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67-476: Tim Stamper , the co-founder of Rare , conceptualized a gardening game for the handheld Pocket PC platform around 2002. A small (three-person) team began work on a simple prototype while Rare was still affiliated with Nintendo , prior to its Microsoft acquisition. The game's development transferred to the original Xbox and, ultimately, to the Xbox 360 for its graphics capabilities. Rare wanted its animals to have

134-423: A 1988 interview with CRASH , Tim Stamper claimed that Knight Lore , and some of its Filmation follow-up Alien 8 , was actually completed before Sabre Wulf but Ultimate decided that it could have a potentially negative effect on sales of the comparatively primitive Sabre Wulf , so it was postponed until late 1984. More recent research into the code of both games has suggested this may have been an exaggeration as

201-522: A Microsoft Games executive had expressed interest in continuing the series onto the Nintendo DS platform. Rare had attempted to make Trouble in Paradise 's camera features work with Pocket Paradise , but chose instead to release the games on time. Viva Piñata was planned as a larger intellectual property. 4Kids TV had agreed to make a Viva Piñata cartoon before the game was released. 4Kids selected

268-462: A close relationship with Nintendo and developed multiple major titles for the company, including Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007 . Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, and the brothers left the company in 2007. After spending several years out of the public eye, the brothers are currently planning new ventures. The Stampers are taciturn toward the press and known for their work ethic and promotion of inter-team competition at Rare. They enjoyed

335-401: A college friend, John Lathbury. They followed the company's director when he started his own business, Zilec Electronics, which worked on arcade conversions . They worked on 12 arcade games, including Gyruss and Blue Print , and others whose names were kept secret and sold to other arcade manufacturers, including Konami and Sega . The job included international travel to Japan, where

402-521: A fervent fandom in the 1980s, were among the most influential developers of the 1990s, and were named "Development Legends" at the video game industry trade magazine Develop 's 2015 awards. Chris Stamper had a long-standing interest in electronics, and he built an oscilloscope in his youth. While at university, he built a kit computer with an 8-bit processor and taught himself how to program by creating traffic light signalling software. He attended Loughborough University of Technology with

469-415: A journalist reviewing Nightshade for CRASH magazine asked Ultimate what the object of the game was, and how large the play area was, they responded with, respectively, "oh, we can't tell you that" and "it's pretty large". This air of mystery was increased when CRASH magazine published a reader's photograph of Lunar Jetman featuring Jetman's moon rover pulling a trailer. The possible existence of

536-546: A large world and arcade-like play, rather than the room-based puzzles of the earlier Filmation titles. With the consistent success of Ultimate's releases there were rumours of a buyout by Ocean , until it was announced in 1985 that the Stamper brothers had sold a minority stake in the company to US Gold , who would continue to release games under the Ultimate label. Later titles such as Martianoids and Bubbler were not seen by

603-499: A part-time game". They only took two days off: two Christmas mornings. Tim Stamper referred to his custom-built Lamborghini as a token of his hard work. In the mid-1980s, following the success of their isometric Filmation game engine behind titles like Knight Lore , the Stampers founded a separate company: Rare Designs of the Future, later shortened to Rare. While Ultimate was built for

670-450: A record fee for a video game developer, and currently develops games for the Xbox One console. At the end of 2006 Tim and Chris Stamper left Rare to "pursue other opportunities", ending a 24-year involvement in developing home video games. The 1997 Nintendo 64 game GoldenEye 007 contains a ZX Spectrum emulator with ten Ultimate-developed games hidden on the cartridge. This function

737-450: A successful game. Ultimate found success with games such as Jetpac (1983), Atic Atac (1983), Sabre Wulf (1984), and Knight Lore (1984), whose expansive experiences exceeded the scope of their contemporary arcade games. The brothers outsourced the programming of their games for other platforms to outside developers, for they preferred the work of making new games over re-programming old ones. The Stampers were reticent with

