Two of the best-loved "cult classics" of all time, Sopwith and its much-improved successor, Sopwith 2 are classic CGA games that gave birth to the genre of flying-planes-to-destroy-stuff. Among the now-legendary gameplay, the original Sopwith even had multiplayer network options that took advantage of BMB Compuscience's "Imaginet" network product (As a matter of fact, the game was designed precisely to demonstrate Imaginet, according to the author).
So what is special about Sopwith and its sequel? The best answer is that both games are just incredibly addictive and fun. Sopwith is a side-scrolling biplane action game involving two sides: cyan and magenta planes. Your goal in single-player is to destroy all of the enemy buildings and vehicles, either by shooting, bombing, or colliding with them. To stop you, the enemy has deployed planes to shoot you down and buildings that shoot anti-aircraft fire at you. Each level ends when all the enemy buildings and vehicles are destroyed, and is followed by a faster and more difficult level with the same map. Despite being an arcade game, all the elements of a good flight simulation are included, including limited ammo, ground-based artillery, limited fuel, and a limited number of bombs.
What makes Sopwith legendary is the ability to handle up to 8 players in multiplayer mode (4 human and 4 computer). The original Sopwith did not have much of a physics model, and the AI was quite weak. Sopwith 2 improves upon the original in various ways, including more intelligent enemy planes, more enemies (inlcuding pesky birds), larger explosions, deformable terrain, and a cool real-time radar and mapping feature. Best of all, Sopwith 2 was coded with an internal timer that allows the game to play at the same speed on modern Pentiums as on IBM XT computers (similar to Alley Cat).
With exceptional playability, simple controls, and many surprises, Sopwith and Sopwith 2 are simply must-haves for every arcade fan. Also be sure to check out Sopwith: The Author's Edition-- the definitive and best version of the game, released as freeware by designer David Clark in 2000. Two thumbs up, way up!
Review By HOTUD
English 
Comments and reviews
i think this game was named either Baron or Red Baron here in Italy.
The last time I played this game was around 1988/1989 on my father's computer at his office...Great Wall 0520, a Chinese version of early computer
you don`t know the name of the game and don`t have any clue to find it for years since you are 5 years old back then, and these ancient computers were replaced by modern 386/486 and new games come and go.
thanks for having this game here.
Keys, from a document I found in a web search:
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The following keys are used during the play of SOPWITH:
ctrl-break - terminates the game for the player by crashing the player's plane. Scores are adjusted accordingly.
, - elevator up. The airplane will rise if right-side-up, drop if up-side-down.
. - roll airplane
/ - elevator down. The airplane will drop if right-side-up, rise if up-side-down.
x - accelerate airplane
\ - decelerate airplane
b - drop a bomb
space-bar - fire a shot
h - allow the computer to fly you home for refuelling and rearmament. Computer control ends if elevator, acceleration, or roll keys are pressed.
s - turn sound on if off, off if on.
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You can use DOSbox's remapper to change the keys to something you'd prefer.
I remember my Dad managed to get this on a disk of games from a friend at work.
It took me a while to work out how to play but eventually I could complete it.
I've been looking for this for a long time! As a kid we had an altered version that was missing the multiplayer feature: Red Baron.
Now that I know the publisher's name, I was able to find that version at another site, too.
It only took 30 years, but now I finally understand why some buildings had negative point values: my base was indistinguishable from the enemy's on a monochrome screen!
Oh my! I played many MANY hours of this game back in the day.
Let me see if I can remember some of the commands for you
B was for bomb
H was for Home which would land your plane to refuel
there was a way to speed up your plane as well.
For DOSBOX users, CTRL F11 is a must to slow down the CPU cycles.
Thank you for having this. I haven't seen it since I owned a Tandy 1000
So am i the only one getting this to play in a 8088 cpu system? i actual have a different version of this game. its on a 40mb HDD on a ibm 5155 and its just called Plane.EXE ground is black instead of white and my copy has a "2 Players On Asynchronous Line" option.
wow, just wow.
this game brings back some warm happy days :-)
thank you for this really.
Sopwith fue uno de los motivos por los cuales pensba que los video juegos eran mágicos. Gracias sopwith por largas horas de fantasía y una gran amistad...
como se puede jugar/configurar en red?
omg i am in love with this website, thanks guys ;-) might demo some for the youtubes just for fun...
a classic of all classics...played this a lot when i was kid. we still have the floppies sitting somewhere in my parents' garage...lol
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.