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.

Choplifter III, Super Nintendo

The 1994 Super Nintendo version of Choplifter III is an updated/enhanced version of the classic 8-bit scrolling shooter, Choplifter, in which you fly a helicopter over enemy territory, rescuing hostages. The game was developed by Beam Software and was published by Extreme Entertainment in North America, Ocean Software in Europe, and Victor Entertainment (JVC) in Japan.

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Choplifter III, Game Boy

Choplifter III on the Game Boy was developed by Teeny Weeny Games and published in the UK only by Ocean Software in 1994. It is essentially a straight port of the Game Gear version – except without the colour.

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The Addams Family, Atari ST

Based in the 1991 film from Paramount Pictures, The Addams Family is a cute and colourful platform game, developed and published by Ocean Software. The Atari ST version, featured here, was first released in 1992.

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Chase HQ, ZX Spectrum

There’s no doubting that Ocean Software‘s 1989 Spectrum conversion of Taito‘s classic Chase HQ is impressive. Programmed by John O’Brien, with graphics by Bill Harbison, and sound by Jonathan Dunn, this 8-bit chase game really pushes the Spectrum to its limits, and puts pretty much every other third-person driving game on the Speccy to shame, with its amazing road movement and exciting gameplay.

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Double Take, Commodore 64

Created by Denton Designs and published by Ocean Software in 1987, Double Take is a weird fantasy shooter/puzzle game, and is one of those games where – even if you read the manual – you’re still unlikely to know about what the f**k is going on! I spent a few hours recently trying to work this game out, and came away just as confused as when I started…

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RoboCop, Amiga

Ocean Software‘s Amiga port of RoboCop was fairly impressive when it first came out in 1989, but – playing it now – it hasn’t stood the test of time particularly well. It’s a scrolling run-and-gun shooter that is loosely-based on the Data East arcade game of the same name (although the arcade game and the home computer versions were developed in parallel).

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RoboCop 3, ZX Spectrum

The third RoboCop game for the Spectrum was developed by Probe Software and published by Ocean in 1992. It is based on the film of the same name, and is unfortunately not in the same league as RoboCops one and two… Just like the film itself.

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RoboCop 2, ZX Spectrum

Based on Irvin Kirshner‘s underrated 1990 sequel to RoboCop, in RoboCop 2 you once again take the role of the cyborg cop of the future in order to uphold the law and protect the innocent. RoboCop 2 was developed and published by Ocean Software and released soon after the film came out.

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Rainbow Islands, NES/Famicom

The NES version of Rainbow Islands was developed and published by Taito (it was published by Ocean Software in Europe) in 1992. It is a decent enough port of the classic arcade game but does have some deficiencies compared to the original.

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Combat School, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum conversion of Konami‘s arcade game, Combat School, was developed and published by Ocean Software in 1987.

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