Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

s and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

s of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Ocean developed dozens of games for a variety of systems such as the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

Oric 1 Oric was the name used by UK-based Tangerine Computer Systems for a series of 6502-based home computers sold in the 1980s, primarily in Europe. With the success of the ZX Spectrum from Sinclair Research, Tangerine's backers suggested a hom ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

Dragon 32 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before mov ...

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-p ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

Commodore 16 The Commodore 16 is a home computer made by Commodore International with a 6502-compatible 7501 or 8501 CPU, released in 1984 and intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20. A cost-reduced version, the Commodore 116, was ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

and

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

s, such as the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eur ...

Master System The is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 and ...

and

Sega Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

History

Early titles

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 Imagine Software was a British video games developer based in Liverpool which existed briefly in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. The company rose quickly to prominence and was noted for its polished, ...

Bug-Byte Bug-Byte Software Ltd. was a video game company founded in 1980 by Tony Baden and Tony Milner, two Oxford chemistry graduates. It was one of the first to develop a range of 8-bit computer games during the early 1980s, for Sinclair, Commodore and ...

and

Software Projects Software Projects was a computer game development company which was started by ''Manic Miner'' developer Matthew Smith, Alan Maton and Colin Roach. After leaving Bug-Byte as a freelance developer, Smith was able to take the rights to his recent ...

. Their initial catalogue was based around clones of

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

s like ''

Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and manufactured by Sega. In North America, it was released by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct a series of frogs to their homes by crossing a busy road and a hazardous rive ...

'' and ''

Missile Command ''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game ''Tempest ...

'' for various home computers including the

ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cost ...

, ZX Spectrum and

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the PE ...

. While trying to sell their 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 U.S. Gold Limited was a British video game publisher based in Witton, Birmingham, England. The company was founded in 1984 by Anne and Geoff Brown in parallel to their distributor firm, CentreSoft, both of which became part of Woodward Brown Ho ...

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 ''Raid Over Moscow'' (''Raid'' in some countries and on reissue) is a computer game by Access Software published in Europe by U.S. Gold for the Commodore 64 in 1984 and other microcomputers in 1985-1986. Released during the Cold War era, ''Raid ...

'' 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 Dinamic Software was a Spanish video game producer and publishing company. It was founded in 1983, and its activity ceased in 1992, comprising the Golden Era of Spanish Software. One year later, a part of its owners founded an independent compan ...

. 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 ''Daley Thompson's Decathlon'' is an Olympic-themed sports video game developed and released by Ocean Software in 1984. It was released in the wake of Daley Thompson's popularity following his gold medals in the decathlon at the 1980 and 1984 O ...

'', U.S. Gold's '' Beach Head'', ''

Jet Set Willy ''Jet Set Willy'' is a platform video game originally written by Matthew Smith for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time. The game is a sequel to ''Manic ...

'' from

and ''

Sabre Wulf ''Sabre Wulf'' is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting ...

'' by

Ultimate Play the Game Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games for t ...

— 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 Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result fr ...

from Manchester's Century Electronics, Liverpool's

Frankie Goes to Hollywood Frankie Goes to Hollywood were an English synth-pop band formed in Liverpool in 1980. The group's best-known line-up comprised Holly Johnson (vocals), Paul Rutherford (backing vocals), Peter Gill (drums, percussion), Mark O'Toole (bass guit ...

and Olympic decathlete

Daley Thompson Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson, (born 30 July 1958), better known as Daley Thompson, is a British former decathlete. He won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four tim ...

, its attention soon shifted to film licences, with ''

The NeverEnding Story ''The Neverending Story'' (german: Die unendliche Geschichte) is a fantasy novel by German writer Michael Ende, published in 1979. The first English translation, by Ralph Manheim, was published in 1983. The novel was later adapted into several f ...

