Rare Ltd. Turns 40 Years Old Today
- Thread starter adamsapple
- Start date
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
Don't shoot the messenger.
Robb
Gold Member
Chittagong
Gold Member
Rare is 40.
Donkey Kong Country is 31.
GoldenEye is 28.
Donkey Kong Country is 31.
GoldenEye is 28.
Susurrus
Member
Imagine what we could have had if Microsoft never acquired them.
Holy shit just looked at their gamelist to see if they had anything I missed just for funsies since I'm not the biggest Xbox Follower. FIVE years since a release. And that was Battletoads, which was "mainly developed by Diala Studios" in 2020. Before that 2018 Sea of Thieves, and 2015 Rare Replay.
Fuck Microsoft, seriously. What did they release since Microsoft bought them that was good? Kameo, PDZ, Viva Pinata, and Ghoulies all started life for Nintendo platforms. Other than that, ports/hd remakes of games that were on Nintendo consoles were the only thing they had going for them. Everything else they made was trash. Why did Microsoft bother if they were going to do this? Was it solely to nerf Nintendo?
Holy shit just looked at their gamelist to see if they had anything I missed just for funsies since I'm not the biggest Xbox Follower. FIVE years since a release. And that was Battletoads, which was "mainly developed by Diala Studios" in 2020. Before that 2018 Sea of Thieves, and 2015 Rare Replay.
Fuck Microsoft, seriously. What did they release since Microsoft bought them that was good? Kameo, PDZ, Viva Pinata, and Ghoulies all started life for Nintendo platforms. Other than that, ports/hd remakes of games that were on Nintendo consoles were the only thing they had going for them. Everything else they made was trash. Why did Microsoft bother if they were going to do this? Was it solely to nerf Nintendo?
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Moses85
Member
Miyazaki’s Slave
Gold Member
40 year's old...Christ.
I paid for an older guys lunch today because the food truck/stand thing wouldn't take cash...only dbt/contactless pay. Felt super bad for the guy...I feel like him in this thread.
They have a controller and records/LP's as part of their 40th year anniversary..."back in my day we had games for shit like this!"
I paid for an older guys lunch today because the food truck/stand thing wouldn't take cash...only dbt/contactless pay. Felt super bad for the guy...I feel like him in this thread.
They have a controller and records/LP's as part of their 40th year anniversary..."back in my day we had games for shit like this!"
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
You are
If you were born before Rare was established, you should probably schedule for a proctology exam.
hououinkyouma00
Member
40 years of mediocrity. Congratulations
Come at me dweebs
Come at me dweebs
Fluffytheterrible
Member
Rare were the kings of N64. I'm still eagerly waiting ports of their old games to new platforms (starting with one of my favorites, Star Fox adventures on NSO!!!)
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
Good developer, when you think of Rare it's that epic 90s run.
Something Wicked
Member
I'll say it: if you're not down with Sea of Thieves, then you're not a true Rare fan. Only a Rare-fan poser would hate on Project Dream/The Best Multi-Player Game of the Last 15 years.
Agent X
Member
They announced Rare Collection 1 for Evercade today, with 12 games on it.
- Jetpac
- Lunar Jetman
- Atic Atac
- Sabre Wulf
- Underwurlde
- Knight Lore
- Gunfright
- Battletoads
- R.C Pro-Am
- Cobra Triangle
- Battletoads Arcade
- Conker's Pocket Tales
You can find more information at the following link:
Rare Collection 1 | Cartridges and Games - Evercade
Rare is one of the best-known names in British game development, and in this collection for Evercade you'll explore 12 all-time favourites.
evercade.co.uk
SILKYSMOOTH30FPS
Banned
They announced Rare Collection 1 for Evercade today, with 12 games on it.
- Jetpac
- Lunar Jetman
- Atic Atac
- Sabre Wulf
- Underwurlde
- Knight Lore
- Gunfright
- Battletoads
- R.C Pro-Am
- Cobra Triangle
- Battletoads Arcade
- Conker's Pocket Tales
You can find more information at the following link:
Rare Collection 1 | Cartridges and Games - Evercade
Rare is one of the best-known names in British game development, and in this collection for Evercade you'll explore 12 all-time favourites.
That is not what i want from RARE. But at least i've learned that there was a Conker game before Bad Fur Day was released.
NeverYouMind
Member
They announced Rare Collection 1 for Evercade today, with 12 games on it.
