Wikipedia talk:Featured topics/Rare Replay

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Reference links[edit]

Something to ponder[edit]

edit | discuss
Rare Replay
31 articles
Jetpac
Atic Atac
Lunar Jetman
Sabre Wulf
Underwurlde
Knight Lore
Gunfright
Slalom
R.C. Pro-Am
Cobra Triangle
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll
Digger T. Rock
Solar Jetman
Battletoads
R.C. Pro-Am II
Battletoads
Killer Instinct Gold
Blast Corps
Banjo-Kazooie
Jet Force Gemini
Perfect Dark
Banjo-Tooie
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Perfect Dark Zero
Kameo
Viva Piñata
Jetpac Refuelled
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

{{User:Czar/topics/Rare Replay}} – czar 23:00, 12 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

*Heavy breathing*. That would be a monster Good Topic, I'd love to take a shot at them. It is my mission statement on Wikipedia to bring up every cool 90s game/Rare game up to GA. Did you plan on bringing some of them up to GA too, czar? I'm currently in the process of bringing something up to FA, and I've almost brought MediEvil to a Good Topic, with just one article remaining. After that, maybe late July or early August I'd love to make a start on Rare Replay when it actually comes out. Rare's earlier games prove more difficult due to lack of development sources, but heh, that's what Twitter's for! JAGUAR  23:37, 12 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure how cool Rare's Milton Bradley games will be to write up! I like working towards topics, so I was considering this one (and I know you like working on Rare articles...) I do have a number of other projects started and unfinished, but I'm okay with the slow march towards completion. And it would be nice to get a chunk of this topic ready by Rare Replay's release. That said, I wouldn't commit myself to this unless it's something you're definitely doing. So if you're up for it, I'll follow your lead—you take one, I take another, etc. I'd probably choose Blast Corps or Kameo first, as they're already in awful shape (and I prefer to work from scratch so I can stand behind all of the content). Where would you want to start? And as for finding reviews for the older games, I think we'll be fine – czar 01:12, 13 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm definitely up for it, and thanks to that archive you found, I would probably start with some of the ZX Spectrum games, with Jetman in particular (although that falls under the "80s kid" category)! This sounds like it's going to be an interesting project. I have my mind solely focused on a FAC at the moment, but once that's out of the way I'll make a start on the Rare Replay topic and will let you know ASAP. JAGUAR  13:15, 13 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Alternatively, based on your 90s list, I'd also be interested in doing the DKC or full {{Donkey Kong series}}. Rare Replay is somewhat of a "best of" collection (debatable), but most of the DKC games are Rare games that, frankly, I find more interesting than most of the above. So, alternatively or in addition to, wanted to throw that out as a possibility – czar 16:25, 14 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I was initially going to build Donkey Kong Country 2 after bringing the first one up to GA, but I'm not sure what stopped me. I find the DKC games more interesting too, and even though I'm happy with Rare finally escaping the evil clutches of Microsoft and releasing Rare Replay, at the end of the day if you look at the list of games almost half of them are Rare's lesser known games! Of course due to legal reasons they can't put any greats on there such as GoldenEye 007 and the Donkey Kong Country series because they're owned by Nintendo etc. I saw your talk page earlier that you requested sources for DK3, if you like, we could throw in that along with DK2 in the pipeline... JAGUAR  16:32, 14 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Rare Replay articles[edit]

