Ultimate Play the Game

 In the year 1982, Ultimate Play the Game was founded in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, by Tim and Chris Stamper. [8] Their friends John Lathbury and Tim's girlfriend, Carole Ward, founded the business. Other members of the Stamper family were involved in the initial management and the support of the company that was initially based in a house that was located next to the family-owned newsagent. Tim and Chris both Tim and Chris had been employed on arcade games as well as, according to one report Konami's Gyruss, and were credited as "the most knowledgeable gaming design team for arcades in Britain" until they became tired of working for others , and quit to establish Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first transaction for ACG was arcade conversion kits. After that, ACG moved into the market for home software and began developing games under the Ultimate Play the Game brand. Blue Print was released by Ashby for Bally-Midway and Grasspin for Dingo. The Ultimate Play the Game's debut release was Jetpac for the 16K Spectrum in May 1983. Tim Stamper, in 1983 interview, said that 16K machines were targeted because their smaller size meant that they could develop more quickly. They could create one 48K or two games in 16K within one month. Jetpac was a massive commercial success; the Spectrum version alone sold more than 300,000. This provided the young business with an annual turnover of the region of PS1 million.This was then followed by three additional 16K titles, Pssst in June, Tranz Am and Cookie which came out before Ultimate was upgraded to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were only four of 10 games ever released with 16K ROM formats. The four games which were ever released in the 16K ROM format for use in conjunction with the ZX Interface. These were Jetpac Pssst Am, Cookie, and Lunar Jetman. They were very well received by the gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly amazed by the results that Ultimate could accomplish with the extra memory Lunar Jetman was equipped with. [15] Sabre Wulf appeared in 1984. It was the first Sabreman title and the first game to be released with a suggested retail price of PS9.95. The initial price for Ultimate titles was only PS5.50. This was a common practice in Spectrum arcade-style games at the time. This was in order to discourage pirates. This coincided with the introduction of the unique Ultimate "big box" packaging (used with all further Spectrum releases prior to Gunfright and in a variety of games on other platforms) The company felt might also assist in justifying the increase and encourage users to purchase the game instead of copying it. The plan paid off, as Sabre Wulf went on to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum all by itself. The game was released in late 1984. Sabreman Series' subsequent two installments were released. Underwurlde was followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore is a forced perspective isometric perspective, which was dubbed Filmation it was a major innovation in the home games market. Others would follow its lead, such as Batman and Head Over Heels, both produced by Ocean Software. Knight Lore together with some of its Filmation sequels Alien 8, were actually developed prior to Sabre Wulf. Ultimate however considered that it could be detrimental to Sabre Wulf's rather modest sales and put it off until late in 1984.