For the ZX Spectrum Next

LONE CHARGE

An isometric commando shooter. One man drops onto the field, the fortress waits at the top, and a whole army stands in between.

In development
See the screens

The reel has sound: unmute it for the AY chip.

// The game

Run up the field alone

Each area starts with a paratrooper drop. From there it is one way: up. Shoot in eight directions, throw grenades over cover, free the prisoners and fight your way to the fortress gate.

This is the first time I show LONE CHARGE.

There are still some glitches, and the sprites and tiles need another round of polish, but it starts to get fun. Roger Boesch
320×256Full Next screen
50 fpsHardware scrolling
8Directions to shoot
AYSound chip

// One against the fortress

How it plays

Shoot in 8 directions

Run and fire the way the stick points: up the field, across it or back down.

Grenades over cover

Men behind walls and in the trench are hard to reach with a rifle. A grenade goes over the cover.

Free them, take the gate

Prisoners wait along the way. Get them out, keep going, and fight up to the fortress gate.

What stands in the way:

// Screens

From the drop to the gate

The LONE CHARGE title screen: a soldier with a rifle, sandbags and barbed wire, a fortress on the hill behind him
The title screen
A transport plane crosses the field while the soldier comes down under an orange and white parachute
The paratrooper drop
The soldier on the field, enemy soldiers gathering at the bridge over the river, prisoners waiting on the left
Up the field to the river
On the stone plateau below the fortress wall, the soldier faces a group of enemy soldiers
On the plateau
A firefight on the plateau, a blast among the enemy soldiers
Firefight below the wall
AREA CLEAR and the bonus shown over the fortress plateau
AREA CLEAR
The whole climb in one view: the river with its bridge, stairs up to the stone plateau and the fortress gate on top

// Isometric

Real height

The field isn't flat. A river with a bridge, a plateau you climb by the stairs, and the fortress on top.

The height is real: men walk behind walls and under objects, not just past them.

// ZX Spectrum Next

Made for the Next

LONE CHARGE uses the full 320×256 screen of the ZX Spectrum Next, with hardware tilemap scrolling and hardware sprites, at 50 frames a second, with AY sound. Play it with a Kempston joystick or on the keys.

Q A O PRun
SpaceFire
MGrenade
HPause
KempstonFire 1 · 2

There is also a classic top-down version of the same game.

// In development

Keep me posted

LONE CHARGE is in development for the ZX Spectrum Next. Leave your details and I'll email you when it is ready.

Dev Log · Substack