Rare Talks…..
Please makes sure you check the full interview at the link. There is a lot of stuff to read about.
1UP: How did you get involved with Rare? You’ve been there for 25 years, correct?
Mark Betteridge: Yes, [I’ve been there] since the start. I always say, “A misspent youth in the amusement arcades — that’s how I got involved with it.” I was programming games while I was at school, as most people were — Peter Molyneux was the same situation. At the age of 12, I was writing software. There was a little company called Ashbey Computer and Graphics [Rare was originally founded with this name — ed., which was very close to me. That was Tim and Chris Stamper, and they were doing coin-op games at the time. The company set up a home computer division as well called Ultimate. We did some Spectrum games, and I joined straight from school. I was going to do a math degree and follow that normal route — there weren’t computer science degrees then. But I just wanted to write games. My parents were like, “You’re never going to make any money. It’s not a proper job. Get a real job. Work at a bank.” Luckily, I’m not doing that now. [Laughs]
1UP: A good time to start in the industry.
MB: Yeah, it was kind of in its infancy. It was all very “seat of your pants.” There was no such thing as marketing. In the early days we used to call the shops ourselves and say, “Do you have that game in — it’s brilliant!” And they would order them because of the hype. [Laughs] It was an interesting and exciting time, and [gaming’s] changed so, so, so, so much since then. Some things are better. Some things you want it to be more like it used to be. But maybe, that’s just a bit wishful thinking and rose-tinted glasses in ways. But either way, it’s been exciting.
1UP: Do you miss working with Nintendo?
