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Ultimate Play the Game

Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited
Ultimate Play the Game
Company typeVideo game developer
IndustryVideo games
Founded1982 (1982)
SuccessorRare
HeadquartersAshby-de-la-Zouch, England
Key people
Tim Stamper (graphics director)
Chris Stamper (software director)
Carol Stamper née Ward (director)
John Lathbury (director)
Louise Stamper
Christian Penfold
ProductsJetpac, Pssst, Cookie, Tranz Am, Lunar Jetman, Atic Atac, Sabreman series, Alien 8, Nightshade, Gunfright
ParentRare

Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher,[1][2][3] founded in 1982, by ex-arcade video game developers[4][5] Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, MSX and Commodore 64 computers from 1983 until 1987. Ultimate are perhaps best remembered for the big-selling titles Jetpac and Sabre Wulf, each of which sold over 300,000 copies in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and their groundbreaking series of isometric arcade adventures using a technique termed Filmation. Knight Lore, the first of the Filmation games, has been retrospectively described in the press as "seminal ... revolutionary" (GamesTM),[2] "one of the most successful and influential games of all time" (X360),[3] and "probably ... the greatest single advance in the history of computer games" (Edge).[6]

By the time of the label's last use in 1988 on a retrospective compilation, Ultimate had evolved into Rare and moved on to developing titles for Nintendo consoles. Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002 for US$377 million, a record price for a video game developer,[7] and now develops exclusively for Microsoft platforms such as Xbox and Microsoft Windows. In 2006, Rare revived the "Ultimate Play the Game" name for an Xbox Live Arcade remake of Jetpac named Jetpac Refuelled. In 2015, several Ultimate titles were collected and released as part of the Rare Replay compilation for Xbox One.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference rgamer20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference gamestm was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Jones King was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "The gang of four", Popular Computing Weekly, 2 (33): 13, 18–24 August 1983
  5. ^ "Arcade aces turn to micros to produce Jet Pac and PSST", Your Computer (6): 49, June 1983
  6. ^ "Retroview – Knightlore", Edge, no. 12, p. 77, September 1994
  7. ^ "Microsoft buy top games producers Rare". CBBC Newsround. 26 September 2002. Retrieved 1 May 2007.

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