The 1992 Amstrad CPC version of Ocean‘s ubiquitous The Addams Family is probably the ugliest out of all the versions. The chunky pixels and small play window certainly don’t make for much to look at.
Category Archives: Ocean Software
Ocean Software was a Manchester-based video game development and publishing house that was founded in 1983 by David Ward and Jon Woods. It was known for its ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 games (although it did publish for a wide variety of formats), and its movie licenses. Ocean was wound-up in 1998, and later sold to Infogrames. Bandai Namco acquired the rights to the Ocean label in 2009.
The Addams Family, NES/Famicom
Developed and published by Ocean Software for the NES in 1992, The Addams Family is a cute and spooky platform game based on the 1991 Paramount film of the same name, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
The NES version follows much of the standard Ocean template for most of the game and it very much has its own look and visual style, and a few unique features of its own.
The Addams Family, Sega Master System
The Sega Master System version of The Addams Family is very good. It features an interesting player character in Gomez, in this one wearing a blue suit, who can jump and climb through a complex set of levels in order to rescue his other family members.
All the while holding his hand, distinctively, in his jacket pocket…
The Addams Family, Game Boy
Holy moley… I don’t know what happened with the Game Boy version of The Addams Family, but somebody, somewhere dropped the ball with it. The game was developed by Ocean Software (like most of The Addams Family games), and first released in 1991, but unlike most of the other versions of this game: it looks terrible and plays even worse…
The Addams Family, Commodore 64
The C64 version of Ocean Software‘s ubiquitous The Addams Family is another decent platform game on the system. It was designed and programmed by Ivan Horn and Andrew Deakin and first released in 1992.
Match Day, Commodore 64
Ocean Software‘s Match Day is up there with the very worst football games on the Commodore 64. It was first released in 1984, following the original Spectrum version.
Donkey Kong, ZX Spectrum
The officially-licensed ZX Spectrum version of Donkey Kong was developed by Sentient Software for Ocean Software and was initially released in 1986.
Kong, ZX Spectrum
Ocean‘s 1983 release of Kong was an unofficial clone of Donkey Kong, and not a very good one at that. Kong was another early ZX Spectrum game I bought and thought was crap, but was entertaining enough for a few hours at least.
The Addams Family, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Ocean Software‘s classic platformer, The Addams Family, was first released in 1992 and was for 128K Spectrums only. The game was programmed by Andrew Deakin, with graphics by Ivan Horn and sound by Jonathan Dunn.
Hudson Hawk, ZX Spectrum
Based on the 1991 action/comedy film by Michael Lehmann (Heathers and Meet The Applegates), and starring Bruce Willis, Hudson Hawk on the Spectrum is a rare beast indeed. It is a game that is better than the film it is based upon…
