I was born in 1972 and I had a ZX Spectrum. The first game I ever played was Horice goes Skiing. I've still got my Spectrum upstairs and I think I may have a couple of Ocean Software games for it. I can remember sitting there for hours trying to load the games up and seeing that message rewind tape loading error. Great days
@@jackburton8352 I never said they were any good, just that they were iconic. 🙂 (F29 Retaliator was fairly decent on the Amiga, but they only published that, and DiD developed it.) After watching the video, it looks like they were making it up as they went along, although the public perception at the time was that Ocean were one of the big boys. In the late 80's one of my mates had an interview ot Psygnosis in Liverpool, and was very impressed by their set up.
@@jackburton8352 He never got the job there... they showed interest in some of his A500 game demos and animations, but wanted them to be nearly complete games before they'd consider them. (this was when he was 17 and still in 6th Form.) When he finished Uni, he went to work for Denton Designs in Liverpool, and has a few game credits - "Power Drive" on the Amiga was one. Unfortunately, he suffered from mental health issues a few years into the job and quit the industry (Richard Beavan is his name.)
Hi, great to see interest in the first 80's games boom is still alive😀 Back in the day, I was a Z80 programmer and graphic/sound designer for Choice Software making games for the Amstrad CPC range of home micros. At Choice, we were sub-contracted to write and convert games for Ocean, AMSoft and US Gold amongst others and looking back, we really had to be incredibly creative as the hardware was so limited and slow. Every single clock cycle was precious, so much so that for example we would repurpose the stack pointer to "push" graphics in reverse directly to screen memory as this ever so slightly faster than using the 16bit register pairs! For one of our games, "Daley Thompson's Supertest" we used a very primitive form of motion capture to design the player animation for the penalty kick event where we analysed individual frames of a fixed scene video of the run-up and kick. For another game "Rambo - First Blood Part 2", in a time before DAW's were a thing, the theme tunes actually played live and the note pitches and durations were recorded and stored in a list which could be played back by the micro in real time... Hard to believe it was 40 years ago lol 🍻
Hi! Thanks for sharing, love facts like this😍. How was the balance between making games specifically for the CPC vs ripping what you could from the Spectrum port?
I had an Amstrad CPC back in the day and in all fairness, some of the games were embarrassingly bad. I can remember saving up for ages to buy Space Harrier on disk (£15) and it was absolutely rubbish. The Speccy/C64 versions were way better.
Just have to say I have been watching your vids for a while now and this stands above everything you have done so far looking forward to the second part. We'll done sir very very impressive 👏
Remember Ocean so well. I was also born in 74. Me and my mates got into games a little later when the Amiga and ST became a thing. We’d spend hours reading the magazines me and my best mate at the time who’s no longer with us. Happy times.
As a child of the home computer generation this is a great video which brings back a lot of memories. Fascinating to get some insight in to what was going on behind the scenes. Thanks for making it.
i ABSOLUTELY LOVE your content, Seb. I like your vids in general, but when you do stuff like this, it's a level above. As a C64 owner that never really played with Speccy's as a kid, I still watch all of your stuff, as it is some of the best produced work in the retro scene. Excellent stuff.
I had the great privilege of working with Mark in retail back in Northampton in the early 90's and he used to talk a lot of his days and the work he did with Ocean. Wizball was one of my favourite games of all time and still play it now. And I'm glad to say I'm still friends with Mark now, and again we have the same career. Great video, and I hope there is more to the story and so this generation can appreciate how far gaming has come. Well done 🎉
My late brother introduced me to C64 and we used to laugh at Spectrum graphics then. But after watching this video. I am going to buy myself a Speccy. Thank you!
Hello there. I was at Ocean between August 1987 to September 1988, working on the C64 with Colin Porch. I was only 16 at the time lol. I helped with Gryzor and Operation Wolf. Great memories!
@@mlucifersam Sorry no. David Blake - my name is actually on the Gryzor opening screen next to Colin Porch's. Before working at Ocean I was actually at Software Projects for a couple of weeks in Liverpool with Matthew Smith (Manic Miner, JetSet Willy)
Great watch. Some fun connections for me. Paul stood behind "Joffa". Paul was my boss at Rage. The first company I worked at when I was 16 was then Elite. Finally I'm sure I had an interview with Gary Bracey at some point! I also worked with Dave Collier during his time at Software Creations, when he'd moved away from game coding and more in to running the network and internal systems.
Brings back great memories. At age 14/15 I often had my artwork published in zzap64! Ended up freelancing for some of the games companies and converting graphics from arcade to computer. Often just sent vhs tapes of people playing the arcade version to convert - fun times
I was born 82 so a bit late to the game but i used my Dads Acorn Electron, Amiga 500 then x86 pc. Still really interesting to watch all the way through even having not played most of these games.
A year before this I worked at ocean on central st (I think?) for a few weeks, on a work experience in 85, I’ve done 35 years in the computer industry since. Thanks for the video.
