstrad CPC (1984 - 1992)

The Addams Family
Batman
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Batman: The Movie
Battle Command
Beach Head II: The Dictator Strikes Back!
Beach Volley
Cabal
Chase H.Q.
Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Action Game
Cobra
Contra
Daley Thompson's Decathlon
Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge
Daley Thompson's Supertest
Darkman
Donkey Kong
Head Over Heels
Hudson Hawk
Hunchback
Hunchback 2: Quasimodo's Revenge
Hunchback: the Adventure
Mario Bros.
Match Day II
Midnight Resistance
NARC
Navy Seals
The Neverending Story
The New Zealand Story
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Pang
Platoon
Plotting
Puzznic
Rainbow Islands
Rambo III
Rambo: First Blood Part II
RoboCop
RoboCop 2
Short Circuit
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
Sly Spy: Secret Agent
Smash T.V.
Super Bowl
Tai-Pan
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Tie Break
Top Gun
Total Recall
The Untouchables
We Are the Champions
Wizball
WWF Wrestlemania

Atari ST: (1987 - 1994)

The Addams Family
Batman: The Movie
Battle Command
Beach Volley
Burning Rubber
Cabal
Chase H.Q.
Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation
Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Action Game
Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie
Cool World
Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge
Darkman
Dream Team
Eco
Elf
Epic
European Champions
F29 Retaliator
The Games '92 - España
Head Over Heels
Hook
Hudson Hawk
Ivanhoe
Lethal Weapon
Lost Patrol
Midnight Resistance
NARC
Navy Seals
The New Zealand Story
Ninja Gaiden: Shadow
One Step Beyond
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Pang
Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III
Platoon
Plotting
Power Up
Pushover
Puzznic
Rainbow Islands
Rambo III
RoboCop
RoboCop 2
Robocop 3
Run the Gauntlet
SimEarth: The Living Planet
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
Sleepwalker
Sly Spy: Secret Agent
Smash T.V.
Space Gun
Tai-Pan
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Tie Break
Toki: Going Ape Spit
Total Recall
The Untouchables
Voyager
Where Time Stood Still
Wizball
Wizkid: The Story of Wizball II
WWF European Rampage
WWF Wrestlemania

Commodore 64: (1983 - 1993)

100% Dynamite
2 Hot 2 Handle
The Addams Family
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Batman: The Movie
Battle Command
Beach Volley
Boot Camp
Cabal
Cavelon
Chase H.Q.
Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation
Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Action Game
Cobra
Contra
Cool World
Daley Thompson's Decathlon
Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge
Daley Thompson's Supertest
Darkman
Donkey Kong
Double Take
Dream Team
Emilio Butragueño Fútbol
Firefly
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
G.U.T.Z.
Game, Set & Match
The Great Escape
Head Over Heels
Hudson Hawk
Hunchback
Hunchback 2: Quasimodo's Revenge
Hunchback: the Adventure
Lethal Weapon
Match Day II
Midnight Resistance
Mr. Wimpy: The Hamburger Game
NARC
Navy Seals
The Neverending Story
Ninja Gaiden: Shadow
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Pang
Parallax
Platoon
Plotting
Power Up
Puzznic
Rainbow Islands
Rambo III
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Renegade 3
RoboCop
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 3
Run the Gauntlet
Shadow of the Beast
Short Circuit
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
Sleepwalker
Sly Spy: Secret Agent
Smash T.V.
Space Gun
Super Bowl
Super Fighter
Tai-Pan
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Tie Break
TLL: Tornado Low Level
Toki: Going Ape Spit
Top Gun
Total Recall
The Untouchables
We Are the Champions
Wizball
WWF European Rampage
WWF Wrestlemania

Dragon 32/64:

Hunchback

Game Gear:

RoboCop 3

Jaguar:

Syndicate
Theme Park

MSX: (1985 - 1989)

Batman
Batman: The Movie
Chase H.Q.
Donkey Kong
Head Over Heels
Hunchback
Match Day II
Operation Wolf
Rambo III
RoboCop
Tai-Pan
The Untouchables

Nintendo 64:

GT 64: Championship Edition
Fighters Destiny
Wetrix

Playstation: (1995 - 1998)

Break Point
Cheesy
Jersey Devil
The Raiden Project
Transport Tycoon
True Pinball
Tunnel B1
Viper
Worms

Saturn: 1996/97

Break Point
True Pinball
Tunnel B1
Worms

VIC-20:

Hunchback

Amiga CD32: (1993 - 1996)

Alien Breed 3D
Dennis
International Open Golf Championship
Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike
Kid Chaos
PGA European Tour
Sleepwalker
Sleepwalker & Pinball Fantasies
The Speris Legacy
Worms

GameBoy: (1990-1998)

