Rare Game Boy Color Team Tepid Seat

by Paul on Jan 5th, 2006

Look, darlings! Look! Rare’s Game Boy department loves you so much, it’s already blasted back some responses to the shambling band of questions that we sent it a mere few days ago. Now that’s service. Here, then, are your Qs and As on Rare’s recent and upcoming GB projects such as Conker’s Pocket Tales, Mickey’s Racing Adventure, Perfect Dark and DKC, with a bit of random rubbish thrown in. So go ahead – read, enjoy and belch uncouthly (optional).

Q1: When you created Conker’s Pocket Tales, did you know that Conker’s BFD would turn out to be, well, Conker’s BFD? Did you purposely make the GB adventure too cute? (Dengar2314@aol.com)

A: When we first started Conker, we had no idea what the N64 Conker game would become. We based the Game Boy version on the original Conker game Twelve Tales.

Q2: I’ve been wondering – will the DKC GBC version be exactly the same as the original? And are you making this because DKL had nothing to do with DKC Super Nintendo version, but DKL2 and DKL3 were pretty much nice handheld copies of the original SNES games? (Cornelius, the Corn Flakes Rooster)

A: The new DK game is an exact port of all the levels from the first SNES game (but with a few new surprises). This is the only handheld DK game specifically produced for the Game Boy Color. DKL2 was an exact conversion but DKL3 had completely new levels.

Q3: I’m just curious as to how much time you guys have spent on your previously released and future GameBoy games? (Bogga)

A: Mickey Racing took around 6 months, Conker took much longer as it was redone for the Game Boy Color, Perfect Dark was started after Conker but was delayed due to Mickey.

Q4: Why are you guys doing a Game Boy Color port of Donkey Kong Country when you could port it for Nintendo’s upcoming Game Boy Advance, that has Super Nes-like specifications? (Oddjob@quebec64.com)

A: The project was well underway before the GBA was announced.

Q5: Will there be special 3D acceleration chips included in some AGB/GBA games that require polygons?? (Jad Jureidini)

A: Who knows, maybe in the future the games will need some kind of FX chip, but the initial releases will not include any such chip.

Q6: Is there only one group of people working on GBC games? And who the hell made the hurdles race in CPT so damned hard? Punch him in the nose for me. (Bender)

A: Currently the Game Boy team is split into two (DK team & PD team). This is flexible, so the next game could have everyone working on it. The hurdles race is really easy, you just want to play better, “Bender”.

Q7: What is the best possible rating in Conker? I have Mental Mammal. Is there better? Thanx. (Darren & Trent)

A: The best rating is The Whole Shebang, you must be missing some invites or something. The Color version has an extra rating: to get this you must play the game and collect everything first time without saving the game once.

Q8: Would you consider making new DK adventures on CGB and/or GBA? (Tom Butala)

A: I’m sure DK will return to the Game Boy at some point in the future.

Q9: How excited are you about GameBoy Advance? Is it going to have a nice ‘dolphin’ related name, like “Sardine” perhaps? (Dan Beale)

A: Yes, I can hardly sleep at the moment, I’m that excited. I think it’s more likely to be called Guppy, or maybe Trout.

Q10: It seems more companies are releasing GB tie-ins for their N64 games, but they’re usually just that: tie-ins and nothing more. Do you guys focus on GB games as being separate, self-contained entities or are you guys a little influenced by the “supporting role” idea? (Manic Creature)

A: This depends on the project. It’s impossible to convert N64 games to the Game Boy, so we try to retain the main theme from the original title. Take PD for example, the Game Boy version is set before the N64 game. We also try to do standalone games such as Mickey Racing.

Q11: Although they were never confirmed, what happened to the planned Banjo-Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing titles for the GBC. C’mon spill the beans. (Anton Benson)

A: Neither of these games have ever been in development, but you never know what the future holds…

Q12: Since you make the best first person shooters of the Universe, have you got any plans of releasing a first person shooter on the Game Boy Color or the Game Boy Advance? I know GBC wouldn’t probably handle it, but GBA probably will. (Paulo Joffily)

A: The GBC just can’t handle 3D, other games have attempted this but they look well below the standard of graphics Rare is famous for. The GBA is much more powerful and hopefully we will be able to use some kind of 3D on this machine.

Q13: Will there be computer players in the multiplayer in Perfect Dark for the GBC? (Lokno1@aol.com)

A: No. The Game Boy’s CPU is just not powerful enough to generate lifelike opponents. AI is very processor intensive.

Q14: What pak size does DKC run on? 16 megabits, 32, hopefully not 8? (KM64PRO@aol.com)

A: The cartridge size is 32meg, the same as PD and Mickey Racing.

Q15: Is there any chance of seeing some of the older Rare games converted to the GBC? More specifically will I ever see a port of Solar Jetman? (Skum)

A: It would be quite nice to convert the old NES games, but it seems unlikely especially with the launch of GBA.

Q16: How are you guys are going about recreating the music magic on the little screen (and little box)? You only have 8-bit. Are you gonna have some compressed wavetables or something? (TheYoungerPlumber)

A: We have in-house music software specially written to produce the music. The same software is used in all the Game Boy games.