Hey, please sit tight on making a start with the Rare Replay topic as I'm in the middle of a FAC (shouldn't take too long, although it will distract me from any other GA work). So how do you want to do this overall? Should I pick an instalment, then you do one after I nominate one, or should we just write separate articles at the same time? Or make a start on DKC 2 + 3? I don't know what would be more efficient. I may be overcomplicating things but it is a big list though, so there should be some order! JAGUAR  22:09, 18 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'd prefer divide and conquer, if that works for you. I prefer to write article from scratch so I can be completely aware of how everything's sourced. It may not make sense to TNT the ones that are C- or B-class, if you have any ideas for splitting those (unless you just want to take them). And if you need help with sources or vice versa, we can cover each other. I have all the sources lined up for Blast Corps, so I'm starting there. (Found some nice Rare sources in the process—check the Rare talk page.) This is going to be a long process, so no rush—pacing myself. – czar 09:04, 19 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
That sounds like the best idea, I like it. I'll let you know when I'm able to start. I won't nuke any that are C-class or higher, but that being said there are only, like, three in the list! I don't know where to find development sources for some of the older games, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it... I have sources for Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, so I'll be happy to take that. JAGUAR  20:14, 19 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm able to make a start on some of the earlier Rare articles, but I'm absolutely lost on where to find development sources. The good news is that the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro games are well covered with extensive magazine reviews, but the bad news is that there's nothing else to compare development sections with. The Jetpac series have no shortage of reviews (thanks to the link you gave me), but I can't find any "preview" sources. Time travel back to 1982? JAGUAR  18:51, 21 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Preview" as in info about then-upcoming games? Not sure you'll need it, but any article (preview or not) is cataloged in World of Spectrum Infoseek. Best bet will likely be interviews with the developer, and from that you might only get a sentence or two. It'll be fine if the development section is short—we can only use the sources we have! Some of those interviews I posted on the Rare talk page might have good info. Otherwise try searching for interviews by Rare's old company name, depending on the time period. – czar 21:36, 21 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry for my absence in this. I'm letting you know that I haven't forgotten about this and that it's always been on my mind, but I'm still in the middle of a FAC and can't concentrate on a writing these instalments from scratch just yet. I'll make a start on this the moment it's all over. However, I have found one or two Ultaimte Play the Game interviews which should prove useful, so thanks for that tip. Rare Replay comes out in less than a week too, just curious if you'll get it as well as I? I can't say I'm too excited as there is no excuse on why they didn't put GoldenEye on there... JAGUAR  11:03, 31 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No worries, I'm backed up too. In fact, I hope I'm done with my other stuff by the time this releases as well – czar 15:27, 31 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • W-w-what? That was quick. It's embarrassing as I've been looking forward to working on Rare articles for a while now and I haven't even started yet! Good news is I can finally make a start now as I'm waiting for somebody to spotcheck sources for this FAC (which will take time). I was looking for old interviews to help me write development on Jetpac or other older games and found an interview from 1988 which should be helpful, although I'm worried development sections for older games won't be long enough. JAGUAR  19:19, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Regarding Jetpac, I could only find this, but still nothing on actual development. JAGUAR  19:21, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]


Thanks for the opportunity but I'm not interested in improving more Rare articles, at least for now. I'm also currently working on Alien: Isolation and I think it will keep me busy for quite a while; it's not going to be an easy task to improve it to GA status because I have to be completely aware of how everything's sourced and written. Anyway, good luck with getting all those articles to GA status :) --Niwi3 (talk) 19:03, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]


I'm afraid there's a problem. I'm working on Jetpac now and it appears that every link to every magazine in the Worldofspectrum catalogue is dead - it just redirects to the main page when you try to access one. I'm not sure how to get around it, this is going to be a setback if it remains this way? JAGUAR  12:10, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Jaguar, I'm not sure when they were de-linked but I know it's been like that for a while. Some are available from WOS home page > Archive > Covertapes and Electronic Magazines and most of the ones I checked were in the Internet Archive (archive.org) so you can google "site:archive.org name of magazine issue number" to get what you need. That said, I think some of their locations are wrong... the page numbers don't exist for their their HCW citation and I couldn't find "jet pac" or "jetpac" elsewhere in the article. But I was able to find CVG, etc. I wouldn't worry about the development sections. Many older games just never received coverage in that way and it would be original research to scrape together primary sources. Just give it your best to search for interviews and dedicated Dev articles and if someone objects to the result, they can be the one to find whatever sources they say are missing. Can't fail a GA for breadth if the coverage never existed. – czar 16:16, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that. I find it unnatural for any VG article to not have a development section but with some of Rare's earlier games it's just not an option, and I hope any reviewer can understand that. I'm going to finish Jetpac now and should nominate tonight. Rare Replay comes out tomorrow... JAGUAR  15:32, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No rush. I cleaned up a few two more and nominated for GAN. Also rewrote Cobra Triangle last night, but as you can see, no interviews or anything for Development. User:Czar/topics/Rare Replay – czar 16:27, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Jetpac is done and nommed now. After hours of researching through old magazines of old 8-bit games and not the usual standards of fresh 90s coolness, I'm starting to feel like an anorak! Might do Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts tomorrow, then Battletoads, like a breath of fresh air! JAGUAR  21:06, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Nice—left some comments on the talk page and moved this discussion from my talk page to a project page now that it's happening – czar 22:54, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

