the current game. Health can be replenished by collecting food scattered throughout the castle, however it will constantly drop the more the player moves, thus the player may eventually lose a life from starvation if they have not escaped the castle in time. Development Ultimate Play the Game was founded by brothers Tim and Chris Stamper, along with Tim's wife, Carol, from their headquarters in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1982. Under the trading name of Ultimate Play the Game, they began producing multiple video games for the ZX Spectrum throughout the early 1980s. Prior to founding Ultimate, the Stamper brothers had backgrounds in designing arcade machines, but no marketing experience in the video game sector. The operations of Ultimate were secretive and the Stamper brothers rarely gave interviews. Computer and Video Games noted that during development of Atic Atac, staff would work in "separate teams" to ensure quality control; one team would work on graphics whilst the other would oversee gameplay or sound. The Stamper brothers worked seven days a week with little sleep in order to devote more time into developing video games, and would frequently re-use the same mechanics of their earlier games in newer ZX Spectrum games. Reception and legacy The game received a positive critical reception upon release. Micro Adventurer mainly praised Ultimate's capabilities of developing high quality games, saying that Atic Atac was "bound to fix their name firmly into the minds of adventurers", further recommending the game "without reservation". Crash enjoyed the game's colourful graphics, heralding the detail and objects of the game to be "marvellous". However, they criticised the difficult joystick control and vague instructions, adding that the entire game is a "learning experience". Computer and Video Games stated that the game was "the best yet from Ultimate", and later in 1984 described it as "the favourite arcade adventure amongst computer gamesters". Personal Computer Games wrote that it was "another blockbuster game", while Sinclair User praised both the depth of plot and the advanced graphics, citing them both as "superb". In 1991, Atic Atac was ranked as the 79th best ZX Spectrum game of all time by Your Sinclair, and was voted the 8th best game of all time by the readers of Retro Gamer Magazine for an article that was scheduled to be in a special Your Sinclair Tribute issue. In 2007, Eurogamer described it as a prime example of "what passion can do