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. Four levels, from dawn to night.

In development · 4 levels
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.

Four levels make a round, each at its own time of day: a fortress on the hill at dawn, a village by day, a harbour at dusk and a mountain fortress at night. Clear all four and the next round starts again, faster.

Level 1 will be free to play in early December, and the full game with all four levels can be ordered from then.

320×256Full Next screen
50 fpsHardware scrolling
4Levels, dawn to night
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:

// Four levels

Dawn to night

Level 1 at dawn: the stairs up to the stone plateau and the fortress gate
1 · The fortress · dawn
Level 2 by day: a farm track between wheat fields, sandbags and enemy soldiers on a bank
2 · The village · day
Level 3 at dusk: a truck by the canal bridge, warehouse walls and the sea along the edge
3 · The harbour · dusk
Level 4 at night: a mountain post above a gorge, a truck, stone walls and a bridge over the stream
4 · The mountain fortress · night

Along the way: a farm with a bank to storm, terraces held from above, a fishing village and its canal, the docks and a quay over the harbour basin, a gorge with a mountain stream and rock terraces up to the last wall.

// 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, AREA 1
The paratrooper drop
A grenade bursts among the trees on the field, enemy soldiers on the rise ahead
Up the field
Freed prisoners follow the soldier along the river, the bridge and enemy soldiers behind sandbags ahead
Prisoners freed at the river
A tank on the stone plateau below the fortress wall, its health bar at the top, the soldier at the foot of the stairs
The tank at the gate
AREA CLEAR, the bonus and the three medals over the burnt-out tank on the plateau
AREA CLEAR
The stairs up to the stone plateau, a blast at their foot, the fortress gate in the wall above

// Isometric

Real height

The field isn't flat. Rivers and bridges, banks and terraces, stairs up to a stone plateau, and a fortress wall at the end of every level.

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 level 1 is out to play and the full game can be ordered.

Devlog video On itch.io Dev Log · Substack