Martin Hollis | |
|---|---|
 Hollis in 2005 | |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Video game designer |
| Years active | 1993-2010 |
| Notable work | GoldenEye 007 |
Martin Hollis is a former British video game designer best known for his work at Rare and directing the critically acclaimed 1997 first-person shooter GoldenEye 007 . In 2000, he founded Zoonami, a defunct video game development company that was based in Cambridge and closed in 2010. His final release was Bonsai Barber in 2009.
Martin Hollis grew up playing BBC Micro video games such as Chuckie Egg and Elite . [1] He also used to develop his own games for the system, including a Pac-Man clone and a similar Easter-themed one "with rabbits going around the maze." [1] Before turning 16, he ended up creating between 20 and 40 BBC Micro games, some of which were published in magazines. [2]
Martin Hollis studied computer science at the University of Cambridge. [3] He first worked in a small engineering company for a year, developing tools for tracking boats and submarines. [1] In December 1993, [2] when he was 22 years old, he applied for a job at Rare and became the company's first computer science graduate. Due to his knowledge of Unix, he was tasked with setting up the networks of the expensive Silicon Graphics systems Rare had recently acquired at the time. [3] He then worked as a second programmer on the coin-op version of Killer Instinct with Rare's technical director Chris Stamper, who designed the hardware. [3] Hollis programmed the machine's operating system. [4] Both Stamper and Hollis also went to Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, California, where they got the chance to write and test code that would run on the first chips of the then-upcoming Nintendo 64 console. [5]
After his work on Killer Instinct, Hollis was interested in leading a team to produce a Nintendo 64 video game based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye , an idea that had been proposed to Rare at the highest level. [3] The resulting game, GoldenEye 007 , was inspired by Virtua Cop and released in 1997 to considerable critical and commercial success. [1] Hollis remarked that he worked non-stop on the game, "[averaging] an 80 hour week over the 2 and a half years of the project", and that the team he recruited was very talented and dedicated even though most of it was composed of people who had never worked on video games. [6] [7] GoldenEye 007 designer Duncan Botwood described both Hollis and programmer Mark Edmonds, who created the GoldenEye 007 engine, as some of the smartest people he has ever known. [8]
Hollis and his team were then offered to produce a game based on the GoldenEye sequel Tomorrow Never Dies , but they turned it down without hesitation. [9] He explained that they were all "pretty sick" of the James Bond universe by the time GoldenEye 007 was released, [9] and that their next game needed to be different enough for him to be interesting. [3] In late 1998, after becoming head of software at Rare and having worked for 14 months on Perfect Dark , [9] a spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007, he left the company, partially because he wanted to pursue other interests and did not want to renew another four-year contract with Rare. [8] Although Perfect Dark was released 18 months later, [3] his contributions to the game were significant and the game's protagonist, Joanna Dark, was his creation. [10]
After leaving Rare, Hollis took some time off and spent six months in Southeast Asia. According to him, "I couldn't see myself staying in Twycross [the small village where Rare is based]. I wanted to see more of the world—wanderlust I suppose." [3] Following a recommendation by Chris Stamper, Hollis then worked as a consultant on the development of the GameCube at Nintendo of America in Redmond, Washington. One of his responsibilities was to ensure that the GameCube hardware was game developer friendly. [11] In 2000, he founded Zoonami, a video game development company based in Cambridge. [9] The company's philosophy was to conceive innovative ideas and develop them further. [3] At Zoonami, he worked on Zendoku , a Sudoku-based game released in 2007, [3] and on his final release in 2009: Bonsai Barber , a hairdressing game. [12] Zoonami was closed in 2010 and Martin Hollis has not released any new games since 2009.
Hollis was a regular contributor to the GameCity event in Nottingham, where he talked about the cultural importance of video games. [13]
GoldenEye 007 is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, the player controls the secret agent James Bond to prevent a criminal syndicate from using a satellite weapon. They navigate a series of levels to complete objectives, such as recovering or destroying objects, while shooting enemies. In a multiplayer mode, up to four players compete in several deathmatch scenarios via split-screen.
Perfect Dark is a 2000 first-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The first game of the Perfect Dark series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. The game features a campaign mode where the player must complete a series of levels to progress through the story, as well as a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings with computer-controlled bots.
Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross, Leicestershire. Rare's games span the platform, first-person shooter, action-adventure, fighting, and racing genres. Its most popular games include the Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie series, as well as games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018).
Joanna Dark is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Perfect Dark video game series. She debuted in the Nintendo 64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark and is a player character in all the games of the series. Outside of video games, Joanna appears as the lead character in all the Perfect Dark novels and comic books. Joanna is an operative for the fictional Carrington Institute, where she was given the code name "Perfect Dark" in honor of her flawless performance in training tests.
Graeme Norgate is a British video game music composer who has composed music for a variety of video games developed by Rare. His first project at Rare was writing music for the Game Boy game, Donkey Kong Land. He also contributed to the soundtracks of Blast Corps and GoldenEye 007. Norgate was later an employee of Free Radical Design, the company was eventually bought out by Crytek and renamed to Crytek UK; Norgate retained the position of audio director after the company's buyout. Norgate later moved to Deep Silver Dambuster Studios after Crytek closed down Crytek UK.
