Filmation (game Engine)
Filmation is the trademark name of the isometric graphics engine employed in a series of games developed by Ultimate Play the Game during the 1980s, primarily on the 8-bit ZX Spectrum platform, though various titles also appeared on the BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, MSX and Commodore 64 platforms. The Filmation engine allowed the creation of 3D flip-screen environments and was designed to be used for platform-based arcade 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. Precursors A handful of games had used an isometric perspective before Filmation's first appearance in 1984, such as the arcade games ''Q*bert'' (1982) from Gottlieb, and ''Zaxxon'' (1982) and ''Congo Bongo'' (1983) from Sega, as well as the ZX Spectrum title ''Ant Attack'' (1983) by Sandy White. ''Q*bert'' and ''Zaxxon'' have little else in common with Filmatio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Knight Lore 3
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Ancient Greece, Greek ''hippeis'' and ''hoplite'' (ἱππεῖς) and Ancient Rome, Roman ''Equites, eques'' and ''centurion'' of classical antiquity. In the Early Middle Ages in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon Equestrianism, mounted warriors. During the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect Court (royal), courtly Christian warrior. Often, a knight was a vassal who served as an elite fighter or a bodyguard for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in Horses in warfare, battle on horseback. Knighthood ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zaxxon
is an isometric shooter arcade game, developed and released by Sega in 1982, in which the player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki is also credited for having worked on the development of the game., , , 2005, . ''Zaxxon'' was the first game to employ axonometric projection, which lent its name to the game (''AXXON'' from ''AXON''ometric projection). The type of axonometric projection is isometric projection: this effect simulates three dimensions from a third-person viewpoint. It was also the first arcade game to be advertised on television, with a commercial produced by Paramount Pictures for $150,000. The game was a critical and commercial success upon release, becoming one of the top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1982 in the United States. Sega followed it with the arcade sequel ''Super Zaxxon'' (1982) and the isometric platformer ''Congo Bongo'' (1983). Gameplay The objective of the game i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Martianoids
''Martianoids'' is a ZX Spectrum video game developed by Ultimate Play the Game and released in 1987. Gameplay Although it uses isometric projection, as with Ultimate's second-generation isometric releases such as ''Nightshade'' and ''Gunfright'', ''Martianoids'' used a scrolling display rather than the flip-screen of earlier titles such as ''Knight Lore'' and '' Alien 8''. As with the contemporary Ultimate title ''Bubbler'', ''Martianoids'' was not written by the partnership of Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper. It was instead programmed by a team at U.S. Gold, and was therefore an Ultimate game in name only. It was Ultimate's penultimate title for 8-bit home computers. In 1988 the company became Rare, embarking on a long-running partnership with Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauch ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shooter Game
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons. Shooter games test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed in both isolated single player or networked multiplayer environments. Shooter games encompass many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar engaging in combat with a weapon against both code-driven NPC enemies or other avatars controlled by other players. Subgenres Shoot 'em up Shoot ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scrolling
In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures but moves ( pans or tilts) the user's view across what is apparently a larger image that is not wholly seen. A common television and movie special effect is to scroll credits, while leaving the background stationary. Scrolling may take place completely without user intervention (as in film credits) or, on an interactive device, be triggered by touchscreen or a keypress and continue without further intervention until a further user action, or be entirely controlled by input devices. Scrolling may take place in discrete increments (perhaps one or a few lines of text at a time), or continuously (smooth scrolling). Frame rate is the speed at which an entire image is redisplayed. It is related to scrolling in that changes to text a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gunfright
''Gunfright'' is an action-adventure game developed by Ultimate Play the Game and published by U.S. Gold. It was first released for the ZX Spectrum in December 1985, then released for Amstrad CPC and the MSX the following year. The player takes the role of a sheriff in the town of Black Rock and is tasked with eliminating outlaws who are scattered throughout the settlement. The game was developed directly after '' Nightshade'', and re-uses the latter game's Filmation II game engine that allows images to be rendered without overlapping each other. The game received mostly positive reviews upon release; praise was directed at the graphics and presentation, but criticism was directed at the game's similarity to ''Nightshade''. It was later included in '' Rare Replay'', Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation. Gameplay The game is presented in an isometric format and set in the fictional town of Black Rock. The player takes on the role of Sheriff Quickdraw, whose main ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nightshade (1985 Video Game)