@@SebsPlaceYT mostly in the banking industry but I have been in and out of the gaming industry and currently work in the gaming industry. It is a bit too up and down for me, too reliant on the "next release" and job security very poor in reality. If you wanna have some peace and not worry about your next pay check the gaming industry is not ideal.
Brilliant deep dive and a well-thought-out and executed documentary of a very fluid time in computing and from someone first-hand experiences. Loved the screenshots and before and after as well as the sprites and masks we really very cool to see. I never realised when I was buying Ocean games it was so seat of your pants, but well that's business I guess. Cheers Seb, really great video. Loved it.
Thank you! Mark had a brilliant knack of keeping everything, which makes such a huge difference when talking about this stuff. Just having the visual examples was amazing and made my job easier.
Very interesting. This video invoked a short lyrical digression...My mind always perceives UK of the 80s almost like a parallel universe, cos my country at that time was strikingly different...not bad though just different. As the glory days of the almighty speccy in USSR occured around the start of the 90s with all the huge library of games already available for our amusement, we evaluated most of the non-top games with neglect and cynism not having a single clue what a great winding way the zx game creators had to crawl to reach those heights that we took for granted🎉
Fond memories of Xmas 1984 and receiving a ZX Spectrum 48k+ bundled with Horace Goes Skiing, Space Raiders, Chequered Flag and even the speccys own word processor called Tasword Two and some weird 3D graphics software called VU-3D with a Kempston interface and joystick. I then spent my Xmas money on Impossible Mission and some US Gold hits pack which had Beachy Head on it. Happy days 😊
Amazing! Born in 74 also... All started with a friends ZX48k (hand me down from he's cousin) then I bought a C64, and the rest was Amiga (best computer and with the best OS ever made 🙂 I loved Sabre Wulf on the Speccy (and School Daze). Loved playing games on my C64 with a friend (2 years older) until he started programming instead... but then I got hooked on that also, loved it! Even though C64 was such a creative computer the Amiga was the ultimate creative beast of a computer... Want graphics, sure do what you want! Want music! sure do what you want! want to program, yes got that covered easily... want to be creative with programming a multitasking OS... Amiga! Sure AmigaOS was fast because not using a MMU and it was never designed to be multiuser but I could have happened with a bit of money in the 1990's I guess. It was not impossible... But for sure... I don't know the exact penalty in speed but maybe the 16 Mhz one would have not sold that much). Loved programming, graphics, music... and 1986 (i'sh) to 1996 (ish) was my creative wonderful years when anything is possible! (I guess I got internet about 1995 and not long after that I got sucked into that instead of doing my own things..)
@@SebsPlaceYT I'll watch it! The 16 Mhz one (was meant to be Amiga 3000 budget, 16 Mhz one:-) a couple of beers and I'm doing typos... ah well I'm 50..
I still know Mark R Jones now, more than then. He frequents the same Beatles and Pink Floyd bootlegs forums I do. So I PM'ed him, and asked him about Ocean, very nice bloke. Also, great vid, only just stumbled on your channel, I;ll check out the other vids later. Busy checking Geoff (RIP) and Tim Follins 3" Einstein disks today!
I have such nostalgic and fond memories of my XX Spectrum 48k. The whole process of loading and waiting for a game to load just led to the sense of anticipation. The next generation consoles may have the graphics but my heart belongs to games like Decathlon and Lunar Jetman.
A lot of it is nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses but I agree. I had a Spectrum +3 for Xmas 1988 and even though it had a floppy drive, games were much cheaper on tape. The number of hours spent trying to get games to load and failing was a pain but all part of the experience.
SUCH a good video - great story from the right era helped, so many memories - not just of the games but also the artwork and the sound tracks - loved it
Lads, I loved this video - brought back so much of that crazy time that was the birth of something truly amazing. You get a real feeling for how on-the-edge the whole thing was. A lot of us are the people we are today because of those experiences, those games, those hacks, understanding attributes of 8x8 pixel blocks, BRIGHT & FLASH included. Thanks!
Finally got around to finishing the video. I had left you previous coments on Discord but i thought I'd add that this on how i like a video structured, no comedy interludes just straight up nostalgia and facts which i love. More in the vein of a Bastich B documentary with fantastic editing. Definitely your best video to date, would love to see more of these 👍
What a great time that was. I had a ZX81 first then got a Spectrum and was blown away by Jet Pac which was the first game I bought. Loved Wizball and Arkanoid as well and that tune got stuck in my head at the time! Look forward to part 2 if there is one
This was such a great story, thanks for sharing it ! Its been fascinating to see what was happening behind the scenes when i was too young to appreciate it. What the games designers achieved with so little is still amazing 40 year later
Really fascinating, thanks Seb. I can't even comprehend doing something like that at 16 years old. I remember having a job interview about 200 miles away from my home when I was in my late 20s, and absolutely bricking it about moving away.
This was amazing, totally loved it. Need more content like this, and all the other stuff you do, twice a week, plus a three hour special on International Cricket 😆😁 Awesome work man 👍👍
This was an amazing game. My friend had it on an acorn electron. Used to play it after school. Very clever gameplay. He got the next few sequels too. Your cousin was a total genius.
