The History Of Rare

[tapedeck]

IGN have decided to do a feature on the history of Rare, it's definately a nice read and some of you may not know some of the morsels of information IGN mention.

 

 

JET SET YOURSELF HERE

 

 

Rare are obviously loved by many Nintendo fans so it's nice to see such an in-depth write up of how they went from the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, to Nintendo and then off to Microsoft. A wonderful eight page read. Make a cuppa and enjoy! Just try not to cry when you realise that perhaps Rare aren't the company they once were...

 

I still miss the Rare SNES/N64 days Y'know, when every title seemed to be made of pure heart and soul.

 

 

Remember to discuss it here! :p

[Hero-of-Time]

Thanks for this TD!

 

I loved Rare to bits back in the SNES/N64 era and I still do to this day. Both Kameo and Viva Pinata are 2 of my favourite games this gen and I cant wait for the new Banjo and Viva 2.

[spirited away]

Nice one. I've been reading a special editon of Retro Gamer that has an in-depth write up about the ZX Spectrum, and they mention Rare's contribution; it ties in nicely, so thanks for the head-up.

[Wesley]

A mistake and a half: By the time it was shown at E3 2007, Edison was out and Banjo the bear took over as the lead, along with his partner, Kazooie the bird.

[tapedeck]

A mistake and a half: By the time it was shown at E3 2007, Edison was out and Banjo the bear took over as the lead, along with his partner, Kazooie the bird.

 

Yeah I read that bit too...pretty funny tbh. (Should have been 1997 obviously.) Anyone else read this and have an opinion? I personally think that Rare (or the stamper brothers) were bloody amazing yet possibly worked "too" hard, thus grinding themselves and their staffers into the ground. Burnout is something which affects many in the industry and I remember reading that someone who worked on Mario 64 (their first title) actually left the industry due to the sheer amount of work that they had to do on the title.

 

Rare were always at the forefront of technology, seeing them develop for the (under powered) wii would have been very interesting. Well, I can wish :p

[darkjak]

I must say that I was dissapointed with PDZ. The controlls for the N64 were both fast AND precise, while the 360 version were neither, quite surprising considering which came first, and that the 360 has two analogue sticks, rather than one stick and four c-buttons. And considering that PDZ took ages to develop (6 years? that's nearly Duke Nukem Forever time).

[darksnowman]

I just caught up and gave this a good read. Its pretty class the way the Stamper Bros. built the company through pure hard graft and dedication. Its sad the way things have went since people started leaving and then Rare being sold to Microsoft, the final nail in the coffin has to be that the Stampers left- imo, any chance Rare had of recapturing their former glory left with them.

[Guest Captain Falcon]

Interesting read.

 

In there, it mentions that Rare asked Nintendo for the DK licence but I remember reading in the official Nintendo mag way back in 97 that it wasn't quite like that. I read that after developing their engine, they took it to Nintendo and asked for the Mario licence but Nintendo deemed the graphics too realistic and said no but offered them the DK licence instead.

 

Slightly off topic but still related, I'm in the process of decorating my room when I stumbled across something I forgot I had. About 10 years ago, I wrote a letter to Rare saying how big a fan I was and they sent me this book with a summary of their history and outlining their philosophies - it's really cool.

 

Just looking at it now, on the back, the company name is listed as Rare Limited so I don't get why that article says they changed their company name to Rareware and only reverted back to Rare when MS bought them out.