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 Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye 007, and Perfect Dark 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 Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the United Kingdom.
To find out exactly where the Stamper brothers set up shop during the '80s, our sister site Time Extension 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.
What's your favourite game from Rare Ltd? Did you play any of Ultimate Play the Game's titles? Let us know!
[source timeextension.com]
Comments 19
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
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.
@AX-7 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.
@nocdaes 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.
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.
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.
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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:
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
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