- Jetpac
- Lunar Jetman
- Atic Atac
- Sabre Wulf
- Underwurlde
- Knight Lore
- Gunfright
- Battletoads
- R.C Pro-Am
- Cobra Triangle
- Battletoads Arcade
- Conker's Pocket Tales
You can find more information at the following link:
Rare Collection 1 | Cartridges and Games - Evercade
Rare is one of the best-known names in British game development, and in this collection for Evercade you'll explore 12 all-time favourites.
Cobra Triangle and Battletoads Arcade are still awesome. I go back to those in Rare Replay every so often.
Sethbacca
Member
Can confirm, just talked to my doctor's office yesterday.....
keefged4
Member
Shifty1897
Member
Dang, wish I could get Rare Replay on my PS5. I was a huge fan of everything from Snake Rattle and Roll to Battletoads to Donkey Kong Country to Perfect Dark to Jet Force Gemini. Such great games.
hououinkyouma00
Member
Microsoft still greenlit those weird ass games like Viva Pinata or Nuts & Bolts, might just be because they never knew how to provide a direction for the studio to be successful and just let them do their thing, but that's still a good thing we've had games like this.
I think Rare's weirdness would not have fit in modern gaming, Microsoft or not. They would have had to reinvent themselves and probably lose a lot of their personality to still exist.
Anyway to me they're dead after the launch of Nuts & Bolts in 2008. Everything after that has nothing to do with Rare.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
They announced Rare Collection 1 for Evercade today, with 12 games on it.
- Jetpac
- Lunar Jetman
- Atic Atac
- Sabre Wulf
- Underwurlde
- Knight Lore
- Gunfright
- Battletoads
- R.C Pro-Am
- Cobra Triangle
- Battletoads Arcade
- Conker's Pocket Tales
You can find more information at the following link:
Rare Collection 1 | Cartridges and Games - Evercade
Rare is one of the best-known names in British game development, and in this collection for Evercade you'll explore 12 all-time favourites.
I spent so many hours playing Lunar Jetman and Jetpac on the Speccy!
A.Romero
Member
I like Rare as a business case study.
Back in the day Nintendo owned 49% of Rare and the Stamper brothers owned 51%. Nintendo had the option to buy the rest if they wanted but according to Peter MacDougall they opted not to for very good business reasons (including that during 2002 Rare accounted 1.5% of Nintendo's worldwide sales). The Stamper brothers were actively looking for a buyer and given that Nintendo didn't want to they started negotiating with Activision and Microsoft.
So no, Microsoft didn't arrive and stole Rare. The only thing they really did was outbid Activision for Rare because they wanted to accelerate their output and compete with PS2. Plus it was an statement: we are serious about going into gaming.
Yes, Rare went to shit and many key people left, including the Stamper brothers in 2007.
To me this means two things:
- Rare needed that creative sinergy with Nintendo to succeed.
- Microsoft made a bad purchase because, IMO, Rare's IPs weren't worth what they paid for the studio and talent can't be bought (obviously).
If anything the responsibility of Rare going to shit was the Stamper brothers because they clearly wanted to cash out and weren't interested in preserving the same arrangement with Nintendo. Why? Because they knew they could get more money. Not because of creative differences or because they felt they could do more with Microsoft (maybe they did but they would have been mistaken) but because they wanted money. And I think this is evident now because they didn't go to start new studios or anything, they have mostly kept out of the public eye. They invested in one of their kid's gaming studios (for mobile) and they are supposed to be working on something called One Step Left.
I respect the Stampers and I think they made the right decision from their financial stand point but it always irks me they put the full blame of what happened with Rare over Microsoft as if Rare didn't have any say about it.
So congrats on your 40th birthday, Rare!
Back in the day Nintendo owned 49% of Rare and the Stamper brothers owned 51%. Nintendo had the option to buy the rest if they wanted but according to Peter MacDougall they opted not to for very good business reasons (including that during 2002 Rare accounted 1.5% of Nintendo's worldwide sales). The Stamper brothers were actively looking for a buyer and given that Nintendo didn't want to they started negotiating with Activision and Microsoft.
So no, Microsoft didn't arrive and stole Rare. The only thing they really did was outbid Activision for Rare because they wanted to accelerate their output and compete with PS2. Plus it was an statement: we are serious about going into gaming.
