For the forum issue 86

[Sel Feena]

Zaxxon in the arcade. A true ground breaker in gaming at the time and still terrific fun today.

If I could actually get anywhere with this game, I'd agree! I haven't played too many isometric games to be honest, and I don't want to just pitch in with another Marble Madness shout...

I'll go for Princess Clara Daisakusen, a cutesy magical girl shooter. Also my favourite character in Matrimelee!

[pottyboy]

Lots and lots, but I'm going to pick Jon Ritman's Head Over Heels. Looked good, sounded good, plays great!

[Confessor]

Highway Encounter on the Speccy. I had lotsa fun drivin' those little robots (or dustbins, or dildos or whatever they were) to the alien mothership.

[Antiriad2097]

I used to play Zombie Zombie for hours, trap the zombies in a box and then just take my time rebuilding the city. You couldn't save it at the end though so that hard work would be inevitably lost. If only we'd had emulators back in those days.

Zombie Zombie does allow saving of its cities! On the startup menu there's an option to load a previously saved city.

[walrus]

Zombie Zombie does allow saving of its cities! On the startup menu there's an option to load a previously saved city.

I had a horrible feeling that it may have allowed saving ( or at least loading) as I typed it but I checked the instructions online and could find no mention of it.

The moral of this story is never trust online instructions to reinforce a hazy memory.

[NonShinyGoose]

Ant Attack 3D - it was the inspiration for Starship Troopers. Well, maybe.

[Limbrooke]

No isometric game captured my attention before or since in the way Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon did. Sim City 2000 certainly was a fun game but Transport Tycoon (and Deluxe) was a more focused affair and left an indelible impression on me. I still play it occasionally to this day which I cannot say of many other PC games from over 15 years ago.

Notable mentions:
R.C. Pro Am
Diablo
Age of Empires

[NorthWay]

All Atari. All arcade. Not a single puzzlesolver, nor ZX origin. Funny that...

And if you insist on what I think you actually meant, then Cadaver by Bitmap Brothers.

[Fandenivoldsk]

Jumpin' Jack for the C64. Awesome Frogger clone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAQa8G9amQ8

[Jeremiah Jones]

Monster Max on the Game Boy. With its fun perspective and heavy focus on puzzle solving, there really isn't any other game like it on Nintendo's monochrome handheld. And since it was developed by John Ritman and Bernie Drummond, it was like having a portable version of Head Over Heels!

[Kai]

That's a tough one. MARBLE MADNESS looks really beautiful but in terms of looks AND gameplay I'd go for SYNDICATE.

[Old Skool 75]

Marble madness is the game that pops into my head. A great challenge that was hard but fair. I loved the originality of it and still play it from time to time. A quick mention must go to Head Over Heels. Superb game with two of the cutest lead characters you could have.

[dwitefry]

Jesus that's a bit of a broad question.

Overall I'd suppose it would have to be Marble Madness or Sonic 3D Flickies' Island, but only on the Saturn or with an Analog Stick, that game was not made for D-pads.

Then there's Where Time Stood Still, the almighty Ant Attack, SegaSonic the Hedgehog, Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters, Pac-Mania, gah Darran man, it's too broad mate, too broad!

MeX

[SJ_Sathanas]

Does Dungeon Keeper count? You could position the camera at any angle but straight isometric was best. If not, Desert Strike.

Desert Fighter >> Desert Strike

[Von Paulus]

X-Com.
There still are good isometric games. I'm currently playing Geneforge 5, which is an isometric game.