The filmation viewer started out as a simple tool to extract the data from Knight Lore for my tutorial on the isometric system (Isocis) I am writing. I then decided to learn a new language so I put it within a .NET application. I then thought, well, why not do all three games and make it a historical record.

Soon I realised that there was a lot of work involved and there was only one man for the job, Chris Wild. He had already done a lot of the disassembly for Knight Lore and Alien 8 and was (or is as he hasn't officially left yet!) a Retrospec member.

Over the coming months we realised just how much more work was involved and credit to Chris, he probably knows more about these games now than the Stamper brothers did at the time.

So the question is, what does it do and what can you do with it:

  • View any or all rooms using an isometric viewer
  • Analyse each room to see what objects are placed and where they are placed
  • View a map of the game (generated from the data)
  • Navigate to rooms using the room number, selecting rooms with special items or by clicking inside the map view
  • Look at some of the stats, such as how many sprites are in the game, how many blocks are used, where the special items are placed
  • View a debugged or raw export of the game - this contains every thing you need in a descriptive format
  • Edit each room in Knight Lore or Alien 8 to create new layouts and to rewrite the snapshot to allow it to be played as if it were the original game
  • View/use an XML version of the game for various purposes, such as making your own viewer, rendering the game information to another file format using a XML stylesheet/transformation tool
  • View a Isocis export of the game. This is a freeware engine/system for making isometric games. It is what the isometric renderer in the viewer uses
  • Create your own games using the export data, whether it's the XML or my own Isocis system
  • View all the special objects and see where they can be placed (special objects are those required to finish the game, e.g. the items for the Cauldron in Knight Lore)

The viewer is composed of two parts. The first is the component (DLL/ActiveX Control as they used to be called) that does all the hard work such as reading and converting the data. The second is the interface; this generates a display using the data.

What this means is that anyone who is dissatisfied with the viewer can use the filmation component to make their own.

One great thing that could be done very easily is to put a simple editor around the map data to generate your own map and then export to byte values for insertion into the original Spectrum game! The viewer/renderer is already there so you can visualise your games before committing.

Visit the downloads section to get the application.