Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate Play the Game was founded in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1982 by Tim and Chris Stamper,[8] their friend John Lathbury, and Tim's girlfriend (later wife) Carole Ward. Others Stamper family members were involved in the initial running and support of Ultimate Play the Game, that was originally located near a family-owned newsagent. Chris and Tim both had previous experience in arcade game development. Chris was, according to one source, Konami's Gyruss. They claimed to be the "most knowledgeable arcade design team in Britain" prior to deciding to quit their jobs and establish Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first venture of ACG was developing an arcade conversion kit, then ACG entered the home market and developed games under the Ultimate Play the Game trademark. Blue Print was released by Ashby for Bally-Midway and Grasspin for Dingo. The Ultimate Play the Game's initial release was Jetpac for the 16K Spectrum in May 1983. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen due to the fact that they are smaller and allow to develop faster. They could make two 16K games every month, or a 48K game in one month. Jetpac was a massive commercial success. It was sold for over 300,000. Spectrum versions alone. Jetpac, Pssst and Tranz Am were just four of 10 games ever released with 16K ROM formats. The four games were published by Sinclair Research on cassette with distinctive silver inlay cards , for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles. The games were well-received from gaming media. CRASH magazine was particularly impressed with the feats Ultimate could accomplish 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 suggested retail price of PS9.95. The Ultimate games were originally sold at PS5.50. This was the standard for Spectrum arcade-style titles at the time. The higher price was imposed to stop copying. The players wouldn't be inclined to share copies when they had to pay more. It was also when Ultimate introduced the "big box" packaging. It was included for all subsequent Spectrum releases , including Gunfright and with additional releases on other platforms. Ultimate believed that this would be a way to justify the cost and encourage gamers not to copy the game. This strategy was successful, since Sabre Wulf sold over 350,000 copies during its first year on the Spectrum. The next installment of the Sabreman series was released in 1984. Underwurlde came next, followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was an interesting revolution in the home computer game market,using a forced-perspective isometric viewpoint branded Filmation and the look of that was later extensively replicated in other games, the most notable examples being Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software. Knight Lore and certain of its Filmation sequels Alien 8, were actually made before Sabre Wulf. Ultimate however believed that it might be detrimental to Sabre Wulf's comparatively modest sales and put it off until the end of 1984.