Ultimate Play the Game ZX Spectrum

Founded in 1982 by Tim and Chris Stamper, Ultimate Play the Game were an influential British computer game developer most famous for the Filmation engine adventure games for the ZX Spectrum. By selling hundreds of thousands of computer games on 8 bit micros in 1983-84, Ultimate Play the Game also became one of the most successful early computer-game developers.

Ultimate Play the Game is the trading name for the developer, Ashby Computers & Graphics Ltd. Led by the Stamper Brothers, Ultimate developed for the 16 kbyte ZX Spectrum before evolving to the 48 kbyte variant.

Ultimate's most famous series is the Sabreman Series.

Ultimate's influential Speccy games were powered by their proprietary Filmation engine. Most of Ultimate's adventure games were presented in isometric perspective and featured contiguous flip-screen exploration of hundreds of individual screens.

Image-masking was employed to separate foreground objects from background ones, thereby creating a "walk-mesh" and granting depth illusion.

In addition, some objects were interactable. Moreover, verticality was employed.

Screen-scrolling and seamless transition were introduced to Filmation in Nightshade and Gunfright (Filmation II).

Suffice it to say that Ultimate's adventure games were some of the most sophisticated computer games of the early 80s. In fact, I have played 1990s computer games that are not as sophisticated as Ultimate's adventure games.

Chronological List of Ultimate Play the Game ZX Spectrum Games

This is a chronological list of ZX Spectrum games that were developed by Ultimate Play the Game aka Ashby Computers & Graphics Ltd. Note that this chronology is based on order of release, not necessarily on order of completion.

At a glance, it should be obvious that Ultimate's catalogue is NOT one-dimensional as the hacks of computer game journalism would have you believe; that Ultimate tried their hand at several different types of computer game -- including shoot 'em ups -- and utilized three different perspectives, not just isometric.

Jetpac 1983 (16k ZX Spectrum)

Tranz Am 1983

Pssst 1983

Cookie 1983

Lunar Jetman 1983 (48k ZX Spectrum)

Atic Atac 1984

Sabre Wulf 1984

Underwurlde 1984

Knight Lore 1984

Nightshade 1985 (Filmation II)

Alien 8 1985

Pentagram 1986

Gunfright 1986 (Filmation II)

An Example of Ultimate Play the Game Influence

Released in 1987-91, System 3's Last Ninja series on the Commodore 64 sold millions of copies in the late 80s and early 90s. Last Ninja was clearly influenced by Ultimate Play the Game's Knight Lore or its dozens of derivatives.

cf.

Lilura1