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 acquaintance John Lathbury and Tim's girlfriend, Carole Ward, founded the company. Others from the Stamper family were involved in the initial running and support of the company and was initially located in a house that was located next to the family-owned newsagent. Both Tim and Chris were involved on arcade games such as, according to a report, Konami's Gyruss, and claimed to be "the most knowledgeable arcade video game design team in Britain" until they got tired of the work for other people and quit to establish Ashby Computers and Graphics. The company's first trade being in creating arcade conversion kits. The company then began moving into the market for home computer software and releasing games under the Ultimate Play the Game name. Ashby launched 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 chosen because their smaller size meant that they could be developed more quickly. They could develop one 48K or two 16K games in a month. Jetpac was a huge commercial success. The Spectrum version alone sold over 300,000 copies , enabling the company with a revenue of excess of PS1 million.This was followed by three more 16K titles, Pssst in June, Tranz Am, and Cookie prior to when Ultimate moved to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst, Tranz Am and Cookie were four of the ten games ever released in the 16K ROM format , which was intended for use with ZX Interface 2. ZX Interface 2. They were also republished on cassettes, sporting distinctive 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 and Atic Atac, both of which came out in the late summer of 1983. The games were well-received by the gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly impressed by the things that Ultimate did with the additional memory Lunar Jetman had. 15 Sabre Wulf appeared in 1984. It was the first Sabreman title , and also the first one to be released with a retail recommendation of PS9.95. The cost of Ultimate games was previously just PS5.50 as was the norm for Spectrum arcade-style games. At the time, this increase was to discourage piracy, with the idea being that if people paid more for a game they'd be less likely to distribute copies. This coincided with the introduction of Ultimate of the distinctive "big box" packaging. The packaging was available with every Spectrum releases except Gunfright. Sabre Wulf was able to sell more than 350,000 copies on its own on the Spectrum. This was followed by the launch in late 1984 of the following two installments of the Sabreman series. The series was quickly followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a major milestone on the home computer gaming market. It featured a forced-perspective, isometric viewpoint called Filmation. This style would be replicated in many other games, such as Batman and Head Over Heels by 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 sales, so it was delayed until the latter part of 1984.