Classic
biplane shoot em up for the
IBM PC. Originally designed as a Multiplayer test for the
Imaginet network system developed by
BMB Compuscience,
Canada. The game involved shooting other
biplanes, bombing
buildings and
Oxen.
Although it was designed for multiplayer, the Imaginet network system it used never really took off, and most people played the single player mode instead. There were two modes for this: Single Player and Single Player against Computer. In the former, you just bombed buildings. In the latter, you had the additional challenge of computer-controlled AI planes out to get you as well.
Featured cutting edge 4-color CGA graphics and sound effects/music through the PC Speaker! There was also a port to the Atari.
In 2000 the Author Dave Clark released the source code and there are now several ports to modern Operating Systems. There is a small community of sopwith fans at http://www.sopwith.org/
Keys:
- Space: fire
- <(,): pull up
- >(.): flip plane
- ?(/): pull down
- Z: decrease speed
- X: increase speed
- B: drop bomb
- H: activate autopilot to fly home
There were several versions of Sopwith:
- The original Sopwith ("Sopwith I")
- Sopwith II (though in-game it was still named "Sopwith": it would be better to refer to it as "Sopwith version 2"). Features:
- Oxen and birds
- Multiple skill levels (novice, intermediate, expert). In the higher skill levels the buildings you were trying to bomb shot back at you.
- An event loop that adjusted the game speed based on CPU speed, so you could play on machines faster than the original IBM PC.
- Different music.
- Multiple levels (actually just the same level that got more difficult each time)
- A single line for the ground instead of a solid block, to increase speed.
The Authors Edition. This added a load of new features, such as:
The authors edition was intended for more fun multiplayer games or something. It wasnt very widely distributed (if at all) before the source code was released.