August[edit]

  • Killer Instinct Gold (nom) rewritten from scratch, at GAN. It's just so tempting to write it once you have the sources...
Also it looks like Rare Replay has a bunch of behind-the-scenes developer commentary on the disc. Once it ends up on YouTube, we'll likely have more to work with in some of the dev sections. – czar 08:14, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Very good. Rare Replay is out today, and unfortunately I can't get it yet, so in that case I hope to re-write at least three more articles by the end of the week. Do you have this page on your watchlist? So we don't need to use the ping function every time... JAGUAR  10:25, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Lunar Jetman is at GAN now. I think I'm gonna take Grabbed by the Ghoulies next. I always wanted it when I was a kid. JAGUAR  14:39, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, on my watchlist. Not sure which one I'll do next, maybe Kameo. But need to take care of some other things first. Read some reviews and I think the dev commentary is mostly N64 and later stuff, so won't be help for the Spectrum stuff. – czar 16:43, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Grabbed by the Ghoulies is now at GAN. It took me literally the whole day to scrape sources on development and find enough to totally re-write that article. I think Kameo is in a similar position with sources (unless there are a few scans out there), but there was nothing for Grabbed by the Ghoulies. I think I'm getting Rare Replay tomorrow, so if I can't be blamed if I'm offline! JAGUAR  16:58, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Got Rare Replay today - the good news is that there is over an hour's worth of behind the scenes and development videos/interviews on there, including beloved Project Dream (partially the reason why I began editing in 2010), so all of this could provide excellent information. However the bad news is that you have to "unlock" them on disc. Quite frankly, the Spectrum games I've been trying to promote on Wikipedia all made me lose the will to live when I actually played them... didn't know the 80s was that bad. JAGUAR  22:46, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, the Kotaku review (in my opinion, the best RR review I've read) said that he barely unlocked the Blast Corps dev video after many, many hours of play. This said, I agree that it's more fun to write about the Speccy games than it is to play them. I think I'll do Knight Lore once I get my other stuff out of the way. – czar 23:20, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Nice one; I'm not sure on what to do next. I'll definitely take a more modern game with good dev sources (Battletoads or Nuts & Blots) tomorrow. I hope somebody puts all of the interviews on YouTube, because I would hate it if we both had to rely on me to unlock them, as I suck at the Spectrum games LMAO. JAGUAR  21:40, 7 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Gunfright article is worse than the actual game! Here's what I'm going to do now, I've had a full look at Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and it seems to me that the article will need serious re-structuring, but thankfully the content is all there. It's going to be an litle project for myself, but I'll get it done soon. Something has come up at the FAC of mine, so I'll get to that beforehand. JAGUAR  19:18, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Czar: Got a small problem with the Atic Atac GAN regarding nothing on development. I noticed that you expanded a lot on development of Knight Lore (which I thought that writing dev stuff on early Spectrum games were impossible). I can handle the review just fine, but where did you find the miraculous information on Knight Lore? JAGUAR  17:03, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Jeez, that was a fast review. Well, it turns out that Knight Lore was revolutionary on the other side of the pond. (Spectrum history is probably the biggest absence from our normalized "history of video games by generation".) The game is the subject of two Retro Gamer cover stories (RG is still a British mag, though). Emailed you some search queries to try, but it's at least worth saying that they didn't do any interviews for Atic Atac. You can also make the dev section about its ports, release dates, and similarity to Ultimate's other projects. – czar 17:40, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Got it, thanks. Yeah, the Spectrum was a massive thing back in the 80s. "Mainstream" consoles like the NES and Master System didn't kick off because the Spectrum dominated the market. The BBC Micro too had a ridiculously long lifespan - it was still being released even when Donkey Kong Country came out in 1994! I find it funny that we're writing up Ultimate games that came out before we were born. Anyway, I'll