The Addams Family
The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Alien Olympics
Choplifter III
Cool World
Darkman
Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf
The Flintstones
Hook
Hudson Hawk
Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues
Lemmings
Lethal Weapon
Micro Machines
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Mr. Nutz
Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III
Road Rash
RoboCop
Super Hunchback
V-Rally Championship Edition

Genesis: (1993-1996)

Addams Family Values
The Addams Family
Mighty Max
Mr. Nutz
RoboCop 3
Worms

NES: (1988-1993)

The Addams Family
The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Cool World
Darkman
Hook
Hudson Hawk
Jurassic Park
Lemmings
Lethal Weapon
The New Zealand Story
Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III
Platoon
RoboCop
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 3
Target: Renegade

SNES: (1992-1996)

Addams Family Values
The Addams Family
The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Choplifter III: Rescue Survive
Cool World
DOOM
Eek! the Cat
FIFA International Soccer
James Pond 2: Codename: RoboCod
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues
Lethal Weapon
Micro Machines
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Mr. Nutz
Pushover
Putty Squad
RoboCop 3
Soccer Kid
Super Turrican 2
Syndicate
T2: The Arcade Game
Theme Park
Waterworld
Worms

Virtual Boy:

Waterworld

ZX Spectrum: (1983-1992)

100% Dynamite
The Addams Family
Batman
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Batman: The Movie
Battle Command
Beach Head
Beach Head II: The Dictator Strikes Back!
Beach Volley
Boot Camp
Bruce Lee
Cabal
Cavelon
Chase H.Q.
Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation
Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Action Game
Cobra
Contra
Cosmic Wartoad
Daley Thompson's Decathlon
Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge
Daley Thompson's Supertest
Darkman
Donkey Kong
Double Take
Dream Team
Emilio Butragueño Fútbol
Firefly
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
G.U.T.Z.
Game Set & Match
The Gold Collection II
The Great Escape
Head Over Heels
Hudson Hawk
Hunchback
Hunchback 2: Quasimodo's Revenge
Hunchback: the Adventure
Impossible Mission
The Legend of Kage
Mario Bros.
Match Day II
Midnight Resistance
Moon Alert
Mr. Wimpy: The Hamburger Game
NARC
Navy Seals
The Neverending Story
The New Zealand Story
Ninja Gaiden: Shadow
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Pang
Platoon
Plotting
Pogo
Puzznic
Rainbow Islands
Rambo III
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Renegade 3
RoboCop
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 3
Royal Birkdale Championship Golf
Run the Gauntlet
Short Circuit
Short Circuit
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
Sinclair User DoubleHits 5
Sinclair User Six of the Best 1
Sly Spy: Secret Agent
Smash T.V.
SoftAid
Space Gun
Super Bowl
Tai-Pan
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
They Sold a Million 3
Tie Break
Top Gun
Total Recall
The Untouchables
We Are the Champions
Wheels of Fire
Where Time Stood Still
Wizball
WWF Wrestlemania
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ouff...a long list and overall for old gamers. See you next week, if God will !!!
 

Muppet345

Member
Good thread. The only game I've played on there is the SNES version of the Addams Family, I think, which I enjoyed. The rest seem like awful licensed games.
 

8bit

Knows the Score
What were they thinking with some of those movie choices? Cool World stands out as a particularly stupid choice.

BTW, your N64 listing is missing the N64 game you mention in the lead paragraph.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood brings back some great memories though, that was such a bizarre game. Many thanks to Denton Designs for blowing my mind.
 

Skilotonn

xbot xbot xbot xbot xbot
Robocop 3 was fun back then on the SNES, and I think I played some other games published by them as well...

Good times...
 
They were involved in either the development or publishing of all those games by the looks of it.

I remember Ocean quite fondly, even though, as you can tell... on earlier systems, they were a bit of a shovelware monster. Note how they made less and less as the generations rolled on.

I didn't know they became a part of infogrames... which is Atari now btw.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Ocean's Audio legend Martin Galway is working at Certain Affinity - former Bungie guy (Max Hoberman) spin off compoany.
 
Most of thier movie tieins were awful. The same formula of driving section/platform section/ minigame section.

They made a few decent games, but they were the EA of thier day. Shovelware ahoy!
 

