Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game, which was a game inspired by Leicestershire, was created 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 company was originally located in a home near the family-run newsstand. Chris and Tim were both employed in arcade games development, such as Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to be the "most knowledgeable arcade videogame designer team in Britain". After exhaustion from working for other businesses He decided to start his own company, Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first business ACG traded was arcade conversion kits. After that, ACG moved into the home software market and developed games under the Ultimate Play the Game brand. Ashby launched four arcade games, Blue Print for Bally-Midway, as well as Grasspin, Dingo and Saturn for Jaleco.Ultimate's first game was Jetpac in May 1983, for the 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen because they're smaller, which allows the development of games faster. He said they could create two games in 16K each month, or one 48K game in one month. Jetpac was a massive commercial success; the Spectrum version alone sold more than 300,000. This provided the young business with a revenue in excess of PS1 million.This was followed by three further 16K games, Pssst in June, Tranz Am and Cookie, before Ultimate was upgraded to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were just four of ten games to ever be released with 16K ROM formats. 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 came out in the late summer of 1983. The games were embraced by the gaming press. CRASH magazine was particularly impressed with the feats Ultimate was able to achieve with the additional memory Lunar Jetman featured. [15] Sabre Wulf appeared in 1984. It was the first Sabreman game, and the first to be released at a recommended retail price of PS9.95. The price of Ultimate games was previously just PS5.50, which was typical for Spectrum arcade-style games at the time This increased price was to discourage piracy, with the idea being that if customers paid more for a game they would be less inclined to distribute copies. This coincided with the introduction of the unique Ultimate "big box" packaging (used with all further Spectrum games up to Gunfright as well as with different releases for other platforms) that the company believed would aid in justifying the price hike and encourage players to purchase the game instead of copying it. This strategy worked because Sabre Wulf went on to sell over 350,000 copies on the Spectrum on its own. Then came the release in late 1984 of the subsequent two instalments in the Sabreman series. The series was quickly followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a forced-perspective isometric viewpoint , also known as Filmation which was a huge breakthrough in the home game market. Other games would follow the same path, including Batman and Head Over Heels, both by Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as its Filmation sequels Alien 8 were actually completed prior to Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate thought that it would negatively impact Sabre Wulf's revenue, so it was delayed until 1984.