Random A Look Into The Birthplace Of Banjo Kazooie Developer Rare Ltd
Random: A Look Into The Birthplace Of Banjo-Kazooie Developer Rare Ltd Nintendo Life Or 'Ultimate Play the Game', as it used to be known by Share: Image: Nintendo Life As that weird android from Ridley Scott's Prometheus once said: "big things come from small beginnings". Or was that Lawrence of Arabia..? Anyway... It's a quote that can be attributed to the creation of many of our favourite game developers, but is perhaps most valid when describing the early days of Rare Ltd. Of course, we don't need to tell you that Rare is most famous for its lucrative partnership with Nintendo, during which it bashed out a number of stone cold classics including , , and among others. Before the glory days, however, founders Tim and Chris Stamper helmed the short-lived production studio 'Ultimate Play the Game', based in the market town of in the United Kingdom. To find out exactly where the Stamper brothers set up shop during the '80s, our sister site takes a deep dive into the workings of Ultimate Play the Game and what the area of Ashby-de-la-Zouch looks like today. Check out the full article for a truly fascinating dive into the origins of one of the most influential game studios of all time. Read More: Images: Time Extension / Damien McFerren What's your favourite game from Rare Ltd? Did you play any of Ultimate Play the Game's titles? Let us know! [source ] Share: About Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from Motorhead to BB King. Comments ) Never played any of the ultimate play the game titles but rare is responsible for what is a top5 of all time game for me, Banjo Kazooie. Really cool to see this story and all of the photos of where it all began. Ultimate released some of the most influential and downright important games of the 8-bit era. Knight Lore, Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde, The Staff Of Karnath, Atic Atac... I would say that their output as Ultimate was a lot more important than their output as Rare. Especially Knight Lore. It can't be overstated just how revolutionary and downright remarkable that game was. They did things that others felt impossible, and helped to shape and inspire a whole generation of game devs. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the Rare logo and Banjo-Kazooie in the headline. Fun to see how Rare's history ultimately led them to. It's very rare for a development company like this to last so long, so I'm glad that they're still around today wanting us to play the game they make. They went from making absolute classics like Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye, and DK Country to making Kinect games...Unfortunate I never knew much about Rare until Banjo, I had for some strange reason gone of gaming after the SNES, so I must have been around 14 years old when my brother came home with a N64 one day, I knew nothing about it and never saw any advertising for it on TV, Nintendo related adverts were actually rare in the 64 days in the UK, I knew about the PS but nothing about Nintendo latest console. My brother had Mario 64 and Golden Eye and I was shocked and took me about an hour to get used to Mario in 3D, then we took a trip to Blockbuster and I saw the box art for Banjo and knew instantly that I would love it and from that moment on I have never gone off gaming. Ideally I’d love a modern remake of Banjo and Tooie What said Ultimate are far more influential than Rare. Their games redefined or help establish what was to come later. I think, what 8 years?, is not that short-lived, considering the speed of the development in complexity of computer games in the 80s. They were also known previously as Ashby Computer Graphics, hence the ACG initialled items in the games. (This is prolly all in the article, but I want give it a proper read later) All the Rare articles on NL right now is because the GoldenEye release date is being revealed this week, for Friday 30th. Right? Right?! As a child just the sight of the Rareware logo would make me happy. Ultimately (pun intended) they lasted from 1983-1986, when they sold the Ultimate name to U.S. Gold after forming Rare and starting to develop games for the Famicom. They bought back the name after U.S. Gold released Bubbler and Martianoids, which were, frankly, abysmal, and clearly not developed by the Stampers. Anyway, yep, they were the single most important developer and publisher back in they day, without being as prolific as any other software houses. Every release was highly anticipated, and loved by gamers and critics. I haven't read the article yet either, but i'm fast approaching 50, and was lucky enough to start gaming the same year Jetpac hit shelves. What a time to be alive! As for my favourite game: Atic Atac, easily. So advanced for it's time, so much fun, and their first release for dedicated 48k Spectrums (or that might have been Lunar Jetman, I forget lol) - but everything else prior to that had been for 16k/48k machines. (Edit: Atic Atac has had a fan remake for the C64 - C64 games weren't a specialty for Ultimate and weren't developed by the Stampers, were generally less well regarded and not the same titles as the ZX Spectrum releases - but arguably the C64 remake is BETTER than the original.) They have Sea of Thieves, which is now four and a half years old and still going strong. Ultimate were one of THE leading developers of the early 8-bit home computer boom and produced such games that defined what the Spectrum was capable of so arguably far more influential than Rare. I was lucky enough to have an interview for a job at Rare's then HQ at the Manor Farmhouse in Twycross many years ago (didn't get it), and they had all the original Ultimate artwork all around the reception room - I was awestruck! The building in Ashby should have a blue plaque saying Ultimate created all-time classics here. It seems it is going to release in 2023, but we should be getting an announcement on this month’s N64 game for NSO this week Why is Banjo Kazooie deemed such a big deal by them? Seems like one of the lesser characters/franchises they created. Heck the last Banjo game was a total flop, and I didn't think it was anything special even in the N64 era. What they did with Donkey Kong is easily what defined them at their rise and peak. I will always have banjo kazooie at #1 for me! I’m currently playing through Tooie at the moment Nice. From Leicestershire myself and I kept pointing out to Mrs that Rare is from the area as we drove to Twycross Zoo last year. We have Banjo, Yooka-Laylee, DKC toys in our house. Just need a Conker one now lol.
