Let's Play Sopwith, part 1: Let's Play Sopwith

Hi guys, let's play some Sopwith! I'll press S for single player.



Here we are in our Sopwith Camel. Let's take off:



Seems like a fairly accurate depiction of early aviation. Let's send in another pilot:



This one does a little better, but still crashes pretty quickly. My score is in negative numbers.



Our third man, although also quick to crash, manages to take out an enemy structure in the process. The white dots coming out the front of the aircraft are machine gun fire, very effective against buildings.



Our fourth flies past the just-destroyed building and takes out another through collision.



And number five takes a brave shot at that hill but it gets the better of him.



This is the bad ending to the game.

Maybe I should explain what's happening here. This is Sopwith, made in 1984 by David L. Clarke to demonstrate a PC network product. Two players control World War 1 biplanes and try to shoot each other down. I'm playing in single player mode, where the aim is to destroy all the buildings. You can also play single player against a computer controlled opposing plane. The multiplayer I think is no longer possible.



I start over, having turned the speed down in DOSBox to make controlling the plane a bit easier. So far so good! The controls I'm using here: press X to increase speed before take-off. Comma raises the nose of the craft, / to lower it. The number at the bottom left of the screen is my score: zero. On the right side is a map showing the entire playing field in miniature. Next to that are four vertical bars. The first represents how many lives I have left. The second is fuel. If I fly around too long I'll run out and crash. The other two are ammunition for my guns and bombs. Say, we haven't seen bombs yet:



They're quite difficult to aim. In frustration, my pilot flies a tight loop the loop, then flies up to the top of the playing area, stalls, and crashes. I'll admit, it looks like I'm not guiding these pilots very well, but in fact I'm having input trouble. Notice that the plane angles upward slightly, then after a delay moves through the loop: I'm holding the comma key the entire time, but the game doesn't repeat the action immediately. The loop is over so quickly I don't manage to stop while turned back, and once I come out of it I don't have space to try to turn back again.



My next man takes the fight to the enemy airfield. It's unoccupied, since I'm playing single player with no enemy planes, but never mind that. A quick burst of machine gun fire and the hangar explodes. Sadly, debris from the explosion takes the plane out.



Let's see that again in super-slow motion. This is my next pilot, sacrificing himself nobly for the cause. Enough senseless waste of human life! Rather than trying to shoot these buildings, let's bomb them!



Bombs are hard.



I manage to turn back from the mountain at the edge of the playfield. Pressing the full stop key rolls the aircraft, getting me back upright. Unfortunately I follow this by immediately hitting the top of the playfield, going into a spin from which I do not recover (I believe that it is possible to recover, though). What's happened here is I've gotten the controls wrong. The comma key will always raise the nose of your plane (relative to itself, so it you're upside down it'll send you downwards), but I've been thinking of it as rotating the craft anticlockwise. Hence I pressed it intending to move the plane downwards, which moved it upwards, and I crashed. I followed this by quickly sending my last pilot into the ground.



OK, let's try this again. Having mastered flying unopposed, this time I've chosen single player against computer.



Turns out that the computer is as bad at piloting as I am. I do a loop to celebrate.



This leaves me unprepared for the arrival of my next opponent. I again go into a spin. I manage to recover, but too late to avoid a crash. At least I took that tank with me. My opponent carries on to my airfield and crashes into my next plane as it takes off.



For a couple of seconds, we manage an actual dogfight. Which I lose. The enemy doesn't have long to celebrate, though.



And my last man goes out in a fairly spectacular crash on take-off. I think it's crashes like this that gave me such fond memories of this game. Well, actually of its sequel/update Sopwith 2, which improved the graphics, controls, and enemy AI, and added animals to the playfield. But that's a story for another micro-LP. See you then!