With tongue firmly in cheek, and more than a wink aimed at a certain Ian Fleming creation, the hugely successful character James Pond first appeared in the games world in 1990 on the Commodore Amiga computer.

James Pond was followed by two sequels; James Pond 2: Codename Robocod - the most successful James Pond title with sales now in excess of 1.5 million units and James Pond 3: Operation Starfish.

There was also a spin-off sports-themed game The Aquatic Games.

The intrepid international fish of mystery is currently available on iOS, GBA, DS, PSOne and most recently, on Nintendo Switch.

The four games using the James Pond character were created during a four-year period.

In 1990, James Pond: Underwater Agent appeared on the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and Sega Genesis (Megadrive), published by Electronic Arts and Millennium Interactive.

Between 1991 and 1994, James Pond 2 - Codename Robocod was released on thirteen platforms ranging from the Commodore C64 and Sega Genesis, to Super Nintendo (SNES) and finally Nintendo Game Boy.

Publishers ranged from US Gold (Eidos), to Ocean (Infogrames), Electronic Arts (USA) and JVC (Japan).

In 1992, Electronic Arts and SCi published Aquatic Games, a brief foray into a somewhat sportier genre, for the Amiga and Sega Genesis and SNES.

Pond’s last mission in the 16-bit era was published by Electronic Arts in 1994, when he appeared in James Pond 3 on Sega Genesis.

These games were diverse in their implementation offering novel and challenging play mechanics in each case.
Although appearing in many guises the Pond character remained recognisably constant from game to game and has, even to this day, remained memorable.

In all, the James Pond series of games has sold in excess of 2.5 million units worldwide.

Rights to James Pond are now held within James Pond Licensing Ltd a company owned 50/50 between Gameware and System 3, the latest publisher who have also published the Nintendo Switch version of James Pond Robocod.