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In 1984, Tim and Chris Stamper got their first look at a Japanese home console, the {{wp|Famicom}}. Because the Famicom was more advanced than the ZX Spectrum, the Stamper brothers saw potential in the console. In 1985, the brothers formed a subdivision of Ultimate Play the Game, called Rare, which was dedicated reverse-engineering the Famicom. With successful results and with the help of [[Joel Hochberg]], the Stamper brothers were arranged to meet Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto, Japan.<ref name=antiquarian>Maher, Jimmy. January 14, 2014. "[https://www.filfre.net/2014/01/the-legend-of-ultimate-play-the-game/ The Legend of Ultimate Play the Game]". The Digital Antiquarian.</ref> During the meeting, the Stamper brothers presented a few software demos to [[Nintendo]]. At the time, Nintendo had a quality-control measure that restricted its third-party developers to the number of games that they could produce for the Famicom, or the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]], in a given year. Nintendo was impressed with Rare's results and granted them a license to release as many games as they wanted.<ref name=ign>McLaughlin, Rus. 28 July, 2008. [http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-rare "IGN Presents the History of Rare"]. IGN. Retrieved July 17, 2015.</ref> To help fund Rare, the Stamper brothers sold off Ultimate Play the Game to [[U.S. Gold]].<ref name=antiquarian/>
In 1984, Tim and Chris Stamper got their first look at a Japanese home console, the {{wp|Famicom}}. Because the Famicom was more advanced than the ZX Spectrum, the Stamper brothers saw potential in the console. In 1985, the brothers formed a subdivision of Ultimate Play the Game, called Rare, which was dedicated reverse-engineering the Famicom. With successful results and with the help of [[Joel Hochberg]], the Stamper brothers were arranged to meet Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto, Japan.<ref name=antiquarian>Maher, Jimmy. January 14, 2014. "[https://www.filfre.net/2014/01/the-legend-of-ultimate-play-the-game/ The Legend of Ultimate Play the Game]". The Digital Antiquarian.</ref> During the meeting, the Stamper brothers presented a few software demos to [[Nintendo]]. At the time, Nintendo had a quality-control measure that restricted its third-party developers to the number of games that they could produce for the Famicom, or the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]], in a given year. Nintendo was impressed with Rare's results and granted them a license to release as many games as they wanted.<ref name=ign>McLaughlin, Rus. 28 July, 2008. [http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-rare "IGN Presents the History of Rare"]. IGN. Retrieved July 17, 2015.</ref> To help fund Rare, the Stamper brothers sold off Ultimate Play the Game to [[U.S. Gold]].<ref name=antiquarian/>


Rare would become one of the first companies outside of Japan to develop games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.<ref name=ign/> The first project Rare worked on was ''[[Slalom]]'', a downhill skiing game.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101225180552/http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/215329/25-years-of-rare/ 25 Years of Rare]. GamePro Feature Story (archived).</ref> Rare then worked with various gaming publishers, including [[Tradewest]], [[Acclaim Entertainment]], [[Electronic Arts]], [[Sega]], [[Mindscape]], and [[Gametek]], to produce over 60 games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and several additional [[Game Boy]] conversions. Several of these games were licensed properties, but Rare would also develop some of their own intellectual properties, such as ''[[R.C. Pro-Am]]'', ''[[Snake Rattle 'n' Roll]]'', and the ''[[Battletoads (series)|Battletoads]]'' series. The development of four of Rare's games were outsourced to [[Zippo Games]], including ''[[Wizards & Warriors]]'' and ''[[Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warship]]'', the third game of the ''[[Jetpac (series)|Jetpac]]'' series. Rare eventually bought out the studio, and they were renamed to "Rare Manchester".<ref name="bloomberg">[https://archive.is/5xqbB A Short History of Rare]. Bloomberg. Published August 30, 2006 (archive.is).</ref>
Rare would become one of the first companies outside of Japan to develop games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.<ref name=ign/> The first project Rare worked on was ''[[Slalom]]'', a downhill skiing game.<ref name="gamepro">[https://web.archive.org/web/20101225180552/http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/215329/25-years-of-rare/ 25 Years of Rare]. GamePro Feature Story (archived).</ref> Rare then worked with various gaming publishers, including [[Tradewest]], [[Acclaim Entertainment]], [[Electronic Arts]], [[Sega]], [[Mindscape]], and [[Gametek]], to produce over 60 games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and several additional [[Game Boy]] conversions. Several of these games were licensed properties, but Rare would also develop some of their own intellectual properties, such as ''[[R.C. Pro-Am]]'', ''[[Snake Rattle 'n' Roll]]'', and the ''[[Battletoads (series)|Battletoads]]'' series. The development of four of Rare's games were outsourced to [[Zippo Games]], including ''[[Wizards & Warriors]]'' and ''[[Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warship]]'', the third game of the ''[[Jetpac (series)|Jetpac]]'' series. Rare eventually bought out the studio, and they were renamed to "Rare Manchester".<ref name="bloomberg">[https://archive.is/5xqbB A Short History of Rare]. Bloomberg. Published August 30, 2006 (archive.is).</ref>