'' becoming its first movie tie-in in 1985. In 1986, a deal was signed with

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...

and

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The Am ...

for home versions of their arcade games, such as ''

Arkanoid is a 1986 block breaker arcade game developed and published by Taito. In North America, it was published by Romstar. Controlling a paddle-like craft known as the Vaus, the player is tasked with clearing a formation of colorful blocks by deflect ...

'', ''

Renegade Renegade or The Renegade may refer to: Aircraft *Lake Renegade, an American amphibious aircraft design *Murphy Renegade, a Canadian ultralight biplane design *Southern Aeronautical Renegade, an American racing aircraft design Games *'' Comman ...

'', ''

The NewZealand Story is a platformer arcade game developed and published by Taito in 1988. The game's concept and setting were inspired by a holiday trip in New Zealand by one of the Taito programmers. The player controls , a Kiwi (bird), kiwi who must save his girlfr ...

'' and ''

Operation Wolf is a light gun shooter arcade game developed by Taito and released in 1987. It was ported to many home systems. The game was critically and commercially successful, becoming one of the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988 and winning the Go ...

''. ''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.

Success of film-licensed games

1986 also produced titles based on the films ''

Rambo Rambo is a surname with Norwegian (Vestfold) and Swedish origins. It possibly originated with '' ramn'' + '' bo'', meaning "raven's nest". It has variants in French (''Rambeau'', ''Rambaut'', and ''Rimbaud'') and German (''Rambow''). It is now best ...

'', ''

Short Circuit A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c) is an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance. This results in an excessive current flowing through the circuit ...

'' and '' Cobra'', as well as the first licensed ''Batman'' game. But it would be its 1988 game ''

RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...

'', adapted from Data East's arcade game based on the film ''

'', that would go on to become the most successful movie licence in history by the end of the decade. In 1989, ''The Hit Squad'' branding reappeared as the new budget re-release label for Ocean's 8-bit back catalogue. The entire series consisted of 122 titles over seven 8-bit formats. Their uniform style and numbering has led to them becoming highly collectable. Meanwhile, the company was working on its next big film tie-in, which would be specifically aimed at the new graphically superior 16-bit computers, the

and

Commodore Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

. The success of RoboCop established Ocean globally, and it would be Warner Brothers who suggested to Ocean that it produce a tie-in based on its forthcoming ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

'' movie. The resulting

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

was another tremendous hit for the company and is now regarded as one of the greatest video game/film tie-ins. The game was used as the basis of the Commodore Amiga 500 "Batman Pack", which became one of the most successful hardware/software bundles of all time. Ocean was voted Best 8-bit Software House of the Year at the 1989

Golden Joystick Awards The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted ...

, along with awards for its 8-bit and 16-bit conversions of ''Operation Wolf''.

Merger with Infogrames (1996)

In 1996, Ocean's parent company Ocean International Ltd. announced they would be purchased by and merge with French publisher

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...

for £100 million. The purchase was the first key 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 ''V-Rally'' is a racing video game series originally developed and published by Infogrames. It debuted in 1997 with the release of V-Rally (video game), the eponymous game for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation console. History ''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 February 8, 1998,

Bruno Bonnell Bruno Bonnell (born 6 October 1958) is a French businessman and politician who represented the 6th constituency of Rhône in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2022. A member of La République En Marche! (LREM), he is a co-founder of Infogrames ...

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 their own. The last title published under the Ocean brand altogether was the North American release of '' GT 64: Championship Edition'' for the Nintendo 64.

Aftermath

Infogrames Entertainment, Inc. began to publish games under their 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

, 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 is a Japanese multinational video game video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in ...

purchased

Atari SA Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Be ...

's European assets, and the remains of Ocean Software currently lie under the hands as Bandai Namco Entertainment's UK publishing and distribution division.

Tape loaders

Starting with ''Daley Thompson's Decathlon'' in 1984, games on the

generally used the

Speedlock A fast loader is a software program for a home computer, such as the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum, that accelerates the speed of file loading from floppy disk or compact cassette. Floppy disks Fast loaders came about because of a discrepanc ...

protection system, which eventually included a countdown timer showing the time left to load a game.

