Ocean Software Ltd (also known in the United States as Ocean of America, Inc.), commonly referred to as Ocean, was a British software development company, that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchester. Ocean developed dozens of games for a variety of systems such as the ZX Spectrum, Oric 1, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16, Atari ST, Amiga, PC, and video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Master System and Mega Drive.

The company started out as Spectrum Software in 1983 selling arcade clones for various home computers including the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and VIC 20. Although not named after the ZX Spectrum, the name became confusing and had to be changed so the company became Ocean Software. Some of their Spectrum Software games were re-released on Ocean with different titles so the Berzerk clone Frenzy was reissued as the Ocean game Robotics and Missile Attack became Armageddon. Their early releases (Moon Alert, Hunchback, High Noon, Gilligan's Gold, Daley Thompson's Decathlon etc.) were developed in-house, but later in 1984 Ocean Software acquired its former Liverpool rival, the defunct software developer Imagine, and focus shifted from development to publication of games. Also in 1984, Ocean struck a deal with Konami to publish their arcade gamesfor home computers.

In 1985, Ocean Software managed to secure the first movie licences, such as Rambo, Short Circuit and Cobra, as well as the TV show Miami Viceand RoboCop which spent about a year on the top of the charts. In 1986, a deal was signed with Taito and Data East for home versions of their arcade games such as Arkanoid, Renegade, Operation Wolf and The NewZealand Story. Also in 1986, Ocean Software created with Marc DJAN Ocean Software France. This 16-bit studio would create most of the 16-bit arcade conversions between 1986 and 1991 then became the French marketing and sales subsidiary of Ocean Software Ltd. In 1987, Ocean Software published original games again, after a marginal season filled with licences, resulting in Head over Heels, Match Day II and Wizball. Ocean was voted Best 8-bit Software House of the Year 1988 at the Golden Joystick Awards. In 1996, Ocean Software announced to merge with French publisher Infogrames for £100 Million. After the merger Infogrames kept Ocean as a separate division publishing their own games. Ocean later acquired Digital Image Design in 1998 and in the same year, Infogrames renamed Ocean Software to Infogrames United Kingdom Limited and Ocean's last titles would end up being published by Infogrames' European subsidiary; Infogrames Multimedia SA.

Known for:

• The Addams Family, The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt, Addams Family Values, Batman, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Batman: The Movie, Cobra, Cool World (1992 video game), Darkman, Dennis The Menace, Eek the Cat, The Flintstones, Highlander, Hook, Hudson Hawk, Jurassic Park, Knight Rider, Lethal Weapon, Manchester United Championship Soccer, Miami Vice, Navy Seals, Platoon, Rambo, Rambo 3, RoboCop, RoboCop 2, RoboCop 3, Short Circuit, Street Hawk, Total Recall, The Transformers, The Untouchables, Waterworld, WWF WrestleMania, WWF European Rampage Tour, Burnin' Rubber (1990), Cabal (1989), Chase HQ (1988), Chase HQ II (1989), Gryzor (1987), Hunchback (1984), Midnight Resistance (1990), Operation Wolf (1989), Operation Thunderbolt (1990), Pang (1990), Rainbow Islands (1990), Shadow Warriors (1990), Salamander (1988), Space Gun (1992), The NewZealand Story (1989), Toki (1991), Animal (1996), Armageddon (1983), Battle Command (1990), Beach Volley (1989), Cheesy (1996), Choplifter III (1994), Combat School (1987), Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984), Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge (1988), Daley Thompson's Star Events (1985), Daley Thompson's Supertest, Digger Dan (1983), Doom (SNES PAL) (1996), Eco (1987), EF2000 (1997), Elf (1991), Epic (1992), F29 Retaliator (1990), Fighters Destiny (Nintendo 64) (1998), Fighters Destiny 2 (Nintendo 64) (1999), Head Over Heels (1987), Helikopter Jagd (1986), Hunchback II, Ivanhoe (1990), Inferno (1994), Jelly Boy, Jersey Devil (1997), Kid Chaos, also known as Kid Vicious (1994), Kong (1983), Kong Strikes Back! (1984), Last Rites (1997), Lost Patrol (1990), Match Day (1985), Match Day II (1987), Mr. Nutz (1993), Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad (1994), Mr Wimpy (1984), MRC: Multi-Racing Championship (Nintendo 64) (1997), Nightmare Rally (1986), Parallax (1986), Parasol Stars (1992), Pushover (1992), Sleepwalker (1993), Super Turrican 2 (1995), TFX (1993), The Great Escape (1986), Tunnel B1 (1996) (Published by Acclaim Entertainment in North America), Weaponlord (SNES PAL) (1995), Wetrix (Nintendo 64), (1998)Where Time Stood Still (1987), Wizball (1987), Wizkid (1992), Worms (1994), Zero Divide (1996)

