Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game, the game based in Leicestershire, was started 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. The business was initially located in a home near the family-run newsstand. Both Tim and Chris had worked on arcade games and, as per one article Konami's Gyruss, and were credited as "the most knowledgeable arcade video game design team in Britain" until they got tired of the work for other people and quit to establish Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first trading in arcade conversion kits, before entering the market for home computer software developing games under the Ultimate Play the Game name. Blue Print for Bally-Midway, Dingo, Grasspin and Saturn for Jaleco were the first arcade games released by Ashby. The first release of Ultimate, Jetpac, was May 1983, a game for 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen because they're smaller and permit to develop faster. They could develop two 16K games each month, or one 48K game in a single month. Jetpac was a massive commercial success; the Spectrum version sold more than 300,000. This provided the young business with an annual turnover of excess of PS1 million.This was followed by three further 16K games, Pssst in June,Tranz Am, and Cookie which came out before Ultimate stepped up to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst, Tranz Am and Cookie were four of the 10 games ever released on the 16K format for use with the ZX Interface 2. They were also republished on cassettes with distinct silver inlay cards, produced by Sinclair Research for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles.Ultimate's first 48K releases were Lunar Jetman - a sequel to Jetpac as well as Atic Atac both of which came out in late 1983. The games were well-received from the gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly satisfied with the things that Ultimate did with the extra memory Lunar Jetman was equipped with. [15] Sabre Wulf was released in 1984, the very first game in the Sabreman series, and was priced at a suggested retail cost (PS9.95). The initial price for Ultimate titles was only PS5.50. It was common in Spectrum arcade-style games at the time. This was in order to prevent the practice of piracy. This coincided with the introduction of the distinctive Ultimate "big box" packaging (used with all further Spectrum games up to Gunfright as well as with different games for other platforms) that the company thought could also assist in justifying the increase and encourage users to purchase the game instead of copying it. The strategy paid off because Sabre Wulf went on to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum by itself. The next installment of the Sabreman series was released in 1984. Underwurlde was followed shortly by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was something of a revolution in the home computer game market. It featured a forced perspective isometric view that was branded Filmation that was the model which would be extensively copied in other games, notable examples of this being Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as certain of its Filmation sequels Alien 8, were actually completed prior to Sabre Wulf. Ultimate however believed that it might affect Sabre Wulf's comparatively modest sales and put it off until late 1984.