When the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] was released, Rare was not immediately ready for the transition. Around the same time, Rare began to limit their releases and focused mainly on creating more ''Battletoads'' ganes. With the profit earned from their NES library, Rare purchased expensive Silicon Graphics workstations to create three-dimensional models while developing games. This move made Rare the most technologically advanced developer in the UK, and situated them high in the international market.<ref name=ign/> With these workstations, Rare's priority was changed to focus on quality games instead of quantity.
When the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] was released, Rare was not immediately ready for the transition. Around the same time, Rare began to limit their releases and focused mainly on creating more ''Battletoads'' ganes. With the profit earned from their NES library, Rare purchased expensive Silicon Graphics workstations to create three-dimensional models while developing games. This move made Rare the most technologically advanced developer in the UK, and situated them high in the international market.<ref name=ign/> With these workstations, Rare's priority was changed to focus on quality games instead of quantity.

Revision as of 22:50, April 23, 2020

Rare Ltd.
Rare logo 2015.png
Founded 1985
Founders Tim Stamper
Chris Stamper
Headquarters Twycross, England
Parent Microsoft

This article is incomplete, otherwise known as a "stub." You can help the Rare Wiki by adding more.

"We've been making golden memories and redefining gaming genres since 1985, and that's not about to change. Everything we do is true to our goals of pursuing new experiences and putting players first. Still ahead of the game after three decades of evolution, there's no other studio in the world quite like Rare."
—Rare[1]

Rare Ltd., often known as Rare and formerly by their trade name Rareware, is a British video game development company. They have developed many video games, many of which were on Nintendo consoles. Since 2002, the entire company is owned by Microsoft and has since had their games on Xbox console. Rare has two studios: one in Twycross, in Leicestershire, England and one in Digbeth, in Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1985, as the successor company to Ultimate Play the Game.

History

Early years

Rare evolved from Ultimate Play the Game, a company which mainly designed games for the ZX Spectrum, such as Jetpac and Sabre Wulf, and would become the biggest UK-based video game development companies. The ZX Spectrum was only popular in the UK, and at the time had a large problem with piracy of home computer software. Believing they hit a dead end, the Stamper brothers sought another console to create games on.[2]

In 1984, Tim and Chris Stamper got their first look at a Japanese home console, the Famicom. Because the Famicom was more advanced than the ZX Spectrum, the Stamper brothers saw potential in the console. In 1985, the brothers formed a subdivision of Ultimate Play the Game, called Rare, which was dedicated reverse-engineering the Famicom. With successful results and with the help of Joel Hochberg, the Stamper brothers were arranged to meet Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto, Japan.[3] During the meeting, the Stamper brothers presented a few software demos to Nintendo. At the time, Nintendo had a quality-control measure that restricted its third-party developers to the number of games that they could produce for the Famicom, or the Nintendo Entertainment System, in a given year. Nintendo was impressed with Rare's results and granted them a license to release as many games as they wanted.[4] To help fund Rare, the Stamper brothers sold off Ultimate Play the Game to U.S. Gold.[3]

Rare would become one of the first companies outside of Japan to develop games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.[4] The first project Rare worked on was Slalom, a downhill skiing game.[5] Rare then worked with various gaming publishers, including Tradewest, Acclaim Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Sega, Mindscape, and Gametek, to produce over 60 games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and several additional Game Boy conversions. Several of these games were licensed properties, but Rare would also develop some of their own intellectual properties, such as R.C. Pro-Am, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, and the Battletoads series. The development of four of Rare's games were outsourced to Zippo Games, including Wizards & Warriors and Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warship, the third game of the Jetpac series. Rare eventually bought out the studio, and they were renamed to "Rare Manchester".[6]

When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released, Rare was not immediately ready for the transition. Around the same time, Rare began to limit their releases and focused mainly on creating more Battletoads ganes. With the profit earned from their NES library, Rare purchased expensive Silicon Graphics workstations to create three-dimensional models while developing games. This move made Rare the most technologically advanced developer in the UK, and situated them high in the international market.[4] With these workstations, Rare's priority was changed to focus on quality games instead of quantity.

