Ultimate Play the Game

 In 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 company was originally located in a house near the family-owned newsstand. Chris and Tim were both involved on the development of arcade games such as Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to be the "most skilled arcade videogame designer team in Britain". After getting tired of working for different companies, he left to open Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first business being the creation of arcade conversion kits, and later shifting into the software market for computers at home making 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, mentioned that 16K computers were chosen because their smaller sizes meant that they could be developed more quickly. They could develop one 48K or two 16K games in one month. Jetpac was a huge commercial success. It sold over 300,000. Spectrum versions alone. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were just four of 10 games that were ever released with 16K ROM formats. The four games which were ever released on 16K ROM format, which was used in conjunction with the ZX Interface were Jetpac Pssst, Jetpac, Tranz Am Cookies, Jetpac, and Lunar Jetman. They were very well received from gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly satisfied with what Ultimate was able to achieve with the extra memory Lunar Jetman featured. In 1984 came Sabre Wulf, the first of the Sabreman series and the first game released with a suggested retail price of PS9.95. The price of Ultimate titles was just PS5.50 and was standard for Spectrum arcade-style games of the time. The reason for this increased price was to discourage pirates, the reasoning that if players bought a game at a higher price, they would be less inclined to give away copies. This was also that Ultimate launched the "big box" packaging. It was used for all subsequent Spectrum releases prior to Gunfright and also with other releases on other platforms. Ultimate believed that this would justify the price increase and encourage gamers to not duplicate the game. The strategy paid off because Sabre Wulf went on to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum on its own. In the late summer of 1984, the Sabreman Series' next two installments were released. Underwurlde was quickly followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a revolution in the home computer game market, utilizing a forced-perspective, isometric perspective which was later branded Filmation that was the model that was later extensively replicated in various games, with notable examples of this being Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software. Knight Lore, along with some of its Filmation follow up Alien 8, were actually completed prior to Sabre Wulf. Ultimate however believed that it might have an adverse effect on Sabre Wulf's sales, which were comparatively low and put it off until the end of 1984.