Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game, the game based in Leicestershire, was launched in Ashby-de-la-Zouch by Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper in 1982.[8] They were close to John Lathbury and Tim’s girlfriend (later wife), Carole Ward. Others from the Stamper family were also involved in the early management and the support of the business that was initially based in a house that was located next to the family's newsagent. Both Tim and Chris were involved in the field of arcade game development, and, as per one report, Konami's Gyruss, and were credited as "the most experienced arcade video game design team in Britain" before tiring of working for others , and left to create Ashby Computers and Graphics. ACG's first trade was in arcade conversion kits. Then, ACG moved into the home software market , and produced games under the Ultimate Play the Game brand. Ashby released four arcade games: Blue Print for Bally-Midway and Grasspin, Dingo and Saturn for Jaleco.Ultimate's initial release was Jetpac in May 1983 for the 16K Spectrum. In an interview from 1983, Tim Stamper said that they specifically targeted machines with 16K resolutions as their size was smaller, which meant development time was much shorter, claiming they could produce two 16K games in a month and one game that was 48K. Jetpac was a huge commercial success; the Spectrum version alone sold more than 300,000 copies providing the fledgling company with a turnover in over PS1 million.This was followed by three further 16K releases, Pssst in June,Tranz Am and Cookie, before Ultimate was upgraded to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst. Tranz Am. and Cookie were the only four games ever released on 16K ROMs for ZX Interface 2. ZX Interface 2. The four games that were ever released on 16K ROM format and used with the ZX Interface 2. These were Jetpac Pssst Am Cookie, Jetpac as well as Lunar Jetman. [14] Both games were very well received by the gaming press, with CRASH magazine specifically extolling the feats Ultimate had managed to do using the additional memory Lunar Jetman employed. [15] In 1984 came Sabre Wulf, the first of the Sabreman series, and the first release with a recommended retail price of PS9.95. The Ultimate games had previously been priced at PS5.50. This was the standard for Spectrum arcade games at the time. The increase was made in order to prevent copying. Customers aren't likely to copy copies when they had to pay more. This was in conjunction with the introduction of the distinct Ultimate "big box" packaging (used with all the subsequent Spectrum releases prior to Gunfright, and with various releases on other platforms), which the company thought could also aid in justifying the price hike and encourage users to purchase the game instead of copying it. The strategy paid off because Sabre Wulf went on to sell over 350,000 copies on the Spectrum all by itself. Then came the release in the late year of 1984 of the subsequent two instalments in the Sabreman series, Underwurlde quickly and then Knight Lore. Knight Lore was an interesting revolution in the computer games for home market. It featured a forced perspective isometric view known as Filmation and the look of which was extensively replicated in different games, some notable examples of this being Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software. Knight Lore together with certain of its Filmation follow up Alien 8, were actually finished prior to Sabre Wulf. Ultimate however felt it could have an adverse effect on Sabre Wulf's relatively primitive sales which is why it was put off until late 1984.