Ultimate Play the Game
Parent Rare | |
Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British
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.
History
Early history and rise
Ultimate Play the Game was founded in the
Ultimate's first release was Jetpac in May 1983 for the 16K Spectrum.[11] In a 1983 interview, Tim Stamper said that they deliberately targeted 16K machines as their smaller size meant development time was much shorter, claiming they could produce two 16K games in one month, or one 48K game.[12] Jetpac was a huge commercial success; the Spectrum version alone sold more than 300,000 copies[13] providing the fledgling company with a turnover in excess of £1 million.[1]
This was followed by three further 16K releases,
Ultimate's first 48K releases were
Knight Lore was finished before Sabre Wulf. But we decided the market wasn't ready for it. Because if we released Knight Lore and Alien 8, which was already half-finished, we wouldn't have sold Sabre Wulf ... There was a little bit of careful planning there ... We just had to sit on it because everyone else was so far behind
Tim Stamper, CRASH magazine, April 1988
Ultimate won the
Ultimate was criticised somewhat in the gaming media for their repeated use of the Filmation technique in subsequent games Alien 8, Nightshade, Gunfright and Pentagram,[26] though Nightshade and Gunfright used Filmation II, a variation on the engine, resulting in a similar visual style, but significantly different gameplay, with scrolling around a large world and arcade-like play, rather than the room-based puzzles of the earlier Filmation titles.
Decline
With the consistent success of Ultimate's releases there were rumours of a buyout by
Rare Limited
Shortly before the US Gold buyout, the name of another company "Rare Limited" began appearing on the credits of Ultimate releases. This was in fact another company set up by the Stampers to develop for Ultimate, but not be subject to any Ultimate takeover. Rare (initially under the banner Rare: Designs on the Future) would evolve after Ultimate's demise into a prolific developer for the Nintendo Entertainment System.[9] This led Nintendo to purchase a stake in the company, whose success was furthered with such classic SNES and Nintendo 64 releases as Donkey Kong Country and Goldeneye 007. In 2002 Rare was purchased outright by Microsoft[7] for US$377 million, a record fee for a video game developer, and currently develops games for the Xbox One console. At the end of 2006 Tim and Chris Stamper left Rare to "pursue other opportunities",[29] ending a 24-year involvement in developing home video games.
The Ultimate name in subsequent years
The 1997
On 8 December 2006 and 16 January 2007 respectively, Rare's owners
Relationship with the press and fans
Press
Ultimate had a reputation for secrecy that has continued to a lesser extent with successor Rare. Due to the small number of staff employed at Ultimate in the early days, the company had no time to speak to the press or attend trade events. The British computer gaming press even complained over how difficult it was to get hold of them.[10][34][35] As Tim Stamper later said:
...that's the way it turned out, we were so busy producing a few products a year and making sure they were right. I think while we were full-time Ultimate, we only had two Christmas mornings off, and that's how hard it was. We worked seven days a week, 8am till 1 or 2 in the morning. I don't feel it's any good having engineers who only work 9 to 5 because you get a 9 to 5 game.
Tim Stamper, CRASH magazine, April 1988
This press blackout soon worked to the company's advantage. Due to their reputation for producing high quality products, along with speculation in the press and amongst gamers, anticipation for each release was high.[1] This was helped along by the full-page advertisements placed in magazines showing the cover art of the game in question, but no shots or description of the game itself. These ads would be run prior to and for several months after the release date.[36] The magazines were not able to preview the games; the review copies, usually sent out just before general release,[1] would be the first opportunity for anyone to see them. Not talking to the press worked for Ultimate and it soon became policy.[1][23] When a journalist reviewing Nightshade for CRASH magazine asked Ultimate what the object of the game was, and how large the play area was, they responded with, respectively, "oh, we can't tell you that" and "it's pretty large".[37]
Lunar Jetman's trailer
This air of mystery was increased when CRASH magazine published a reader's photograph of Lunar Jetman featuring Jetman's moon rover pulling a trailer.[38] The possible existence of a trailer (as depicted on the game's cover art and loading screen) had been speculated on since the game's release, and many fans had searched fruitlessly for it. The Stampers shrugged off questions about whether this screen shot was genuine, but stopped short of actually denying it.[23] There have even been suggestions that Ultimate themselves may have created the screen shot to generate more interest in the game.[1] It has since been proven that Lunar Jetman's code does not contain graphics for a trailer.[2]
Fans
Ultimate were one of the first developers to have their own fanbase focused on the company and brand as much as the games themselves.[1] They received so much fan mail at their peak that a full-time employee had to be taken on to deal with up to 60 letters per day. They were known for their positive attitude to fans, always replying to letters and responding to requests for merchandise by sending posters, sweatshirts and caps free of charge.[23] The Stampers later stated that they were more interested in creating the games than making money from merchandising.[23] Retro Gamer has suggested that besides the quality of the games, Ultimate's popularity arose from a combination of "superb presentation" as well as the company's "air of mystique" giving it a "secretive yet cool vibe".[39]
Other platforms
The main series of games produced by Ultimate were all released on the ZX Spectrum, with most from Sabre Wulf onward also on the Amstrad CPC and MSX, and most early games up to and including Nightshade also on the BBC Micro. Only three of these (Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde and Nightshade) were released on the other major platform of the time, the Commodore 64, however a series of C64-exclusive titles were published by Ultimate:[10]
- The Staff of Karnath (1984)
- Entombed (1985)
- Imhotep (1985)
- Blackwyche (1985)
- Outlaws(1985)
- Dragon Skulle (1985)
The Staff of Karnath, Entombed, Blackwyche and Dragon Skulle all concern the adventures of Sir Arthur Pendragon.
