Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game was established in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1982 by Tim and Chris Stamper,[8] their close friend John Lathbury, and Tim's girlfriend (later wife) Carole Ward. The company's headquarters were in a house close to the family-owned newsstand. Chris and Tim both had experience in the development of arcade games. Chris was, according to a report, Konami's Gyruss. They claimed to be the "most knowledgeable arcade game design team in Britain" prior to deciding to quit their jobs and start Ashby Computers and Graphics. This led to ACG's initial trade being in creating arcade conversion kits, and later entering the home computer software market developing games under the Ultimate Play the Game name. Ashby released four arcade games: Blue Print for Bally-Midway, as well as Grasspin, Dingo and Saturn for Jaleco.Ultimate's initial release was Jetpac in May 1983, for the 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper, in 1983 interview, mentioned that 16K machines were targeted due to their smaller sizes meant they could develop more quickly. They could create one 48K or two 16K games in a month. Jetpac was a massive commercial success; the Spectrum version sold more than 300,000. This provided the young business with a revenue in the region of PS1 million.This was followed by three further 16K games, Pssst in June, Tranz Am and Cookie, before Ultimate made the leap to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were only four of 10 games ever released with 16K ROM formats. Four of the ten games that were released in 16K ROM format, which was used in conjunction with the ZX Interface. They were Jetpac Pssst, Jetpac, Tranz Am Cookie, Jetpac, and Lunar Jetman. The games were embraced from gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly amazed by the results that Ultimate did with the extra memory Lunar Jetman included. [15] Sabre Wulf appeared in 1984. It was the first Sabreman game, and the first release at a recommended retail price of PS9.95. The initial price for Ultimate titles was only PS5.50. This was common for Spectrum arcade-style games at the time. This was done in order to prevent pirates. This was also when Ultimate introduced the "big box" packaging. It was offered with all subsequent Spectrum releases up to Gunfright and also with other releases on other platforms. Ultimate believed that this would help justify the higher cost and also encourage players to not copy the game. Sabre Wulf was able to sell over 350,000 copies on the Spectrum. The following installment in the Sabreman series came out in 1984. Underwurlde was quickly followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a significant breakthrough in the computer-based home gaming market. It was a forced-perspective isometric perspective, also known as Filmation. The style was to be replicated in many other games, such as Batman and Head Over Heels by Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as its Filmation sequels Alien 8 were actually completed prior to Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate felt that it could affect negatively Sabre Wulf's sales, and so it was put off until the end of 1984.