Ocean Software
6 Central Street
Manchester, Greater Manchester M2 5NS
England

Year Founded: 1983
Year Defunct: 1998


Ocean Software (or Ocean Software Ltd. and sometimes Ocean of America, Inc. but generally only referred to as Ocean) was one of the biggest European video game developers of the 1980s and 90s.
The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and were based in Manchester.
Ocean software was previously known as Spectrum Games but changed name because they published games for several platforms (Vic20 and eventually C64). The origin of the company name is somewhat unknown, but supposedly someone spotted a van with the name "Ocean something" on it.

Ocean developed 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 Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System and Sega Mega Drive.

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 Software 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 Software managed to secure the first movie licences, such as Rambo, Short Circuit and Cobra, as well as the TV show Miami Vice. * In 1986, a deal was signed with Taito for home versions of their arcade games such as Arkanoid and Renegade * In 1987, Ocean Software published original games again, after a marginal season filled with licences, resulting in Head over Heels, Match Day II and Wizball, 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.