Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game was established in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1982 by Tim Chris and Chris Stamper,[8] their friend John Lathbury, and Tim's girlfriend (later wife) Carole Ward. Additional Stamper family members were also involved in the first management and operation of Ultimate Play the Game that was initially situated adjacent to a family-run newsagent. Chris and Tim were both involved in the field of arcade games development, including Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to be the "most knowledgeable arcade videogame design team in Britain". After tiring of working for other companies He decided to start his own company, Ashby Computers and Graphics. ACG's first trade was in arcade conversion kits. Then, ACG moved into the home software market and developed games under the Ultimate Play the Game brand. Blue Print for Bally-Midway, Dingo, Grasspin and Saturn for Jaleco were the first arcade games to be released by Ashby. Ultimate's first release, Jetpac, was May 1983 for 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen due to the fact that they're smaller, which allows for faster development. He claimed they could develop two 16K games each month or one 48K game per month. Jetpac was a massive commercial success; the Spectrum version sold over 300,000 copies providing the fledgling company with a turnover in excess of 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. These four games were also republished by Sinclair Research on cassette with distinctive silver inlay cards , for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles. The games were well-received in the gaming press, CRASH magazine especially noting how well Ultimate was able to accomplish using the additional memory Lunar Jetman made use of. 15 Sabre Wulf appeared in 1984. It was the first Sabreman game, and the first one to be released with a retail recommendation of PS9.95. The price of Ultimate games had been only PS5.50 as was the norm for Spectrum arcade-style games at the time . This increased price was to discourage copying, with the thought that if players were paying more for a game, they'd be less inclined to give away copies. This was also the time that Ultimate launched the "big box" packaging. It was offered for all subsequent Spectrum releases prior to Gunfright as well as other games on other platforms. The company believed that this would be a way to justify the higher price and make it easier for gamers to not duplicate the game. This strategy worked as Sabre Wulf went on to sell over 350,000 copies on the Spectrum by itself. The sequel to the Sabreman series was released in 1984. Underwurlde was quickly followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a major breakthrough in the home computer gaming market. It employed a forced perspective isometric camera, dubbed Filmation. The style was to be copied extensively in other games, such as Batman and Head Over Heels by Ocean Software. Knight Lore and some of its Filmation sequels Alien 8 were actually completed prior to Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate felt that it could negatively impact Sabre Wulf's sales, and so it was put off until the end of 1984.