| Ocean Software |
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Information AboutOcean Software |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT OCEAN SOFTWARE | |
| home computer software companies | |
| defunct video game companies | |
| defunct companies of the united kingdom | |
| companies established in 1984 | |
| 1998 disestablishments | |
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Ocean Software (or '''Ocean Software Ltd.''' and sometimes '''Ocean of America, Inc.''' but generally only referred to as '''Ocean''') was one of the biggest Europe an Video Game Developer s ever. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods in Manchester . Ocean manufactured dozens of games for a variety of systems such as the ZX Spectrum , Commodore 64 , Atari ST , Amiga , PC , and Video Game Consoles such as the NES and SNES . BRIEF HISTORY The first projects in 1984 (''High Noon'' and ''Gilligan's Gold'') were also developed in-house. Later in 1984 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.
OCEAN LOADER One of the most recognisable features of Ocean games during the 8-bit era was the Ocean Loader. Since most 8-bit computers used Cassette s as storage, loading a game could take minutes. Ocean used a special loading system that displayed a picture and played music ( Commodore 64 only) while the game was loading. The Ocean loader music is still popular by fans of Chiptunes . Five versions of the tune exist; 1 and 2 were composed by Martin Galway , 3 by Peter Clarke , 4 and 5 by Jonathan Dunn . The Ocean Loader was first used in the game Hypersports . Up to 1987 the Ocean Loader was written by the in house Ocean programmer Bill Barna, from 1987 to the end of the Commodore 64's commercial life the loader was replaced by "Freeload" written by in house programmer Paul Hughes. LICENSE GAMES Ocean were famous for often buying the rights to make video games from different movie and Television Franchises . Many license games combined several styles for example featuring platform action and car driving. Perhaps the most well received licence games by Ocean were Batman The Movie (1989) and Robocop 3 (1992) which featured 3d graphics in 16-bit versions. Also the adventure game, Hook (1992) got positive reviews. Among Ocean's license games are
WELL RECEIVED TITLES Though Ocean had a reputation of the company that publishes average license games, also many of their titles were well received among public and computer game magazines.
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