Games

Licensed games

Ocean was famous for often buying the rights to make video games from different arcade, film and television

franchises Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

. Many licence games combined several styles such as platform action and car driving. These include ''RoboCop'' (1988), ''Batman The Movie'' (1989) and ''RoboCop 3'' (1991), which featured 3D graphics in 16-bit versions. The adventure game ''Hook'' (1992) also received positive reviews. The 1986 game ''Batman'' got a rating of 93% in ''

Crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

'' magazine. Among Ocean's licensed games are: * ''

The Addams Family ''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over a ...

'' * '' The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt'' * ''

Addams Family Values ''Addams Family Values'' is a 1993 American supernatural black comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by Paul Rudnick, based on the characters created by Charles Addams. It is the sequel to ''The Addams Family'' (1991). The film ...

'' * ''

'' * '' Batman: The Caped Crusader'' * '' Batman: The Movie'' * '' Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Action Game'' * '' Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie'' * '' Cobra'' * ''

Cool World ''Cool World'' is a 1992 American live-action/animated black comedy fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi and written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor. Starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt, it tells the story of a cartoonist w ...

'' * ''

Darkman ''Darkman'' is a 1990 American superhero film directed and co-written by Sam Raimi. Based on a short story Raimi wrote that paid homage to Universal's horror films of the 1930s, the film stars Liam Neeson as scientist Peyton Westlake, who is br ...

'' * '' Dennis The Menace'' * '' Eek the Cat'' * ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...

'' * ''

Highlander Highlander may refer to: Regional cultures * Gorals (lit. ''Highlanders''), a culture in southern Poland and northern Slovakia * Hill people, who live in hills and mountains * Merina people, an ethnic group from the central plateau of Madagascar ...

'' * ''

Hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...

'' * ''

Hudson Hawk ''Hudson Hawk'' is a 1991 American action comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann. Bruce Willis stars in the title role and also co-wrote both the story and the theme song. Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, David Caruso, Lorraine To ...

'' * ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...

'' * ''

Knight Rider ''Knight Rider'' is an American entertainment franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The core of ''Knight Rider'' is its three television series: the original ''Knight Rider'' (1982–1986) and sequel series ''Team Knight Rider'' (1997–1998) ...

'' * ''

Lethal Weapon ''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American buddy cop action comedy film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner, written by Shane Black, and co-produced by Joel Silver. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darle ...

'' * ''

Manchester United Championship Soccer ''Manchester United Championship Soccer'' is a 1995 soccer video game for the Super NES. The game was released in Germany under the title ''Lothar Matthäus Super Soccer''.Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

'' * ''

Navy Seals The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the United States Navy, U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command, Naval Special Wa ...

'' * ''

Platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range ...

'' * ''

Rambo 3 ''Rambo III'' is a 1988 American action film directed by Peter MacDonald and co-written by Sylvester Stallone, who also reprises his role as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. A sequel to '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'' (1985), it is the third ...

'' * ''

Red Heat The practice of using colours to determine the temperature of a piece of (usually) ferrous metal comes from blacksmithing. Long before thermometers were widely available it was necessary to know what state the metal was in for heat treating it an ...

'' * ''

RoboCop 2 ''RoboCop 2'' is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and written by Frank Miller and Walon Green. It stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. It is the seq ...

'' * ''

RoboCop 3 ''RoboCop 3'' is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Fred Dekker and written by Dekker and Frank Miller. It is the sequel to the 1990 film ''RoboCop 2'' and the third entry in the ''RoboCop'' franchise. It stars Robert Bur ...

'' * ''Run the Gauntlet'' * ''

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

'' * ''

Street Hawk ''Street Hawk'' is an American superhero television series that aired for 14 episodes on ABC in 1985. The series is a Limekiln and Templar Production in association with Universal Television. Its central characters were created by Paul M. Belou ...