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804-492: A team? It was Gunfright , I think", Ultimate had already admitted to developing games in an order different from that of their release, as with Knight Lore and Sabre Wulf . The authorship of the Commodore 64 titles was at the time even more uncertain. The conversions of existing Spectrum games Sabre Wulf , Underwurlde and Nightshade were handled by Firebird , who hired Mr Micro, Softstone, and PSI, respectively, to develop

871-405: A trailer (as depicted on the game's cover art and loading screen) had been speculated on since the game's release, and many fans had searched fruitlessly for it. The Stampers shrugged off questions about whether this screen shot was genuine, but stopped short of actually denying it. There have even been suggestions that Ultimate themselves may have created the screen shot to generate more interest in

938-528: A unified style, which was how the game's concept artist arrived at the piñata concept. The idea was exciting to Rare , as piñatas were not commonplace in England. The connection between piñatas and candy-filled insides led to new gameplay directions. The Viva Piñata team was a model for productivity and regular output within Rare and Xbox Game Studios . Though compared to the 12-person teams behind earlier Rare games,

1005-437: A week, 8am till 1 or 2 in the morning. I don't feel it's any good having engineers who only work 9 to 5 because you get a 9 to 5 game. This press blackout soon worked to the company's advantage. Due to their reputation for producing high quality products, along with speculation in the press and amongst gamers, anticipation for each release was high. This was helped along by the full-page advertisements placed in magazines showing

1072-413: Is "entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game". Emulated versions of seven Ultimate titles were later included as part of the 2015 game compilation Rare Replay for Xbox One . Ultimate had a reputation for secrecy that has continued to a lesser extent with successor Rare. Due to the small number of staff employed at Ultimate in the early days, the company had no time to speak to

1139-413: Is one of several new ventures planned by the Stampers. Tim Stamper broke with his reputation for secrecy around the same time by posting publicly on Twitter about Rare's canceled Project Dream . Bloomberg Businessweek described the brothers' software as having "something of a Beatles -scale fandom" in the mid-1980s, and Next Generation named the brothers among the most influential people in

1206-557: The Amstrad CPC and MSX , and most early games up to and including Nightshade also on the BBC Micro . Only three of these ( Sabre Wulf , Underwurlde and Nightshade ) were released on the other major platform of the time, the Commodore 64 , however a series of C64-exclusive titles were published by Ultimate: The Staff of Karnath , Entombed , Blackwyche and Dragon Skulle all concern

1273-558: The Golden Joystick Award for Best Software House in both 1983 and 1984. Ultimate was criticised somewhat in the gaming media for their repeated use of the Filmation technique in subsequent games Alien 8 , Nightshade , Gunfright and Pentagram , though Nightshade and Gunfright used Filmation II, a variation on the engine, resulting in a similar visual style, but significantly different gameplay, with scrolling around

1340-574: The Nintendo Entertainment System , although home computer conversions for the Commodore 64, Amiga , and Atari ST were completed by Storm Software, but not released. Shortly before the US Gold buyout, the name of another company, "Rare Limited", began appearing on the credits of Ultimate releases. This was in fact another company set up by the Stampers to develop for Ultimate, but not be subject to any Ultimate takeover. Rare (initially under

1407-601: The "Ultimate Play the Game" name for an Xbox Live Arcade remake of Jetpac named Jetpac Refuelled . In 2015, several Ultimate titles were collected and released as part of the Rare Replay compilation for Xbox One . Ultimate Play the Game was founded in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1982 by Tim and Chris Stamper , their friend John Lathbury, and Tim's girlfriend (later wife) Carole Ward. Other members of

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1474-486: The 16K ROM format for use with the ZX Interface 2 . They were also republished on cassette, with distinctive silver inlay cards, by Sinclair Research . Ultimate's first 48K releases were Lunar Jetman – a sequel to Jetpac – and Atic Atac , both of which were released in late 1983. Both games were very well received by the gaming press, CRASH magazine in particular praising what Ultimate had managed to do with

