What Happened To Ocean?

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:12 pm

I remember when i was young Ocean Software used to be a big player in the computer game world. Almost all the top games of the day seemed to be made by them. But now it seems like they dont exsist.

What happend to Ocean, did they go bankrupt or something? If i remember right the last time i saw one of their games was on the nintendo 64 and then they just seemed to vanish.

Daddy · Post by **Daddy** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:18 pm

Former software publishing and development house and label best known for its popular movie licensed games. The label died after it was purchased by Infogrames.

Sorry they died

Softography

100% Dynamite
2 Hot 2 Handle
Adidas Championship Football
Adidas Championship Tie-Break
Bart Simpson Vs The Space Mutants
Batman
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Batman: The Movie
Battle Command
Cabal
Chase HQ
Chase HQ II - Special Criminal Investigation
Cobra
Combat School
Cosmic Wartoad
Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge
Darkman
Darkman
Donkey Kong
Double Take
Dragon Ninja
Game Over
Game Set And Match II
GryZor
Head Over Heels
Hollywood Collection
Hudson Hawk
Hunchback - The Adventure
International Match Day
It's A Knockout
Knight Rider
Mad Balls
Mailstrom
Match Day II
Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Midnight Resistance
Mutants
NARC
Navy Seals
Nightbreed
Nightmare Rally
Ninja Collection
NOMAD
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Pang
Phantom Club
Platoon
Plotting
Power Up
Puzznic
Rainbow Islands
Rambo
Rambo III
Red Heat
Road Race
Robocop
Robocop II
Robocop III
Shadow Warriors
Short Circuit
Sly Spy Secret Agent
Smash TV
Space Gun
Special Action
Street Hawk
Super Fighter
Superbowl
Tai-Pan
Target Renegade
Terminator II
The Addams Family
The Biz
The Dream Team
The Great Escape
The In Crowd
The Never-Ending Story
The New Zealand Story
The Rainbow Collection
The Simpsons - Bart Vs The Space Mutants
The Untouchables
Toki
Top Gun
Total Recall
Transformers
V
Vindicator - Green Beret II
WEC Le Mans
Wheels Of Fire
Where Time Stood Still
Wizball
WWF Wrestlemania

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:23 pm

I had a feeling they had been bought out by another company but wasnt sure...vaguely remember a bigger company trying to buy out infograms as well but not sure wether that ever happened.

Methanoid · Post by **Methanoid** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:27 am

Yeah they died of embarrassment after the "Robocop 3 is uncrackable with its dongle" humiliation

Gryzor · Post by **Gryzor** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:13 am

Oh? They released it with a dongle, really? I remember playing the cracked version myself...

Cheers
Gryzor

Methanoid · Post by **Methanoid** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:42 am

Well, they did on Amiga... dunno about ST but I remember the interminable wait whilst the Amiga version was cracked. Instead of the usual "under an hour" crack it took maybe as much as 24 hours.

I bet Ocean were so pissed at the money they wasted on that dongle. They should have known that "uncrackable" was the perfect challenge for the crackers!!

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 12:55 pm

Robocop 3 had to be the worst game i had ever seen on the atari st and i dont think it did to well on the amiga neither.

Post by **ST Graveyard** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 1:08 pm

I thought it was an amazing game. Great atmosphere... I loved it

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 1:13 pm

To me it just didnt feel right though i guess thats probably down to the kind of games i played...I always preffered platform games and puzzle games like Monkey Island.

Cyrano Jones · Post by **Cyrano Jones** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 1:14 pm

Yes indeed - one of Oceans very rare GOOD games. I even finished it without cheating

Unlike Robocop II - which you CAN'T finish as the last level is missing on the original.. and therefor also missing on the BBC version (at least it was on mine hehehe)

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 1:16 pm

I'm not sure about this, but did ocean ever release robocop 3 on the super nintendo ?

uknemesis · Post by **uknemesis** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 2:58 pm

TetsueoTux wrote:Robocop 3 had to be the worst game i had ever seen on the atari st and i dont think it did to well on the amiga neither.

I thought it was an excellent game with great gfx and gameplay, the 3d engine used in RC3 and Epic was imo the most detailed done on the Atari ST (not counting the ones used in demos ofcourse!).

So Robocop 3 is the worst game you ever saw on the atari st, I guess you never played Gauntlet 3 then?

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:24 pm

Did Ocean ever do a port of Hook for the atari st ?

Daddy · Post by **Daddy** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:00 pm

I think I wrote all their release in my previous post ... so I would say no ... but I am not 100% sure.

Stefan jL · Post by **Stefan jL** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:28 pm

Why not search for it on Atari Legend

http://www.atarilegend.com/games/games_ ... me_id=1922

Daddy · Post by **Daddy** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:18 pm

oh well ...

So ... now I am sure I have not the complete softography

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:31 pm

Lol you probably have, i was just asking cause i've seen it for the amiga but not the ST...Ah Well no matter

Stefan jL · Post by **Stefan jL** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:55 am

For some reason has Ocean a bad repurtation but i think they did more good games than bad games.

and Robocop 3 is one of the best ones

Post by **Mug UK** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:06 am

They made too many games that looked and played the same .. far too many film licences ended up being poor platformers/shooters hybrids.

TetsueoTux · Post by **TetsueoTux** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:27 am

I take back what i said about robocop 3 for the ST

I had a little go at it the other night and it is quite a good game. I guess its just cause i aways preffered platform type games that i couldnt get it into it.

Oh well live and learn Eh

PS: Did Oceans's Elf ever appear on any menu disk ?

Post by **Mug UK** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:20 pm

If it was a 3D game by Ocean then it was just a title written by talented coders elsewhere and then sold by Ocean.

What I mean is the crappy platformers they churned out formulaic-wise on every machine (not just the ST).

You could tell a good Ocean game as it was not written in-house!

e.g.
Mutants, Nomad (Denton Designs)
Parallax, Wizball (Sensible Software)

I'm sure Grazey can give a lot more examples when he reads this thread... I still play Wizball (C64 version) today but via emulator on Xbox

Macca · Post by **Macca** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:23 pm

Wizball rocked and was indeed made by other people as for the list you mentioned..

Also with Ocean aquiring so many film licences they ended up iirc loosing a lot of money over it...

The only great thing about Ocean was the quality music..

Stefan jL · Post by **Stefan jL** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:32 pm

Does Ocean france count as "in-house"

They often did good games and well programmed conversions.

Macca · Post by **Macca** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:47 pm

Ooh one more post then I hit 50 - what interesting information can I add to this topic...

Not all there games were crap - Platoon was mildly fun for a film tie in - as was Robocop 1, Batman provided some distraction but the rest.. well.. I could probably count on one hand the quality games they have made...

Macca.

Post by **Mug UK** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 1:35 pm

Ocean France = Toki .. again, excellent game but definitely not converted in-house and it showed.