Repeatedly
named the Software House of the Year, Ocean Software was one of the largest and
most respected producers in the gaming world, a company that adapted and converted,
in a masterful manner, the most successful Hollywood flics and arcade titles
for the various platforms, ranging from the ZX Spectrum to Commodore Amiga and
also for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Mega Drive (aka as
Genesis is the US).
We were,
for fourteen years, bombarded with adds of their latest releases in all gaming magazines.
Ocean’s logo stamped on the cover was all that it took for the game to sell millions
of copies. This shows the strength and the quality of the brand.
It all
started in the early '80s when its founder David Ward, after a visit to the
United States, realized that videogames would be a good business to invest in, as
shown by the emerging potential of the industry in that country. Thus, in 1982,
he founded the company Ocean Software and slowly started hiring programmers for
its headquarters at Manchester. At the end of the first year, Ocean had already
achieved profits of 500 thousand pounds and more than 200 thousand games sold.
Then, David Ward became president of the company and his partner, Jon Woods,
commercial director. By that time, Ocean had already 60 developers from across
England with an average age of around 19 years.
In addition
to its talents within the company, Ocean was also proud of its external
sources, including Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond, Denton Designs, Sensible
Software and Digital Image Design.
David Ward said
"The key to sell a lot of games is to
make them identifiable to the public" and, thus, Ocean assured licenses
for major film successes, television series and arcade games despite their
first titles were total flops: Knight Rider, Street Hawk and Transformers were
examples of bad conversions.
However, in
1987, profits of Ocean already ascended to £ 10 million with over three million
games sold. By this time, Ocean acquires the "defunct" rival Imagine
Software, the company responsible for two classic hits like Renegade and Yie Ar
Kung Fu, cementing its international reputation through the Ocean brand with
excellent conversions for Konami 8bit arcade machines.
Ocean grew
exponentially and its influence reached its peak. The developers were able to
create fantastic games and started having fun while doing them.
By this time,
Ocean decides to reward their employees putting their names in the credits of
each game. Programmers, artists and musicians were now more motivated than ever
and thus wanted the title to be the best possible, cause their name was now
exposed to the world.
Obtaining
licenses to create games from movies was, at that time, very easy and cheap.
Movie studios did not have the perception of the potential that videogame
industry had started to have. There were attempts, by Atari, to recreate the
movie ET: The Extra Terrestrial. Spent £22 million and the results were much
lower than expected. Ocean was determined to do it as it really should be done
and Gary Bracey was responsible for acquiring the rights.
One of the
best licenses was Robocop. This low-budget movie had a huge acceptance from the
public and the game sold millions of copies in different platforms. It was
probably one of Ocean’s most profitable games and its license was insignificant
in monetary terms.
Between all
this success and popularity, there was also room for failure. One of the worst acquired
licenses was Hudson Hawk. The film, written and performed by Bruce Willis, was genuine
garbage and the game does not go beyond that.
Anyway, more
than 100 games have comfortably placed Ocean on top of the charts through the
years.
However, tension
began to rise. There was the need to release the game simultaneously with the
premiere of the movie and, sometimes, that forced programmers to work 24
consecutive hours in order to obtain the final product on time to be sent to
the duplicating machines.
The arcade
licenses were also very important to Ocean. Between 1983 and 1992 half of the
games published by the company were based on movies or on arcade games.
Simon
Butler worked on many film and arcade successes, such as Total Recall, Platoon,
Darkman, The Adams Family and Combat School, and recalls that the conversion to
8-bit machines – Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad – were always the most
challenging and complicated to perform. One of the most successful conversions
of arcades was Chase HQ. Bill Harbison, who joined the team in 1988, confessed
that, to do an arcade game conversion, he needed to have the machine itself in
the office and, while playing, he would draw sketches of the scenarios as reference.
There has
always been competition and Ocean wanted to be the best. Its biggest opponent
was initially U.S. Gold. Later, when the first consoles started to emerge, the
extinct Acclaim also became Ocean’s largest rival. Even internally, healthy
competition also existed. The various teams were always wanting to better
themselves and exceed expectations.
The
evolution and changing time eventually came with the 16-bit machines. Programming
for these new machines now takes twice as long and Ocean was not afraid of the
challenge. They were excited!
The early
90s were, for Ocean, times for reflection. Remained the question of how the
industry would develop. Then, in 1994, a new company within Ocean, Tribe, was
formed to meet future challenges that had to be overcome: the giant leap from 8-16bit
for the 32-64bit.
Were then
created separate teams, each comprising a team leader, programmer and main
designer. Games began to be planned six months before any programming was
initiated and, in 1996, Tribe was already composed by 80 members.
That same
year, the company ended up bought by French Infogrames. The headquarters
remained in Manchester until Infogrames also purchase Gremlin Graphics in 1999,
which led them to change the entire base of operations to Sheffield. Shortly
after, Ocean brand was extinguished. GT 64 Championship Edition, for Nintendo
64, was Ocean’s last game.
Who is
between 30 and 40 years old, recall with some sadness and nostalgia the
disappearance of Ocean. They left a remarkable legacy that, even today, still
manages to impress.
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