Yes, Rare went to shit and many key people left, including the Stamper brothers in 2007.
To me this means two things:
- Rare needed that creative sinergy with Nintendo to succeed.
- Microsoft made a bad purchase because, IMO, Rare's IPs weren't worth what they paid for the studio and talent can't be bought (obviously).
If anything the responsibility of Rare going to shit was the Stamper brothers because they clearly wanted to cash out and weren't interested in preserving the same arrangement with Nintendo. Why? Because they knew they could get more money. Not because of creative differences or because they felt they could do more with Microsoft (maybe they did but they would have been mistaken) but because they wanted money. And I think this is evident now because they didn't go to start new studios or anything, they have mostly kept out of the public eye. They invested in one of their kid's gaming studios (for mobile) and they are supposed to be working on something called One Step Left.
I respect the Stampers and I think they made the right decision from their financial stand point but it always irks me they put the full blame of what happened with Rare over Microsoft as if Rare didn't have any say about it.
So congrats on your 40th birthday, Rare!
Moses85
Member
I am
daTRUballin
Member
It completely baffles me and blows my mind that since the release of Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts in 2008, Rare has only released 4 games and 3 of them were Kinect Sports games. Think about how long ago 2008 was. That was 17 fucking years ago! Where were you in 2008? I was still in elementary school! I barely even knew what the internet was!
17 years, so almost 20 years now. 4 games. 3 of them are sports games that nobody really cares about.
2008: Nuts & Bolts
2010: Kinect Sports
2011: Kinect Sports Season 2
2014: Kinect Sports Rivals
2018: Sea of Thieves
That's literally it. That's their entire output over the last 17 years. If you want to be generous and include Rare Replay, you can. I'm not. I also don't count stuff like Killer Instinct 2013 or Battletoads 2020 where Rare wasn't the main developer on.
They haven't released anything in 7 years and now that Everwild has been cancelled, I'm sure we'll be waiting for another 7 before they release anything. Listen, I'm probably one of the biggest Rare fans you'd ever meet, but has any developer had as pathetic of an output as they've had?
17 years, so almost 20 years now. 4 games. 3 of them are sports games that nobody really cares about.
2008: Nuts & Bolts
2010: Kinect Sports
2011: Kinect Sports Season 2
2014: Kinect Sports Rivals
2018: Sea of Thieves
That's literally it. That's their entire output over the last 17 years. If you want to be generous and include Rare Replay, you can. I'm not. I also don't count stuff like Killer Instinct 2013 or Battletoads 2020 where Rare wasn't the main developer on.
They haven't released anything in 7 years and now that Everwild has been cancelled, I'm sure we'll be waiting for another 7 before they release anything. Listen, I'm probably one of the biggest Rare fans you'd ever meet, but has any developer had as pathetic of an output as they've had?
daTRUballin
Member
In MY opinion, Microsoft didn't make a bad purchase. They just didn't know what the fuck to do with Rare once they bought them and turned them into a bad purchase. The IPs could've been worth that if they had actually done anything with them.
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
DreamcastSkies
Gold Member
"Rare Lead Producer Adam Park walks us through the legacy of some of Rare's most iconic games."
What's the legacy? You created a handful of appealing IP and games in the 90s and almost entirely decided to not follow up on them and you said you wanted to work on other things instead. The gaming community's refusal to see the good in Banjo Nuts and Bolts was ridiculous (and didn't help encourage Rare to do anything new with their established IP at all), but outside of Nuts and Bolts and Perfect Dark 0, Rare turned their back on the IP and games that made them famous. They did almost nothing with "the legacy of Rare's most iconic games."
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tkscz
Member
For me Rare is the Ship of Theseus. While it's still the same name, all the people who made the games they were known for haven't been there in quite some time. The starters of the company, the brothers Stamper, left the moment they were bought by Microsoft. The Banjo & Kazooie/Donkey Kong guys are now at Playtonic. The Goldeneye/Perfect Dark guys went to create Free Radical games when Rare was bought by Microsoft and they created the Time Splitters trilogy, then went defunct twice. Then over time more and more of the original staff just left, at this point none of them are there and it doesn't seem like they trained the new people.
So maybe it is Rare Ltd., but they sure aren't Rareware
So maybe it is Rare Ltd., but they sure aren't Rareware
daTRUballin
Member
The thing about Rare is that people on the internet are usually misinformed about when all these people actually left Rare and always make each departure sound like it's the end of the world until the next group of people leave and THEN it's ACTUALLY the end of the world.
