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Filmation is the name of theisometric graphics engine employed in a series of games developed byUltimate Play the Game during the1980s, primarily on the8-bitZX Spectrum platform, though various titles also appeared on theBBC Micro,Amstrad CPC,MSX andCommodore 64 platforms.
The original Filmation engine allowed the creation of 3Dflip-screen environments and was designed to be used forplatform-basedarcade adventures.Player characters could move in four diagonal (from the player's perspective) directions, were able to jump over or onto obstacles, and could even push objects around the game environment.
A handful of games had used an isometric perspective before Filmation's first appearance in 1984, such as the arcade gamesQ*bert (1982) fromGottlieb, andZaxxon (1982) andCongo Bongo (1983) fromSega, as well as theZX Spectrum titleAnt Attack (1983) bySandy White.Q*bert andZaxxon have little else in common with Filmation, thoughAnt Attack was aplatform game of similar style, and was the first of these games to feature an extradegree of freedom (the ability to move up and down as well and north, south, east and west). It was claimed by White thatAnt Attack was "the first true isometric 3D game".[1]
When Filmation was introduced a year later, it featured far more complex graphics and environments than any isometric title yet, garneringKnight Lore much attention and critical acclaim. Ultimate Play the Game first described the engine in theKnight Lore manual thus:
KNIGHT LORE features filmation [sic] a unique process whereby you have complete freedom within the confines of your imagination, to do as you wish with any of the objects found within KNIGHT LORE
— Ultimate Play the Game,Knight Lore documentation[2]
Knight Lore was followed three months later byAlien 8 and in 1986 byPentagram. A second engine,Filmation II, was introduced in 1985 and used in two titles,Nightshade[3] andGunfright.[4] This new version of the engine introduced largescrolling environments (much likeAnt Attack's) rather than flip-screens. To avoid obscuring the player character, streets and buildings rendered by this engine would disappear to their outlines when the player character walked behind them,[5] and the ability to flip the viewpoint through 180 degrees with a press of the Z key was introduced. Although Filmation II increased the graphical complexity of the titles that used it, the gameplay was simplified; the player was no longer able to jump (and indeed had no reason to) and was confined to essentially simpler environments, with no obstacles other than the buildings themselves. This simplification resulted inNightshade andGunfright being more straightforwardshooter games than the puzzle based Filmation I titles.
Two later games,Martianoids andBubbler, were developed byU.S. Gold (and published on the Ultimate Play the Game label) which also used scrolling 3D environments, though neither made explicit use of the Filmation II engine. Both had similarities to Filmation II, thoughMartianoids did not use a true isometric perspective andBubbler had more in common withAtari Games'Marble Madness than previous Filmation titles.
Ultimate's final, unreleased title,Mire Mare, was long thought to have been Filmation-based, but in the late 1990sRare revealed that it would actually have been more like the top-downSabre Wulf, the first title based around theSabreman character.[6]
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The Filmation style was extremely influential in the period immediately following the release ofKnight Lore andAlien 8, and it was copied extensively by other publishers in titles such asFairlight,The Great Escape,Batman,M.O.V.I.E.,Head Over Heels andSolstice. Later,Rare, the company that Ultimate Play the Game evolved into, reprised the style themselves with their releasesSnake Rattle 'n' Roll (NES andSega Mega Drive) andMonster Max (Game Boy; written by Bernie Drummond andJon Ritman, the authors of the aforementionedBatman andHead Over Heels).Cadaver by theBitmap Brothers, released on theAmiga andAtari ST in 1990, bore striking similarities toKnight Lore, and even named the game's location "Castle Wulf" afterKnight Lore's precedent game,Sabre Wulf.