'' * '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' * ''

Top Gun ''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an a ...

'' * '' Total Recall'' * '' The Transformers'' * ''

The Untouchables Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to: American history * Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness * ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley * ''The Un ...

'' * '' V: The Computer Game'' * ''

Waterworld ''Waterworld'' is a 1995 American post-apocalyptic action film directed by Kevin Reynolds and co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy. It was based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it with Charl ...

'' * ''

WWF European Rampage Tour WWF may refer to: Non-profit organizations *World Wide Fund for Nature or World Wildlife Fund, a nature conservation group *World Water Forum, an international forum for water issues *Working Women's Forum, a training, trade and credit union in In ...

'' * '' WWF WrestleMania''

Arcade conversions

Ocean also acquired several licences to develop and publish conversions of

s for home computers. The year next to each game corresponds to the year of first release of a computer conversion. * ''

'' (1987, Imagine) * '' Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh'' (1988, Imagine) * ''

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

'' (1987, Imagine) * ''

Cabal A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state, or another community, often by intrigue and usually unbeknownst to those who are outside their group. Th ...

'' (1989) * ''

Chase H.Q. is a vehicular combat racing game, originally released as an arcade video game by Taito in 1988. It is sometimes seen as a spiritual successor to Taito's earlier '' Full Throttle''. The player assumes the role of a police officer named Tony Gib ...

'' (1988) * '' Chase HQ II'' (1989) * ''

Combat School released as ''Boot Camp'' in North America, is a 1987 arcade video game produced by Konami. The player takes control of a military recruit who is undergoing basic training at a United States Marine Corps Recruit Training camp, also known as a b ...

'' (1987) * ''

Donkey Kong is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...

'' (1986) * '' DragonNinja'' (1989, Imagine) * ''

Green Beret The green beret was the official headdress of the British Commandos of the Second World War. It is still worn by members of the Royal Marines after passing the Commando Course, and personnel from other units of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF wh ...

'' (1986, Imagine) * ''

Galivan ''Cosmo Police Galivan'' (コスモポリスギャリバン ''Kosumoporisu Gyariban''), is a single-player, shoot-em-up arcade video game developed and released worldwide by Nichibutsu. The game is inspired by the Japanese tokusatsu shows ''Spa ...

'' (1986, Imagine) * '' Gryzor (Contra)'' (1987) * ''

Guerrilla War Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...

'' (1988, Imagine) * ''

'' (1984) * ''

Hyper Sports ''Hyper Sports'', known in Japan as is an Olympic video games, Olympic-themed sports video game released by Konami for Arcade game, arcades in 1984 in video games, 1984. It is the sequel to 1983's ''Track & Field (video game), Track & Field'' and ...

'' (1985, Imagine) * ''Konami's Golf'' (1986, Imagine) * ''Konami's Tennis'' (1986, Imagine) * ''

The Legend of Kage is a side-scrolling hack-and-slash game developed and released by Taito as an arcade video game in 1985. It was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX, Sharp X1, and ZX Spectrum, Plot The player takes the ro ...

'' (1987, Imagine) * ''

MagMax is an arcade game which was developed by Nihon Bussan and released in 1985 under its brand Nichibutsu. A horizontal scrolling shooter, players control the title hover ship in an attempt to completely construct the ship into a giant robot and to ...

'' (1987, Imagine) * ''

Midnight Resistance is a side-scrolling run and gun game produced by Data East and released in arcades in 1989. ''Midnight Resistance'' is set in a dystopian future where the player controls a member of a resistance movement who goes on a mission to rescue his kidn ...

'' (1990) * ''

Mikie ''Mikie'', known as in Japan, is an arcade video game developed and released by Konami in 1984. The object of the game is to guide a student named Mikie around the school locations to collect hearts which make up a letter from his girlfriend whil ...