Every one of your videos is so well put together with so much care and attention to detail, each is a real treat. You'll go far, Seb, on this platform. And you deserve to!
@@SebsPlaceYT Did you do any video editing/production before this channel or was this your "proving ground"? You have a real knack for it. Really impressive.
No just this.... I did get lucky with an early video about spellbound popping off which Rose Tinted Spectrum saw and invited me to a discord group of like minded youtubers. Super helpful getting advice or just seeing how others do things to learn from but it's still a massive learning journey which is tons of fun . Thanks again.
Thoroughly enjoyed that Seb, very well done, can't wait for the next part (and more vids in this style too!) This video brings back some great memories, Northampton was only 13 miles away from me, so I frequented the Northants Computer Centre a fair bit back in the day - plus A-Z Computers in Weston Favell. If memory serves, it lasted well into the 90's too. Had the pleasure of meeting Mark too, he came to our house to pick up a boxed 48k about 8-9 years ago, even signed a couple of his games. Really nice bloke.
@@mlucifersam I've not read it yet! lol, i'm gonna give it a crack over the weekend. It was that long ago though - we hadn't long moved in, our l'il un was only around 3-4 too. Hope you're keeping well, sir.
What a fascinating video. He was so young! Getting the behind the scenes details like this, as I was a kid buying speccy games at the same time is really interesting.
Born November 1974 got our/my speci in ‘83 ! We got Horis goes skiing & a monthly game mag mail order thing which was 2 games a month !! Ltd but we had all the favourites!! Bruce Lee was awesome!! Beach Head was my favourite ocean game
@@SebsPlaceYT Without wishing to get pretentious - the 80s game coders were like the 'punk rock' era of the games industry, people starting in their bedrooms and making careers for themselves with no experience but bags of untapped talent and enthusiasm. There are a lot of stories like Mark's from the 80s, truly a golden era. We'll not see the like again.
Really enjoyed this video and a lot of work clearly went into it. It's really interesting to hear what went on behind the scenes, as it was all a bit of a mystery back in the day 🙂👍🏻
At age 15 my dad escorted me from essex to my interview with Jim Hensons Creature shop in Camden. So i can completely relate to this story somewhat. (they offered me a job)
@@SebsPlaceYT it was in 1992, I had been writing to Jim Henson for 4 years, sending them photos of my work, then they would reply offering me technical advice or commenting on my work, then out of the blue, I received a letter that wasn't in response to anything offering me a tour of the workshop and an interview with their supervisor Neal Scanlan. My dad had no idea what was going on, my parents didn't know I was writing to all this film people, so dad took me to London, my school gave me the day off, long story short I had my tour and interview, showed them my work, they offered me a 2 week placement work experience, which I did while at school then when I turned insurable age, they offered me a job. First job was a Disney movie, same week was "English patient", it was a dream come true. (sorry, left a lot out of this story, I am conscious of this is not a forum for my life story!) great video sir, this era was a magical era for computing, today its more accessible and more tools and waaaay more educational materials to reduce the barrier of entry, yet the caveat is there is a much greater number of competition for jobs. Keep up the good work....SUBSCRIBED!
@SebsPlaceYT it was just bad timing. Left an apprenticeship and was getting ready for an interview there. Next thing it was all canned due to Ocean I believe from memory being absorbed by another software house. These things happen. I know I shouldn't dwell on what could have been.
So much effort in th8is video and as a '75 kid myself this brings back some serious nostalgia. The Artist 2, wow I spent so much time on that producing absolute bollocks. Though I did use it to create a character for a competition once... I did not win. Amazing how a kid of 16 could do so much in a short time, then again seemed par for the course for the speccy guys.
That Crash cover took me back - my dad bought that issue but we had a C64! Was good to see what "the enemy" had to offer lol. I worked with a couple of ex Ocean people when I was at Psygnosis - it's still a small industry!
This was, along with Iron Maiden, my youth. Outstanding nostalgia. Tir Na Nog, and Knight Lore were amazing. Now playing DCS world on a RTX 4090 for reference. 🤣
Awesome work, Seb. Absolutely love it. If you don't mind I suggest a video about Bob Pape and his struggles to code R-Type for Speccy 🙂. It's all described in his incredible book "It's Behind You - The Making Of A Computer Game".
Cool story.. back in the 80's i would push pixels on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 (just for fun). I made a Loading screen for an upcoming Ocean game and posted it to Ocean. I waited.. no reply. Then i decided to send some sprite animations to Elite. To my my surprise Elite wrote back with a nice encouraging letter, informing me i had talent, and should continue, as i was not quite up to commercial (Elite) standard at that moment in time. Receiving a letter featuring the Elite logo at the top made my day. Undeterred i contacted Ultimate (Play The Game) and got an interview - Yay! ON the day of the interview i jumped in my car and drove to Twycross, a tiny village located miles and miles from where i lived. I had never driven such a distance before. I was not so much offered a job as offered the chance to be taken on to see how well i would perform. I declined. I was simply not ready to leave home. So that was that.. I admire Mark R. Jones for doing what he managed to do.
