Zippo Games
| Zippo Games | |
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| Founded | September 15, 1987 |
| Closed | December 24, 1990 |
| Headquarters | England |
| Other Names | Rare Manchester |
Zippo Games was an English video game development studio, founded by brothers John and Ste Pickford after they left Binary Design. The company started developing NES games for Rare including Wizards & Warriors II, Solar Jetman, and Cabal. Rare acquired Zippo Games shortly after, renaming the company to Rare Manchester. The Pickford brothers were unhappy with the work environment, as they didn't have as much freedom as they did before Rare acquired the company. In 1990, only a few years after the start of the company, both John and Ste left to work at Software Creations, and the studio was subsequently shut down.
When developing NES games, the company's name didn't appear at all, in a similar manner to TOSE. However, interestingly enough, two of their three NES games had credits, something Rare prohibited most of the time; Wizards & Warriors II and Solar Jetman.
Jon and Ste later founded Zed Two Game Design Studio.
Music Development
NES
Because the company had no in-house audio personnel for their NES work, Zippo Games contracted Rare to do the music and sound to their NES games, all of which were scored by David Wise, with help from some Rare staff for sound effects.
The company developed a game titled Roller Thrasher for the NES which was never released. Though Jason Brooke stated in an interview working on an NES game for Zippo Games, it is believed that like their other NES games, the company would have contracted their sound to Rare.
Audio Personnel
- David Whittaker - Computer composer
- David Wise - NES composer
- Jason Brooke - Computer composer
- Paul Tonge - Computer composer
- Steve Hughes - Sound designer for Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II.
