In April 1988 Rare placed a small advertisement in CRASH asking for designers “to produce top quality home-computer and arcade systems software for overseas markets”. Few readers would have known the name. In the same issue the magazine explained it: Rare was the new company of Tim and Chris Stamper, the brothers behind Ultimate Play the Game, and it had been working in secret on games for a Japanese console most British players had barely heard of, the Nintendo Entertainment System.
A company formed in 1985
Companies House records Rare Limited as incorporated on 16 April 1985. The founding papers show that the company nearly had another name: “Chameleon Limited” and “The Stamper Group Limited” are both crossed out on the memorandum and “Rare Limited” written in. Ultimate was still at its peak: that spring Knight Lore was voted Game of the Year in Computer & Video Games’ Golden Joystick awards, and Ultimate kept releasing Spectrum games until 1987.
The brothers themselves dated the change more loosely. Interviewed in December 1987 for The Games Machine, and at around the same time by CRASH, they described Rare as formed “two years ago”. At that point, the magazines reported, they sold a minority stake in Ultimate to US Gold, left Spectrum development to Ultimate’s other programmers, and moved from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to the village of Twycross nearby.
Learning the Nintendo
The Stampers had come to home computers from coin-op design, and it was through contacts in the Japanese coin-op industry that they found Nintendo’s Famicom. CRASH reported that they began planning Nintendo games in 1983, around the time they were writing Lunar Jetman. “When we got the machine, that was the beginning of Rare,” Tim told The Games Machine.
“We managed to get just about all the software available for the Nintendo then,” Tim said. “For the price it was available for in Japan then, it had colossal potential. We looked at this and we looked at the Spectrum, and then the Spectrum was hot stuff, but this was incredible.” They spent eight months working out how the system and its custom chips worked before writing for it, and then had to prove themselves. “We had to show Nintendo that we had the capability before they could give us the rights,” Chris said.
Manor Farmhouse, 1988
When CRASH visited, Rare worked from an 18th-century farmhouse on the edge of Twycross, half-restored, with a row of clocks in the boardroom showing the time in Japan and America. It had 13 full-time staff and four freelance teams. Carole Stamper was company secretary, Tim graphics director and Chris software director.
The numbers were already large. Rare had seven Nintendo games finished or nearly finished, one of them two years earlier, and eight more in development. Tim described the arrangement: “We actually act, I suppose, as Nintendo’s development team. If they feel they are lacking a product on a machine, they tell us, we develop it.” Unlike Konami or Taito, he said, Rare was not limited to a set number of titles a year, and “we’ve licensed more product this year than any other company.” It was also designing its own coin-op hardware, the Razz Board: a Z80 with extra hardware assistance, 64 colours and Yamaha synthesiser chips with 14 voices.
Among the pictures CRASH printed was Wizards & Warriors, captioned “an original Nintendo game”; its development had been contracted out to Zippo Games of Manchester. Rare’s other early NES games included R.C. Pro-Am (1988) and, later, Battletoads (1991).
The Nintendo years
In 1994 Rare released Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo, whose graphics were modelled in 3D on Silicon Graphics workstations and then pre-rendered as sprites for the cartridge. It sold more than nine million copies. In 1995, after its success, Nintendo bought 25 per cent of Rare in what Edge called a “multimillion dollar” deal, a stake later raised to 49%. On the Nintendo 64 came GoldenEye 007 (1997), Banjo-Kazooie (1998) and Perfect Dark (2000). Killer Instinct began in the arcades in 1994.
Microsoft
On 24 September 2002 Microsoft announced that it had bought Rare for $375 million in cash, to make games for the Xbox. The Stamper family’s directorships of Rare Limited ended on 20 September 2002. Tim and Chris Stamper stayed on at the studio until January 2007, when Microsoft confirmed that they had left “to pursue other opportunities”. Rare continues as a Microsoft studio at Twycross; its later games include the 2015 compilation Rare Replay and Sea of Thieves (2018).
Sources
- CRASH, issue 51 (April 1988), pp. 35-38: Roger Kean’s feature on Ultimate and Rare: Rare formed “2 years ago”, the move to Twycross, the Nintendo discovered through Japanese coin-op contacts, planning begun around Lunar Jetman in 1983, eight months learning the system, having to show capability before being given the rights, the farmhouse, 13 full-time staff and four freelance teams, the staff roles in the photograph caption, seven games finished or nearly finished and eight in development, acting as “Nintendo’s development team”, the Razz Board, and the Wizards & Warriors caption. Rare’s recruitment advertisement is on p. 31.
- The Games Machine, issue 4 (March 1988), pp. 26-32: Roger Kean and Nik Wild’s interview, recorded on 17 December 1987: Rare formed two years earlier, the minority interest in Ultimate sold to US Gold, “When we got the machine, that was the beginning of Rare”.
- Computer & Video Games, issue 44 (June 1985), p. 122: Golden Joystick awards, with Knight Lore as Game of the Year.
- Companies House, Rare Limited, company number 01905690: certificate of incorporation (16 April 1985), memorandum of association, and officer records for Carole, Christopher and Timothy Stamper (resigned 20 September 2002). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01905690
- Edge, issue 23 (August 1995), news: Rare “recently on the business end of a ‘multimillion dollar’ deal in which Nintendo acquired 25 per cent of the company”.
- Total!, issue 42 (June 1995): Nintendo’s stake in Rare.
- Microsoft, “Microsoft Acquires Video Game Powerhouse Rare Ltd.”, press release, 24 September 2002 (web): the $375 million cash purchase. https://news.microsoft.com/source/2002/09/24/microsoft-acquires-video-game-powerhouse-rare-ltd/
- GameSpot, “Stamper brothers leave Rare”, January 2007 (web, secondary): Microsoft’s statement on the Stampers’ departure. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/stamper-brothers-leave-rare/1100-6163684/
- Wikipedia, “Rare (video game company)” (web, secondary): Nintendo’s shareholding, Donkey Kong Country’s sales and its pre-rendered Silicon Graphics artwork, Zippo Games and Wizards & Warriors, Rare’s base at Twycross, the release years of the Nintendo and Microsoft-era games.