I remember almost every game referenced. The editor of Crash had a very... interesting boyfriend. Drew a lot of scantily clad boys and his private work was even darker. Probably wouldn't get a job in a youth industry nowadays, but all the mags were using him at the time.
So, are we doing 1988 next? 🤗
😁😁Yes we are Mark!!! Did you go back to Ocean or did Elite come calling.........?
@@SebsPlaceYT who can say?! 😇
@@mlucifersam YAY, there's a part 2 coming !
@@frankowalker4662 ssssshhhhh! Dont tell everyone yet! 🤪
@@mlucifersam (oh yeah, sssshhhhhh. sorry, my bad. ha ha)
I know Mark, used to knock around with him and others in Northampton in the early/mid 90s. Good to see his story being put out there. Fantastic.
In the Camilla's days!!! Nice to hear from you Lee, hope you're doing okay!
@@mlucifersam Ha ha yep! And you too Mark, I am very good thank you, hope you are okay too.
@leemuttock9791 Fine and dandy thanks Lee!
I was born in 1972 and I had a ZX Spectrum. The first game I ever played was Horice goes Skiing. I've still got my Spectrum upstairs and I think I may have a couple of Ocean Software games for it. I can remember sitting there for hours trying to load the games up and seeing that message rewind tape loading error. Great days
The game actually loading without crashing was often a bigger buzz than the game itself.
I love this type of content, from people who were there at the time... and Ocean was iconic in the 80s
Certainly was 🥰
Man Ocean made the odd good game but generally their offerings sucked especially on the Amiga.
@@jackburton8352 I never said they were any good, just that they were iconic. 🙂
(F29 Retaliator was fairly decent on the Amiga, but they only published that, and DiD developed it.)
After watching the video, it looks like they were making it up as they went along, although the public perception at the time was that Ocean were one of the big boys.
In the late 80's one of my mates had an interview ot Psygnosis in Liverpool, and was very impressed by their set up.
@@fredsmith1970 Psygnosis made some very impressive visual games was your mate responsible for the some of the gfx at the company?
@@jackburton8352 He never got the job there... they showed interest in some of his A500 game demos and animations, but wanted them to be nearly complete games before they'd consider them. (this was when he was 17 and still in 6th Form.)
When he finished Uni, he went to work for Denton Designs in Liverpool, and has a few game credits - "Power Drive" on the Amiga was one. Unfortunately, he suffered from mental health issues a few years into the job and quit the industry (Richard Beavan is his name.)
Hi, great to see interest in the first 80's games boom is still alive😀 Back in the day, I was a Z80 programmer and graphic/sound designer for Choice Software making games for the Amstrad CPC range of home micros. At Choice, we were sub-contracted to write and convert games for Ocean, AMSoft and US Gold amongst others and looking back, we really had to be incredibly creative as the hardware was so limited and slow. Every single clock cycle was precious, so much so that for example we would repurpose the stack pointer to "push" graphics in reverse directly to screen memory as this ever so slightly faster than using the 16bit register pairs! For one of our games, "Daley Thompson's Supertest" we used a very primitive form of motion capture to design the player animation for the penalty kick event where we analysed individual frames of a fixed scene video of the run-up and kick. For another game "Rambo - First Blood Part 2", in a time before DAW's were a thing, the theme tunes actually played live and the note pitches and durations were recorded and stored in a list which could be played back by the micro in real time... Hard to believe it was 40 years ago lol 🍻
Hi! Thanks for sharing, love facts like this😍. How was the balance between making games specifically for the CPC vs ripping what you could from the Spectrum port?
I had an Amstrad CPC back in the day and in all fairness, some of the games were embarrassingly bad. I can remember saving up for ages to buy Space Harrier on disk (£15) and it was absolutely rubbish. The Speccy/C64 versions were way better.
I remember when Mark first moved to Manchester and thinking how bold he was. I was so proud and excited for him.
Very bold! Not sure I would have at 16!
Phenomenal job Seb!
Thank you!
Just have to say I have been watching your vids for a while now and this stands above everything you have done so far looking forward to the second part. We'll done sir very very impressive 👏
Thank you, very kind. Enjoy part 2!
Remember Ocean so well. I was also born in 74. Me and my mates got into games a little later when the Amiga and ST became a thing. We’d spend hours reading the magazines me and my best mate at the time who’s no longer with us. Happy times.
🥰
As a child of the home computer generation this is a great video which brings back a lot of memories. Fascinating to get some insight in to what was going on behind the scenes. Thanks for making it.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
i ABSOLUTELY LOVE your content, Seb. I like your vids in general, but when you do stuff like this, it's a level above. As a C64 owner that never really played with Speccy's as a kid, I still watch all of your stuff, as it is some of the best produced work in the retro scene. Excellent stuff.
Thank you James, means a lot! Really appreciate the super thanks and the email. Very very kind 😊
@@jameswelch2850 same. This is next level great content. More please!