No way! I was sure that they lasted until '89ish.
Funny how time stretches and contracts. I didn't know about US Gold getting the name, but they explains the sudden drop in quality, and why I thought they were around for longer. I loved the way Crash! managed to give all their games a Smash, some just getting over the line at 90%. Obviously the others were groundbreaking. Yeah Zzap! definitely had more of an ambivalent relationship with Ultimate, but it comes down to the gameplay. I never got on with the Filmation games, which was pretty much down to the control scheme. Other isometric games like Head Over Heels got it right, but would never have existed without Knight Lore. Sabre Wulf I loved, and I think I would still play it now, but Atic Atac and Jetpac are both wonderful games too The boxes the games came in were a work of art. Ultimate were so far ahead, the next logical step was to work with Nintendo. You're almost right. U.S. Gold used the Ultimate label still, once it acquired it, to release 4 games, one (maybe two) by the Stampers, 2 more developed elsewhere - and it showed. Also, U.S. Gold had the rights to an unreleased Ultimate title (Mire Mare, the final Sabre Man game) but wanted to release it as a budget game. Apparently the Stampers were pretty unimpressed by all of this, so they insisted Mire Mare was unfinished (maybe it was, maybe it wasn't). Either way, it was never released. They eventually bought their rights/label back in 1988 and retired it. But yeah, the ads still showed Ultimate, with the (very) fine print address as U.S. Gold. The C64 games were outsourced to two brothers (whose names I forget) but some of the games really weren't THAT bad, I think they suffered from being published by Ultimate, and when your C64 games are Staff of Karnath, Entombed and Dragonskulle, and your Speccy games are Sabre Wulf, Knight Lore and Underwurlde... well... C64 owners were doomed lol, although Firebird published a few conversions by Mr. Micro (so back in the day the C64 had versions of Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde and Nightshade, all of which were pretty good.) I have to confess too, I wasn't a fan of Knight Lore, etc. The innovation was stunning, and the praise well deserved, but it was... dare I say it, a tad boring - Alien 8 was slightly better. Gunfright was their best isometric title I think. I preferred Head Over Heels too, and the first Ocean Batman game, but you're right, none of those without Knight Lore (and no Knight Lore without Ant Attack!) And as rightly points out, they'd pushed the Spectrum as far as they could and the only logical step was to work with Nintendo on the Famicom (I believe they'd got one early and reverse-engineered it, and impressed the bods at Ninty so much they gave them a license to publish games pretty much on the spot.) I was around for Ultimate PTG’s games back in the burgeoning 8-bit era, but they never really struck me as being anything special. I was having my head turned by Graftgold’s stuff at the time, and Sensible Software were starting to make their wacky selves known before long, so the competition for my moolah was fierce indeed. Nothing wrong with them in and of themselves, just… what they were doing, others did far better; most notably, Starquake by Stephen Crow for the flick-screen arcade adventure, and Head Over Heels (by Jon ‘Matchday’ Ritman and the much-missed Bernie Drummond) for isometric shenanigans. That the latter still holds up in its Switch remake is testament to how good it was. It wasn’t until they became Rare that they really started to crank half-decent stuff out. Never got into the Killer Instincts, but there was no arguing with Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing or the incredibly silly Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Goldeneye never grabbed me the way it did for others, but that might be because I didn’t really vibe with Brosnan’s 007 either. More Xbox news I run a retro video game poll on Reddit. For the NES/Master System Era, here are the Rare-developed games voted in so far: Battletoads R.C. Pro-Am Snake Rattle 'n' Roll Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team I lived in Ashby and bought all their games from the mid 80s until they joined Rare. All their games seemed to be one step ahead of everything is played. They even had a Sinclair C5 in the shop for a while ... I still wonder what that would be like to ride/drive Sensible Software and, to a lesser extent, Graftgold, were very C64-centric developers (and for good reason, their 64 output was, by-and-large, phenomenal) so as somebody regards Ultimates output as iconic, i'd say it's a pretty accurate comparison to make. I had no idea that Bernie Drummond had passed away though (and so last year too, no idea how I missed that.) His work with Jon Ritman was brilliant. My personal favourite will always be Batman, but I won't argue that Head Over Heels, by every metric, is the better game. (Starquake is awesome too btw, pretty much on every format it was released on too, which didn't happen that often.) I will say, I don't agree with Rare cranking out half decent stuff, at least not initially. They did a lot of work with LJN, being devs of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a couple of the first WWF games. A lot of their NES games were, frankly, bloody awful lol. They definitely improved over time and had some genuine gems on the system though. Leave A Comment Hold on there, you need to to post a comment...