1541-514: The British home microcomputer market, Rare was founded with an eye toward the burgeoning Japanese video game console market, having been apprised of Nintendo by their Japanese arcade industry contacts. Nintendo initially rebuffed the brothers' interest in 1983, which led Chris Stamper to study the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hardware for six months. The brothers flew to Kyoto to present software samples to Nintendo executives. Nintendo purchased

1608-540: The Game Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited , trading as Ultimate Play the Game , was a British video game developer and publisher , founded in 1982, by ex- arcade video game developers Tim and Chris Stamper . Ultimate released a series of successful games for the ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC , BBC Micro , MSX and Commodore 64 computers from 1983 until 1987. Ultimate are perhaps best remembered for

1675-637: The NES with R.C. Pro-Am in 1988. Chris later reflected that his British peers did not grasp the larger, international video game market, despite having what he considered to be the best talent. In the early 1990s, Rare invested in Silicon Graphics computers, which they used to prototype full computer-generated imagery rendering. Excited about this work, Nintendo purchased a quarter stake in Rare, which eventually expanded to 49%, and offered their cast of characters to

1742-594: The Stamper family were also involved in the early running and support of the company, which was initially located in a house next to the family-run newsagent. Both Tim and Chris had worked in arcade game development including, according to one report, Konami 's Gyruss , and claimed to be "the most experienced arcade video game design team in Britain" until tiring of working for others and leaving to start Ashby Computers and Graphics. This led to ACG's initial trade being in creating arcade conversion kits, before moving into

1809-507: The Stampers' Slalom , which sold half a million units, and made the Stampers into Nintendo's first Western third-party developer. As interest in Filmation and the Spectrum began to wane, the brothers sold part of Ultimate to U.S. Gold and began to focus on Rare, though the Stampers retained a majority stake in Ultimate. On the NES, Rare worked largely on licensed games and ports from other platforms for several publishers. The lucrative work

1876-560: The Ultimate/Rare universe titled Sabreman Stampede was also in development, but was canceled. In 2007, Rare released the fourth game of the Jetman series, Jetpac Refuelled , for Xbox Live Arcade . On 8 December 2006 and 16 January 2007 respectively, Rare's owners Microsoft Corporation filed US and EU trademark claims on the Ultimate Play the Game name and logo. The registered purpose

1943-487: The adventures of Sir Arthur Pendragon. The company's secretive tendencies also extended to the question of who wrote the games. Whereas most games of the time would list those responsible on the cassette inlay cards or even on the front of the box (one notable example, Football Manager , even going as far as to feature a picture of author Kevin Toms on the front of the box), no Ultimate title ever mentioned any names at all, and

2010-403: The authorship of some of them remains unclear. The Ultimate titles up to Gunfright were produced primarily by Tim and Chris Stamper ; Tim provided the graphics and Chris the programming , along with fellow founders John Lathbury (coding) and Carol Ward (graphic design). Tim also created the cover art for the games, including the famous Ultimate Play the Game logo. The Stampers retained

2077-411: The banner Rare: Designs on the Future ) would evolve, after Ultimate's demise, into a prolific developer for the Nintendo Entertainment System . This led Nintendo to purchase a stake in the company, whose success was furthered with such classic SNES and Nintendo 64 releases as Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007 . In 2002 Rare was purchased outright by Microsoft for US$ 377 million,

Viva Piñata - Misplaced Pages Continue

2144-468: The big-selling titles Jetpac and Sabre Wulf , each of which sold over 300,000 copies in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and their groundbreaking series of isometric arcade adventures using a technique termed Filmation . Knight Lore , the first of the Filmation games, has been retrospectively described in the press as "seminal ... revolutionary" ( GamesTM ), "one of the most successful and influential games of all time" ( X360 ), and "probably ...