I had the great privilege of working with Mark in retail back in Northampton in the early 90's and he used to talk a lot of his days and the work he did with Ocean.
Wizball was one of my favourite games of all time and still play it now. And I'm glad to say I'm still friends with Mark now, and again we have the same career.
Great video, and I hope there is more to the story and so this generation can appreciate how far gaming has come.
Well done 🎉
Thank you for sharing 🥰
Excellent watch. Really enjoyed it.
New sub really enjoyed this video 😊
Yay! Thank you!
My late brother introduced me to C64 and we used to laugh at Spectrum graphics then. But after watching this video. I am going to buy myself a Speccy. Thank you!
Awesome!
love these game history docs, you have a good voice for it.
Thank you 😊
@@SebsPlaceYT Only blip was pronunciation of Tir Na Nog!! Its tear na nog (nog sounds like The Pogues)
Gosh, this is everything I wanted to be at this age. What a great video!
Growing up as a kid in the 80s with a speccy +3, this is just one massive dose of nostalgia. Fantastic video
Hello there. I was at Ocean between August 1987 to September 1988, working on the C64 with Colin Porch. I was only 16 at the time lol. I helped with Gryzor and Operation Wolf. Great memories!
Is this Mr Darren Dunn? 😊
@@mlucifersam Sorry no. David Blake - my name is actually on the Gryzor opening screen next to Colin Porch's. Before working at Ocean I was actually at Software Projects for a couple of weeks in Liverpool with Matthew Smith (Manic Miner, JetSet Willy)
@cuckooman1234 oh yeah of course. It was either of you 2 and I chose the wrong one!!! Sorry! Still good to hear from you though 👌
Hiya! Think I saw you on Mark's Cheggars video, you looked so young!
@@SebsPlaceYT Yes! That was me lol
Brilliant fascinating documentary I used to walk past Ocean everyday on my way to work as a young lad
Fantastic video. Learnt alot about how the games were made that I played as a kid. I did not realise they were not that much older than myself really.
Great watch. Some fun connections for me. Paul stood behind "Joffa". Paul was my boss at Rage. The first company I worked at when I was 16 was then Elite. Finally I'm sure I had an interview with Gary Bracey at some point!
I also worked with Dave Collier during his time at Software Creations, when he'd moved away from game coding and more in to running the network and internal systems.
Hi Lee! That's brilliant, thanks for sharing! Are you the same Lee that has worked on pretty much every F1 game!?!
@@SebsPlaceYT Yes, that's me. Also the fastest winger in Jonah Lomu Rugby! That's my biggest claim to fame :D
😂😂 I loved that game!!!
Dave was great. Only worked with Joffa later on, he was a great bloke to work with....
Brings back great memories. At age 14/15 I often had my artwork published in zzap64! Ended up freelancing for some of the games companies and converting graphics from arcade to computer. Often just sent vhs tapes of people playing the arcade version to convert - fun times
What games did you work on?
lots of obscure titles creating loading screens and animations - probably the biggest one was Rampage.
I was born 82 so a bit late to the game but i used my Dads Acorn Electron, Amiga 500 then x86 pc. Still really interesting to watch all the way through even having not played most of these games.
Seb's Place AND Chinnyvision on the same night! Well Mr Ambassador, wis zeez Veedeeo's you are spoiling us 😂😂😂
😂😂
Excellente!
Verideo roche
A year before this I worked at ocean on central st (I think?) for a few weeks, on a work experience in 85, I’ve done 35 years in the computer industry since. Thanks for the video.
Nice! Where did you end up working?
@@SebsPlaceYT mostly in the banking industry but I have been in and out of the gaming industry and currently work in the gaming industry.
It is a bit too up and down for me, too reliant on the "next release" and job security very poor in reality. If you wanna have some peace and not worry about your next pay check the gaming industry is not ideal.
Brilliant deep dive and a well-thought-out and executed documentary of a very fluid time in computing and from someone first-hand experiences. Loved the screenshots and before and after as well as the sprites and masks we really very cool to see. I never realised when I was buying Ocean games it was so seat of your pants, but well that's business I guess.
Cheers Seb, really great video. Loved it.
Thank you! Mark had a brilliant knack of keeping everything, which makes such a huge difference when talking about this stuff. Just having the visual examples was amazing and made my job easier.
Very interesting. This video invoked a short lyrical digression...My mind always perceives UK of the 80s almost like a parallel universe, cos my country at that time was strikingly different...not bad though just different. As the glory days of the almighty speccy in USSR occured around the start of the 90s with all the huge library of games already available for our amusement, we evaluated most of the non-top games with neglect and cynism not having a single clue what a great winding way the zx game creators had to crawl to reach those heights that we took for granted🎉
Fond memories of Xmas 1984 and receiving a ZX Spectrum 48k+ bundled with Horace Goes Skiing, Space Raiders, Chequered Flag and even the speccys own word processor called Tasword Two and some weird 3D graphics software called VU-3D with a Kempston interface and joystick. I then spent my Xmas money on Impossible Mission and some US Gold hits pack which had Beachy Head on it. Happy days 😊
Good times 🥰 loved Beach Head!
