Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game, a Leicestershire-based game, was started in Ashby-de-la-Zouch by Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper in 1982.[8] They were friends with John Lathbury and Tim’s girlfriend (later wife), Carole Ward. The other Stamper family members were involved in the first running and supporting of Ultimate Play the Game which was initially located near a family-owned newsagent. Chris and Tim had both worked in arcade games development, including Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to be the "most proficient arcade videogame design team in Britain". After exhaustion of working for different companies the company he joined, Chris decided to create Ashby Computers and Graphics. ACG's first venture was arcade conversion kits. After that, ACG moved into the home software market , and produced games under the Ultimate Play the Game brand. Blue Print for Bally-Midway, Dingo, Grasspin and Saturn for Jaleco were the first arcade titles released by Ashby. Ultimate's first release, Jetpac, was May 1983, a game for 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper, in 1983 interview, mentioned that 16K machines were targeted because their smaller sizes meant that they could be developed more quickly. They could develop one 48K or two games in 16K in one month. Jetpac was a massive commercial hit. It sold over 300,000. Spectrum versions alone. Jetpac, Pssst, Tranz Am and Cookie were four of only ten games ever to be released in the 16K ROM format , which was intended for use with ZX Interface 2. ZX Interface 2. The games were also republished on cassettes, featuring distinctive silver inlay cards by Sinclair Research for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles.Ultimate's first 48K releases included Lunar Jetman - a sequel to Jetpac - and Atic Atac, both of which came out in late 1983. Both games were very well-liked by the media for gaming. CRASH magazine praised Ultimate's use of the memory Lunar Jetman supplied. [15] Sabre Wulf was released in 1984, which was the first in the Sabreman series and priced at the suggested retail price (PS9.95). The Ultimate games had previously been priced at PS5.50. This was the norm for Spectrum arcade-style titles at the time. The increase was made in order to prevent copying. Customers were not likely to copy copies even if they were paying more. It was also that Ultimate launched the "big box" packaging. It was included for subsequent Spectrum releases up to Gunfright and also with other releases for other platforms. Ultimate believed that this would justify the higher cost and encourage gamers to not duplicate the game. This approach worked, as Sabre Wulf sold over 350,000 copies during its first year on the Spectrum. The sequel to the Sabreman series came out in 1984. Underwurlde followed quickly by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a forced-perspective isometric perspective, which was dubbed Filmation which was a huge advancement in the home gaming market. The other games that followed its model, like Batman and Head Over Heels, both from Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as some of its Filmation sequels, like Alien 8, was actually made before Sabre Wulf but Ultimate decided that it could have a potentially negative impact on sales for the less than stellar Sabre Wulf, so it was postponed until late 1984