Q17: How difficult is it to retain the same feel for games that were made for N64 when bringing the franchise to GBC? What limitations in GBC’s hardware were most difficult to overcome in bringing a game like Perfect Dark to GBC? (aaburto@connect.ab.ca)

A: It’s not that hard to retain the feel of the N64 title, but it is impossible to copy the N64 game. The biggest limitations in the Game Boy hardware are a slow CPU, limited colors, poor sound and no 3D abilities, but using our imagination and skill, we try to recreate the N64 game as best we can on the small screen.

Q18: How many persons does the GB Team consist of? Are you divided into certain groups, like one racing group, one platform group etc.? (Jerry Nilsson)

A: Right now we consist of about 20 people, a pretty even spread of programmers, artists and designers with input from other specialists like musicians. The team is split into two smaller teams at the moment, as we mentioned above.

Q19: We’re just wondering how in heaven did the amazing people over at RAREWARE manage to cram all that ACM (am I the only one still using this term) goodness into a Game Boy Game Pak. Spill the beans! Please! (Dexter Sy)

A: We are using the original graphics from the SNES version and then manipulating them to work with the Game Boy Color.

Q20: Is “I’m a computer games progammer” a good chat up line? Is it possible to have a job in the computer game industry in which you just create ideas for games like scenarios, weapons, characters and plots? Is this what designers do? (joshwardle@cliffhanger.com)

A: That chat up line is quite possibly the worst one to use, I’d suggest “Hi, I clean toilets for a living”. Seriously, the job you’re after is indeed a designer’s job.

Q21: What is your opinion on a device that connects the Game Boy to the Nintendo 64 such as the one in Pokemon Stadium? (Plunk)

A: At the moment we don’t think it’s used very well. But we believe it could become very useful in the future.

Q22: I believe that the GBC can emulate a Z80 CPU. Being as the Spectrum has this CPU inside as well, would it not be possible to port some (or all) of the Ultimate games over onto the GBC?? (Tom Prater)

A: Yes, it would be possible – we could put the whole Ultimate collection on one cartridge. It would be nice to do, but not that practical…

Q23: Where and how would the Rare GBC team recommend learning Assembler for the Game Boy Color? (John Newbery)

A: The best place to start is to get an assembler (get a shareware version off the net) and read lots and lots of books. Also have a look on the net for Game Boy development sites, a lot of these have examples and ideas to help you along.

Q24: How will the GBC version of Perfect Dark affect the N64 version? Since the face mapping feature was so rudely ripped from our nurturing bosoms, I feel it only fair you inform us on this teenie bit of data on one of our soon-to-be-favorite and beloved games… (Tunnelvision456)

A: Connecting the Game Boy version to the N64 version provides an alternative method of unlocking four of the most difficult or desirable cheat modes.

Q25: What is the process for deciding what GBC games to develop next? Does it have anything to do with how popular a series of games is, and if so, will we see downsizings of the other DKC games; or other Rareware console adventures? (SirSlush2@dkvine.com)

A: Obviously the decision has something to do with how successful an N64 game has been or is expected to do, so yes, there are bound to be more ‘downsizings’ in future.

Q26: Would you guys have liked to make Pocket Tales for the same audience as Bad Fur Day? (Ben)

A: Not really: although Bad Fur Day is great, I don’t think it would work very well on the Game Boy.

Q27: If you won’t give our other Diddy Kong Racing pals their own console games, can you at least give them GBC games? For example, “Taj’s Bad Unnaturally Coloured Skin Day”. (Chad McCanna)

A: I’m sure that the DKR characters will make an appearance in future Rare games.

Q28: Compared to the N64, the Gameboy isn’t that powerful. Do you find it hard to push our pocket-sized pal to its full potential, to live up to people’s expectations? (Hubert Buckley)

A: Yes it is very hard to push the Game Boy, but we keep trying. PD was the first Rare Game Boy game to use sampled sound, Mickey Racing utilised the IR link and printer. PD has the most advanced 2-player link games yet seen on any Game Boy game. DKC proves the Game Boy can come a close second graphically to the SNES. We will keep pushing the CGB in every new game we produce.

Q29: How do you expect to get a good multiplayer experience in Perfect Dark Pocket with only 2 players? And will this sort of view lend itself very well to a deathmatch situation? I mean, wouldn’t both players just stand in one spot and shoot until one dies?? (Tycho Quad)

A: This is true, but we have overcome this by adding loads of different play modes with objectives, such as Counter Force, where one player is a terrorist who has taken hostages and the other player is a counter-terrorist whose mission is to retrieve them.

Q30: Do you guys (gals?) ever wish that you had started work on a system like the XBox, where there is all the power you could want – or does the limited display and memory of the GameBoy present a challenge that returns the same amount of satisfaction? (Jim Chaney)

A: We do work on powerful systems, we use PCs and SGs to create all the Game Boy games. Creating a game for the Game Boy gives as much satisfaction as creating a game for the N64, PlayStation or X-Box.

Categories: Interviews