2211-489: The brothers became acquainted with the Japanese game industry. During this time, Chris purchased, studied, and taught himself to program the new Z80 processor within two years. In 1982, the brothers started Ashby Computers and Graphics in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch with Lathbury and Tim's girlfriend, Carole Ward, whom he later married in 1985. They worked out of a four-room terraced house next door to

2278-400: The brothers' family corner shop and ran on a shoestring budget for its first six months, in which they pooled their money to pay the bills. The company did not credit individuals on their releases, though they had individual roles in development: Chris and Lathbury programmed and Tim and Carole designed the graphics. Carole also served as the company's secretary. Ultimate Play the Game, as

2345-474: The coding routines found in Knight Lore are far more optimised. Knight Lore was finished before Sabre Wulf . But we decided the market wasn't ready for it. Because if we released Knight Lore and Alien 8 , which was already half-finished, we wouldn't have sold Sabre Wulf ... There was a little bit of careful planning there ... We just had to sit on it because everyone else was so far behind Ultimate won

2412-408: The company was publicly known, first licensed arcade cabinet conversion kits to companies before moving to the more profitable British home computer market. The brothers primarily developed for the ZX Spectrum , given Chris's expertise with its Z80 processor. Tim would later also develop the concepts behind new intellectual properties. The brothers each had a strong intuition for the elements of

2479-463: The company's Xbox 360 development teams consisted of 50 to 60 people. The Viva Piñata team included about 50 people at its zenith. Microsoft also transitioned its development teams to use the company's XNA package to streamline and reduce duplication in engineering efforts. Microsoft pressured the Viva Piñata development team to keep the game's themes kid-friendly, as the parent company planned for

2546-634: The company. The Stampers chose Donkey Kong , and their resulting Donkey Kong Country (1994) was immensely successful and a best-seller on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . Rare's success continued with the Killer Instinct fighting game series and a series of games for Nintendo's Nintendo 64 console in the mid- to late-1990s, including Banjo-Kazooie , Blast Corps , Diddy Kong Racing , Jet Force Gemini , Donkey Kong 64 and GoldenEye 007 . The latter became

2613-416: The cover art of the game in question, but no shots or description of the game itself. These ads would be run prior to and for several months after the release date. The magazines were not able to preview the games; the review copies, usually sent out just before general release, would be the first opportunity for anyone to see them. Not talking to the press worked for Ultimate and it soon became policy. When

2680-463: The definitive first-person shooter of the era for home consoles and led to a spiritual sequel, Perfect Dark . We feel that a 9-to-5 work ethic produces a 9-to-5-type of game. Internally at Rare, the Stamper brothers were demanding bosses who continued to work 15-hour days after transitioning into management roles. Chris Stamper continued to code for the company through the mid-90s, while also serving as Rare's chairman and technical director. Tim,

2747-447: The developers re-used many of the tools from the original game's development. In both the sequel and the original, the development team volunteered to record the sounds used for the piñatas. One of the team's new ideas was "Piñata Vision", a feature that detects printed cards via the Xbox camera to change the in-game environment (e.g., adding piñatas or altering the weather). Near the time of the sequel's release, Rare's Mayles figured that

Viva Piñata - Misplaced Pages Continue

2814-512: The extra memory Lunar Jetman used. In 1984 came Sabre Wulf , the first in the Sabreman series, and the first release at a recommended retail price of £9.95. The price of Ultimate titles had previously been just £5.50, which was typical for Spectrum arcade-style games at the time. This increase was to discourage piracy , with the idea being that if customers paid more for a game they would be less inclined to give away copies. This coincided with

2881-432: The game and resulting franchise to increase the market appeal of their Xbox 360 . In 2006, a Microsoft Games executive called the game its most important franchise, but its reception was tepid. As Rare released the original Viva Piñata for the Xbox 360 in 2006, its development team saw it as incomplete. The developers had cut partial ideas from the release in order to meet their deadlines. Rare's Gregg Mayles said that

2948-462: The game sold well and steadily on par with their expectations and Xbox's Phil Spencer added that the game was considered a success inside the company. The team incorporated player feedback and worked towards a "more definitive version" of the original. Mayles left the team to work on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Justin Cook became the team's lead designer. The sequel was built atop the original and

