Sopwith

Sopwith is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up created by David L. Clark of BMB Compuscience in 1984. It was originally written to run on the IBM PC under MS-DOS. The game involves piloting a Sopwith biplane, attempting to bomb enemy buildings while avoiding fire from enemy planes and various other obstacles.

Players begins at their base (typically a hangar and a runway). From here the player must launch the plane and attack targets. This stage can be a challenge for inexperienced players, as sufficient speed is needed to get the plane into the air; insufficient speed will cause the plane to stall and crash.

The plane is equipped with a machine gun and a supply of bombs. This weaponry can be used to destroy enemy buildings and down enemy planes. Gauges in the status bar at the bottom of the screen show the remaining lives, fuel, bombs and bullets, respectively. If the player manages to destroy all enemy buildings, the plane turns and flies into the sunset and the game ends.

Command Summary:

S (lower case) = Sound on/off The sound is initially OFF

X (lower case) = Take off

H (lower case) = Head for home (land plane)

, (comma key) = Rise (UP)

/ (slash key) = Lower (DOWN)

. (period key) = Flip over

= Fire guns

B (lower case) = Drop Bomb