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The recent release of Lumo has proved there is still much love not just for retro-themed games, but also the isometric viewpoint that became popular on 8-bit computers in the mid-80s. While Lumo's creator, Gareth Noyce, freely admits to the classic Head Over Heels as a major influence, there are many other fine examples of how the genre inspired new gameplay and technological advances back in the 80s.3D Ant Attack was one of the earliest and most significant examples of isometric games, although it wasn't until the renowned (and mysterious) software house Ultimate released Knight Lore in 1984 that they emphatically took off. Once rival developers cracked how to replicate the overlapping techniques, it was inevitable a swathe of similar games would appear, and most of them added little to the template laid down by the genre's progenitor. The ZX Spectrum in particular was inundated, but there were also many hugely influential and memorable isometric games that attempted to break the mould.
USP: First major entry in the genre, scrolling landscape
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