Ultimate Play the Game

 Ultimate 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. Other members of the Stamper family were also involved in the early running and support of the company, which was initially located in a house next to the family-run newsagent. Chris and Tim had both worked on the development of arcade games including Konami's Gyruss. Chris claimed to be the "most knowledgeable arcade videogame designer team in Britain". After exhaustion of working for different companies, he left to open Ashby Computers and Graphics. The first trade being in creating arcade conversion kits, and later expanding into the software market for computers at home making games under the Ultimate Play the Game name. Blue Print for Bally-Midway, Dingo, Grasspin and Saturn for Jaleco were the first arcade games to be released by Ashby. The first release of Ultimate, Jetpac, was May 1983, and it was for the 16K Spectrum. Tim Stamper stated that 16K machines were chosen because they are smaller and allow the development of games faster. The company claimed that they could create two games in 16K each month, or one 48K game per month. Jetpac was a huge commercial success; the Spectrum version sold over 300,000 copies , providing the company with a turnover in more than PS1 million.This was followed by three further 16K titles, Pssst in June, Tranz Am and Cookie, before Ultimate was upgraded 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. These four games were also made available by Sinclair Research on cassette with distinctive silver inlay cards , for inclusion in ZX Spectrum bundles. Both games were well-received the media for gaming. CRASH magazine praised Ultimate's usage of the additional memory Lunar Jetman included. In 1984, came Sabre Wulf, the first game in the Sabreman series and the first game released at a recommended retail price of PS9.95. The original price for Ultimate titles was only PS5.50. This was standard in Spectrum arcade-style games at the time. This was done in order to discourage piracy. This was also the time of the introduction of Ultimate of the unique "big box" packaging. The packaging was available in all Spectrum releases except Gunfright. Sabre Wulf was able to sell more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum. The game was released in late 1984. Sabreman Series' subsequent two installments were released. Underwurlde quickly was followed by Knight Lore. Knight Lore was something of a revolution in the computer games for home market, utilizing a forced-perspective, isometric perspective which was later branded Filmation and the look of which would be extensively copied in various games, with notable examples of this being Batman and Head Over Heels from Ocean Software. Knight Lore and some of its Filmation sequels Alien 8 were actually completed before Sabre Wulf. However, Ultimate thought that it would negatively impact Sabre Wulf's revenue, so it was put off until the end of 1984.