ULTIMATE GUIDE
JETPAE
LONG BEFORE THE REPUTATION AND MYSTIQUE SURROUNDING ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME HAD FORMED, BEFORE THOSE SPECIAL BOXES AND FILMATION, THERE WAS SIMPLY JETPAC – AND AS WAYS TO START AN INFLUENTIAL GAMING LEGACY GOES, IT’S A MIGHTY FINE ONE
WORDS BY NICK THORPE
T
h
e small town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch is a funny place to imagine an overnight game-development success taking place, and yet in the early Eighties, that’s exactly what happened. Or at least, that’s the way it seemed, because the truth was that brothers Tim and Chris Stamper had already spent time designing arcade games.
So while the first game that bore the name of Ultimate Play The Game wasn’t quite a debut, Jetpac was a powerful statement of intent to ZX Spectrum owners, from a company that would gain an amazing reputation for quality games and secretive development practices, and eventually lead to the establishment of Rare.
Jetpac is a single-screen shoot-’em-up in which you take control of Jetman, whose goal in each stage is to escape to the next stage via a rocket. As the title implies, Jetman is equipped with a jetpack that allows him to travel freely around the screen, with his movement being faster in the air than when he’s walking on the ground.
He can fire a long, Defender-style shot at enemies to the left or right, JETMAN
depending on the direction he’s facing, and it’s vital to either dodge or destroy them, as Jetman is a fragile chap who dies with a single touch.