get to writing a development section tomorrow. JAGUAR  22:35, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Left a present for you at Talk:Grabbed by the Ghoulies – czar 02:48, 10 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Just found Retro Gamer #109, which has a cover story on Ultimate's Spectrum games. Most of it is for my Sabreman stuff but there are a few sections for Jetpac and Atic Atac – czar 01:55, 11 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sabre Wulf at GAN (and Knight Lore yesterday). Definitely spent too much time on these, but Underwurlde will be the easiest of the trio (especially now that I've got the citations locked down). Might be a bit until I get to the rest and I don't want to piss off WPVG with too many open GANs either. Feel freeee to take the Jetman series while I'm gone – czar 04:27, 11 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Hey Jag, let me know next time [1] happens—I can restore deleted images without you having to re-upload – czar 16:07, 13 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks, czar! I didn't think of that. I still don't know why it was deleted when it is similar to what I uploaded about 30 times in the past. There has been a flood here which is currently disrupting my internet access, but the Rare Replay articles are always on my mind. Right now I'm trying to write up a Background section in Microsoft Word, just in case anything bad happens. I'm even beginning work on Solar Jetman offline, as it's more reliable than me clicking "save page" as I'm likely to lose it all. If I'm offline again for a day you'll know what it's all about! JAGUAR  16:19, 13 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Getting my computer fixed tomorrow hopefully - so once that's all out of the way I can finally resume work on Solar Jetman and Nuts & Bolts. Just want to ensure you that I haven't forgotten! What a nightmare though... JAGUAR  17:36, 16 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, czar, are you still planning to take on Underwurlde? I've added a "template" to help you write something on background, if you're still interested. On that note, I need to know your secret on how you make such comprehensive development sections on articles like Sabre Wulf (and other Spectrum games for that matter)? Well done on Rare Replay too - I thought we would save that for last. When I get my computer fixed I'll start revamping the newer Rare articles at a breakneck speed. JAGUAR  21:52, 22 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! It helps to have that stock stuff. I figure that I might as well do the whole Sabreman and Viva Pinata series, so it's actually smarter to write out the development for the series article and then break it into what each article needs. (I think the "secret" might just be that Knight Lore and Sabre Wulf are much better known than Underwurlde, so we'll see...) So, yep, my horizon is Underwurlde, Kameo, Viva Pinatas, and I'm currently toying with Battletoads Arcade, which is going to be particularly hard to source as an old arcade game with a confusable name. You wanted to do the regular Battletoads, right? And you were working on N&B and the Jetpacman series? Would you want to do the ones I haven't listed? – czar 22:06, 22 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, I'm definitely going to take Solar Jetman, N&B, Battletoads and Jetpac Refuelled (maybe in that order?). I'm making a treasure trove here! I might also take Gunfright and Digger T. Rock in the midst of everything - I really want to get these Falklands War-era games out of the way! Surprised that the Sabre series had a big impact back then. I'd love to get an actual computer, mouse and keyboard back as I've been having to edit on my old school laptop I've had since 2007. Really horrible. I can't open more than five tabs without it freezing. JAGUAR  22:13, 22 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ha—doesn't sound like the best of working conditions. Sometimes I print out dense articles so I can annotate by hand and have some more screen real estate for other stuff. – czar 22:36, 22 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Windows XP in all of its glory. Do you annotate by pen and paper? Sounds very interesting - I haven't done that since college! Anyway, I'll be in nominating more articles in the week. JAGUAR  00:31, 23 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Again, apologising for the delay. I'm dying to write up more Rare Replay articles but my progress is being hindered from the lack of opening more than one tab, let alone taking five seconds to hit "save page"! I'll call the repair centre tomorrow and see when I can get my computer back. Right now I'll work on Solar Jetman and should take larger articles like N&B afterwards... JAGUAR  21:30, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

