Ultimate Play the Game

United Kingdom · Founded 1982 · Developer / Publisher

The secretive Leicestershire company of Tim and Chris Stamper, whose Jetpac, Sabre Wulf and Knight Lore defined the ZX Spectrum — and which became Rare.

Ultimate Play the Game was the trading name of Ashby Computers and Graphics, founded in 1982 in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, by Tim and Chris Stamper with their friend John Lathbury and Tim's girlfriend, later wife, Carole Ward. The Stampers had worked in arcade development, and the company began by making arcade conversion kits and four arcade games, including Blue Print for Bally Midway. Its first home computer game, Jetpac (May 1983) for the 16K ZX Spectrum, sold more than 300,000 copies, and Lunar Jetman and Atic Atac followed that year. Sabre Wulf (1984) sold for £9.95, far above the usual price, and still sold more than 350,000 copies on the Spectrum. Knight Lore, released late in 1984, introduced the isometric Filmation technique and was hugely influential. Ultimate was famously secretive: it avoided the press, and its advertisements showed box art but nothing about the games. It won the Golden Joystick award for best software house in 1983 and 1984. In 1985 the Stampers sold a stake to U.S. Gold, which continued the Ultimate label until 1987, while the brothers concentrated on a new company, Rare.