Conference hydra::amiga_v1

3195.0. "OCEAN/IMAGINE SOFTWARE" by BRILLO::FENTON_R (Theres no hair on a seagulls face) Fri Dec 08 1989 08:04

    Well I'm afraid it's bitch time again. I don't know what it's like
    in the US/Australia/etc. and all the other countries where you guys
    hail from, but here in the UK the biggest (certainly the most heavily
    advertised) games S/W house is Ocean (aka Imagine). It has to be
    said that they do write some of the best games available.
    
    However - a great deal of their S/W is BUGGED, various degrees of
    seriousness. Sometimes it takes the form of the game just crashing
    (at predictable points in some games, not in others - eg Arkanoid
    I/II, Wizball); sometimes options stated as being available are
    not; frequently their bizarre protection systems cause the disks
    to fail after a few playings etc. This has been the experience of
    myself and anyone else I know with a similar computer (mostly Ataris
    and Amstrads).
    
    When I had my Amstrad 6128, I wrote 4 times to Ocean, complaining
    about the bugs affecting my games. No letters were answered. I wrote
    to the three Amstrad magazines over here (Computing with the Amstrad
    CPC, Amstrad Action, Amstrad Computer User) twice each, suggesting
    that they had an obligation to their customers, as they allowed
    Ocean to advertise in their pages. No answers (yes, my letters
    were courteous - I restrained myself considerably!).
    
    I eventually gave up in disgust. When I got my Amiga (about 6 months
    ago), I foolishly bought some Ocean games (well, I DID say that
    some of them were very good). Guess what? Three failures out of
    5 disks. I sent them back (over 6 weeks ago), but have had no reply.
    I have written to them again - no reply. I have spoken to them SEVEN
    TIMES; each time I have to start from scratch, as all knowledge
    of the previous conversations (and promises made!) is denied.
    
    I wrote to Amiga User magazine, in much the same terms as with the
    Amstrad publications years ago; no reply.
    
    My purpose in detailing all this here is primarily to warn everyone
    about this thoroughly unsatisfactory company, and to discourage
    you all from supporting them by buying their products. It would
    also appear that the computer magazines are "in the pockets" of
    the big S/W houses who advertise with them. It's probably unrealistic
    to suggest that pople avoid them for this reason, but you can do
    yourself a favour by not buying Ocean/Imagine.
    
    -Roger