No rush at all, really! I, too, am waiting for a few more of my GA noms to be digested before I pile any more on the queue. Now that the buzz has passed, everything's a little less urgent. Speaking of buzz, I was thinking that Ben Kuchera's history of Blast Corps piece might have been related to my WP expansion... but it's enough of a stretch that I'm not even sure how to broach it. – czar 22:05, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
That's interesting, if so he should credit you for it! On that note, I wonder if our efforts to turn every Rare Replay article on WP to "Good Article status" would attract any media attention in itself... JAGUAR  22:13, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's more that the article expansion resurfaced some good sources for the media to "find", but that's kind of the point of doing the wikiwork anyway. More journalists have shown an interest in article histories lately, so while I doubt it's much of a story, sure, someone might be interested. It's a smaller milestone compared to all games developed by Rare or some type of collaboration where an article coincides with another promotional event. – czar 22:43, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It sounds like a long shot, but perhaps after we've finished with Rare Replay I'd like to make a start on all games developed by Ultimate, seeing as we've already brought half of them to GA! Sources shouldn't be too hard to find now, as I'm very shocked to see Solar Jetman has a lot of development coverage (I've expanded the section 2x and not even halfway yet). I wasn't aware that journalists took an interest in article histories/development, but bringing up an entire collection of games is a task in itself. Something in similar vein to this might make an interesting story. I'm surprised that "Idiot who had 10,000 articles deleted brought down Wikipedia's article count for first time" didn't gain CBS news coverage LMAO. JAGUAR  23:19, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
A potential of nine Ultimate games will be GA after we've finished this topic, so I think it's very achievable, seeing that most Spectrum titles have excellent coverage. JAGUAR  23:24, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ultimate's definitely doable (but the remaining games are not very exciting). I'm still on board for finishing the Sabreman series eventually so there's a few more Ultimate titles in there – czar 23:22, 2 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

September[edit]

Uh, what do you think I should do about the long Release section in Battletoads? Do you think I should nuke it? A lot of it seems like WP:GAMECRUFT, but I'm not sure if I should keep it because it's a boost for the comprehensiveness part of the GA criteria. Never dealt with a Release section this long before, so would be cutting the trivia and sourcing the rest of it be the best option? JAGUAR  20:02, 2 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You know me—I prefer to throw everything out and rewrite—but it's fine to keep the parts you can source, which will naturally exclude the minutiae. – czar 23:22, 2 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, final question: (this isn't covered in WP:VG/GL), what should I do about multi-platform reviews? I understand that I can easily list the scores of the multi-platforms in the review box, but the guidelines don't mention anything about writing what reviewers thought about the game on different platforms. Is OK to write that for example one reviewer of AllGame praised the NES version but another reviewer of AllGame criticised another aspect of the Genesis version? Is it acceptable to write that in prose? I was looking through the guidelines last night but found nothing. It's put me in a dilemma, as I wanted to write multi-platform reviews in Rayman 2 (which is one of the most ported games of all time). JAGUAR  20:57, 3 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I think it depends (are we still talking about Battletoads?) If several ports were released at once and have no or little material difference, they can be reviewed together (think of how Xbox One/PS4 dual releases rarely separate reviews by platform—they would only need to be separated if reviewers marked a substantial difference). Now if there is a big difference between platform, might be best to pull those out into its own section instead of mixing it in with the rest. I did this recently with the Amstrad reviews for Knight Lore (second to last paragraph of section). The Amstrad reviews were mostly the same apart from opinions on new Amstrad features, so I gave it its own paragraph. – czar 02:05, 4 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, yep for Battletoads. I think I'm going to include all of the reviewed platforms in the reception prose - all ports for the game had little difference (toned down difficulty maybe), unlike, for example Rayman 2, which has been ported from 1999-2011 and has entire mechanics altered! So if there are major changes to a different port of a game, should they be in separate paragraphs in the reception section? Surprised this isn't mentioned in any of the guidelines, so I'll have to use Knight Lore for inspiration. JAGUAR  19:14, 4 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