The World Is Not Enough is a first-person shooter video game developed by Eurocom and based on the 1999 James Bond film of the same name. It was published by Electronic Arts and released for the Nintendo 64 on October 17, 2000, shortly before the release of its PlayStation counterpart. The game features a single-player campaign in which players assume the role of secret agent James Bond as he fights to stop a terrorist from triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters of Istanbul. It includes a split-screen multiplayer mode where up to four players can compete in different types of deathmatch and objective-based games.
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is a 2003 platform game developed by Rare for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (GBA). It is the third instalment in the Banjo-Kazooie series and takes place between the events of the Nintendo 64 (N64) games Banjo-Kazooie (1998) and Banjo-Tooie (2000). In Grunty's Revenge, the evil witch Gruntilda travels back in time to prevent the events of Banjo-Kazooie from happening, and the bear Banjo and his bird friend Kazooie set out to stop her. Grunty's Revenge retains the focus on collecting items and most of the other game mechanics from its predecessors, but is presented in 2D rather than 3D. Aside from the main game, players can also access minigames such as fishing and target shooting.
The James Bond video game franchise is a series centering on Ian Fleming's fictional British MI6 agent, James Bond. Games of the series have been predominantly shooter games, with some games of other genres including role-playing and adventure games. Several games are based upon the James Bond films and developed and published by a variety of companies, The intellectual property is owned by Danjaq.
Wil Overton is a British artist, specialising in manga styles.
David Doak is a Northern Irish video game designer. Originally from Belfast, he later moved to England, where he studied at Oxford University on biochemistry specialty and worked as a research scientist.
Perfect Dark is a science-fiction video game series created by Rare and owned by Xbox Game Studios. It debuted in 2000 with the release of the Nintendo 64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark. The series follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute agency, as she uncovers conspiracies by rival corporation dataDyne. In addition to video games, the series has expanded into novels and comics. These supplements to the video games have resulted in a significant development of the series' fictional universe.
Zoonami was a video game development company, founded in 1998 by Martin Hollis, the director and producer of GoldenEye 007. He left Rare shortly before Perfect Dark was released while other members of the GoldenEye 007 team formed Free Radical Design. The studio was closed "a couple years" before 2012. Titles released as Zoonami include Zendoku, Go! Puzzle, and Bonsai Barber.
Bonsai Barber is a barber-simulation video game developed by Zoonami and released for the Wii console in 2009 in North America, Japan, and the PAL Regions. This video game was a featured WiiWare title for 1,000 Wii Points on the Wii Shop Channel.
GoldenEye 007 is a 2010 first-person shooter video game developed by Eurocom and published by Activision for the Wii, with a handheld version for Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. It is a modern reimagining of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye as well as a remake of the 1997 video game of the same name, developed for the earlier Nintendo 64 console. The game was officially announced by Nintendo at their E3 2010 conference presentation. The game was released on 2 November 2010 in tandem with another James Bond game, Blood Stone, which was also released for the DS, but not the Wii. Nintendo, the publisher of the Nintendo 64 game, published the Wii version in Japan the following summer, where it remains Wii-exclusive. It was the fifth James Bond game developed by Eurocom and their second under Activision, after the PlayStation 2 version of 007: Quantum of Solace two years prior.
Rare Replay is a 2015 compilation of 30 video games from the 30-year history of developers Rare and its predecessor, Ultimate Play the Game. The emulated games span multiple genres and consoles—from the ZX Spectrum to the Xbox 360—and retain the features and errors of their original releases with minimal edits. The compilation adds cheats to make the older games easier and a Snapshots mode of specific challenges culled from parts of the games. Player progress is rewarded with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews about Rare's major and unreleased games.
Killer Instinct Gold is a fighting game based on the arcade game Killer Instinct 2. The game was developed by Rare and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Players control characters who fight on a 2D plane set against a 3D background. Players press buttons to punch and kick their opponent in chains of successive hits, known as combos. Large combo successions lead to stronger attacks and brutal, stylistic finisher moves underscored by an announcer. Characters—including a gargoyle, a ninja, and a femme fatale—fight in settings such as a jungle and a spaceship. Killer Instinct Gold includes the arcade release's characters, combos, and 3D, pre-rendered environments, but excludes its full-motion video sequences and some voice-overs due to restrictions of the cartridge media format. The Gold release adds a training mode, camera views, and improved audiovisuals.
Brothers Tim and Chris Stamper are British entrepreneurs who founded the video game companies Ultimate Play the Game and Rare. They first worked together on arcade conversion kits, which were licensed to companies, but later became developers for the ZX Spectrum home computer in the early 1980s. Chris programmed the games, while Tim designed the graphics. They found success as Ultimate with games including Jetpac and Knight Lore. After reverse engineering the Nintendo Entertainment System and deciding to shift their focus to console development, the brothers founded Rare in the mid-1980s. They became Nintendo's first major Western developer, for whom they developed licensed games and ports. Over the next two decades, Rare enjoyed a close relationship with Nintendo 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 2007. After spending several years out of the public eye, the brothers are currently planning new ventures.
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