
Brothers Tim and Chris Stamper are British entrepreneurs who founded the video game companies
Ultimate Play 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 game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games fo ...
and
Rare. They first worked together on
arcade conversion In video gaming parlance, a conversion is the production of a game on one computer or console that was originally written for another system. Over the years, video game conversion has taken form in a number of different ways, both in their style a ...
kits, which were licensed to companies, but later became developers for the
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
home computer in the early 1980s. Chris programmed the games, while Tim designed the graphics. They found success as Ultimate with games including ''
Jetpac
''Jetpac'' is a shooter video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and released for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20 in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1984. It is the first game to be released by Ultimate Play the Game, the company which ...
'' and ''
Knight Lore''. After
reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
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 a close relationship with Nintendo and developed multiple major titles for the company, including ''
Donkey Kong Country
''Donkey Kong Country'' is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare (company), Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a Reboot (fiction), reboot of Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong'' franchise and foll ...
'' and ''
GoldenEye 007''.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
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 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'' 2015 awards.
Early life
Chris Stamper had a long-standing interest in electronics, and 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 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
A software bug is an error, flaw or fault in the design, development, or operation of computer software that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. The process of finding and correcting bugs i ...
and
converting ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and ...
'' into ''
Galaxian
is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, who ...
'' machines. He persuaded his brother Tim to join him. The brothers worked as game designers at the arcade game company Associated Leisure with 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
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casi ...
and
Sega. The job included international travel to Japan, where 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.
Ultimate
In 1982, the brothers started Ashby Computers and Graphics in the
Leicestershire town of
Ashby-de-la-Zouch
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordsh ...
with Lathbury and Tim's girlfriend, Carole Ward, whom he later married in 1985. They worked out of a four-room
terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United Sta ...
next door to the brothers' family
corner shop
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ...
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 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
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
, 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 a successful game. Ultimate found success with games such as ''
Jetpac
''Jetpac'' is a shooter video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and released for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20 in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1984. It is the first game to be released by Ultimate Play the Game, the company which ...
'' (1983), ''
Atic Atac'' (1983), ''
Sabre Wulf
''Sabre Wulf'' is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collectin ...
'' (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 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 a part-time game". They only took two days off: two Christmas mornings. Tim Stamper referred to his custom-built
Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi.
Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–199 ...
as a token of his hard work.
Rare
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 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
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
(NES) hardware for six months. The brothers flew to Kyoto to present software samples to Nintendo executives. Nintendo purchased 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 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
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same te ...
. 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 the NES with ''
R.C. Pro-Am
''R.C. Pro-Am'' is a racing video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America in February 1988, and then in Europe on April 15. Presented in an overhead isometric pers ...
'' 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
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...
computers, which they used to prototype full
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The image ...
rendering. Excited about this work, Nintendo purchased a quarter stake in Rare, which eventually expanded to 49%, and offered their cast of characters to the company. The Stampers chose
Donkey Kong
is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong and his clan of other apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of platform games—originally s ...
, and their resulting ''
Donkey Kong Country
''Donkey Kong Country'' is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare (company), Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a Reboot (fiction), reboot of Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong'' franchise and foll ...
'' (1994) was immensely successful and
a best-seller on the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...
. Rare's success continued with the ''
Killer Instinct
''Killer Instinct'' is a series of fighting video games originally created by Rare and published by Midway, Nintendo, and Microsoft Studios. The original ''Killer Instinct'' was released for arcades in 1994; the game was then released for ...
'' fighting game series and a series of games for Nintendo's
Nintendo 64
The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...
console in the mid- to late-1990s, including ''
Banjo-Kazooie
''Banjo-Kazooie'' is a series of video games developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a play ...
,'' ''
Blast Corps
''Blast Corps'' is an action game developed by Rare (company), Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. In the game, the player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. In the game's 57 Le ...
'', ''
Diddy Kong Racing'', ''
Jet Force Gemini'', ''
Donkey Kong 64
''Donkey Kong 64'' is a 1999 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the first 3D game in the ''Donkey Kong'' series. As the gorilla Donkey Kong, the player explores themed levels to collect items a ...
'' and ''
GoldenEye 007''. The latter became the definitive
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
of the era for home consoles and led to a spiritual sequel, ''
Perfect Dark''.
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, 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 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 Rare
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 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
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action game, action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform game ...
in 2017 whose art and music recalled Rare's signature ''Donkey Kong Country''-era style. The company 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
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
about Rare's canceled ''
Project Dream''.
Legacy
''
Bloomberg Businessweek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'' described the brothers' software as having "something of a
Beatles-scale fandom" in the mid-1980s, and ''
Next Generation
Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to:
Publications and literature
* ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company
* Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'' named the brothers among the most influential people in 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.
References
Bibliography
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British businesspeople
British video game designers
British video game programmers
Living people
Rare (company) people
Sibling duos
Year of birth missing (living people)