Rare was a prominent part of Nintendo’s history in the 90’s, responsible for major games such as Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and GoldenEye 007, though it rather famously departed from the Big N in 2002 for supposedly greener pastures with Microsoft. Still, the company holds a special place in the heart of many gamers, and given the studio’s prolific output over the years, there’s plenty to look back on. To capitalize on this, Dark Horse Comics will now be publishing a book about the company’s history.
The new book will be called “Rare Treasures”, and will feature, art, commentary, and interviews with team members from across the thirty years the company has been around. It’s listed for $40, and has a tentative release date of August 30th, though this could be changed in the near future. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on this as it nears release.
What do you think? Will you be picking this up? What’s your favorite Rare game? Drop us a comment in the section below.
[source southsidecomicspgh.com]
Comments 43
Ugh, I saw "Rare" everywhere and an image of the logo...I was expecting news of old Rare games for the Switch. Bleh...TwT
I like Starfox Adventures.
Even if others want to whine about it, I found it really enjoyable, and I wish there were more fantasy adventure games.
@Joeynator3000 beat me to it! Heart skipped a beat!! Ugh!!
I'm tempted. I'd love to see concept art for JFG, BK, DK64 and PD. Maybe even GoldenEye.
@TobiasAmaranth I really enjoyed Adventures too.When i played it I was a bit out-of-the-loop from the gaming scene so I never read any reviews for it beforehand,i just assumed it would be great as it's a Starfox game made by Rare.I loved my time with it so I was surprised to later read the many negative reviews it received.
I really hope that this book will cover their Ultimate Play the Game years before becoming Rare. I've got so many wonderful memories of using my pocket money to buy their games for my ZX Spectrum from stores like Woolworths and Boots back in the day!
@Jimtaro I don't think I ever bought a game from Boots.It was always John Menzies or Woolworths for me.Every 3 or 4 days I would be in one of them buying a £2.99 game for my 128k +2a.Or if I was a good boy it would be one of the £9.99 cardboard box games.
I thought this was a video game collection like Namco Museum LOL maybe in another reality sadly... ;_;
Sweet. I love these archival books. But man, I miss playing Conker's Bad Fur Day and Jet Force Gemini on my 64.
Sweet. There should be a discounted version with only the pre-Microsoft years included, since no one gives a crap about what's come after that point.
I won't be picking this up, but my favorite Rare game is Conker Bad Fur Day. I like Battletoads too. I think I'll play Rare Replay soon.
@OorWullie
Oh to have those prices again! We never had a John Menzies in our town but WH Smith sold games too. I remember buying Creatures for the C64 in there for the sum of £9.99 as it was one of those cardboard boxed games! Also Rick Dangerous (another boxed game) in Woolworths came with a free pocket calculator for some odd reason!
A rare book to be sure!
Hook it to my veins!
Nope Rather spend £40 on a Switch cart that can play RARE games.
@Moms-Meowth But outside of Donkey Kong Country ports, that's never going to happen because they're owned by Microsoft now.
@AlphaJaguar I think there's a chance Diddy Kong Racing could end up being ported or given a VC treatment. After all, Rare did make a DS version of the game so it's not outside the realms of possibility.
@Jimtaro
Boots was great, always had a good range of spectrum games. I used to pick off the £2.99 price label and change it for a £1.99, can't get away with that anymore!!
Spoiler warning. It's not a happy ending
@AlwaysGreener why don't you just rebut them- I got jet force Gemini for £4 🤔
I played a lot Rare games but for me, Jet Force Gemini and Perfect Dark are highlights as Rare originals.
@AlphaJaguar That's true. I bet it would sell a ton if it did comes to switch though lol
I loved Jet Force Gemini back in the day, but found the XBone port virtually unplayable. We have been spoilt by modern gaming, it seems, and some of those 64-bit games haven't really stood the test of time, unfortunately.
For me,Rare's most memorable 64 games were Goldeneye and Diddy Kong Racing.They've probably not held up too well but at the time,what incredible games they were.
Anyone have a slight feeling that because Microsoft bought Rare from Nintendo back in the day, and now rare replay with Nintendo 'exclusive' games on the xbone (albeit, because Microsoft own the rights to those games now) and Minecraft on the WiiU and Switch with Nintendo exclusive content, that, maybe, in the near future, like 5 to 10 years times, Nintendo and Microsoft might team up to make a new system or software together? I think it could actually happen. And I bet behind closed doors they both might have had meetings about this over the past couple years but feel it's just not time yet..... interesting....
DEFINITELY.
@Jimtaro the big WH Smiths in town had a decent gaming section. Happy memories of buying Underwurlde for a huuuge ten quid. But those boxes , I can smell the manual as I type lol.
Great company in those days and of course goldeneye later on.
I was sad to see them head over to ms as Nintendo seemed their natural home for a while.
@OorWullie remember mastertronic ? sorry about for topic....
I'm quite curious as to what is in the book. Concept and production art would be something I'd pay for!
@AlwaysGreener should have kept them my boy. I'm currently enjoying a re-run of Conker on my lil 14" CRT and NTSC 64 in the garage. Great game.
@OorWullie they hold up perfectly well on the appropriate TV. Get a 14-21" CRT and they still look great! Only problem is finding a decent controller. Mine are pretty wobbly
@readyletsgo please no. MS would demand a PC clone. Never gonna happen. Ninty likes to innovate and having control of hardware design is the best way.
@KIRO Not until I Googled the name there and saw the logo.It's all coming back to me now haha.I'm glad you mentioned them as in my search I saw the box art for a game I'd completely forgotten about. 'Bronx Street Cop'.I'm pretty sure the game itself was rubbish but I always found the box art amusing.Note the Mastertronic logo is different here,they'd been acquired by Virgin by this time.
@beazlen1 most likely software then. I don't see why not. They have both said working together on very small projects was great in the past. It's not like Ninty and Sony back in the day.
@OorWullie nice sleuth action! It was a good model, $1.99 games and you could find them even in tiny corner shops. Pre dates the app thing somewhat I don't remember this game but I do recall centipede being good and very hard.
Sorry everyone, bit off topic here.
Love old Rare games. Wouldn't need anything in the book after they left Nintendo. A lot of awesome games before that though.
Battletoads was a ton of fun on the new. I couldn't beat it without a game genie....
@beazlen1 @darthstuey Don't worry, I still have them in storage. It's just I've been busy these past few years, but I will eventually dig them out and play them, since this book resparked my interest to do so.
I will definitely pick this one up...I have such great memories of the work they produced. Also, would love to see some of the original artwork for Dinosaur Planet before it got shoe-horned into Star Fox Adventures, as well as anything from my all-time favourite: Jet Force Gemini.
Get for DK64 art!
I'm down for this book! Loved RARE in the NES era through the N64.
Remember when Rareware was great? Yeaaaaahhh I remember!
I only got into rare during the N64 era (their heyday) so unfortunately as much as I love video game history, that isn't enough for me to buy a book. I do hope this sort of thing becomes more common place for other devs though.
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