Rare

Rare
Type	Subsidiary of Xbox Game Studios
Founded	1982 (Ashby Computers and Graphics) 1983 (Ultimate Play the Game) 1985 (Rare Limited) 1987 (Zippo Games) 1990 (Rare Manchester)
Headquarters	Twycross, England, U.K.
Key people	Tim Stamper, founder (Rare) Chris Stamper, founder (Rare) Ste Pickford, founder (Rare Manchester) John Pickford, founder (Rare Manchester)
Industry	Video games
Products	Arcade games
Number of people	undisclosed
Website	http://www.rare.co.uk/

Rare Limited is a video game developer that is based in Twycross, England, U.K.

Chris and Tim Stamper's early arcade work

In 1979, Chris Stamper was hired by Associated Leisure to work on their arcade games, and he invited his brother Tim Stamper to join him.

In 1980, Norman Parker, the associate director of Associated Leisure, left to form his own company, Zilec Games. He brought the Stamper brothers with him to work at the new company.

Ashby Computers and Graphics

After working for Zilec for two years, the Stamper brothers founded Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited in 1982. They continued making arcade games for Zilec, which were then licensed to large arcade companies.

Ultimate Play the Game

When they released their first computer game in 1983, Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited had begun trading under the name Ultimate Play the Game.

In 1985, the Stamper brothers began to believe that developing for the ZX Spectrum would not be beneficial for the company's growth, as it was only popular in the United Kingdom. Around this time, they imported a Family Computer (Famicom) from Japan, and felt that it would be better to develop for this system as it was more capable than the ZX Spectrum, had a worldwide market, and its games had no load times.

Nintendo had claimed that it was impossible to reverse-engineer the Famicom. However, the Ultimate Play the Game team was able to do so, and after investigating reverse-engineered code for Famicom games, they were able to learn how to program for it.

Rare

In 1985, the Stamper brothers established Rare and sold the rights to Ultimate Play the Game to U.S. Gold.

The Stamper brothers traveled to Japan to show their technical demos to the Nintendo executive, Minoru Arakawa, in Kyoto. Impressed with the tech demos, Nintendo gave Rare an unlimited budget to make games for the Famicom console, which was known in most territories outside of Asia as the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Zippo Games

In 1987, Ste Pickford and John Pickford founded Zippo Games. After developing games for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum, they responded to an open call from Rare which was seeking programmers to help them develop Nintendo Entertainment System games. Zippo Games then began to solely produce games for Rare for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Rare acquires the rights to Ultimate Play the Game

In 1988, Rare purchased the rights to the Ultimate Play the Game trademark and intellectual properties back from U.S. Gold.

Rare Manchester

In 1990, Rare purchased Zippo Games and renamed it Rare Manchester.

In 1992, shortly before the release of Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros - Visions of Power, Rare's Manchester office was closed

Acquisition of Rare by Microsoft

On September 24, 2002, Microsoft purchased Rare for $375 million USD.

In January 2007, the Stamper brothers left Rare to pursue other opportunities.

Games by Chris and Tim Stamper at Zilec (1980-1982)

Title	System	Release	Notes
Vortex	Arcade	1980	Developed for Zilec Games.
Phantoms II	Arcade	1981	Developed for Zilec Electronics.
The Pit	Arcade	1982	Converted to Galaxian hardware for Zilec Electronics, developed by AW Electronics.

Games by Ashby Computers and Graphics (1982-1983)

Title	System	Release	Notes
Blue Print	Arcade	1982	Licensed to Bally/Midway.
Dingo	Arcade	1983	Licensed to Jaleco.
Grasspin	Arcade	1983	Licensed to Jaleco.
Saturn	Arcade	1983	Licensed to Jaleco.

Games by Ultimate Play the Game (1983-1987) owned by WEC Museum

Title	System	Release	Notes
Jetpac	ZX Spectrum	1983
Lunar Jetman	ZX Spectrum	1983
Atic Atac	ZX Spectrum	1983
Sabre Wulf	ZX Spectrum	1984
Underwurlde	ZX Spectrum	1984
Knight Lore	ZX Spectrum	1984
Gunfright	ZX Spectrum	1985

Games by Zippo Games (1987-1990)

Title	System	Release	Notes
Cosmic Pirate	AmigaOS, Atari ST, C64, ZX Spectrum	1988
Voodoo Nightmare	AmigaOS, Atari ST	1988
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II	NES	1989	Developed for Rare.
Sesame Street A B C	NES	1989	Developed for Rare. Re-released in 1990 with Sesame Street 1 2 3 on the same cartridge.
Sesame Street 1 2 3	NES	1989	Developed for Rare. Re-released in 1990 with Sesame Street A B C on the same cartridge.

Games by Rare Manchester (1990-1992)

Title	System	Release	Notes
Cabal	NES	1990	Conversion of the 1988 arcade game by Taito.
Solar Jetman	NES	1990
Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros - Visions of Power	NES	1992

Games by Rare (1985-present)

Title	System	Release	Notes
Slalom	NES	1987
Wizards & Warriors	NES	1987
R.C. Pro-Am	NES	1987
Cobra Triangle	NES	1989
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll	NES	1990
Digger T. Rock	NES	1990
Battletoads	NES	1991
R.C. Pro-Am II	NES	1992
Battletoads	Arcade	1994
Donkey Kong Country	SNES	1994
Killer Instinct	Arcade	1994	Co-developed with Midway.
Donkey Kong Country 2	SNES	1995
Killer Instinct 2	Arcade	1995	Co-developed with Midway.
Donkey Kong Country 3	SNES	1996
Killer Instinct Gold	Nintendo 64	1996	The Nintendo 64 port of the 1995 arcade game Killer Instinct 2.
Blast Corps	Nintendo 64	1997
GoldenEye 007	Nintendo 64	1997
Banjo-Kazooie	Nintendo 64	1998
Donkey Kong 64	Nintendo 64	1999
Jet Force Gemini	Nintendo 64	1999
Banjo-Tooie	Nintendo 64	2000
Perfect Dark	Nintendo 64	2000
Conker's Bad Fur Day	Nintendo 64	2001
Grabbed by the Ghoulies	Xbox	2003
Conker's Bad Fur Day: Live and Reloaded	Xbox	2005	Xbox remaster of the 2000 game.
Kameo	Xbox 360	2005
Perfect Dark Zero	Xbox 360	2005
Viva Piñata	Xbox 360	2006
Jetpac Refuelled	Xbox 360	2007
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise	Xbox 360	2008
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts	Xbox 360	2008
Banjo-Kazooie	Xbox 360	2008	The Xbox 360 remaster of the 1998 Nintendo 64 game.
Banjo-Tooie	Xbox 360	2009	Xbox 360 remaster of the 2000 Nintendo 64 game.
Perfect Dark	Xbox 360	2010	Xbox 360 remaster of the 2000 Nintendo 64 game.
Kinect Sports	Xbox 360	2010
Kinect Sports: Season Two	Xbox 360	2011
Kinect Sports Ultimate Collection	Xbox 360	2012	Compilation of Kinect Sports and Kinect Sports: Season Two.
Killer Instinct	Xbox One	2013	Co-developed with Double Helix Games and Iron Galaxy.
Rare Replay	Xbox One	2015	A compilation of 30 video games by Rare, and its predecessor Ultimate Play The Game.
Sea of Thieves	Windows Xbox One Series X/S	2018
Battletoads	Windows Xbox One	2020	Co-developed with Dlala Studios
GoldenEye 007	Xbox One	2023	The Xbox One remaster of the 1997 Nintendo 64 game.