From: Mark Jones Junior, another ex-Ocean employee:

Here Gary, When you started can you remember the first thing you had to do? What was YOUR first project? Also I've always wondered how you got your job? Was it advertised? Or did you get through word of mouth? What were you doing just before you started at 'Ocean'? Hope ya don't mind me asking. Just curious

I had opened the first computer shop in Liverpool called 'Blue Chip' in 1982.
I knew Jon Woods from years earlier, getting sh*t-faced in his wine bar afterhours.

One day I was speaking to him on the phone and pretty bored playing shopkeeper, and I asked him if there was anything going at Ocean. He asked how much I knew about games, and I explained I knew what sold (having a shop) and what played well (being a games player).
He asked me if I fancied managing the development and I basically said, 'Yeah, sounds like it could be interesting'.
I sold the business and started at Ocean the next month.

I think the first games I inherited were Knight Rider and StreetHawk - both of which were very late and very cack. I actually don't remember the first game I actually produced from start to end. By the time I left there had been so many....! Trying to remember all of the titles I had been involved with I reached about 120 (and each title was usually developed over several formats). However, since reading some of the posts on this forum, there seems to be quite a few I had omitted!

Told you it was a dull story.

From Simon Butler (another ex-Ocean employee):

I remember going into Blue-byte (was it?)...

anyway...I was taken into Gary's shop years and years ago by Mr Weatherburn because he needed some disks or summat...and that was my first introduction to Mr Bracey.

It was a tad embarrassing actually cos he had the shop full of schoolkids and then proceeded to announce that I had worked on Shadowfire and several other titles.
The kids went all goggle-eyed and then he got me to autograph several copies of Beyond's Shadowfire.

small world....