Rapier Multimedia

Rapier Multimedia is a British technology, electronics, and media company. It is known for manufacturing the Game-Fi consoles.

Early days (1963-1979)
Rapier Electronics started in 1963 as a manufacturer of TV sets. It was owned 25% by Granada Television, 25% by Associated-Rediffusion, 25% by ABPC, and 25% by ITC Entertainment. The sets were designed to pick up both BBC and ITV channels.

Rapier/CCC era (1979-1984)
As Rapier became more profitable, the IBA ordered it to be divested from the ITV companies in 1979. This was coincidentally around the time of the microcomputer boom; Rapier formed a joint venture with South Chinese company CCC Solutions, at first distributing toys and electronics made by CCC in the UK. In 1981, the Rapier 8 (R8), named because of its 8-bit processor, was launched, as part of this joint venture.

The R8 was popular mainly for playing video games, and competed with the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, among many others. It inspired 2 later models, the 1982 Rapier 8 mkII, and the 1983 Rapier 8 mkIII.

Rapier/Zerona era (1984-1991)
After the video game console market, dominated by Atari, crashed, Rapier had its best sales yet. Most of CCC was bought out by Rapier in 1984, except for its Taiwanese division Zerona, which became a separate company. The Rapier-CCC venture became Rapier-Zerona as a result. In 1985, faced with the upcoming launch of the Nintendo Famicom and its cheaper NES model on European shores, the 16-bit Rapier 16 was released — advertising full backwards compatibility with R8 games.

In 1989, Rapier acquired Peruvian company OS-Ready, which had created PowerOS, the first successful line of operating systems before MS-DOS and Windows took over.

In 1989, the Rapier 32 was released, with the killer feature: 32-bit graphics and processing power. This beat anything, computer or console, on the market at the time, but also turned out to be Rapier’s last ever microcomputer.

Rapier CEO Christian England wanted to get into the console market, due to the successful sales of Nintendo, Sega, Zerona, Square, and Theorysonic systems in the UK. This project, codenamed “Arcadia”, was hurriedly rushed through production, leading Zerona to end its relationship with Rapier.

Rapier/Codemasters/Universal Neptune era (1991-2001)
After Zerona cut ties with Rapier, Rapier approached two other companies: British developer Codemasters, which had made many successful ZX Spectrum and unlicensed NES games, and Universal Neptune, a joint-venture of the Universal Studios film company and US developer “Balls” that was working on its own console project. Both companies accepted, and the first in a long line of consoles, the original Game-Fi, was released in 1992.

The Game-Fi, like the Rapier 32 before it, boasted 32-bit capabilities. Initial Game-Fi marketing touted it as a “moral substitute” to Japanese, Taiwanese, and El Kadsreian systems made by Nintendo, Sega, Square, Zerona, and Theorysonic; hence the villainous organization known as “Explicit Evil” seen in marketing materials.

The Game-Fi experienced strong sales, not only in the UK, but also in Mainland Europe, the United States, and East Asia. Almost immediately, work began on a successor. In 1995, the 64-bit Game-Fi Odyssey was released.

Rapier/TechEruo/Bandai era (2001-present)
By 2001, the Universal Neptune company was dissolved, as Universal had sold its interactive units to Argosy Entertainment, which had owned “Balls” since 1998. Codemasters was also experiencing financial problems around this time, and decided to cease its relationship with Rapier to become a licensed publisher for Nintendo.

Rapier formed a relationship with Eruowoodian company TechEruo, a close associate of Nintendo which also held several popular licenses such as The Simpsons, as well as Japanese toy company Bandai; these companies had been working on their own console, the TechEruo/Bandai Century, when Rapier approached them. The Game-Fi Century released in 2002, offering 128-bit graphics and TES capabilities.

(More TBA)

Microcomputers

 * Rapier 8 (1981)
 * Rapier 8 mkII (1982)
 * Rapier 8 mkIII (1983)
 * Rapier 16 (1985)
 * Rapier 32 (1989)

Home consoles (Game-Fi line)

 * Game-Fi (1992)
 * Game-Fi Odyssey (1995)
 * Game-Fi Century (2002)
 * Game-Fi Extreme (2007)
 * Game-Fi Revolution (2013)
 * Game-Fi Regeneration (2017)
 * Game-Fi Fusion (2021)

Handheld consoles (Playcat line)

 * Playcat (1994)
 * Playcat Plus (1998)
 * Playcat Turbo (2003)
 * Playcat Rocket (2009)
 * Playcat Ultimatum (2015)
 * Playcat Keystone (2019)
 * Playcat Lifestyle (2023)

Vira line
All of these run Rapier’s OS known as PowerOS.
 * ViraPC (desktop computer)
 * ViraTop (laptop computer)
 * ViraPhone (smartphone)
 * ViraPad (tablet)
 * ViraWatch (smartwatch)