No way! I was sure that they lasted until '89ish.
Funny how time stretches and contracts. I didn't know about US Gold getting the name, but they explains the sudden drop in quality, and why I thought they were around for longer. I loved the way Crash! managed to give all their games a Smash, some just getting over the line at 90%. Obviously the others were groundbreaking. Yeah Zzap! definitely had more of an ambivalent relationship with Ultimate, but it comes down to the gameplay. I never got on with the Filmation games, which was pretty much down to the control scheme. Other isometric games like Head Over Heels got it right, but would never have existed without Knight Lore. Sabre Wulf I loved, and I think I would still play it now, but Atic Atac and Jetpac are both wonderful games too The boxes the games came in were a work of art. Ultimate were so far ahead, the next logical step was to work with Nintendo. You're almost right. U.S. Gold used the Ultimate label still, once it acquired it, to release 4 games, one (maybe two) by the Stampers, 2 more developed elsewhere - and it showed. Also, U.S. Gold had the rights to an unreleased Ultimate title (Mire Mare, the final Sabre Man game) but wanted to release it as a budget game. Apparently the Stampers were pretty unimpressed by all of this, so they insisted Mire Mare was unfinished (maybe it was, maybe it wasn't). Either way, it was never released. They eventually bought their rights/label back in 1988 and retired it. But yeah, the ads still showed Ultimate, with the (very) fine print address as U.S. Gold. The C64 games were outsourced to two brothers (whose names I forget) but some of the games really weren't THAT bad, I think they suffered from being published by Ultimate, and when your C64 games are Staff of Karnath, Entombed and Dragonskulle, and your Speccy games are Sabre Wulf, Knight Lore and Underwurlde... well... C64 owners were doomed lol, although Firebird published a few conversions by Mr. Micro (so back in the day the C64 had versions of Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde and Nightshade, all of which were pretty good.) I have to confess too, I wasn't a fan of Knight Lore, etc. The innovation was stunning, and the praise well deserved, but it was... dare I say it, a tad boring - Alien 8 was slightly better. Gunfright was their best isometric title I think. I preferred Head Over Heels too, and the first Ocean Batman game, but you're right, none of those without Knight Lore (and no Knight Lore without Ant Attack!) And as rightly points out, they'd pushed the Spectrum as far as they could and the only logical step was to work with Nintendo on the Famicom (I believe they'd got one early and reverse-engineered it, and impressed the bods at Ninty so much they gave them a license to publish games pretty much on the spot.) I was around for Ultimate PTG’s games back in the burgeoning 8-bit era, but they never really struck me as being anything special. I was having my head turned by Graftgold’s stuff at the time, and Sensible Software were starting to make their wacky selves known before long, so the competition for my moolah was fierce indeed. Nothing wrong with them in and of themselves, just… what they were doing, others did far better; most notably, Starquake by Stephen Crow for the flick-screen arcade adventure, and Head Over Heels (by Jon ‘Matchday’ Ritman and the much-missed Bernie Drummond) for isometric shenanigans. That the latter still holds up in its Switch remake is testament to how good it was. It wasn’t until they became Rare that they really started to crank half-decent stuff out. Never got into the Killer Instincts, but there was no arguing with Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing or the incredibly silly Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Goldeneye never grabbed me the way it did for others, but that might be because I didn’t really vibe with Brosnan’s 007 either. More Xbox news I run a retro video game poll on Reddit. For the NES/Master System Era, here are the Rare-developed games voted in so far: Battletoads R.C. Pro-Am Snake Rattle 'n' Roll Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team I lived in Ashby and bought all their games from the mid 80s until they joined Rare. All their games seemed to be one step ahead of everything is played. They even had a Sinclair C5 in the shop for a while ... I still wonder what that would be like to ride/drive Sensible Software and, to a lesser extent, Graftgold, were very C64-centric developers (and for good reason, their 64 output was, by-and-large, phenomenal) so as somebody regards Ultimates output as iconic, i'd say it's a pretty accurate comparison to make. I had no idea that Bernie Drummond had passed away though (and so last year too, no idea how I missed that.) His work with Jon Ritman was brilliant. My personal favourite will always be Batman, but I won't argue that Head Over Heels, by every metric, is the better game. (Starquake is awesome too btw, pretty much on every format it was released on too, which didn't happen that often.) I will say, I don't agree with Rare cranking out half decent stuff, at least not initially. They did a lot of work with LJN, being devs of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a couple of the first WWF games. A lot of their NES games were, frankly, bloody awful lol. They definitely improved over time and had some genuine gems on the system though. Leave A Comment Hold on there, you need to to post a comment...