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 friend John Lathbury and Tim's girlfriend, Carole Ward, founded the company. The company was originally located in a home near the family-owned newsstand. Chris and Tim were both employed in arcade games development, including Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to be the "most experienced arcade videogame designer team in Britain". After tiring of working for other companies the company he joined, Chris decided to create Ashby Computers and Graphics. ACG's first trade was creating arcade conversion kit and later ACG entered the home market to create 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 launch was Jetpac for the 16K Spectrum in May 1983. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen because they're smaller and allow to develop faster. He said they could develop two 16K games per month or one 48K game within a single month. Jetpac was a commercial hit. The Spectrum version sold more than 300,000 copies, providing the company with a high sales of more than PS1 million. Jetpac, Pssst, Tranz Am and Cookie were the only ten games ever released on the 16K ROM format for use with ZX Interface 2. ZX Interface 2. The four games that were ever released in the 16K ROM format for use with the ZX Interface 2. They were Jetpac Pssst Am Cookies, Jetpac, and Lunar Jetman. Both games were very well received by the gaming press, CRASH magazine especially applauding what Ultimate was able to accomplish with the additional memory Lunar Jetman used. [15The game Sabre Wulf was released in 1984, the first of the Sabreman series and with the suggested retail price (PS9.95). The initial price for Ultimate games was PS5.50. This was standard in Spectrum arcade-style games of the day. This was in order to stop piracy. This was also the time of the introduction of Ultimate of the distinctive "big box", packaging. This packaging was used for all Spectrum releases , with the exception of Gunfright. This strategy worked as Sabre Wulf sold over 350,000 copies in its first year on the Spectrum. In the late summer of 1984, the Sabreman Series' subsequent two installments came out. Underwurlde was soon followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a revolution in the computer games for home market. It featured a forced perspective isometric view branded Filmation which was the design that was later extensively replicated in different games, some notable examples include Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software. Knight Lore and a portion of its Filmation sequel Alien 8, was actually made before Sabre Wulf but Ultimate decided that it could potentially have a negative impact on sales for the more basic Sabre Wulf, so it was delayed until late 1984.