So burned out and sick with Bentworth. Looks like I'll be devoting all my time to this now. *Happy face*. JAGUAR  23:12, 5 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hi guys, so recently I've noticed this massive topic, and just how close it is to finally being finished. So I decided why not try to help out and throw my hat into the mix? I mainly focus on newer games (basically everything post-2005), so I can probably help out with the Viva Pinata games, and start working a little bit on Nuts and Bolts as well as Kameo. So, yeah, that's really all I have to say, so if you see me hanging around the Pinata games, this is why. Famous Hobo (talk) 20:38, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thank you very much for your help! I tend to work on 90s stuff and was going to save Nuts and Bolts for last. I believe czar was was going to take Underwurlde and Kameo? And I have Battletoads and N&B next. Thanks for your interest, looking forward to working with you. JAGUAR  20:59, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Famous Hobo, nice! Do you want to take a stab at the two Viva Pinata games? I've written a dev section, which I will drop in eventually, but the Gameplay/Reception should probably be re-written from scratch so we can be sure the content matches its references. Does that sound like something you'd want to try? – czar 04:17, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I'll do the two Viva Pinata games. Surprisingly enough, out of the 30 games in Rare Replay, I've only played the two Pinata games (I did play a bit of Banjo-Kazooie on an emulator, but it crashed after the second world, and I've been too lazy to go back and play it again). So, yeah, almost all of my knowledge here will be for those two games. Right now, I'm currently working on the reception section of Trouble in Paradise. I'm one of those editors who likes to do large updates instead of the smaller edits, so that's why you usually might not see many contributions until the next day or so. Just out of curiosity Czar, which Pinata game do you have the development section for? I found quite a bit on the development of Trouble in Paradise just from googling Trouble in Paradise interview, but I'd love to see what you came up with. Famous Hobo (talk) 04:30, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's for the series article, so all of them, but more for the first. I'll drop it in when it's ready – czar 19:06, 13 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Czar: the end is in sight. You still up for Underwurlde? I have two articles remaining, why did I save the worst till last? I'm not kidding, there almost no reviews for Battletoads! I tried everything, the internet archive, wayback machine, etc. I can't believe it. Every ZX Spectrum game has quadruple the coverage! The only luck I've had is checking through MobyGames and they have two good scans of reviews from 1992 - the downside is that they're in French and German. All contemporary press on Battletoads are just critics complaining on how hard it is. It's really puzzling. Anyway, on the good side of things, I got slightly carried away with the Ultimate games and sort of sent six of them at GAN... JAGUAR  18:48, 13 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, hobbling there. I'm bit busier now. MG's review list is the place to start but they are sometimes hard to find. You can try the WP:VG/RL, which lists WP editors who have specific magazines. I've also successfully requested scans at the Retromags forums. (Think of it as liberating the reviews from the bowels of archives.) Thibbs (or more precisely, his grandfather) can help with German translations and Salvidrim can help with French translations. I imagine there will be some retrospective full reviews, which should be good, and the stuff about its difficulty is more for the Legacy. AllGame will likely have a Battletoads review too (access via VG/RL). – czar 19:05, 13 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds like you need this – czar 20:07, 13 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I wonder what happened there? I clicked on one of the links to the MG page and instead it took me to another list of foreign reviews. I've clicked your link and it's taken me to a much better page with trustworthy reviews like CVG etc. It's obvious that the system doesn't like me! I might ask for the foreign reviews to be translated, if it's OK with them? And regarding that Battletoads bible, let's just say it's too bad that Rare's HQ is built up like Fort Knox! JAGUAR  21:22, 13 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, gentlemen. Nice to see I'm not the only one passionate about that particular Fort Knox:) Gonna put that Battletoads piece from RG to some good use before long, even though my studies are likely to get in the way. It's a shame that Rare devs kept their mouths shut for the longest time, seeing as we're mostly left in the dark as far as the making of company milestones like Knight Lore is concerned. —Electroguv (talk) 19:26, 20 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I'm in the middle of working on Battletoads (well, I have been for two weeks now), and I was struggling to find development sources until I discovered the Rare Replay video. I've got all the reception sources I need to make a decent section, so I'll get to that when I'm not busy. JAGUAR  19:36, 20 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hey czar, I'm on my final stretch at the moment - BK: N&B. It's a big article and will take me some hours to do, with some nuking here and there. Do you need a hand with anything else on this list in the mean time? JAGUAR  21:27, 27 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