Formed in 1994 by special effects and computer animation veterans Sherry McKenna and Lorne Lanning, Oddworld Inhabitants is dedicated to creating the next generation of interactive entertainment. Their unique facility in San Luis Obispo, California, has attracted top video game and animation talent from all over the world. Beginning with its debut products, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Oddworld mixed a potent brew of Hollywood artistry with rock solid gameplay to produce experiences rich in emotionality, empathy and entertainment value. Combined sales of the company's first products are in excess of three million units and climbing. Both games have been a hit with established gamers and non-gamers alike: 18% of Europeans who purchased Abe's Exoddus were women. Through Abe's Oddysee, Abe's Exoddus and the games yet to follow, Oddworld is introducing a collection of characters set in a common universe, sharing the highest standards of creativity, quality and unforgettable personality. More than actors in a play, the inhabitants of Oddworld are A.L.I.V.E.: Aware Lifeforms In Virtual Entertainment with their own physical needs, emotional quirks and unforgettable personalities. Our mission is simple: for Oddworld's Inhabitants to live in every home.

Known for: Click this link to be taken to thier games page

We were (back in 1998) a group of both students and professionals that came together through Quake at the University of Kansas, the stomping grounds of Quake legends such as Impulse9, KillCreek, and Entropy. There is a proud quake heritage here at KU and we hope to did ;) continue in that tradition with the introduction of our Quake2 mod group, Orange Smoothie Productions back in February of 1998. Orange Smoothie Productions has since then evolved into a PC Game Mod group with plans in the works to develop mods for Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, and Tribes. Doh! 2 out of 3 wans't bad :) To add an update and a bit detail to our history (as of 2007)...

Around 2000 some of the original OSP group formed a company along with some others called NetGames USA.  We created competitive gaming tournament management software called the ngTCS (Tournament Control System) and another product/service called ngStats/ngWorldStats that tracked game play statistics for players in single player and multiplayer online game play. Versions of these services and software were developed to support Quake 2/3A from id Software and Unreal Tournament from Epic Games.  We ran tournaments with the ngTCS for a couple of years in and around 1999-2001 for the Cyberathlete Professional League and also the tournaments for id Software's QuakeCon around the same time frame. Around that same time Epic Games released Unreal Tournament with our ngStats and ngWorldStats software built into the retail game.

Our OSP Tourney DM mod was the standard mod for all of these Q2/Q3A competitive events at the time. Needless to say it cooperated very well with the NetGames ngTCS Software and it made running a competitive tournament, even with over 500 players, a fun event for all of us rather than a tactical disaster.  This all cumulated in mid 2001 with Microsoft acquiring NetGames USA.  We kept running QuakeCon tournaments for several more years up to 2003 in an unofficial capacity before finally leaving that OSP/ngUSA era behind. At least a couple of the original OSP/NetGames guys are still at Microsoft as of 2007.  The rest of us have moved on to non game related professional careers. Thanks for checking OSP out and have fun. The Orange Smoothie Productions team

Known For: some mods.