''Nightshade'' is an action video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game. It was first released for the ZX Spectrum in 1985, and was then ported to the Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro later that year. It was also ported to the MSX exclusively in Japan in 1986. In the game, the player assumes the role of a knight who sets out to destroy four demons in a plague-infested village. The game features scrolling isometric gameplay, an improvement over its flip-screen-driven predecessors, ''Knight Lore'' and '' Alien 8'', all thanks to an enhanced version of the Ultimate Play the Game's Filmation game engine, branded Filmation II. The game received positive reviews upon release; critics praised its gameplay traits, graphics and colours, however one critic was divided over its perceived similarities to its predecessors. Gameplay The game is presented in an isometric format. The player assumes the role of a knight who enters the plague-infested village of Nightshade to va ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pentagram (video Game)
''Pentagram'' is a ZX Spectrum and MSX video game released by Ultimate Play the Game in 1986. It is the fourth in the Sabreman series, following on from his adventures in ''Sabre Wulf'', '' Underwurlde'' and ''Knight Lore''. Similarly to ''Knight Lore'' it uses the isometric Filmation engine. The game was written by either Tim and Chris Stamper or a U.S. Gold programming team (see the main article for the reason for this confusion). Introduction Typically for an Ultimate release, the inlay card provides little actual instruction for playing the game, but includes a cryptic short story as an introduction. This was Ultimate's way of describing the object of the game, which is to recover the lost Pentagram, an artifact of magical power. Firstly, Sabreman must locate one of the wells located in the maze of screens, shoot it several times with his spell and take the resultant bucket of water to one of the broken obelisks. When dropped on these, the water will "heal" the stone ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alien 8
''Alien 8'' is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game. It was released for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC and MSX in 1985. The game is a spiritual successor to the best-selling ''Knight Lore'', which was lauded by critics for its isometric graphics. In the game, the player takes control of a robot, Alien 8, whose job is to ensure that all of the cryogenically frozen passengers on board a starship remain viable during the ship's voyage. The game was written by Chris Stamper, and graphics were designed by Tim Stamper. ''Alien 8'' uses the same image masking technique as ''Knight Lore'', which allows the developers to create composite structures out of stacked images without visual overlay. The technique was copyrighted by Ultimate as the Filmation game engine. As with its spiritual predecessor, the game is rendered isometric projection. The game was critically acclaimed upon release. Reviewers praised the game's graphics and inn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Knight Lore
''Knight Lore'' is a 1984 action-adventure game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, and written by company founders Chris and Tim Stamper. The game is known for its use of isometric graphics, which it further popularized in video games. In ''Knight Lore'', the player character Sabreman has forty days to collect objects throughout a castle and brew a cure to his werewolf curse. Each castle room is depicted in monochrome on its own screen and consists of blocks to climb, obstacles to avoid, and puzzles to solve. Ultimate released ''Knight Lore'' third in the Sabreman series despite having completed it first. The Stamper brothers withheld its release for a year to position the company advantageously in anticipation of the game's effect on the market. ''Knight Lore'' novel image masking technique, Filmation, let images appear to pass atop and behind each other without their contents colliding. This created the illusion of depth priority, which the computer did no ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Degrees Of Freedom (engineering)
In physics, the degrees of freedom (DOF) of a mechanical system is the number of independent parameters that define its configuration or state. It is important in the analysis of systems of bodies in mechanical engineering, structural engineering, aerospace engineering, robotics, and other fields. The position of a single railcar (engine) moving along a track has one degree of freedom because the position of the car is defined by the distance along the track. A train of rigid cars connected by hinges to an engine still has only one degree of freedom because the positions of the cars behind the engine are constrained by the shape of the track. An automobile with highly stiff suspension can be considered to be a rigid body traveling on a plane (a flat, two-dimensional space). This body has three independent degrees of freedom consisting of two components of translation and one angle of rotation. Skidding or drifting is a good example of an automobile's three independent degrees ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sandy White (programmer)
Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s. Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1979. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service. Quicksilva mainly released games for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, but also did conversions and some original games for the VIC-20, Dragon 32/64, Oric-1/ Atmos, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron home computers. One of their earliest successful titles was a ''Star Raiders''-style game entitled ''Time-Gate'' which reached the top of the ZX Spectrum charts in December 1982. Amongst the company's other successes were Jeff Minter's ''Gridrunner'' (1983), '' Bugaboo'' (1983, a.k.a. ''La Pulga'') and ''Fred'' (1983, titled " ''Roland on the Ropes''" on the Amstrad), two titles licensed from Spanish software house Indescomp S.A. Sandy White's ''Ant Attack'' (1983) for the ZX Spectrum featured revolutionary 3-D graphics for which a p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |