Veteran PC Game 'Sopwith' Celebrates 40th Anniversary (github.io)
- Reference: 0173622930
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/04/24/0349255/veteran-pc-game-sopwith-celebrates-40th-anniversary
- Source link: https://fragglet.github.io/sdl-sopwith/40years.html
> Biplane shoot-'em up, [2]Sopwith , is [3]celebrating 40 years today since its first release back in 1984. The game is one of the oldest PC games still in active development today, originating as an MS-DOS game for the original IBM PC. The 40th anniversary site has a [4]detailed history of how the game was written as a tech demo for the now-defunct Imaginet networking system. There is also a [5]video interview with its original authors.
"The game involves piloting a Sopwith biplane, attempting to bomb enemy buildings while avoiding fire from enemy planes and various other obstacles," reads the Wiki page. "Sopwith uses four-color CGA graphics and music and sound effects use the PC speaker. A sequel with the same name, but often referred to as [6]Sopwith 2 , was released in 1985."
You can play Sopwith in your browser [7]here .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~sfraggle
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_(video_game)
[3] https://fragglet.github.io/sdl-sopwith/40years.html
[4] https://fragglet.github.io/sdl-sopwith/history.html
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIoYM_p3HX4
[6] https://classicreload.com/sopwith-2.html
[7] https://fragglet.github.io/sdl-sopwith/web/sopwith.html
Ah, Sopwith... (Score:2)
Best dog-fighting before Wing Commander :)
For the original PC? (Score:2)
That's a pretty decent amount of game to be able to run in 64kB.
I did have a memory expansion on the ISA bus of my IBM 5150. The additional 384kB brought it up to 448kB, which was enough to run most but not all DOS software that would run on an XT (which could be expanded to 640kB onboard.)
I probably should have piggybacked the system memory, I could have gotten it up to 512kB which really would have run almost everything. But instead I got a 286-6 with 1MB and ran Xenix on it.
ISA (Score:2)
Kind of amazing to think that memory, serial ports, hard disk controllers and video cards could all sit directly on the same bus and, more or less, get along. Anything more complicated than a PDP-11 at the time had, at least, a separate memory bus.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. For all its drawbacks the PC was an amazing platform for its day.
When it came out, nothing could beat the Amiga for versatility, though. It was even better at having all kinds of stuff on its bus at once than the PC was. The bus wasn't any faster than 16 bit ISA in the real world, but it was at least a dozen times more convenient.
Re: (Score:2)
> The bus wasn't any faster than 16 bit ISA in the real world, but it was at least a dozen times more convenient.
The Amiga had a proper bus with a controller (the Angus.) It wasn't any faster than ISA, but the CPU could do things while the Angus dealt with DMA IO stuff. ISA could do DMA, but it was up to the expansion cards to do handle it, and *everything* had to place nice with each other. I remember a friend trying to get his shiny new AWE64 to work with his off-brand beige box. Either the printer port or the sound card could work, because they had incompatible DMA channel-address space combos.
Sopwith biplane, attempting to bomb enemy building (Score:2)
Those Sopwith planes were fighters, not bombers.
Re: (Score:2)
Those sopwith planes were fighter-bombers. Snipe and Camel could both carry "four 9 kg (20 lb) Cooper bombs".
[1]https://airandspace.si.edu/col... [si.edu]
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/sopwith-7f1-snipe/nasm_A19940151000
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_Camel
Re: (Score:2)
Since the source code was released, it is now obviously a [1]Sopwith Gnu [wikipedia.org] plane.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_Gnu
Active? (Score:2)
> The game is one of the oldest PC games still in active development today.
> Then I clicked on the browser-embedded game to see what 40 years of ‘active’ development looked like.
> It looked a lot like clickbait.
> Sorry, but I was expecting something quite different given the claim. Can someone elaborate?
Re: (Score:3)
Sure. The SDL port (I'm the maintainer) is still under development, and new features continue to be added. The original graphics and sound are deliberately preserved - the goal is to make it a great old game and not a lame new one. The project was admittedly dormant for a number of years and I've just recently come back to start working on it again.
The most significant development recently is the addition of support for custom levels. Until now there's only ever been a single level that can be played over a
Classic (Score:1)
Logged a fair amount of screen time on the old 8088 with CGA (my poor eyes) gfx on Sopwith. An absolute classic.
Anybody remember retaliator? (Score:1)
I loved sopwith. took me ages to develop the skills to shoot down other planes and not kill myself.
Retaliator blew me away with it's 3d graphics though. Landing my burning x-29? without engines perpendicular on the runway, my favourite all time achievement.
Play online, free and legally (Score:1)
Sopwith is abandonware, and can be played legally online, without any install or registration requirements [1]https://www.retrogames.cz/play... [retrogames.cz]
[1] https://www.retrogames.cz/play_1351-DOS.php
Abandoned or Actve. Pick one. (Score:2)
> Sopwith is abandonware, and can be played legally online, without any install or registration requirements [1]https://www.retrogames.cz/play... [retrogames.cz]
> The game is one of the oldest PC games still in active development today.
OK, I guess I’ll be the one to question how the hell we’re here celebrating 40 years of ‘active’ development, while using the term abadonware accurately.
I really miss the days when we didn’t have to question EVERY claim.
[1] https://www.retrogames.cz/play_1351-DOS.php
Fond memories (Score:1)
I have fond memories of this game as a kid. I _think_ I played it on a 286 but I may be mistaken.
Working on Sopwith, AMA (Score:3)
I was lucky enough to play the DOS version of Sopwith back in the mid 1980s.
A handful of years ago I became one of two developers working to maintain the Linux/BSD port of Sopwith (usually under the name Sopwith SDL). It's a neat little game and still fun, simple but challenging at the higher levels. Feel free to AMA.
[Fall Guy's 7-tier fabric-winged plane collapsing] (Score:2)
I remember playing that game in its original CGA color scheme (mauve, turquoise, eyestrain, black), and I think I remember casually flying the biplane upside down whenever I wanted to go left. Did that happen, or did the plane right itself automatically?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes it did, no it didn't. The best way to play sopwith was very drunk, with the turbo button pressed on.
Poor, poor cows...