Ultimate Play the Game

 In 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 company. Other Stamper family members were also involved in the early management and operation of Ultimate Play the Game, which was initially located close to a family-owned newsstand. Chris and Tim each had experience with arcade game development. Chris was, according to one report Konami's Gyruss. They claimed to be the "most skilled arcade game design team in Britain" prior to deciding to quit their jobs and start Ashby Computers and Graphics. The company's first business was creating arcade conversion kit before ACG began to enter the market for home-based games under the Ultimate Play the Game trademark. Blue Print was released by Ashby for Bally-Midway and Grasspin for Dingo. The Ultimate Play the Game's initial release was Jetpac for the 16K Spectrum in May 1983. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen as they're smaller and permit the development of games faster. He claimed they could make two 16K games per month or one 48K game within a single month. Jetpac was a massive commercial success; the Spectrum version sold over 300,000 copies providing the fledgling company with a turnover in the region of PS1 million.This was later followed by three other 16K titles, Pssst in June, Tranz Am and Cookie in the fall, and then Ultimate was upgraded to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst. Tranz Am. and Cookie were the only four games released on 16K ROMs for the ZX Interface 2. They were also republished onto cassettes with distinct silver-colored inlay cards made by Sinclair Research for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles.Ultimate's first 48K releases included Lunar Jetman - a sequel to Jetpac which was a sequel to Jetpac - as well as Atic Atac, both of which were released in the late summer of 1983. [14] Both games were well-received by the gaming press, CRASH magazine specifically noting how well Ultimate was able to accomplish using the additional memory Lunar Jetman made use of. [15It was Sabre Wulf was released in 1984, the first installment of the Sabreman series and priced at a suggested retail cost (PS9.95). The Ultimate games were previously priced at PS5.50. This was the standard for Spectrum arcade-style titles of that time. The change was introduced to deter pirates. Customers aren't likely to share copies even if they were paying more. This was also the time of the introduction in Ultimate of the original "big box" packaging. The packaging was available in every Spectrum releases except Gunfright. Sabre Wulf was able to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum. Then came the release in the latter half of 1984 of the two subsequent installments in the Sabreman series. Underwurlde was and then Knight Lore. Knight Lore which was a forced-perspective isometric viewpoint , also known as Filmation and was a major innovation in the home games market. Other games would follow its model, like Batman and Head Over Heels, both made by Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as some of its Filmation follow-up Alien 8, was actually finished before Sabre Wulf but Ultimate decided that it could cause a adverse effect on sales of the less than stellar Sabre Wulf, so it was delayed until late 1984.