Beachy Head is a notorious suicide spot isn't it?🤔
Amazing! Born in 74 also... All started with a friends ZX48k (hand me down from he's cousin) then I bought a C64, and the rest was Amiga (best computer and with the best OS ever made 🙂
I loved Sabre Wulf on the Speccy (and School Daze). Loved playing games on my C64 with a friend (2 years older) until he started programming instead... but then I got hooked on that also, loved it! Even though C64 was such a creative computer the Amiga was the ultimate creative beast of a computer... Want graphics, sure do what you want! Want music! sure do what you want! want to program, yes got that covered easily... want to be creative with programming a multitasking OS... Amiga!
Sure AmigaOS was fast because not using a MMU and it was never designed to be multiuser but I could have happened with a bit of money in the 1990's I guess. It was not impossible... But for sure... I don't know the exact penalty in speed but maybe the 16 Mhz one would have not sold that much).
Loved programming, graphics, music... and 1986 (i'sh) to 1996 (ish) was my creative wonderful years when anything is possible! (I guess I got internet about 1995 and not long after that I got sucked into that instead of doing my own things..)
A little more 16 bit in part 2 🙃
@@SebsPlaceYT I'll watch it!
The 16 Mhz one (was meant to be Amiga 3000 budget, 16 Mhz one:-) a couple of beers and I'm doing typos... ah well I'm 50..
😁
I still know Mark R Jones now, more than then. He frequents the same Beatles and Pink Floyd bootlegs forums I do. So I PM'ed him, and asked him about Ocean, very nice bloke. Also, great vid, only just stumbled on your channel, I;ll check out the other vids later. Busy checking Geoff (RIP) and Tim Follins 3" Einstein disks today!
So who are you then? 😊
Thank you Seb and Mark for this truely wonderful documentary.
Glad you enjoyed it!
You're welcome. Very glad you found it interesting
Fascinating documentary, and the cliffhanger got me hooked…
😁
I have such nostalgic and fond memories of my XX Spectrum 48k. The whole process of loading and waiting for a game to load just led to the sense of anticipation. The next generation consoles may have the graphics but my heart belongs to games like Decathlon and Lunar Jetman.
Jet Set Willy!
A lot of it is nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses but I agree. I had a Spectrum +3 for Xmas 1988 and even though it had a floppy drive, games were much cheaper on tape. The number of hours spent trying to get games to load and failing was a pain but all part of the experience.
SUCH a good video - great story from the right era helped, so many memories - not just of the games but also the artwork and the sound tracks - loved it
Glad you enjoyed it!
Your devotion, knowledge and commitment is undeniable, Great job :)
Thank you but it is really all down to Mark keeping notes and all his work all these years that made my job a lot easier!
Great work, enjoyed hearing the first part of Mark's story
Glad you enjoyed it
lot of work went into this video mate , well done and thanks for the memories.
Thank you, much appreciated 😊
Superb video. 10/10. One of You Tubes best. Relived so many memories. Those programmers were seriously talented and created history.
Cheers Cyril 😍
Its fab going back in time and seeing this from the perspective of the companies involved, really amazing video
I bet that was a labour of love! Thoroughly enjoyed that. Thank you.
It was, thank you!
Thoroughly enjoyed this peak behind the curtain. The photos and documents are a really interesting.
Yeah, Mark kept so much material, which helped massively in telling the story.
Lads, I loved this video - brought back so much of that crazy time that was the birth of something truly amazing. You get a real feeling for how on-the-edge the whole thing was. A lot of us are the people we are today because of those experiences, those games, those hacks, understanding attributes of 8x8 pixel blocks, BRIGHT & FLASH included. Thanks!
Love this comment! 🥰🥰
Finally got around to finishing the video.
I had left you previous coments on Discord but i thought I'd add that this on how i like a video structured, no comedy interludes just straight up nostalgia and facts which i love.
More in the vein of a Bastich B documentary with fantastic editing.
Definitely your best video to date, would love to see more of these 👍
Thanks mate 🥰
What a great time that was. I had a ZX81 first then got a Spectrum and was blown away by Jet Pac which was the first game I bought. Loved Wizball and Arkanoid as well and that tune got stuck in my head at the time! Look forward to part 2 if there is one
There will be. In a few weeks. Cheers
@@SebsPlaceYT Great!
This was such a great story, thanks for sharing it ! Its been fascinating to see what was happening behind the scenes when i was too young to appreciate it. What the games designers achieved with so little is still amazing 40 year later
Glad you enjoyed it!
Omg that load screen from the artist 2 really hits me in the feels.
I had that package and a dot matrix printer procured from my dad's office.
Love this.
thanks for this I don't know anything about PC gaming before 2007-2012.
Really fascinating, thanks Seb. I can't even comprehend doing something like that at 16 years old. I remember having a job interview about 200 miles away from my home when I was in my late 20s, and absolutely bricking it about moving away.
Yeah, totally agree. Pretty brave!
