Stamper brothers

The Stamper brothers—Tim and Chris Stamper—founded the British video game companies Ultimate Play the Game and Rare. They first worked together on arcade conversion kits, which they licensed to companies, but later became developers for the ZX Spectrum home computer in the early 1980s. Chris programmed and Tim designed the graphics. They found success as Ultimate with games including Jetpac and Knight Lore. The brothers began Rare in the mid-1980s and became Nintendo's first major Western developer for the Nintendo Entertainment System, for which they developed licensed games and ports. Over the next two decades, Rare enjoyed a close relationship with Nintendo with a large budget, 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 2006. They are planning new ventures.

The brothers were famously taciturn toward the press, and were known for their work ethic and promotion of inter-team competition at Rare. Develop recognised the brothers as Development Legends at their 2015 Develop Industry Excellence Awards.

In the early 1980s, brothers Tim and Chris Stamper started Ashby Computers and Graphics in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Tim (b. c. 1959) had quit his physics and electronics program at Loughborough University to work on arcade circuitboards. Chris requested his younger brother's help with an arcade project, and the two began their company with Tim's girlfriend and later wife, Carol Ward, and a college friend. They first licensed arcade cabinet conversion kits to companies before moving to the more profitable British home computer market. They primarily developed for the ZX Spectrum under the name Ultimate Play the Game. Chris programmed the games and Tim produced their graphics and packaging. Tim would later also develop the concepts behind new intellectual properties. The company 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 primarily developed for the Spectrum, as Chris's expertise was with its Z80 processor. They outsourced the programming of their games for other platforms to outside developers. The brothers also preferred the work of making new games over re-programming old ones. The Stampers were famously reticent with the press and only rarely gave interviews. They explained that this was to protect their own time and their preference to let their games speak for themselves. Retro Gamer wrote that their brand benefited from this mystique of secrecy. 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.

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