'' (1985, Imagine) * ''

'' (1989) * '' Operation Thunderbolt'' (1990) * ''

'' (1989) * '' Pang'' (1990) * ''

Ping Pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

'' (1986, Imagine) * ''

Psycho Soldier is a platform game developed by Japanese software company SNK. It was released in 1987. It is a distant sequel to ''Athena'', released a year earlier, featuring a late descendant of that game's main character. Ocean Software on their Imagine ...

'' (1987, Imagine) * ''

Rainbow Islands is a 1987 arcade game developed and published by Taito. The arcade version was licensed to Romstar for North American manufacturing and distribution. The game is subtitled "The Story of Bubble Bobble 2" and is the sequel to Taito's hit game ''Bubb ...

'' (1990) * '' Rastan'' (1988, Imagine) * ''

'' (1986, Imagine) * ''

Salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

'' (1988) * '' Shadow Warriors'' (1990) * ''

Slap Fight is a 1986 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito. Set on the colonized fictional planet of Theron in the future, where an alien race led by Gaudy have invaded the human-controlled location, pl ...

'' (1987, Imagine) * ''

Space Gun Space Gun may refer to: *Space gun, a method of launching an object into space * ''Space Gun'' (album), a 2018 album by Guided by Voices * ''Space Gun'' (video game), a 1990 arcade game *Ljutic Space Gun, a 12 gauge single-shot shotgun See also * ...

'' (1992) * ''

Terra Cresta is a vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game released by Nichibutsu in 1985. The player controls a flying craft to destroy the Mandler army before they destroy all of humanity. Gameplay involves shooting enemies and collecting different ...

'' (1986, Imagine) * '' Toki'' (1991)

Other titles

Although Ocean was known for its licensed games, it had many other releases. * ''90 Minutes European Prime Goal'' (SNES PAL) (1995) * ''

Animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

'' (1996) * ''Armageddon'' (1983) * ''

Battle Command Battle command (BC) is the discipline of visualizing, describing, directing, and leading forces in operations against a hostile, thinking, and adaptive enemy. Battle command applies leadership to translate decision into actions, by synchronizing ...

'' (1990) * ''

Beach Volley Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

'' (1989) * ''Burnin' Rubber'' (1990) * ''Cavelon'' (1984) * ''

Central Intelligence ''Central Intelligence'' is a 2016 American buddy action comedy film directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and written by Thurber, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen. The film stars Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson as two old high school classmates who ...

'' (1994) (included in Ocean Classics on Steam) * '' Cheesy'' (1996) * ''

Choplifter III ''Choplifter III'' is a shoot 'em up video game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. It was the third ''Choplifter'' title starting with the original Apple II game released in 1982]. A portable version of the game was rel ...

'' (1994) * '' ClayFighter (video game), ClayFighter'' (SNES PAL) (1994) * ''

Claymates ''Claymates'' is a platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is one of Interplay's clay animation titles which also included the ''ClayFighter'' series. Overview The protagonist of the game is a boy named Clayton, w ...

'' (SNES PAL) (1993) * ''

'' (1984) * '' Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge'' (1988) * '' Daley Thompson's Star Events'' (1985) * ''

Daley Thompson's Supertest Daley, originally an Irish family name derived from the Gaelic Ó Dálaigh, as a surname, may refer to: People Given name * Daley Blind (born 1990), Dutch footballer * Daley Mena (born 1985), Colombian footballer * Daley Ojuederie (born 1985), ...

'' (1985) * ''Digger Dan'' (1983) * ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * L ...

'' (SNES PAL) (1996) * '' Eco'' (1987) * ''

EF2000 The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo t ...

'' (1997) * ''

Elf An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

'' (1991) * ''

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

'' (1992) * ''

F29 Retaliator ''F29 Retaliator'' is a combat flight simulator video game developed by Digital Image Design and published by Ocean Software in 1989 Amiga and Atari ST, 1991 for the PC, and for the FM Towns and NEC PC-9801 in 1992-1993. Its working title was ju ...

