R3D
Sopwith lives on!
2009-04-09 3:22 AM PDT
When someone mentions “Classic PC Gaming” most people will think back to the days of Doom, Castle Wolfenstein and Space Invaders with few remembering such classics as Zork and Alley Cat. It seems that unless a game has had a recently released follow-up boasting a fully 3D environment powered by such physics engines as Havoc, it would be unheard of by the current generations and long forgotten by the older generation of gamers. One such forgotten classic would have to be David L. Clark’s 1984 side scrolling “shoot ‘em up” named Sopwith.
This side scrolling shooter, appropriately named after the Sopwith biplane featured in the game, boasts a four-colour CGA graphics engine with 1.0 in-game sound provided by the all powerful PC speaker. Yes yes, even though I try to make Sopwith out to be amazing it simply does not compare to anything available these days, but keep in mind that the computing power available back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s is pretty much equivalent to that you would find in a snazzy modern pocket calculator.
What makes Sopwith note worthy is that, although a vintage game, it has never really made its way to the abandonware pile. This is thanks to hardcore fans like Josh Horowitz and Aden Forshaw over at Sopwith dot org, who have taken the released source code and rewrote the original Sopwith to include a WIN32 version compatible with Windows Vista, thus bringing this classic forward into the twenty-first century. The concept of Sopwith lives on in modern games such as the 1996 released Triplane Turmoil and 2006 released Triplane Turmoil II, both by Finnish game development company Draconus Entertainment Ltd
Web-venture Links of Interest:
Sopwith dot org: http://sopwith.classicgaming.gamespy.com/
Triplane Turmoil II: http://www.draconus.com/games/triplane2/index.htm
DOS Games Archive: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/
This side scrolling shooter, appropriately named after the Sopwith biplane featured in the game, boasts a four-colour CGA graphics engine with 1.0 in-game sound provided by the all powerful PC speaker. Yes yes, even though I try to make Sopwith out to be amazing it simply does not compare to anything available these days, but keep in mind that the computing power available back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s is pretty much equivalent to that you would find in a snazzy modern pocket calculator.
What makes Sopwith note worthy is that, although a vintage game, it has never really made its way to the abandonware pile. This is thanks to hardcore fans like Josh Horowitz and Aden Forshaw over at Sopwith dot org, who have taken the released source code and rewrote the original Sopwith to include a WIN32 version compatible with Windows Vista, thus bringing this classic forward into the twenty-first century. The concept of Sopwith lives on in modern games such as the 1996 released Triplane Turmoil and 2006 released Triplane Turmoil II, both by Finnish game development company Draconus Entertainment Ltd
Web-venture Links of Interest:
Sopwith dot org: http://sopwith.classicgaming.gamespy.com/
Triplane Turmoil II: http://www.draconus.com/games/triplane2/index.htm
DOS Games Archive: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/
Pirates of the Burning Sea @ First Glanc...
2008-04-16 2:10 PM PDT
Awesome game, much different from what you'd be used to in World of Warcraft. Everything appears to be strictly DND rules, even the combat so make sure every hit counts 
Nice tech tree for each skill, still need to find the sailing trainer Throws a little RTS in there when u board an enemy ship, if you dont use your crew correctly you will get pwned.
I hear they want to bring in a housing system which would be really sweet! Havent played anything that had player owned housing since Ultima Online.
All in all, not bad. Graphics are amazing, game play aint bad... takes a bit of getting used to I particularly enjoy the soundtrack, remind me of the Battlefield franchise soundtracks.
I wouldnt call it a WoW killer but it definately ranks up there. Not being able to jump is mildly annoying though
Disclaimer: This is my opinion of the game, if you disagree or have an issue with what I have said please direct your issue to one of the 4 lovely ladies in the "Find Your Graduating Class" banner on the right, if at first you done see it keep hitting refresh till it shows up, they are a little shy...
Nice tech tree for each skill, still need to find the sailing trainer
Throws a little RTS in there when u board an enemy ship, if you dont use your crew correctly you will get pwned.I hear they want to bring in a housing system which would be really sweet! Havent played anything that had player owned housing since Ultima Online.
All in all, not bad. Graphics are amazing, game play aint bad... takes a bit of getting used to
I particularly enjoy the soundtrack, remind me of the Battlefield franchise soundtracks.I wouldnt call it a WoW killer but it definately ranks up there. Not being able to jump is mildly annoying though
Disclaimer: This is my opinion of the game, if you disagree or have an issue with what I have said please direct your issue to one of the 4 lovely ladies in the "Find Your Graduating Class" banner on the right, if at first you done see it keep hitting refresh till it shows up, they are a little shy...