Origin Systems, Inc. (sometimes abbreviated as OSI) was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas, which was active from 1983 to 2004. It is most famous for the Ultima and Wing Commander series. Brothers Richard Garriott and Robert Garriott, their father Owen, and Chuck Bueche founded Origin Systems in 1983 because of the trouble they had collecting money owed to Richard Garriott for his games released by other companies. The company's first game was Ultima III: Exodus; because of Ultima's established reputation, Origin survived the video game crash that occurred that year. It published many non-Ultima games, and Richard Garriott claimed that he received the same royalty rate as other developers. By 1988 Origin had 15 developers in Austin, Texas, and 35 other employees in New Hampshire. In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired the company for $35 million in stock, despite a dispute between the two companies over EA's 1987 game Deathlord. Origin, with about $13 million in annual revenue, stated that it had considered an Initial Public Offering before agreeing to the deal.[5] By 1996, Origin had expanded to more than 300 employees, most of whom were divided among small, largely autonomous development teams.[6] In 1997, Origin released one of the earliest graphical MMORPGs, Ultima Online. After this title, Electronic Arts decided that Origin would become an online-only company after the completion of Ultima IX in 1999. However, within a year's time, in part due to Ultima IX's poor reception,EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Ultima Online 2, Privateer Online, and Harry PotterOnline. Richard Garriott left Origin shortly after and founded Destination Games in 2000. In later years, Origin mainly existed to support and expand Ultima Online and to develop further online games based on the Ultima franchise such as Ultima X: Odyssey, originally to be released in 2004 but later canceled. In February 2004, the studio was disbanded by Electronic Arts. The Longbowseries of simulation games was developed at Origin and published under the "Jane's Combat Simulations" brand of Electronic Arts. A follow-on project, Jane's A-10, was under development when the project was canceled in late 1998 and the team moved to other projects.

Known for: Ultima (series):Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (1981), Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress (1982), Ultima III: Exodus (1983), Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985), Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988), Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990), Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire (1990), Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams (1991), Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992) , Forge of Virtue (1992), Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993) , The Silver Seed (1993), Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994), Ultima Online (1997), Ultima IX: Ascension (1999), Wing Commander (series):, Wing Commander I (1990) , The Secret Missions (1990), The Secret Missions 2: Crusade (1991), Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991) , Speech Accessory Pack (1991), Special Operations 1 (1991), Special Operations 2 (1992), Wing Commander: Privateer (1993), Righteous Fire (1994), Wing Commander Academy (1993), Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994), Wing Commander: Armada (1994), Proving Grounds (1994), Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1996), Privateer 2: The Darkening (1996), Wing Commander: Prophecy (1997), Secret Ops (1998), Spin-offs: Strike Commander (1993), Strike Commander Speech Accessory Pack(1993), Pacific Strike (1994), Wings of Glory (1994), Games with single sequel:Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony (1985), Ring Quest (1986; sequel to The Quest), Windwalker (1989; sequel to Moebius), Crusader: No Remorse (1995), Crusader: No Regret (1996), Jane's AH-64D Longbow (1996), Jane's Longbow 2 (1997), Games without sequel:, Caverns of Callisto (1983), Autoduel (1985), Ogre (1986), 2400 A.D. (1987), Omega (1989), Tangled Tales: The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice (1989), Space Rogue (1989), Bad Blood (1990), CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (1995), BioForge (1995), Transland (1996), Published Times of Lore (1988), Knights of Legend (1989), Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992), Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993), Shadowcaster (1993), System Shock (1994), Abuse (1996)

Outrage Games was a video game developer founded in late 1996 as Outrage Entertainment when Parallax Software decided to split into two studios (the other being Volition). Their headquarters were located in Ann Arbor, Michigan and had a staff mostly composed of people who worked for Parallax Software. The company is most well known for developing Descent 3, the Microsoft Windows and Xboxports of Red Faction II, and Alter Echo. Alter Echo—the studio's only released original title— was met with mixed reviews. On April 4, 2002, Outrage was acquired by THQ and renamed Outrage Games. The company was officially closed during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004 due to changes in THQ's internal production development. Some of the staff members have since relocated to Volition.

Known for: Descent 3 — Mac OS, Windows (1999), Descent 3: Mercenary — Windows (1999), Red Faction II — Windows, Xbox (2003), Alter Echo — PlayStation 2, Xbox (2003)