Company: Rare
Mickey's Racing Adventure
Banjo-Kazooie
Viva Piñata
Killer Instinct
Velvet Dark
Donkey Kong Land 2
Fleapit
Banjo-Pilot
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Land III
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong
Dinosaur Planet
Banjo-Tooie
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Rare Replay
Star Fox Adventures
Killer Instinct
Banjo-Tooie
Mickey's Speedway USA
Diddy Kong Racing
Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
Donkey Kong Country 3
Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll
Dream: Land of Giants
Diddy Kong Pilot
Donkey Kong Country
Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run
Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers
Sabreman Stampede
Sea of Thieves
Jetpac Refuelled
Donkey Kong Racing
Jet Force Gemini
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll
Banjo-Kazooie
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Pro-Am 64
Twelve Tales: Conker 64
Conker: Live & Reloaded
Donkey Kong Country
Conker's Pocket Tales
Conker's Other Bad Fur Day
Donkey Kong Land
Jet Force Gemini
It's Mr. Pants
Killer Instinct 2
Perfect Dark
subdirectory_arrow_right Perfect Dark (Game), Conker's Pocket Tales (Game), Sabre Wulf (Game), Mickey's Racing Adventure (Game), Donkey Kong Country (Game), Mickey's Speedway USA (Game), It's Mr. Pants (Game), Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (Game)
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Eight games developed by Rare for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance feature a recurring Easter egg: a crude drawing of a bovine eating a flower. Dubbed the "Rare Cow", it made its first known appearance in Conker's Pocket Tales in 1998, and last appeared in It's Mr. Pants in 2004.
Video overview of all known appearances:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hilpKP1xiXs
Screenshots of all known appearances:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/games/rare-cows-list/
Official Nintendo Magazine article [source originally submitted by Zoltanish]:
https://web.archive.org/web/20141010194946/http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/44420/features/14-donkey-kong-facts-and-secrets/?page=3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hilpKP1xiXs
Screenshots of all known appearances:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/games/rare-cows-list/
Official Nintendo Magazine article [source originally submitted by Zoltanish]:
https://web.archive.org/web/20141010194946/http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/44420/features/14-donkey-kong-facts-and-secrets/?page=3
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Contrary to popular belief, Rare's name was never "Rareware", even before the Microsoft buyout in 2002. On an old Rare Scribes post dated June 19, 2000, it was confirmed that the name "Rareware" refers to the company's products, not the company itself. It's essentially a portmanteau of "Rare" and "Software". The company itself was always internally named Rare Limited.
Rare Scribes - June 19, 2020:
https://rarewhere.neocities.org/1998_2000/june1900
Example of official Nintendo website referring to them as Rare Ltd. (Banjo-Tooie game page):
https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040759/http://www.nintendo.com/games/gamepage/gamepage_main.jsp?gameId=53
https://rarewhere.neocities.org/1998_2000/june1900
Example of official Nintendo website referring to them as Rare Ltd. (Banjo-Tooie game page):
https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040759/http://www.nintendo.com/games/gamepage/gamepage_main.jsp?gameId=53
subdirectory_arrow_right Ultimate Play the Game (Company)
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During their time as "Ultimate Play the Game", Rare were known for having minimal marketing to the point of not even releasing screenshots in magazines, and having print advertisements comprise of game logos and nothing else.
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A common internet rumor, typically pushed by Nintendo fans upset over rival console manufacturer Microsoft's purchase of former Nintendo collaborator Rare, is that Kinect Sports and Kinect Sports: Season Two were mandated by Microsoft, and were not something that employees of Rare wanted to work on. According to Yooka-Laylee creative lead Gavin Price, this was not true, claiming:
"Phil Spencer taking the mantle of Xbox is one of the best things that could have happened for Rare. Because he’s always said to people at Rare [as general manager of Microsoft Studios], ‘Do what you want to do and we’ll back you,’ and he’s always stayed true to his word in that regard. It was people in Rare’s management at the time who said: ‘Well, Kinect is a great opportunity for the studio – go all in on it.’ So when executives at Microsoft see that the management team are passionate about doing that, they back them. Microsoft to their credit did that, and perhaps the story online isn’t quite reflective of the truth."
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Grant Kirkhope, music composer for Rare at the time, reused songs he had composed for Rare's unreleased game Project: Dream for several other titles, including Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Viva Piñata.
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According to Chris Seavor (creator of Conker's Bad Fur Day), Rare wanted to explore 'amiibo styled things' way back during the days of the Nintendo 64. Rare even made figures of two of their characters for an unproduced fantasy video game called Urchin. The idea went nowhere with Rare and Nintendo at the time. Later, Nintendo decided to introduce the concept of Amiibos for the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS on June 10, 2014.
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According to former Rareware employee Chris Seavor, when the company was purchased by Microsoft, a number of the Microsoft executives thought that they had the rights to Donkey Kong until Rare corrected them.
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One of the prototype games Rare had created to test programming for the Kinect had the player control a seagull, and attempt to poo on passers by.
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When Microsoft had acquired Rare, they'd decided to keep their in-house Game Boy team as Microsoft had no intentions of entering the handheld market. Rare would continue to develop games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Microsoft themselves had also released other games on rival platforrms.
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The company started out as Ultimate Play the Game (often shortened to Ultimate), making games for the popular 8-bit home computers of the time.