October[edit]

@Czar: do you need a morale booster? :P JAGUAR  21:41, 10 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Haha, yeah... that fell off fast. If you have time, can you help @Famous Hobo with the Viva Pinata gameplay/reception? And I'll drop in the Reception Development eventually czar 22:02, 10 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I'll help. I'll try and whip up a new gameplay section tonight. Famous Hobo (talk) 23:36, 10 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, while I'm working on the Viva Pinata article, I'm going off the assumption that you'll do the reception section. If that's that case, then I'll do the gameplay, development, and soon to be legacy section. Famous Hobo (talk) 05:43, 11 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oops—I misspoke. I meant like I mentioned before, that I have the Development in draft, not the Reception. It's best to do the Reception alongside the Gameplay (when reading reviews, use the personal opinions in the Reception and the facts in the Gameplay). czar 06:35, 11 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'll handle the reception section, if it's OK with you two. I wrote the reception section for Nuts & Bolts last week, but I'm leaving that be for now. It looks like a nightmare. I'll help you with the first Viva Pinata. JAGUAR  14:39, 11 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, okay, well I guess I only need to work on Gamplay and Legacy, shouldn't be too difficult. The nice thing is that the sequel, Trouble in Paradise, is more or less the same game but with a few new gameplay elements, so once this article is done, it shouldn't take too long to bring up the sequel to GA. Famous Hobo (talk) 17:51, 11 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

December[edit]

re: (diff), yes, let's. It's been more of a hobble to the finish for me—lots of balls in the air, but I haven't forgotten about it. Just wish I had more time czar 00:00, 29 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I should've left an edit summary. I deleted it because I was going to leave a similar message come January and thought that a single December message would have felt awkward. I understand, I'm going to start again after I finish procrastinating on other articles. JAGUAR  16:24, 29 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

January[edit]

The Rare rewrite was completed, but I have some questions. Out of Rare's 60+ early games, are there any games that are particularly notable? Most of the "history" articles, even the documentary, simply say they made lots of profitable games but they never mention their importance. AdrianGamer (talk) 13:54, 18 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Jetpac and Atic Atac definitely. Jetpac won game of the year and sold over a million. Atic Atac inspired an entire TV show. JAGUAR  17:19, 18 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I thought they were games from the Ultimate era? AdrianGamer (talk) 02:55, 19 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Ah sorry, I subconsciously listed them when I heard "early games!" In the history of Rare itself (after their deal with US Gold), I would say that Battletoads would be their first true successful game prior to Donkey Kong Country. Although they made some best-selling games for NES before that, I would vouch that Battletoads was very first notable game. JAGUAR  12:03, 19 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Retro Gamer - Issue 153[edit]

The latest Retro Gamer has a feature on N64-era Rare which may be of use.[2][3] - hahnchen 11:29, 3 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

McFerran, Damien (April 2016). "How Rare Ruled the N64". Retro Gamer (153): 76–85. @AdrianGamer, are you thinking about taking the article to FA status? Either way, send me an email if you want a copy of this article—I think it'll be particularly useful in the company article (less so in the individual game articles). czar 18:30, 12 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think my writing is good/refined enough to reach the FA status so I do not intend to bring this to FA status. However, I'd still like to have a look at the magazine to see what can be added to the article. Not sure how to send an e-mail to you though. AdrianGamer (talk) 03:26, 13 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
mail czar czar 04:34, 13 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

May[edit]

