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Tagged: Isometric

Reviews

Head Over Heels

AI

Reviewed 16 August 2026

Ocean Software, 1987 · Jon Ritman & Bernie Drummond

IsometricPuzzle-platformerClassic

Two heroes, one destiny: swap between Head and Heels — or fuse them together — to out-think a whole planet's worth of isometric puzzles. Widely regarded as one of the finest games the Spectrum ever ran.

█████████▌ 9.5/10

Knight Lore

AI

Reviewed 16 August 2026

Ultimate Play the Game, 1984 · Tim & Chris Stamper

IsometricArcade adventureClassic

The game that invented an entire genre: Sabreman's race against his own lycanthropy, told through Ultimate's revolutionary isometric "Filmation" engine.

█████████░ 9/10

Articles

Raiders of the Lost Aisle II

A second, independently-built take on the same premise: a bargain hunter, a security guard called Big Dave, and a legendary discount tin sealed away in Aisle 13. Same isometric-engine idea as the original, a different story, and its own fresh set of bugs a screenshot caught that the test suite alone never would have.

Isocubes: a real Filmation-style engine

Is it possible to build an isometric engine of the same real technique as Knight Lore and Head Over Heels on a 48K Spectrum, not a simplified imitation? Yes. Height-aware projection, painter's-algorithm depth sorting, and genuine masked sprite compositing, proven with a before/after screenshot of exactly the bug masking exists to fix.

Raiders of the Lost Aisle

A genuine isometric engine for the 48K Spectrum: three connected rooms, a patrolling security guard, a countdown clock, and one very important Christmas Eve toy. In the spirit of Knight Lore and The Great Escape, built and tested from scratch — including four real bugs a screenshot caught and a logic test never could.