Ocean Software was a British video game developer and publisher that became well known for their licensed games based on popular television and movie franchises.  The company became one of the largest and most prominent video game developer and publisher in Europe throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Founded in 1983 by David Ward and Jon Woods as “Spectrum Games”, the duo began creating and selling arcade clones for various home computers such as the ZX Spectrum and VIC 20.  The founders did not name the company specifically after the ZX Spectrum but due to the similarity in names caused consumer confusion.  Games developed for other home computer such as the VIC 20 were being mistaken to be only compatible with the ZX Spectrum.  To avoid further consumer confusion the company was renamed to Ocean Software before the end of 1983.

Throughout 1983 and into 1984 the company focused primarily on in-house software development.  By late 1984 the developer became successful enough to acquire a rival development studio, Imagine.  With the acquisition of Imagine the company’s focus began to shift from in-house development to game publication.  By the end of 1984, Ocean was able to successfully negotiate a deal with Konami to publish their arcade games for home computers.

In 1985, Ocean Software continued to expand their portfolio by securing their first movie and television licenses to create games based on popular films and TV shows such as Rambo, Short Circuit, Cobra, Miami Vice and RoboCop.  The deal that the they entered into with Konami in late 1984 proved to be successful and in early 1986 Ocean established additional deals to publish arcade games for home computers for Data East and Taito.