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 friends with John Lathbury and Tim’s girlfriend (later wife), Carole Ward. Other Stamper family members were involved in the beginning of the running and support of Ultimate Play the Game, that was initially situated close to a family-owned newsstand. Tim and Chris both Tim and Chris were involved in the field of arcade game development, such as, according to a article, Konami's Gyruss, and were credited as "the most experienced arcade video game design team in Britain" until they got tired of working for others and left to create Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first venture of ACG was developing an arcade conversion kit Then, ACG was able to move into the home market to develop games under the Ultimate Play the Game trademark. Ashby released four arcade games: Blue Print for Bally-Midway and Grasspin, Dingo and Saturn for Jaleco.Ultimate's initial release was Jetpac in May 1983, for the 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper, in 1983 interview, claimed that 16K machines were targeted because their smaller sizes meant that they could develop more quickly. They could create one 48K or two 16K games within one month. Jetpac was a commercial success. The Spectrum version sold more than 300,000 copies, providing the company with a high sales of more than PS1 million. Jetpac, Pssst. Tranz Am. and Cookie were the only four games ever released on 16K ROMs for ZX Interface 2. ZX Interface 2. The games were also republished on cassettes with distinct silver inlay cards, by Sinclair Research for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles.Ultimate's first 48K releases included Lunar Jetman - a sequel to Jetpac as well as Atic Atac both of which were released in the latter half of 1983. The games were well-received by the gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly satisfied with the results that Ultimate was able to achieve with the additional memory Lunar Jetman had. [15] Sabre Wulf appeared in 1984. It was the first Sabreman game, and the first game to be released with a retail recommendation of PS9.95. The Ultimate games were originally sold at PS5.50. This was the norm for Spectrum arcade-style titles of that time. The higher price was imposed to deter pirates. People would not be inclined to share their copies if they paid more. This coincided with the introduction of Ultimate of the distinctive "big box", packaging. The packaging was available for all Spectrum releases except Gunfright. Sabre Wulf was able to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum. It was followed by the launch in late 1984 of the two subsequent installments of the Sabreman series, Underwurlde followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a revolution in the home computer game market, using a forced-perspective perspective branded Filmation which was the design that was later extensively replicated in different games, some notable examples of this being Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as its Filmation sequel 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 the latter part of 1984.