Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game, the game based in Leicestershire, was created in Ashby-de-la-Zouch by Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper in 1982.[8] They were close friends with John Lathbury and Tim’s girlfriend (later wife), Carole Ward. Additional Stamper family members participated in the beginning of the management and operation of Ultimate Play the Game which was first located near a family-owned newsagent. Chris and Tim had both worked in arcade games development, such as Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to have been the "most proficient arcade videogame designer team in Britain". After getting tired of working for different companies He decided to start his own company, Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first transaction for ACG was arcade conversion kits. Then, ACG moved into the market for home software and began developing games under the Ultimate Play the Game brand. Blue Print for Bally-Midway, Dingo, Grasspin and Saturn for Jaleco were the first arcade games launched by Ashby. The first game released by Ultimate, Jetpac, was May 1983, a game for 16K Spectrum. In an interview with the company in 1983 Tim Stamper said that they intentionally targeted machines of 16K because their size was smaller, which meant development time was shorter and they could create two games with 16K resolution in one month and one game with a 48K resolution. Jetpac was a commercial success. The Spectrum version sold more than 300,000 copies, providing the company with an impressive turnover of more than PS1 million. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were only four of 10 games that were ever released with 16K ROM formats. The four games were published by Sinclair Research on cassette with distinctive silver inlay cards , for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles. The games received very well from gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly impressed by the results that Ultimate managed to accomplish using the extra memory Lunar Jetman included. In 1984 came Sabre Wulf, the first game in the Sabreman series, and the first release with a retail recommendation of PS9.95. The Ultimate games had previously been sold at PS5.50. This was the norm for Spectrum arcade-style games of the time. The higher price was imposed to stop pirates. The players would not be inclined to copy copies with a higher cost. This coincided with the introduction of Ultimate of the exclusive "big box" packaging. The packaging was made available in all Spectrum releases , except for Gunfright. This strategy worked because Sabre Wulf went on to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum on its own. The following installment in the Sabreman series was released in 1984. Underwurlde followed quickly by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a major milestone in the gaming for home computers market. It featured a forced-perspective isometric view, also known as Filmation. This design would be copied extensively in other games such as Batman and Head Over Heels by Ocean Software. Knight Lore and some of its Filmation sequels Alien 8 were actually completed before Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate felt that it could be detrimental to Sabre Wulf's revenue, so it was delayed until 1984.