Elite

Anchor House, Anchor Road, Aldridge, Walsall, WS9

The spiritual home of this blog is Anchor Road, Walsall. I've written before about my long fascination with the artwork on Elite's 1987 job advert and it's Gerry Anderson-esque vision of Anchor Road as the Moonbase Alpha of the Midlands. A trip to Anchor House was inevitable at some point. It just took slightly longer than expected because The Great Petrol Panic of autumn 2021 put paid to my first set of plans. It's going to be a while before the Travel Tube brings us to Anchor Road and before that address, before in fact Elite was even called Elite, the company had a more humble origin.

System 3

Blenheim House, Ash Hill Drive, Pinner, HA5

It's lunchtime on a grey Sunday in November. I'm walking up Elm Park Road, in Pinner, towards Ash Hill Drive. When I arrive I will take a picture of a Tesco superstore. I don't need to take a picture of Tesco superstore but it's built on the site of an old System 3 office and thus must be done for completeness (Gollum-like whisper, completeneessss, my precious). My walk takes me along Marsh Lane, past Elm Park Court, along Pinner Green, with a final turn left just before Cuckoo Hill. It gives this slice of Metroland a rural feel; lovely. I hope the toilets are open. 

Ultimate Play The Game / Ashby Computers and Graphics / Rare Limited

The Green, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, LE6

Ultimate Play the Game was the trading name of Ashby Computers and Graphics. You probably already know the name if you're interested enough to read this blog but not including Ultimate would be like writing about football teams and not covering Manchester United because they are too famous.

Their first game, Jetpac, was released in May 1983, initially for the 16k ZX Spectrum and followed by versions for the VIC-20 and BBC Micro. The lead time of magazines in 1983 was so long that the first review comes two months later in COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES issue 21 (July 1983 page 136) where the unnamed reviewer can't wait to tell us, "the tape loaded successfully first time and while the game was loading an impressive title screen was displayed."