Denton Designs made this smart little POW game for Ocean Software in 1986. It basically re-enacts the risky life of being a Prisoner of War during the Second World War, with a planned escape being top of the list of things to do, and is loosely-based on the 1963 film starring Steve McQueen.
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, Super Nintendo
Back in the early 1990s Ocean Software had a reputation for producing mostly movie-licensed action games, and The Addams Family on the Super Nintendo is arguably the pinnacle of that niche.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Commodore 64
Back in 1985 gamers were astounded to see the release of an officially-licensed game, based on the pop band Frankie Goes To Hollywood. “Whatever will they think of next?” went the chattering classes. Well, just like the records that were burning up the charts, the Frankie Goes To Hollywood video game license turned out to be ‘gold dust’ to publisher Ocean Software, and the game itself is remembered as being a pretty good one (which is rare for licensed product).
Firefly, ZX Spectrum
Of all his Spectrum games, Firefly was the one that programmer Jonathan Smith said really “came together” during development.
Firefly is an eight-way scrolling shooter with light puzzle elements that was first released by Ocean Software in 1988.
Batman: The Caped Crusader, ZX Spectrum
First released in 1988, Ocean Software‘s Batman: The Caped Crusader is not to be confused with Ocean‘s other Batman game, programmed by Jon Ritman. No, this one is the 2D, comic panel animated adventure programmed by Jonathan Smith.
Cobra, ZX Spectrum
Loosely-based on the Sylvester Stallone film of the same name, Cobra is a legendary run-and-gun platform game programmed by the late Jonathan Smith for Ocean Software and first released in 1986.
Street Hawk: Subscriber Edition, ZX Spectrum
We may never know the full version of events surrounding this notorious Ocean Software game, but legendary Spectrum programmer Jonathan Smith was almost certainly involved. It does bear a few of his hallmarks, but is a ridiculously simple and quite boring shoot ’em up.
Continue reading Street Hawk: Subscriber Edition, ZX Spectrum
Daley Thompson’s Supertest, ZX Spectrum
Jonathan Smith followed-up his superb multi-event sport game Hyper Sports with this – another multi-event sports game! Except this time: an officially-licensed Daley Thompson sports game.
Pud Pud, ZX Spectrum
Or, to give the game its full title: Pud Pud in Weird World. This strange 1984 Spectrum release was the first commercial game programmed and designed by Jonathan Smith.
Smash TV, Atari ST
On the face of it the Atari ST conversion of Williams Electronics‘ classic Smash TV looks pretty good, but scratch below the surface and you might realise that it has one or two major deficiencies.
The King of Grabs 