Thanks for the upload, really enjoyed watching and bringing some old memories back
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
This was amazing, totally loved it. Need more content like this, and all the other stuff you do, twice a week, plus a three hour special on International Cricket 😆😁
Awesome work man 👍👍
Haha, 3 hour special 😂😂
Ha, my cousin Tim Tyler wrote Repton 1 at 16 years old. He sold it to Superior Software who then employed him to develop Repton 2.
Oooh I've not played that. Will take a look!
This was an amazing game. My friend had it on an acorn electron. Used to play it after school. Very clever gameplay. He got the next few sequels too. Your cousin was a total genius.
I really needed this channel today brother you had me at born in 1974 and the word ocean in the title.
0:16 I subscribed at Zx spectrum ❤
Glad to help mate.
Every one of your videos is so well put together with so much care and attention to detail, each is a real treat. You'll go far, Seb, on this platform. And you deserve to!
Ah thank you 😊 that's really nice to hear. 😊
@@SebsPlaceYT Did you do any video editing/production before this channel or was this your "proving ground"? You have a real knack for it. Really impressive.
No just this.... I did get lucky with an early video about spellbound popping off which Rose Tinted Spectrum saw and invited me to a discord group of like minded youtubers. Super helpful getting advice or just seeing how others do things to learn from but it's still a massive learning journey which is tons of fun . Thanks again.
Wow, interesting watch. Seeing some people I used to work with when they were much younger!
Hi! Who did you used to work with?
@@SebsPlaceYT *tumbleweed*
Thoroughly enjoyed that Seb, very well done, can't wait for the next part (and more vids in this style too!)
This video brings back some great memories, Northampton was only 13 miles away from me, so I frequented the Northants Computer Centre a fair bit back in the day - plus A-Z Computers in Weston Favell. If memory serves, it lasted well into the 90's too. Had the pleasure of meeting Mark too, he came to our house to pick up a boxed 48k about 8-9 years ago, even signed a couple of his games. Really nice bloke.
Thank you 😊 lovely that you used the same shop and have met Mark. I'm hoping to have a beer with him at some point. Thanks again for sharing 😊
The book tells you exactly when NHCC closed down!! And I remember coming round your house for that Spectrum, blimey, was it that long ago?
@@mlucifersam I've not read it yet! lol, i'm gonna give it a crack over the weekend. It was that long ago though - we hadn't long moved in, our l'il un was only around 3-4 too. Hope you're keeping well, sir.
@@MrFox-wn5jt Aye not bad thanks
Fascinating behind the scenes stuff! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
What a fascinating video. He was so young! Getting the behind the scenes details like this, as I was a kid buying speccy games at the same time is really interesting.
Yeah, crazy really!
platoon killed me as a kid it was so damn hard 🤣 awesome video about most of the games i played as a Atari/C64 kid back in the day 👍
Yeah, I need to revisit it properly to see how tough it is as a whole, because I remember struggling with it too.
Born November 1974 got our/my speci in ‘83 !
We got Horis goes skiing & a monthly game mag mail order thing which was 2 games a month !!
Ltd but we had all the favourites!! Bruce Lee was awesome!! Beach Head was my favourite ocean game
1874! You are even older than me 😁 I loved Beach Head. Classic!
I was gonna say! What's your secret to longevity?😅
happy 150th birthday
@@SebsPlaceYT hehe!! I’m a Victorian gentleman?? Thanks 🙏🏼 I’ve corrected it !!
Fantastic video about a captivating story! Thank you for sharing this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
The misprint on the "Whizzball" on the tape always irritated me 😂.
Great video, would love more of these.
Cheers, yeah me too!
Great documentary, really enjoyed this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
So am I! Super duper!
Avalon and Dragontorc baby!
Oh YESSSSSS!
Thanks
Thank you James 🥰🥰
Great video. I have immediately downloaded the e-book but will wait to read it as I don't want to spoil the cliffhanger you left this one on!
Haha thank you!
@@SebsPlaceYT Without wishing to get pretentious - the 80s game coders were like the 'punk rock' era of the games industry, people starting in their bedrooms and making careers for themselves with no experience but bags of untapped talent and enthusiasm. There are a lot of stories like Mark's from the 80s, truly a golden era. We'll not see the like again.
100% agree! Was a very unique time.
Really enjoyed this video and a lot of work clearly went into it. It's really interesting to hear what went on behind the scenes, as it was all a bit of a mystery back in the day 🙂👍🏻
Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers for the comment
Thank you for uploading👍
What a great vid! Post-work nosh and a lengthy vid...... perfect. 😁😁
Cheers!
Really good video!
Thank you!
Cracking video Seb! Your best so far I reckon.
Thank you! 😊
At age 15 my dad escorted me from essex to my interview with Jim Hensons Creature shop in Camden. So i can completely relate to this story somewhat. (they offered me a job)
Oh wow! That sounds blimmin cool! What did you do? How did the interview come about?