Teasel

Member
this thread need less names and more pics
let me help ya
PushOver
this one was diabolical,for some weird reason there was this dog who lost his potato chips inside an anthill and you played this ant and had to rescue them,to do this you have to make all the domino puzzle fall with a single push
image004.gif

this is the first level and it's pretty simple just move the first one in the empty space at last (note: the three red stripe domino has always to fall last and making all the domino falls doesn't finish the level,you have to exit too,in this level the exit is placed behind the first block)
obviously it isn't always that simple,later you get domino that keep going on after being knocked down,domino that splits when a domino falls over them,domino that explodes (if a domino explode in the wrong place you can't get the exit after all the domino have falled) domino that when hitted start going up ignoring gravity laws
image009.gif

(you can see one of them in this level)
WizKid
sequel to WizBall (a weird shooter for commodore 64 where you were a green bouncing ball and had to restore color to the world by killing enemies) this was a pretty screwed up game
it played in 2 parts,in the first one you are only an head and you have to kill all the enemies on screen by bumping blocks into them,
wizkid_04.gif

after killing enough enemy to get all the musical notes you get a body,while you have a body the game transform into an adventure game and a screwed one for that! basicaly in every level you have to find one of the hidden kitten
wizkid_17.gif

you can skip level thanks to shortcut but if you do that you won't be able to rescue every kitten and hence getting to the end
the stage with the woman barking (in rhytm with the music) in the background was unforgettable
wizkid-7.png

oh and really if you compare ocean to the current EA you have no soul :(
 

Kiriku

SWEDISH PERFECTION
I remember Daley Thompson's Decathlon on C64 from when I was young. Lots of violent joystick shaking. :lol
Also, wizball was cool, and Hunchback.

For Amiga, I remember enjoying PushOver, Lost Patrol, Alien Breed 1 & 2. Hook was pretty nice too.
And I always heard good things about Midnight Resistance, but never played it.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Out of all of those I've only played the Adams Family GB game, which was quite good, and Jurassic Park SNES, which was sort of mediocre, but I guess respectable because they at least tried to take it in a different direction than 2D action game, which was the obvious choice of nearly all movie tie ins at the time.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Ocean was a publisher, not a developer. I don't think they had any internal dev studios at all.
 

Linkup

Member
AndoCalrissian said:
I really hope Jurassic Park for SNES comes to VC, though I doubt it ever will.

Never did beat that. I think it was because it didn't have any kind of save function(password maybe?) and thus just way to long to beat in one sitting.
 

RaidenZR

Member
I actually owned Waterworld for Virtual Boy for a bit of time. I bought it off eBay from an alleged ex-Ocean employee post-death.

God that was terrible.

Best thing I ever owned from them was Jurassic Park for SNES.
 

Dizzy

Banned
So many games, and yet the one I think of when I think of Ocean is Robocop on the spectrum :lol Probably because I was young back then, and ended up dying many times and seeing the starting screens.
 

Huggy

Member
Linkup said:
Never did beat that. I think it was because it didn't have any kind of save function(password maybe?) and thus just way to long to beat in one sitting.

It was easy getting stuck as well. I remember not knowing where Muldoon's blue keycard was... and there's only just 1 giant ass island to search for it.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
PotatoeMasher said:
Didn't they do Mission: Impossible for N64?

I always liked that game, despite the bad reviews.


Yes and no as I recall, Ocean was developing the game till the game fell behind schedule and which point the game was moved from Ocean to Infrogrames proper. By the way, Wikipedia has it wrong, Ocean was bought by Infogrames in 1996.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
i remember when ocean suddenly went through that "every game from now on is a platform shooter" phase... it made me sad.

the original list might be missing some goodness...

I don't see Mutants on the C64 list and it needs to be on there for it's UTTER AWESOMENESS.
 

Jonnyram

Member
Wizball and Epic were two of my favourite games on the ST.
I missed the thread last week - which dev did you focus on?
 

ToxicAdam

Member
Ocean was real hit or miss on the C64. For every good game, they released 2 or 3 clunkers.

The only one that stood out as decent was their Batman (1989). Hard game, with nice variety in its levels. Emu it sometime, it had great music.
 

PkunkFury

Member
Linkup said:
Never did beat that. I think it was because it didn't have any kind of save function(password maybe?) and thus just way to long to beat in one sitting.

:lol :lol

Beating SNES Jurassic Park was my proudest accomplishment as a child! It was soo long and difficult, and yes I believe had no save function. but it was still an awesome game! Getting to the "end" wasn't so bad, but then before you could really win you had to run around the island and find all 38 eggs or something. It took my brother and I all day but we did it with no guides or anything :D

If this game comes to VC, its a day one purchase for me. Such a great game, and way ahead of its time. It was an FPS (which actually worked well on the SNES!) mixed with overhead Zelda style adventuring. The music was also awesome, and so were the night vision goggles. It's still the scariest game I've ever played, but I think that has a lot to do with my age at the time.

props to Ocean for this under-acknowledged masterpeice
 

Guzim

Member
PotatoeMasher said:
Didn't they do Mission: Impossible for N64?