Rareware era (1994-2002)

Rareware logo, used from 1994-2003

Using the Silicon Graphics workstations, Rare created a boxing game demo and presented it to Nintendo. The Super Nintendo could not render all of the SGI graphics at once, so Rare used the SGI graphics to produce 3D models and graphics, before pre-rendering those graphics onto the Super Nintendo game, a process known as "Advanced Computer Modelling". Nintendo was impressed by Rare and bought a 25% stake in them, which gradually increased to 49%, making Rare a second-party developer for Nintendo.[4] During this period, Rare formed the trademark name "Rareware". Nintendo offered their entire catalogue for Rare to make a game from. Rare decided to create a game named Donkey Kong Country, which became one of the best-selling Super Nintendo games and rooted the lucrative relationship between Rare and Nintendo. Around this time, Rare also developed a fighting game, Killer Instinct, on their own custom-built arcade machine. It was released for Super Nintendo a year later.

Donkey Kong Country was followed by two sequels, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, and the Donkey Kong Land series of spinoffs. Nintendo's stake purchase of Rare allowed them to expand significantly. The number of staff members increased from 84 to 250, and Rare moved out from their headquarters at the Manor Farmhouse.[7] Killer Instinct was followed by a sequel, Killer Instinct 2. In 1996, Killer Instinct 2 had a Nintendo 64 release, Killer Instinct Gold, which was their first release on that console.

Rare's first original release for Nintendo 64 was Blast Corps, which, to Rare's disappointment, only sold one million copies.[8] At the time, Rare was split into several teams, each working on a different project. The first project was GoldenEye 007, which was based on the GoldenEye film; the project was led by Martin Hollis and development was done by an inexperienced team.[9] GoldenEye 007 became a best-seller and had a significant role in the history of first-person shooters for demonstrating the viability of game consoles for the genre, and for signalling a transition from the then-standard Doom-like approach to a more realistic style.

Around 1997, Rare developed Pro-Am 64, which would be part of Rare's early R.C. Pro-Am series; during development, Shigeru Miyamoto suggested the inclusion of Diddy Kong, and the game became Diddy Kong Racing. Upon its release, Diddy Kong Racing became one of the fastest-selling games of its time, according to Guinness World Records.

Two characters in Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo and Conker, would later receive their own franchises. These games, Banjo-Kazooie and Twelve Tales: Conker 64 were first unveiled at E3 1997 alongside Diddy Kong Racing. Banjo-Kazooie started development as a The Legend of Zelda-inspired game for the Super Nintendo, Dream: Land of Giants. It was a pirate-themed game starring a young boy named Edson. During development, Dream moved over to the Nintendo 64. Edson was replaced by Banjo, who would receive a sidekick named Kazooie, and Banjo-Kazooie was released in June 1998. Twelve Tales: Conker 64, originally Conker's Quest, started as a 3D platformer similar to Banjo-Kazooie. The game went through a few delays before being planned for an October 1998 release. At the time, the game was criticized for being too family-friendly and similar to Banjo-Kazooie. The game was canceled without announcement, and a year later, it was reannounced in January 2000 as a Mature-rated title, Conker's Bad Fur Day.[10] In 2001, Rare's last Nintendo 64 game, Conker's Bad Fur Day, was released. Although the game was well-received, it sold poorly due to being released near the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan and receiving minimal promotion from Nintendo.[4]

When Banjo-Kazooie finished development, Martin Hollis immediately started work on a sequel to GoldenEye 007. The game was originally meant to be a tie-in for Tomorrow Never Dies, although Rare was significantly outbid by another publisher, forcing Rare to develop a new concept with new characters. With a major emphasis on lighting, the game became Perfect Dark.[11] After 14 months into Perfect Dark's development, Martin Hollis left Rare. Around the same time, numerous employees left the company and formed new studios. With major project leads departing, a new team took over Perfect Dark's development and diminished the role of lighting in the game, making it a more straightforward first-person shooter.[4] Rare's other teams were unaffected by Perfect Dark's troubled development. While Perfect Dark was still in development, Rare released two other games in 1999, a third-person shooter titled Jet Force Gemini and a Donkey Kong game in the style of Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64. Perfect Dark was released in mid-2000.

