FEATURE: The History of Rare
IGN.com has a fascinating feature detailing the history of the weird and wild Rare (formerly Ultimate Play the Game), which went from the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 (Jetpac) to Nintendo consoles to Microsoft’s stable.
An excerpt:
A rabid fanbase formed around the Ultimate brand, made even more rabid by the Stampers’ apparent seclusion. The brothers attended no conferences, seldom gave interviews, and came off as universally media shy. While the Stampers weren’t exactly eager to step into the public spotlight, they also didn’t really have the time. They were renowned for working eighteen hour days, seven days a week, only knocking off between the hours of 2:00-8:00 a.m. Their philosophy was that a part-time employee resulted in a part-time game. By contrast, they committed totally and required their team to do the same as well… the first true crunch mentality in the industry. Nobody was held to that philosophy more stringently than the Stampers themselves. In the three years they slaved to Ultimate, they only ever took two days off. Both were Christmas mornings.
Check it out!
July 30th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Who cares about Rare? What have the done for me lately? Nothing!
July 30th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Banjo-Kazooiee: Nuts & Bolts awaits thee.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Banjo Kazooiee? No thanks their last game required you to pick up so much crap… they took the coin collection bit several orders too far, not interested.
Nice try though