I always liked that game, despite the bad reviews.
Yeah. Everyone was expecting GoldenEye 2 out of Mission: Impossible. It wasn't that bad as everyone made it out to be.
 

Mar

Member
PkunkFury said:
:lol :lol

Beating SNES Jurassic Park was my proudest accomplishment as a child! It was soo long and difficult, and yes I believe had no save function. but it was still an awesome game! Getting to the "end" wasn't so bad, but then before you could really win you had to run around the island and find all 38 eggs or something. It took my brother and I all day but we did it with no guides or anything :D

If this game comes to VC, its a day one purchase for me. Such a great game, and way ahead of its time. It was an FPS (which actually worked well on the SNES!) mixed with overhead Zelda style adventuring. The music was also awesome, and so were the night vision goggles. It's still the scariest game I've ever played, but I think that has a lot to do with my age at the time.

props to Ocean for this under-acknowledged masterpeice

Agreed. I loved this game, and it was scary as hell. They really nailed the atmosphere. It beats the crap out of any other JP game ever released.

This game doesn't get enough praise.
 

PkunkFury

Member
Martoo said:
Agreed. I loved this game, and it was scary as hell. They really nailed the atmosphere. It beats the crap out of any other JP game ever released.

This game doesn't get enough praise.

good to see I'm not the only one who feared this game :D

Something about the dinos in the first person mode + plus the lack of life power ups available. You'd be about to die in the 5th floor of the basement and you'd be scared at every corner cuz you didn't want to go through all that again :lol Raptor attacks you from the side and its over :(

scarier than any silent hill or resident evil i've played

I remember you could play with the mario paint mouse, too. The game was really above and beyond in the creativity depatment for a movie based title
 

MrToughPants

Brian Burke punched my mom
Choplifter that's the game I used to play on gameboy all the time along with Robocop and Darkman.

Does anyone know who made the game General Store for Atari PC?

edit

Oh no shit Atari scholastic series FTW

-general store
-planetarium

CLASSICS :lol
 

Tarazet

Member
Amiga: (1988 - 1997)

Pushover
Rambo III

I had these. Push-Over was a great little puzzle game.. and the Amiga version was sponsored by Chupa Chups, which was awesome. The SNES/Genesis versions had some generic cash or something.
 

Servizio

I don't really need a tag, but I figured I'd get one to make people jealous. Is it working?
I distinctly remember their logo popping up on the Genesis version of Turrican.

Did they also do Hook for the SNES and Sega CD?
 

CrunchyB

Member
PkunkFury said:
good to see I'm not the only one who feared this game :D

Something about the dinos in the first person mode + plus the lack of life power ups available. You'd be about to die in the 5th floor of the basement and you'd be scared at every corner cuz you didn't want to go through all that again :lol Raptor attacks you from the side and its over :(

scarier than any silent hill or resident evil i've played

Yeah, it was scary. But it was also running at a vomit-inducing 10fps. Seriously, playing for extended times made me feel sick, it's still the only game that ever did this to me.

That said, it was a fairly decent FPS (at the time) and it had an awesome overworld. Remember the charging triceratops? :)
I really missed that save option though. Like said before, the game was just too long and too hard. I remember I had found the nerve gas and reached the bottom of the raptor nest, but then I didn't know what to do next :(
I'd really like to see it on VC, just because of the savestate :)

I remember you could play with the mario paint mouse, too. The game was really above and beyond in the creativity depatment for a movie based title

Seriously? Gotta try that out some time :)

edit: oh, and NES Batman rocked as well. Great intro and it played very smoothly for a 8-bit game.
 

AlternativeUlster

Absolutely pathetic part deux
Yeah Adams Family was a really good platformer. So was Pugsy's Scavanger Hunt. I would like to say Thank You to Ocean for making Dark Man which among Back to the Future, Friday the 13th, and Dick Tracy, where among many of the licensed games that I got when I was kid because they were 10 dollars.
 

Mar

Member
AlternativeUlster said:
Yeah Adams Family was a really good platformer. So was Pugsy's Scavanger Hunt.

These games don't get mentioned enough. They are VERY good platform games. I'd rank them up there with the best. Pity hardly anyones ever played them.
 
Ocean released some of the best shooters on C64, like Rambo (First Blood part II) and Cabal and of course Operation Wolf and Thunderbolt. And I always loved The Great Escape, even though I never actually managed to escape. And Wizball was pretty cool too. I don't think that list has all their games...
 

AlternativeUlster

Absolutely pathetic part deux
Martoo said:
These games don't get mentioned enough. They are VERY good platform games. I'd rank them up there with the best. Pity hardly anyones ever played them.

I wonder if they might Virtual Console those games. I thought that Ocean was owned by someone like Konami but I think I might be thinking of Ultra which I am. Nevermind.
 
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