'' (1990) * ''

FIFA International Soccer ''FIFA International Soccer'' is a 1993 List of association football video games, association football video game developed by EA Canada's Extended Play Productions team and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for the Sega Mega Dr ...

'' (SNES PAL) (1994) * ''

Fighters Destiny ''Fighters Destiny'', known in Japan as is a 1998 video game developed by Opus Corp. for the Nintendo 64. It closely models the 3D fighting game standard set by Sega's ''Virtua Fighter'', but integrates a unique point scoring system. The game' ...

'' (Nintendo 64) (1998) * '' Fighters Destiny 2'' (Nintendo 64) (1999) * '' The Great Escape'' (1986) * ''

GT Racing 97 GT, Gt or G-T may refer to: Arts and entertainment Games * GT Interactive, an American video game developer * GameTrailers, a video game website * '' Golden Tee Golf'', golf video game * ''Gran Turismo'' (series), a series of racing video game ...

'' (1997) * '' Head over Heels'' (1987) * '' Helikopter Jagd'' (1986) * '' Hunchback II'' (1985) * ''Island of Death'' (1983) * ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'' (1994) * ''

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...

'' (1990) * '' Jelly Boy'' (1995) * ''

Jersey Devil In South Jersey and Philadelphia folklore in the United States, the Jersey Devil (also known as the Leeds Devil) is a legendary creature said to inhabit the forest of Pine Barrens in South Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying bipe ...

'' (1997) * ''

Kid Chaos Kid Chaos, also known as Haggis (born Stephen Harris), is a British rock bassist and guitarist who played in incarnations of hard rock bands Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, The Cult and The Four Horsemen as well as guesting with ''Appetite ...

'', also known as ''Kid Vicious'' (1994) * ''Kong'' (1983) * ''

Kong Strikes Back! ''Kong Strikes Back!'' is a 1984 Platform game, platform video game published by Ocean Software in 1984 in video gaming, 1984 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. While its predecessor, ''Kong'', is a ''Donkey Kong (arcade game), Don ...

'' (1984) * ''

Last Rites The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortall ...

'' (1997) * '' Lost Patrol'' (1990) * ''

Madden NFL '95 ''Madden NFL 95'' is a football video game released by Electronic Arts in 1994. In addition to the usual home console versions that were released on the Sega Genesis and Super NES, this edition was also released for the portable Game Gear and Gam ...

'' (SNES PAL) (1994) * '' Match Day'' (1985) * ''

Match Day II ''Match Day II'' is a football sports game part of the Match Day series released for the Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, ZX Spectrum, MSX and Commodore 64 platforms. It was created in 1987 by Jon Ritman with graphics by Bernie Drummond and music an ...

'' (1987) * ''

Micro Machines Micro Machines are a line of toys originally made by Galoob (now part of Hasbro) in the mid-1980s and throughout the 1990s. Micro Machines are tiny scale component style "playsets" and vehicles that are slightly larger than N scale. The toys Ma ...

'' (SNES & Game Boy) (1994) * '' Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament'' (SNES & Game Boy) (1996) * ''

Mr. Nutz ''Mr. Nutz'' is a 2D side-scrolling platform game published by Ocean Software. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in late 1993 in Europe and in North America and Japan in 1994. In 1994, it was released for the Mega Dr ...

'' (1993) * '' Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad'' (1994) * '' Mr. Wimpy'' (1984) * '' MRC: Multi-Racing Championship'' (Nintendo 64) (1997) * ''

NBA Live 95 ''NBA Live 95'' is the follow-up to ''NBA Showdown (video game), NBA Showdown'' and the first ''NBA Live'' title in the ''NBA Live'' video games series from EA Sports. It was published by EA Sports and released in October 1994. The cover feature ...

'' (SNES PAL) (1994) * ''Nightmare Rally'' (1986) * ''

Parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects ...

