Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game was established in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1982 by Tim Chris and Chris Stamper,[8] their close friend John Lathbury, and Tim's girlfriend (later wife) Carole Ward. Others from the Stamper family were involved in the initial running and support of the company that was initially based in a home next to the family-run newsagent. Both Tim and Chris had been employed in the development of arcade games, and, as per one article, Konami's Gyruss, and claimed to be "the most knowledgeable arcade video game design team in Britain" until tiring working for others and quit to establish Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first business ACG traded was arcade conversion kits. Then, ACG moved into the home software market and created games under the Ultimate Play the Game brand. 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. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen as they're smaller and allow the development of games faster. The company claimed that they could develop two 16K games each month, or one 48K game per month. Jetpac was a huge commercial success. The Spectrum version sold more than 300,000 copies , enabling the business with an annual turnover of over PS1 million.This was followed by three further 16K games, Pssst in June,Tranz Am, and Cookie in the fall, and then Ultimate made the leap to the 48K Spectrum. Jetpac, Pssst. Tranz Am. and Cookie were the only four games ever released with 16K ROMs for 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. Both games were well-liked by the gaming press, CRASH magazine in particular extolling the feats Ultimate had managed to do using the additional memory Lunar Jetman used. [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 priced at PS5.50. This was the norm for Spectrum arcade-style titles at the time. The change was introduced to discourage piracy. Consumers wouldn't be inclined to copy copies even if they were paying more. This coincided with the launch in Ultimate of the unique "big box", packaging. This packaging was offered in every Spectrum releases , with the exception of Gunfright. Sabre Wulf was able to sell more than 350,000 copies on its own on the Spectrum. In the latter half of 1984, the Sabreman Series' next two installments were released. Underwurlde was followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore is a forced perspective isometric view, dubbed Filmation which was a huge innovation in the home games market. Other games would follow its model, like Batman and Head Over Heels, both made by Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as certain of its Filmation sequels Alien 8, were actually completed prior to Sabre Wulf. Ultimate however believed that it might be detrimental to Sabre Wulf's relatively primitive sales therefore it was delayed until late in 1984.