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 friends John Lathbury and Tim's girlfriend, Carole Ward, founded the company. The business was initially located in a house near the family-owned newsstand. Chris and Tim were both employed in arcade games development, such as Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to have been the "most knowledgeable arcade videogame design team in Britain". After getting tired of working for various companies and leaving, he founded Ashby Computers and Graphics. The company's first trade in the development of arcade conversion kits, and later moving into the home computer software market 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 to be released by Ashby. The first Ultimate release, Jetpac, was May 1983, a game for 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen as they're smaller and permit to develop faster. He said they could produce two 16K games each month, or one 48K game within a single month. Jetpac was a huge commercial success. It was sold for over 300,000. Spectrum versions alone. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were just four of 10 games ever released with 16K ROM formats. The four games were published by Sinclair Research on cassette with distinctive silver inlay cards to be used for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles. Both were very well received by the gaming press, with CRASH magazine particularly applauding what Ultimate was able to accomplish with the additional memory Lunar Jetman made use of. [15] Sabre Wulf was released in 1984, which was the first in the Sabreman series and with an estimated retail price (PS9.95). The Ultimate games were originally sold at PS5.50. This was the norm for Spectrum arcade-style titles at the time. The increase was made to discourage the practice of piracy. Customers wouldn't be inclined to copy copies if they paid more. This coincided with the launch of the unique Ultimate "big box" packaging (used with all the subsequent Spectrum releases until Gunfright as well as with different releases on other platforms) This was something that the company believed would aid in justifying the price hike and encourage users to purchase the game instead of copying it. Sabre Wulf was able to sell over 350,000 copies on the Spectrum. The next installment of the Sabreman series was released in 1984. Underwurlde was quickly followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a huge breakthrough on the home computer gaming market. It employed a forced perspective isometric camera, dubbed Filmation. This design would be extensively copied in other games, like Batman and Head Over Heels by Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as its Filmation sequels Alien 8 were actually completed prior to Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate felt that it could have a negative impact on Sabre Wulf's business, so it was delayed until the latter part of 1984.