3015-626: The game. It has since been proven that Lunar Jetman ' s code does not contain graphics for a trailer. Ultimate were one of the first developers to have their own fanbase focused on the company and brand as much as the games themselves. They received so much fan mail at their peak that a full-time employee had to be taken on to deal with up to 60 letters per day. They were known for their positive attitude to fans, always replying to letters and responding to requests for merchandise by sending posters, sweatshirts and caps free of charge. The Stampers later stated that they were more interested in creating

3082-435: The games industry in 1995. Develop recognised the brothers as Development Legends at their 2015 Develop Industry Excellence Awards. The 2015 Ultimate and Rare retrospective Rare Replay features a stamp collection game mechanic, in which the player receives stamps as awards that are used to unlock videos about the companies' past. The choice of "stamps" was in tribute to the Stamper brothers. Ultimate Play

3149-403: The games than making money from merchandising. Retro Gamer has suggested that besides the quality of the games, Ultimate's popularity arose from a combination of "superb presentation" as well as the company's "air of mystique" giving it a "secretive yet cool vibe". The main series of games produced by Ultimate were all released on the ZX Spectrum , with most from Sabre Wulf onward also on

3216-540: The gaming press as being up to Ultimate's previously high standards and sales fell. US Gold released no new Ultimate games after Bubbler in 1987. A final Sabreman game, Mire Mare , was trailed in earlier Sabreman games and was mentioned by Sinclair User as being next up for release, but was quietly dropped during development. In late 1988, Rare bought back the rights sold to US Gold and were reported to be developing games again. Future releases were to have included Solar Jetman , which would eventually appear only on

3283-409: The graphics. They found success as Ultimate with games including Jetpac and Knight Lore . After reverse engineering the Nintendo Entertainment System and deciding to shift their focus to console development, the brothers founded Rare in the mid-1980s. They became Nintendo's first major Western developer, for whom they developed licensed games and ports . Over the next two decades, Rare enjoyed

3350-472: The greatest single advance in the history of computer games" ( Edge ). By the time of the label's last use in 1988 on a retrospective compilation, Ultimate had evolved into Rare and moved on to developing titles for Nintendo consoles . Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002 for US$ 377 million, a record price for a video game developer, and now develops exclusively for Microsoft platforms such as Xbox and Microsoft Windows . In 2006, Rare revived

3417-460: The home computer software market developing games under the Ultimate Play the Game name. Ashby released four arcade games: Blue Print for Bally-Midway , and Grasspin , Dingo and Saturn for Jaleco . Ultimate's first release was Jetpac in May 1983 for the 16K Spectrum. In a 1983 interview, Tim Stamper said that they deliberately targeted 16K machines as their smaller size meant development time

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3484-401: The intent of earning degrees in electronics and physics, but left the university in 1981 to pursue computer programming full-time. Chris worked with arcade machine electronics, resolving software bugs and converting Space Invaders into Galaxian machines. He persuaded his brother Tim to join him. The brothers worked as game designers at the arcade game company Associated Leisure with

3551-401: The introduction of the distinctive Ultimate "big box" packaging (used with all further Spectrum releases until Gunfright , and with various releases on other platforms), which the company felt might also help justify the price increase and encourage gamers to buy the game rather than copy it. The strategy paid off as Sabre Wulf went on to sell over 350,000 copies on the Spectrum alone. This

3618-411: The major creative roles until the purchase by US Gold, who brought in their own programming teams to create Martianoids and Bubbler . The exact authorship of Pentagram and Cyberun is known only to those involved; often considered US Gold games, they are both possibly Stamper games. This remains a possibility as although Chris Stamper has said in an interview, "What was the last one we developed as

3685-570: The managing director, continued to work on graphics for the company, including backgrounds in Donkey Kong Country . Their younger brother, Stephen, also worked as Rare's operations director. The Stampers encouraged competition between the company's development teams and were involved in the decision-making on every game, even when the company expanded to several hundred employees. A group of employees left in 1997 to work for another Sony-focused studio, while another group left during production for

3752-424: The plot of Trouble in Paradise . Tim Stamper Brothers Tim and Chris Stamper are British entrepreneurs who founded the video game companies Ultimate Play the Game and Rare . They first worked together on arcade conversion kits, which were licensed to companies, but later became developers for the ZX Spectrum home computer in the early 1980s. Chris programmed the games, while Tim designed