'' (1986) * ''

Parasol Stars is a video game by Taito released in 1991. It is a sequel to ''Rainbow Islands'' and the third game in the ''Bubble Bobble'' series. Gameplay Bubby and Bobby (the characters' human names) star once again as the main characters, retaining their ...

'' (1992)Computer conversion of

TurboGrafx-16 The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth genera ...

(PC Engine) game * '' Pushover'' (1992) * '' Renegade III: The Final Chapter'' (1989, Imagine) * '' Sleepwalker'' (1993) * ''

Soccer Kid ''Soccer Kid'' is a 1993 Side-scrolling video game, side-scrolling Platform game, platform video game originally developed and published by Krisalis Software in Europe for the Amiga. In the game, players assume the role of the titular Protagonist ...

'' (1994) * '' Super James Pond'' (SNES & Game Boy PAL) (1993) * ''Super Soccer'' (ZX Spectrum) (1986, Imagine) * ''

Super Turrican 2 ''Super Turrican 2'' is a 16-bit shooter game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, developed by Factor 5 and marketed by Ocean Software in 1995. Part of the ''Turrican'' series, it is the sequel to '' Super Turrican'' for the same platform ...

'' (1995) * '' Target: Renegade'' (1988, Imagine) * '' TFX'' (1993) * ''Transversion'' * ''

True Pinball ''True Pinball'' is a video game developed by Digital Illusions and published by Ocean Software, Ocean for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996. It is an enhanced version of ''Pinball Illusions''. Gameplay ''True Pinball' ...

'' (1996) * ''

Tunnel B1 ''Tunnel B1'' is a first-person shooter developed by NEON Software and published by Ocean Software in 1996. The soundtrack is by Chris Huelsbeck who also scored ''Turrican''. The PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports were released in Japan as . Gamep ...

'' (1996) (Published by

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally formed by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes and Jim Scoroposki out of an Oyster Bay storefront in 1987, the company established a worldwide d ...

in North America) * ''

Weaponlord ''Weaponlord'' is a fighting game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Namco for the Super NES and Genesis in October 1995. ''Weaponlord'' has players select a character and defeat a series of opponents. The game is a weapons-based fighter ...

'' (SNES PAL) (1995) * ''

Where Time Stood Still ''Where Time Stood Still'' is an isometric action-adventure game released by Ocean in 1988 for the Sinclair Spectrum 128K, MS-DOS and Atari ST. The game was ported by fans to Amiga in July 2014, and on Amiga CD32 in December 2014 and was conv ...

'' (1987) * ''

Wizball ''Wizball'' is a shoot 'em up written by Jon Hare and Chris Yates (who together formed Sensible Software) and released in 1987 originally for the Commodore 64 and later in the year for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Versions for the Amiga and ...

'' (1987) * ''

Wizkid Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun (born 16 July 1990), known professionally as Wizkid, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. A prominent figure in the modern-day Afrobeats music scene, Wizkid is regarded as one of the biggest and most influential Afri ...

'' (1992) * ''

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany, a city **Worms (electoral district) *Worms, Nebraska, U.S. *Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy Arts and entertainme ...

'' (1995) * '' X2'' (1996) * ''

Zero Divide is a fighting video game that was released for the PlayStation in 1995. Ports and sequels *''Zero Divide'', Windows (1996) - developed by Kinesoft and published by GameBank in Japan, and Interplay in the United States. In 1999 it was included ...

'' (1996)

Post-Infogrames titles

The last few titles from Ocean before being renamed were published and distributed under Infogrames' umbrella, and consisted mostly of titles from Infogrames themselves.

Footnotes

External links

Infogrames United Kingdom Limited
{{authority control 1983 establishments in England 1998 disestablishments in England Defunct companies based in Manchester Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Golden Joystick Award winners Video game companies established in 1983 Video game companies disestablished in 1998 Video game development companies