Ultimate Play the Game

 aUltimate Play the Game, which was a game inspired by Leicestershire, was 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. Additional Stamper family members were involved in the first operation and the support for Ultimate Play the Game that was initially situated next to a family-run newsagent. Chris and Tim each had experience with arcade game development. Chris was, according to one account, Konami's Gyruss. They claimed to be the "most proficient arcade game design team in Britain" before they decided to quit their jobs and create Ashby Computers and Graphics. This resulted in ACG's first business being the creation of arcade conversion kits, and later expanding into the home computer software market and releasing games under the Ultimate Play the Game name. Blue Print for Bally-Midway, Dingo, Grasspin and Saturn for Jaleco were the first arcade titles released by Ashby. Ultimate's first release, Jetpac, was May 1983, and it was for the 16K Spectrum. In an interview from 1983, Tim Stamper said that they decided to target 16K machines because their smaller size meant that development times were much less and that they could develop two 16K games in a month, or one 48K game. Jetpac was a commercial success. The Spectrum version sold more than 300,000 copies, which provided the company with an impressive revenue of over PS1 million. Jetpac, Pssst, Tranz Am and Cookie were four of only ten games ever released in the 16K format for use with the ZX Interface 2. These four games were also released by Sinclair Research on cassette with distinctive silver inlay cards , for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles. Both games were very well-liked by the media for gaming. CRASH magazine praised Ultimate's utilization of the additional memory Lunar Jetman provided. The year 1984 saw Sabre Wulf, the first of the Sabreman series, and the first release with a suggested retail price of PS9.95. The price of Ultimate games had been only PS5.50 and was standard for Spectrum arcade-style games of the time. The reason for this increase was to discourage copying, with the thought that if consumers bought a game at a higher price, they would be less inclined to offer copies. It was also when Ultimate launched the "big box" packaging. It was used for all subsequent Spectrum releases , including Gunfright and also with other releases on other platforms. The company believed this would justify the higher cost and encourage gamers not to copy the game. This strategy worked as Sabre Wulf sold over 350,000 copies in its first year on the Spectrum. The next installment of the Sabreman series was released in 1984. Underwurlde followed quickly by Knight Lore. Knight Lore which was a forced-perspective isometric viewpoint , also known as Filmation and was a major innovation in the home games market. The other games that followed its example, such as Batman and Head Over Heels, both from Ocean Software. Knight Lore as well as its Filmation sequel Alien 8 were actually completed before Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate thought that it would affect negatively Sabre Wulf's sales, and so it was delayed until the latter part of 1984.