Authorship
The company's secretive tendencies also extended to the question of who wrote the games. Whereas most games of the time would list those responsible on the cassette inlay cards or even on the front of the box (one notable example,
The Ultimate titles up to Gunfright were produced primarily by
The authorship of the Commodore 64 titles was at the time even more uncertain. The conversions of existing Spectrum games Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde and Nightshade were handled by
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "A Rare Breed", Retro Gamer, no. 20, Imagine Publishing, pp. 26–33, January 2006
- ^ a b c Ultimate Play the Game – Company Lookback, Retro Micro Games Action – The Best of GamesTM Retro Volume 1, pages 24–26. Imagine Publishing, 2006
- ^ a b c d e Jones, Darran and King, Ryan. X360 Magazine supplemental: Rare – The Ultimate Story, page 9. Imagine Publishing, 2005.
- ^ "The gang of four", Popular Computing Weekly, 2 (33): 13, 18–24 August 1983
- ^ "Arcade aces turn to micros to produce Jet Pac and PSST", Your Computer (6): 49, June 1983
- ^ "Retroview – Knightlore", Edge, no. 12, p. 77, September 1994
- ^ a b "Microsoft buy top games producers Rare". CBBC Newsround. 26 September 2002. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
- ^ "In search of the ultimate game", Home Computing Weekly (23): 33, August 1983
- ^ Newsfield Publications: 9. March 1989.
- ^ EMAP: 20–21, July 1985
- ^ a b c "PSST is this the Ultimate?", Personal Computer Games (1): 5, June 1983
- ^ "The gang of four". Popular Computing Weekly. No. 33. Sunshine Publications. 18 August 1983. p. 13. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "1983: A Spaceman's Odyssey - The History of Jetman" (PDF). Retro Gamer (96). Imagine: 50. November 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ "Coming Soon..." Personal Computer Games (2): 7. December 1983.
- CRASH. Newsfield Publications. February 1984. p. 88.
- ^ Jones, Darran and King, Ryan. X360 supplemental: Rare – The Ultimate Story, page 13. Imagine Publishing, 2005.
- Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 30 October 2007.
- ^ "Ultimate Storm The Charts". Personal Computer Games. No. 23. VNU. January 1985. p. 23. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
- ^ Maher, Jimmy (14 January 2014). "The Legend of Ultimate Play the Game". The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
- ^ "The Making of Head Over Heels", Retro Gamer, no. 34, Imagine Publishing, pp. 74–77, February 2007
- ^ a b Martyn Carroll (July 2012), "On the trail of Mire Mare", Retro Gamer, no. 105, Imagine Publishing, pp. 34–39
- ^ Newsfield Publications: 35–38, April 1988, archived from the originalon 1 January 1999
- Future Publishing: 15. June 1985. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
- Future Publishing: 122. June 1985. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
- EMAP: 43, July 1986
- EMAP: 108, June 1987
- ^ "Solar Jetman – The Creators Speak". gtw64.retro-net.de. Archived from the original on 17 May 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
- ^ 1UP.com. "Rare Founders Leave to 'Pursue Other Opportunities'". Archived from the original on 28 May 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Cox, Kate (30 March 2012). "Long Lost Emulation Easter Egg Discovered in GoldenEye". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
- ^ Sabre Wulf on Xbox? at computerandvideogames.com.
- ^ Secret Rare racer revealed! at computerandvideogames.com.
- ^ "United States Patent and Trademark Office". tess2.uspto.gov. Retrieved 17 June 2007. Due to the nature of this US government site, the relevant page cannot be directly linked to, so a search must be manually performed. The EU trademark may be found here: [1]
- ^ "The Ultimate Recluse", Personal Computer Games (14): 20, January 1985
- Your Spectrum (15), Dennis Publishing: 3, June 1985
- ^ "Promotional Material Published by Ultimate Play the Game". SpectrumComputing. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ "Nightshade review", CRASH (21), Newsfield Publications: 10, October 1985
- Newsfield Publications: 33, February 1986
- ^ Ultimate Collectables, Retro Gamer Anthology, pages 61–63, Live Publishing, 2004
- ^ "Memories of Telecomsoft", Retro Gamer, no. 4, Imagine Publishing, pp. 43–49, May 2004
- ^ "Interview with Manuel Caballero". Ultimate-Wurlde.com.
- ^ "The Ultimate Adventure of Sir Arthur Pendragon", Retro Gamer, no. 56, Imagine Publishing, pp. 48–54, October 2008
- ^ "The Ultimate Years", Retro Gamer, no. 109, Imagine Publishing, pp. 22–31, November 2012
Further reading
- Dawley, Heidi (May 29, 1995). "Killer Instinct for Hire". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on June 2, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
- Waugh, Eric-Jon Rossel (August 30, 2006). "A Short History of Rare". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on October 15, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
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External links
- Ultimate Wurlde by Rob Uttley
- Ultimate Play the Game profile at MobyGames
- Ultimate Play the Game Special Collection at C64Sets.com