Rambo 1985 Batman 1986
A three time Golden Joystick award
winner for Software House of the
Year, Ocean’s first proper hit was the
definitely-not-Track And Field 1984
joystick-waggler Daley Thompson’s
Decathlon. Thus began a legacy of
licensed titles; Ocean soon secured
the rights to officially convert Konami’s
arcade games for home computers
(released on its Imagine imprint) along
with those of Data East and Taito.
Perhaps Ocean’s most famous trick
was securing movie licenses – the likes
of Rambo, RoboCop and, er, Hudson Hawk- and using them to make a bucketload
of money despite middling to poor
review scores. Bigger licenses like
Platoon got special treatment – Ocean
pioneered the multi-load approach,
essentially packaging several unique
gameplay styles onto a single tape,
making the most of the Spectrum’s
limited memory.
1986’s Batman is probably the
highlight of Ocean’s licensed catalogue,
exposing none of the Speccy’s
weaknesses with its beautiful isometric
puzzling. Denton Designs’ The Great
Escape (1986) – just one of the 130
games Ocean published from external
developers – is another classic,
introducing smooth scrolling and some
truly clever gameplay to the Spectrum.
But the shallow, unenjoyable primary
colour mess of Knight Rider, released in
1986, was Ocean’s low water mark.Classic Developer From bedroom to billions – the
company that began the licensed game craze
Founded 1984
Headquarters Manchester, England
Years active 1984-
Lead platform ZX Spectrum