In 1999, Nintendo signed an agreement with Disney, and assigned Rare to develop racing-adventure games starring Mickey Mouse. Rare made two games; the first game, Mickey Racing Adventure, was released for the Game Boy Color in 1999. The next game, Mickey's Speedway USA was first released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, and a Game Boy Color version was released in 2001, as Rare's last release for the handheld.

After Diddy Kong Racing finished development, another team was working on a Nintendo 64 game titled Dinosaur Planet, which had similar gameplay to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In 2000, some time after Dinosaur Planet was shown E3 2000, Shigeru Miyamoto approached the team and suggested for them to recreate the game as a Star Fox game for the Nintendo GameCube. After two more years of development, the game was released in 2002 as Star Fox Adventures, which retained a The Legend of Zelda-type gameplay even though Star Fox was established for its rail shooter gameplay. Star Fox Adventure was Rare's only GameCube release and their last release for a Nintendo home console. It marked the end of their partnership with Nintendo.

Microsoft era (2002-present)

Photograph of the Stamper brothers with Xbox vice president Ed Fries on the day of the acquisition

Game development costs gradually increased, and Nintendo did not provide Rare with more capital nor did they purchase the company's remaining stake. Tim and Chris Stamper were surprised that Nintendo did not directly acquire the studio.[12] Rare then looked for potential buyers. In the early 2000s, workers from Activision and Microsoft began visiting Rare with purchase offers. Rare was interested in Activision's offer, but the deal collapsed.[13][14] On 24 September 2002, the day after Star Fox Adventures was released in North America, Microsoft finalized their acquisition of Rare and bought them for $375 million.[15] Since then, Rare has become became a first-party developer for Microsoft's Xbox. Rare retained the rights to their intellectual properties, such as Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and Conker, and Nintendo retained the right to the Donkey Kong and Star Fox franchises. This left Donkey Kong Racing, due for a GameCube release, to be unreleased. Development for the game was carried over to the Xbox, as Sabreman Stampede, although that game was also cancelled. 30 employees left Rare during the transition.[6]

In 2003, the Rareware trade name was abandoned and was changed back to simply "Rare". They would go on to release several Game Boy Advance games and two Nintendo DS games before closing their handheld division in 2008, after Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise was released. In 2010, Rare opened a studio in Digbeth, in Birmingham, England.

As a first party studio for Microsoft, Rare created the Xbox Live Avatars. In the early 2010s, focused on developing Kinect Sports games that utilized both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One's Kinect. Around the year 2015, Rare stopped making Kinect games and released an online multiplayer title, Sea of Thieves.

Games

Main article: List of games

Members

These are people who currently or have had a notable role at Rare.

Gallery

External links

References

  1. "Rare Ltd. - Creators of Rare Replay and Sea of Thieves". Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  2. "Behind The Scenes At Rare: Killer Instinct Gold Interview". RareGamer
  3. a b Maher, Jimmy. January 14, 2014. "The Legend of Ultimate Play the Game". The Digital Antiquarian.
  4. a b c d e f McLaughlin, Rus. 28 July, 2008. "IGN Presents the History of Rare". IGN. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  5. 25 Years of Rare. GamePro Feature Story (archived).
  6. a b A Short History of Rare. Bloomberg. Published August 30, 2006 (archive.is).
  7. "GameCube Developer Profile: Rare". IGN. Published March 1, 2001.
  8. "The Making Of: Blast Corps" on NowGamer (archived). Published January 19, 2009.
  9. "The Making of Goldeneye" on Nowgamer (archived). Published May 13, 2011.
  10. "Conker Has a Bad Day". IGN. Published January 14, 2000.
  11. Perfect Dark Interview on IGN. (archived). Published May 14, 1999.
  12. Interview with Tim Stamper. Develop (archived). Published August 3, 2015.
  13. Who Killed Rare?. Eurogamer.net. Published February 8, 2012.
  14. "Activision Initially Almost Bought Rare". 1UP.com (archived). Published October 27, 2010.
  15. "Microsoft Acquires Video Game Powerhouse Rare Ltd.". Microsoft. Published September 24, 2002.