@Czar: Nuts & Bolts is now a GA. I'm going to start working on Viva Piñata now, or at least I'll do the reception section first. If you want, I'll co-nom it with you when the time comes. Question about aggregators, is it acceptable to use GameRankings for that article? I never really delved with that big discussion... JAGUAR  16:06, 11 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds good. I just removed it (it's redundant to Metacritic) czar 16:12, 11 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Viva Piñata nommed. The end is nigh. We have just three titles left! Are you hoping to expand Underwurlde to a standard on-par with Knight Lore/Sabre Wulf? At its core, the majority of Ultimate games don't have as much coverage as the others, but I can't judge as I've never looked into the Sabreman stuff. Do you want me to help out with anything else? JAGUAR  22:57, 13 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Wow you work fast. Anyway, just wanted to mention that I did a bit of work on the gameplay section of Kameo, and hopefully I can finish it tonight. Famous Hobo (talk) 00:04, 14 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Czar has been working on Kameo in his draftspace for a while. I would have got Viva Piñata done a while ago if it wasn't for a lack of motivation. I remember you working on the second Viva Piñata, so I would say that is close to a GA... JAGUAR  00:25, 14 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Well that's dissapointing. Anyway, the second Viva Piñata game is nearly identical to the first in terms to gameplay, so I may copy some sentences from the first Viva Piñata article. I'll contribute one way or another. Famous Hobo (talk) 00:42, 14 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
It should be fine, the draft is here. The more collaboration, the better. The second Viva Piñata is in good shape, and could be GA-ready with some polishing. I'm not sure what to personally do next here. I couldn't say working on Viva Piñata was particularly motivating for me because I don't think I would have liked it if I was even three years old LOL! JAGUAR  12:29, 14 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • And at long last, the nom is up. czar 08:55, 8 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Next steps[edit]

Hey czar, it might be too early to settle on this, but are we going to set out making this a featured topic? I just think that most (if not all) of the ZX Spectrum games might be impossible to bring up to FA due to lack of coverage. I think Jetpac is possible, but unless FA reviewers accept the fact that some articles will be impossible to expand then it could make our life quite difficult. JAGUAR  20:25, 18 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think those will come down to prose quality. For instance, if all we can find on a game's reception is that the Stampers liked to play coy, it would be hard to make a case for "brilliant" prose without a bona fide development section. So it's really a case-by-case basis. I think I have a solid case for most of the articles I wrote from scratch but I'd want to clean them up a little bit first. A bunch of the rest just need more muscle: B-K, B-T, etc. cover the basics but would need way more sources in all of their sections (especially Legacy) as well as their original reviews from the mags at release. Something like Kameo is nearly complete only because I beat the living hell out of the Reception sources. I can still expand the Development/Release from news snippets, but modern game article FAs are monsters mainly because there is so much information and FAC becomes about balancing what is useful with what is available. On the other hand, older articles are entirely dependent on whether we're able to unearth the materials. (E.g., Cobra Triangle won't ever be close unless sources are buried somewhere.) Give me a heads up if you're working on any one in particular and I can ping some academic databases to find other mentions and, who knows, maybe more (I didn't expect to find a whole dev article on Gumball). I can also work on the copy editing, though it's good to have GOCE look through it too. The FA path is more straightforward for the third column (Perfect Dark and later) games than for the first but in either case, I'd only work on articles you could tolerate for several dozen more hours (looking at you, Solar Jetman) czar 20:59, 18 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Funnily enough, I found a whole dev article on Solar Jetman, but if we make a start on this then I agree that we should start in the third column. This makes it even more difficult because Rare is in fact (or was, judging from their recent Twitter activity) a secretive company. If we begin this then we could potentially nominate three FACs at once - the FAC rules allow one nomination each per person and one co-nom. I've got a couple of things to do work on after just returning from self-imposed exile and all, but I might begin with Banjo-Tooie or Grabbed by the Goulies. One day you must tell me your 'quick FA' secrets! JAGUAR  21:15, 18 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Furthermore, I propose a WikiProject Jagczar to focus on other VG good topics in the future. ;-D JAGUAR  22:23, 18 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Portuguese Wikipedia[edit]

👀 A group on the Portuguese Wikipedia is actively translating this featured topic, for those interested: pt:Usuário:GhostP./Rare Replay czar 06:20, 18 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

And they finished a few months ago czar 01:16, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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