Having first encountered videogames while running a nightclub in the US, Ocean cofounder David Ward returned to the UK in 1981, immediately noticing the green shoots of the industry across the country. But the lack of a real bricks-and-mortar retail market discouraged David and his friend, Jon Woods, from venturing into the business of computer games. Then came the startling rise of Imagine Software and all the talk of flash cars and mega games that accompanied it. The pair took a punt and advertised four (then non-existent) games within the pages of Your Computer magazine. Inundated with postal orders, they suddenly realised that they needed games – and fast.
Under the banner of Spectrum Games, David and Jon focussed on creating homages (or clones) of arcade favourites such as Frogger and Missile Command, but as they were also selling games for other computers such as the VIC-20, the name was problematic. In the 2013 book Ocean: The History, Paul Finnegan, who had joined from Imagine, cites a van passing their office window emblazoned with ‘Ocean Transport’ as the source of the name. Whatever its origin, Ocean Software, or just Ocean, was up and running, advertising for games and programmers and publishing its first products under a bright new logo.
For a short while, the arcade clones ( and ) and original games ( and ) continued, but it wasn’t long before Ocean was dipping its toes into the world of licensing, and one game proved to be the stellar success that would put the company on the path to success. Released in 1984, was a massive hit, destroying a million joysticks and keyboards in the process. Further licences followed, yet when Gary Bracey joined in 1986 as software manager, Ocean was floundering. A string of under-par games was beginning to harm the reputation David and Jon had steadily built up. Under the guidance of Gary, Ocean began to rely less on third-party developers, instead forming an in-house team of artists, programmers and musicians in the basement of its offices in Central Street, Manchester.