The Free Radical guys left 3-4 years before Microsoft bought the company and it was only like 4 or 5 people. But because of their departure, you had people claiming that Rare had none of the original talent left throughout the 2000s. But in reality, the other half of the Goldeneye team stayed to finish up Perfect Dark and then worked on Perfect Dark Zero.
The Stampers left in 2007, not when they were bought by MS as you claim (which was in 2002). The next big departure of employees was between 2009 and 2011 when the studio started making Kinect games. A lot of veterans were either laid off/fired or left voluntarily because they didn't like the change in direction, but despite fans seeing that period as the end of the world, there were still A LOT of veterans working there during the Kinect years.
The next big one after that were the layoffs that happened in 2014 after Kinect Sports Rivals came out and bombed. 16 people were laid off and among them were the folks that would go on to create Playtonic. So yes, the Kinect Sports games were in fact made by the talent behind the DKC and Banjo games despite the internet telling everyone who would listen that Rare wasn't the same people anymore.
And now we just had Gregg Mayles and Louise O'Connor recently leave Rare after Everwild's cancellation, among others. Gregg and Louise had been there since the 80s and 90s. Yet I'm sure you had people claiming nobody was left just months ago.
I'm sure when others who have been there for decades like Robin Beanland and Leigh Loveday leave, you'll have people saying "Oh NOW Rare is TRULY dead" despite Rare being apparently "dead" for the past 25 years. It's like a cycle.
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Rran
Member
Chittagong
Gold Member
This is actually insane. They are a dead studio walking, fuelled by their aging GaaS, like Bungie.
The story of how they reverse engineered the NES and impressed Nintendo is always a great one. I don't know much about their Ultimate days, but man. These guys in the 90's really hit their stride. They were perfectionists and pushed the limits of N64 Microcode and general coding abilities. If you believe the stories of Nintendo being jealous, very impressive and cutting edge.
They reminded me a lot of top European skilled coders in the demo scenes back in the day.
They reminded me a lot of top European skilled coders in the demo scenes back in the day.
daTRUballin
Member
I think their legacy and historical significance has kept them alive all these years. Any other dev with that kind of output would've been thrown out into the streets a long time ago.
tkscz
Member
You can correct me without being an ass about it. Point being the Rareware from the SNES and N64 days hasn't been the same for a while. Also didn't know Beanland was still with them, man deserves more notoriety, he's done just as much as Kirkhope.
daTRUballin
Member
I.......don't think I was being an ass? Sorry if I was. Wasn't trying to be. I guess as a Rare fan, a lot of the misinformation spread about them gets tiring to read, but I wasn't even directing anything towards you, I was just kind of ranting about the internet as a collective.
I guess my point was that people have claimed that Rare hasn't been the same for over 20 years despite not actually knowing who was or wasn't working there at any given time. What people should really be looking at when judging the studio is their output, not their makeup of personnel. The latter is clearly less relevant since the direction of the studio isn't always determined by the people working there. Having a legend like Gregg Mayles under their roof clearly didn't help them get Everwild off the ground for the past 6 years.
kevboard
Member
also, Rare is one of the most overrated studios ever.
they had just as many mediocre or downright bad games as good games, both before and after Microsoft bought them.
For each Perfect Dark there was a Conker's Bad Fur Day (yes it's funny, and was edgy at the time, but let's be real... it sucked ass once the novelty runs out).
Neither Battletoads nor Killer Instinct were even close to being on par with its counterparts like Streets of Rage and Street Fighter. and generally their pre SNES era was a hodgepodge of decent and awful games, as well as filled with just port jobs of games by other studios. their best pre SNES game is probably Battletoads, and that game is pretty mediocre all in all.
they had a streak of really good games published by Nintendo, but who is to say that it wasn't precisely because Nintendo are very protective of their IP and games that those games turned out to be as good as they are? and even then, Donkey Kong 64 was tragic...
alabtrosMyster
Member
Rare died the day MS shipped the Kinekt.
kevboard
Member
their Kinect games were pretty good tho... and in a roundabout way the most "Nintendo" like games they had done in years up until then.
that could have been exactly the kinda thing that Rare would have done on Wii lol
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E-Cat
Member
Rare is dead
That's harsh, more like 25 years ago
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