Filmation 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, but 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.

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 Filmation, though Ant Attack was a platform game of similar style, and was the first of these games to feature an extra degree of freedom (the ability to move up and down as well and north, south, east and west). It was claimed by White that Ant Attack was "the first true isometric 3D game".

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