Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 19, 2019
Knight Lore is a 1984 action-adventure game that popularised isometric graphics in video games. It was developed and published for the ZX Spectrum by Ultimate Play the Game and written by Chris and Tim Stamper (pictured). Each monochrome castle room consists of blocks to climb, obstacles to avoid, and puzzles to solve. The game's novel image masking technique, Filmation, let images appear to pass atop and behind each other without distortion. By delaying the release until 1984, Ultimate was able to release several titles quickly before other developers could copy the style. Critics considered its technical solutions and isometric 3D style a harbinger of future game design. They praised the game's controls and atmosphere of mystery, but noted its difficult gameplay and criticised its sound and occasional graphical slowdown. It was named game of the year by the Golden Joystick Awards and Popular Computing Weekly readers. Though it was not the first isometric 3D video game, Knight Lore popularised the format; its influence also persisted in computer role-playing games. The game was later included in Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, Rare Replay. (Full article...)