We like to think that Retro Gamer readers are pretty clued up on games, but despite that we’d also be willing to wager that quite a few of you have never heard of The Rumble Fish. Unfortunately the local bookies gave us a confused look when we tried to place that bet, so our willing will never amount to winnings, but the games really should be on your radar because they’ve got quite the pedigree. Dimps, the developer that created the games, probably doesn’t ring any bells either – but the games it has worked on will.
Dimps was founded in 2000 and quickly earned a reputation as a dependable developer for hire, thanks to early projects such as Sonic Advance and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai. However, these kinds of projects weren’t what the staff were used to. “The core team were at SNK before Dimps,” says Hiroyuki Kawano, executive producer of The Rumble Fish games. “Some team members were on the console-focussed team, but, a large percentage were on the arcade side. So, when we started to make games for consoles, a lot of people were starting from the ground up.” Those developers had worked on games including The King Of Fighters and Fatal Fury series, so they were well-versed in computerised combat.
“We reallyweren’t tied to a specific platform. Back then, things were all done according to the manufacturer, or in the case of arcades by boards,” explains Kawano. The board that the ex-SNK staff had previously been required to use was the Neo Geo MVS, which was still popular but decidedly dated by the time Dimps was formed. “At Dimps, we didn’t want to be tied to a particular platform while trying out different things and various forms of digital expression. Of course, one of the arcade boards that we talked about was the Atomiswave.” The Atomiswave was a new low-cost arcade board from Sammy, which essentially had identical specs to Sega’s Dreamcast.
