Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game, an Leicestershire-based game launched 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. The company's headquarters were in a house near the family-owned newsstand. Both Tim and Chris were employed in the field of arcade game development, as well as, according to one report, Konami's Gyruss and claimed to be "the most knowledgeable gaming design team for arcades in Britain" until tiring of the work for other people and left to create Ashby Computers and Graphics. ACG's first trade was creating arcade conversion kit Then, ACG was able to move into the market for home-based 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. In a 1983 interview, Tim Stamper said that they decided to target 16K machines because their smaller size meant that development time was significantly shorter and that they could develop two games with 16K resolution 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 sales of more than PS1 million. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were the only four of 10 games that were ever released with 16K ROM formats. Four of the ten games that were ever released on 16K ROM format and used with the ZX Interface 2. They were Jetpac, Pssst, Tranz Am Cookie, Jetpac and Lunar Jetman. The games were embraced from the gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly impressed by the results that Ultimate could accomplish with the extra memory Lunar Jetman was equipped with. 15 Sabre Wulf appeared in 1984. It was the first Sabreman game, and the first one to be released with a suggested retail price of PS9.95. The Ultimate games were originally sold at PS5.50. This was the standard for Spectrum arcade-style games of the time. The higher price was imposed in order to prevent pirates. People aren't likely to copy copies even if they were paying more. This coincided with the launch of Ultimate of the original "big box" packaging. This packaging was used with all Spectrum releases , except for Gunfright. The plan paid off, since Sabre Wulf went on to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum by itself. This was followed by the launch in late 1984 of the next two installments in the Sabreman series. The series was quickly and then Knight Lore. Knight Lore was a forced-perspective isometric viewpoint that was called Filmation it was a major advancement in the home gaming market. Other games would follow its example, such as Batman and Head Over Heels, both made by Ocean Software. Knight Lore and a portion of its Filmation successors like Alien 8 Alien 8, was actually finished before Sabre Wulf but Ultimate decided that it could have a potentially negative effect on sales of the more basic Sabre Wulf, so it was delayed until late 1984.