3819-443: The press and only rarely gave interviews. They explained that this was both to protect their own time and due to their preference to let their games speak for themselves. Their brand benefitted from this mystique of secrecy, but their reclusiveness was the subject of derision from other UK developers who otherwise greatly respected their work. The Stampers were known for working 18-hour days and believed that part-time work "resulted in

3886-407: The press or attend trade events. The British computer gaming press even complained over how difficult it was to get hold of them. As Tim Stamper later said: ...that's the way it turned out, we were so busy producing a few products a year and making sure they were right. I think while we were full-time Ultimate, we only had two Christmas mornings off, and that's how hard it was. We worked seven days

3953-508: The public eye for the next decade. Chris Stamper purchased the Eydon Hall estate for £17m in 2004. A decade later, the brothers invested in FortuneFish, a new Nottingham-based mobile game studio started by Tim Stamper's son. FortuneFish released Kroko Bongo , a rhythm-based platform game , in 2017, whose art and music recalled Rare's signature Donkey Kong Country -era style. The company

4020-400: The sequel to GoldenEye . Despite decent reviews, Rare's subsequent games did not appear to meet the high standards of their predecessors, and poor sales led to another staff exodus. After a two-year courtship, Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, and the Stampers left the company at the beginning of 2007. Tim Stamper's wife continued to work for the company. The brothers were inconspicuous in

4087-446: The series out of several Microsoft properties offered. 4Kids also handled the series merchandising. The cartoon is tied very closely to the game, and its animations are based on the game's own 3D character models. Its episodes are approved by Rare's Gregg Mayles for their applicability to the game. The cartoon was also designed to give viewers tips on how to interact with the in-game piñatas. The animated series' storyline later influenced

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4154-465: The team would likely not have enough new gameplay ideas to warrant a sequel to Trouble in Paradise , though Cook said that he would work on the game's shop interface had he more time. The games were later re-released on the 2015 compilation of Rare games, Rare Replay , but the server that handled their piñata sharing features had been shut down by that time. In-between the two series releases, Krome released Viva Piñata: Party Animals . In early 2007,

4221-424: The titles. Imhotep was submitted to Ultimate in a virtually complete form by author Manuel Caballero, who had previously written Batty Builders and Firefleet . Ultimate did not make any announcements regarding the authorship of the other Commodore games, but an article by Martyn Carroll revealed how Frank Gasking of "Games that weren't 64" managed to identify the creators as Dave and Robert (Bob) Thomas based on

4288-495: Was followed by the release in late 1984 of the next two instalments in the Sabreman series, Underwurlde quickly followed by Knight Lore . Knight Lore was something of a revolution in the home computer game market, using a forced-perspective isometric viewpoint branded Filmation , the style of which would be extensively copied in other games, notable examples being Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software . In

4355-518: Was largely not innovative, but helped the Stampers learn the console's technology. After reverse engineering the hardware, Chris Stamper's proficiency led him to develop a handheld NES console prototype prior to the release of Nintendo's portable Game Boy . Chris thought that Rare's rural setting—the company was based in a farmhouse in Twycross —was relaxed and refreshing for the game development mindset. The company earned its first million-selling hit for

4422-533: Was much shorter, claiming they could produce two 16K games in one month, or one 48K game. Jetpac was a huge commercial success selling more than 300,000 copies providing the fledgling company with a turnover in excess of £ 1 million. This was followed by three further 16K releases, Pssst in June, Tranz Am , and Cookie , before Ultimate stepped up to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac , Pssst , Tranz Am and Cookie were four of only ten games ever to be released on

4489-480: Was originally made as an experimental side project by Rare and was deactivated in the final version, but has since been unlocked through fan-made patches . In 2004, Rare revived Ultimate's Sabreman franchise with the release of Sabre Wulf for the Game Boy Advance . A new version of Sabre Wulf for the Xbox was also rumoured, though it was never released or even officially announced. A racing game based on

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