@@SebsPlaceYT it was in 1992, I had been writing to Jim Henson for 4 years, sending them photos of my work, then they would reply offering me technical advice or commenting on my work, then out of the blue, I received a letter that wasn't in response to anything offering me a tour of the workshop and an interview with their supervisor Neal Scanlan. My dad had no idea what was going on, my parents didn't know I was writing to all this film people, so dad took me to London, my school gave me the day off, long story short I had my tour and interview, showed them my work, they offered me a 2 week placement work experience, which I did while at school then when I turned insurable age, they offered me a job. First job was a Disney movie, same week was "English patient", it was a dream come true. (sorry, left a lot out of this story, I am conscious of this is not a forum for my life story!) great video sir, this era was a magical era for computing, today its more accessible and more tools and waaaay more educational materials to reduce the barrier of entry, yet the caveat is there is a much greater number of competition for jobs. Keep up the good work....SUBSCRIBED!
The job was "animatronics assistant"
That's incredible!!! Wow! Just goes to show if you persevere long enough. Thank you so much for sharing!
Looking forward to part 2!
Cheers
1997/98 was a sad year when Ocean was on the way out.
I missed my chance to work there and very much regret it.
Hi, how come?
@SebsPlaceYT it was just bad timing. Left an apprenticeship and was getting ready for an interview there. Next thing it was all canned due to Ocean I believe from memory being absorbed by another software house.
These things happen. I know I shouldn't dwell on what could have been.
I know mark, used to work with him.
amazing retrospective of the time
Thank you!
Great video. Stories like this really struck home.
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent video. Watched it all and now I am late to pick up my wife from her sisters. I hope you're proud! 😄
Say sorry to your wife for me, I'll take the blame 😁😁 thanks for watching.
Awesome video. I look forward to all of your videos and l love all of them, but this is your best. Loved it ❤
Thank you, very kind 😊
Really enjoyed this mate, really interesting.
Working, thanks for the company.
Cheers mate
So much effort in th8is video and as a '75 kid myself this brings back some serious nostalgia. The Artist 2, wow I spent so much time on that producing absolute bollocks. Though I did use it to create a character for a competition once... I did not win.
Amazing how a kid of 16 could do so much in a short time, then again seemed par for the course for the speccy guys.
Thank you 😊 yeah totally bonkers what a 16 year old could do!
Very interesting video, I grew up at the same time and remember all those games which really blew my mind back then
Glad you enjoyed!
That Crash cover took me back - my dad bought that issue but we had a C64! Was good to see what "the enemy" had to offer lol. I worked with a couple of ex Ocean people when I was at Psygnosis - it's still a small industry!
Oooh what did you do at Psygnosis?
This was, along with Iron Maiden, my youth. Outstanding nostalgia. Tir Na Nog, and Knight Lore were amazing. Now playing DCS world on a RTX 4090 for reference. 🤣
😂😂 RTX 4090! Fancy! 😁
Fantastic video- thank you.
Thank you 😊
Great work! The good old days!!! 😊
Thank you!
Awesome work, Seb. Absolutely love it. If you don't mind I suggest a video about Bob Pape and his struggles to code R-Type for Speccy 🙂. It's all described in his incredible book "It's Behind You - The Making Of A Computer Game".
Oooh thanks. I'll look at that. Appreciate it.
Melbourne Draw! I had completely forgotten about that
Very good Seb, more like this please.
Ha cheers. I'll try 😁
Great video. In my opinion, probably your best so far.
Thank you!
Jumping Jack all time zx classic!
Really enjoyed watching this documentary! 😃
Glad you enjoyed it!
Ocean did the best games back in the day in the biggest boxes 😂
Great video , good old days. Works of art these games . I remember buying Athena super hard !
Cool story.. back in the 80's i would push pixels on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 (just for fun). I made a Loading screen for an upcoming Ocean game and posted it to Ocean. I waited.. no reply. Then i decided to send some sprite animations to Elite. To my my surprise Elite wrote back with a nice encouraging letter, informing me i had talent, and should continue, as i was not quite up to commercial (Elite) standard at that moment in time. Receiving a letter featuring the Elite logo at the top made my day. Undeterred i contacted Ultimate (Play The Game) and got an interview - Yay! ON the day of the interview i jumped in my car and drove to Twycross, a tiny village located miles and miles from where i lived. I had never driven such a distance before. I was not so much offered a job as offered the chance to be taken on to see how well i would perform. I declined. I was simply not ready to leave home. So that was that.. I admire Mark R. Jones for doing what he managed to do.
What a great story, thank you! I agree, such a big step to take, especially if there is no guarantee of a job at the end of it!
Love this video, glad it was suggested to me!
Thank you! Glad you liked it!!
Great vid can't wait for the next part
I remember almost every game referenced. The editor of Crash had a very... interesting boyfriend. Drew a lot of scantily clad boys and his private work was even darker. Probably wouldn't get a job in a youth industry nowadays, but all the mags were using him at the time.
That's because Oliver Frey was one of the best artists in that industry.
@@mlucifersam Not even close. He had a unique style though. Makes me wonder about the proclivities of the people hiring him. Perhaps he was cheap.
very interesting - my era
I never knew I'm only a town away. :). One speccy owner to another