Ultimate Play the Game was founded in the Leicestershire town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1982 by Tim and Chris Stamper, their friend 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. Both Tim and Chris had worked in arcade game development including, according to one report, Konami's "Gyruss", and claimed to be "the most experienced arcade video game design team in Britain" until tiring of working for others and leaving to start Ashby Computers and Graphics. This led to ACG's initial trade being in creating arcade conversion kits, before moving into the home computer software market developing games under the Ultimate Play the Game name. Ashby released four arcade games: "Blue Print" for Bally-Midway, and "Grasspin", "Dingo" and "Saturn" for Jaleco.