Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game, an Leicestershire-based game established in Ashby-de-la-Zouch by Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper in 1982.[8] They had a close relationship with John Lathbury and Tim’s girlfriend (later wife), Carole Ward. Others from the Stamper family were also involved in the early administration and support of the business and was initially located in a house next to the family-run newsagent. Chris and Tim both had experience with arcade game development. Chris was, according to one report Konami's Gyruss. They claimed to be the "most proficient arcade game design team in Britain" prior to deciding to leave their jobs to begin Ashby Computers and Graphics. The company's first business was developing a kit to convert arcade games and later ACG entered the home market to develop games under the Ultimate Play the Game trademark. Ashby released 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. In an interview with the company in 1983 Tim Stamper said that they specifically targeted machines with 16K resolutions as their size was smaller, which meant development time was shorter and they could create two 16K games in one month, or one 48K game. Jetpac was a commercial hit. The Spectrum version sold over 300,000 copies, which provided the company with a high turnover of more than PS1 million. Jetpac, Pssst, Tranz Am and Cookie were among the ten games ever released on the 16K ROM format for use with the ZX Interface 2. The four games were released by Sinclair Research on cassette with distinctive silver inlay cards to be used for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles. The games were well-received in the gaming press, CRASH magazine specifically extolling the feats Ultimate did using the additional memory Lunar Jetman used. In 1984 came Sabre Wulf, the first of the Sabreman series as well as the first release with a retail recommendation of PS9.95. The price of Ultimate titles was just PS5.50, which was typical for Spectrum arcade-style games. At the time, this increased price was to discourage from piracy, with the intention that if players paid more for a game they'd be less likely to give away copies. This coincided with the launch of the distinctive Ultimate "big box" packaging (used for all future Spectrum releases up to Gunfright and also with other games on other platforms) The company thought could also be a way to justify the cost increase and encourage people to purchase the game instead of copying it. This strategy worked as Sabre Wulf sold over 350,000 copies during its first year on the Spectrum. The game was released in late 1984. Sabreman Series' subsequent two installments came out. Underwurlde was soon followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore, a forced-perspective perspective isometric viewpoint that was called Filmation which was a huge innovation in the home games market. Others would follow its lead, such as Batman and Head Over Heels, both produced by Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as its Filmation sequels Alien 8 were actually completed before Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate believed that it might be detrimental to Sabre Wulf's business, so it was delayed until late 1984.