[HN Gopher] Sopwith - a classic bi-plane shoot 'em up from 1984 ...
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Sopwith - a classic bi-plane shoot 'em up from 1984 in the browser
src: https://github.com/midzer/sdl-sopwith via:
https://fragglet.github.io/sdl-sopwith/
Author : midzer
Score : 112 points
Date : 2023-11-25 16:32 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (midzer.de)
(TXT) w3m dump (midzer.de)
| tonetheman wrote:
| This is lovely. Thanks for sharing. I used to play this game a
| LOT.
| dgritsko wrote:
| Same here, what a nostalgia hit! Immediately got a huge grin on
| my face the first time I blew myself up by dropping a bomb
| while upside down - a classic mistake I've done hundreds of
| times.
| acemarke wrote:
| Oh wow! I remember playing this as a kid! Thanks for posting
| this!
| floodfx wrote:
| Me too! On my Tandy 1000 iirc.
| sparrish wrote:
| So many hours on my IBM PC jr playing this. Thanks for the rush
| of nostalgia.
| hyperpl wrote:
| Me too on my 286!
| toomim wrote:
| I still have the phrase: Mission
| Completeorcycle
|
| ...burned into my subconscious.
| Modified3019 wrote:
| The intro song blaring from from the "PC speaker" (any volume
| you want, as long as it's MAX) is what's burned into mine.
| This was on a pair of old computers running DOS at a Boys and
| Girls Club summer program I went to in the late 90's.
| vl wrote:
| Great! I wanted to play it for a long time. Searched online a
| bit ago, there was nothing. Thought it's lost to time already.
|
| I hope I'll do better than when I was a kid
| yodon wrote:
| Exception thrown trying to launch on iOS
| sgt wrote:
| Works for me on iOS 17.2, but I don't have an external keyboard
| connected so I can imagine steering will be impossible.
| speps wrote:
| This just looks like someone compiled someone else's SDL project
| using Emscripten and uploaded it.
|
| Most of work was already done there:
| https://fragglet.github.io/sdl-sopwith/
|
| Not even any commits in the fork, it's behind by 7 commits!
| midzer wrote:
| I did not realize there IS an Emscripten port already, sorry.
|
| Nevertheless, I put build instructions in my fork here
| https://github.com/midzer/sdl-sopwith/tree/emscripten
| speps wrote:
| There wasn't one, but just build instructions don't make a
| Show HN.
| rendx wrote:
| What makes you think that? I don't see that reflected in
| the rules. "Show" rules say nothing about how much effort
| one perceives someone put into something.
|
| To quote what I think are relevant rules for this
| discussion:
|
| "Show HN is for something you've made that other people can
| play with." - check
|
| "The project must be something you've worked on personally
| and which you're around to discuss." - check
| pvg wrote:
| Show HN is for original work other people can try out and
| provide feedback. The bar to 'original' is pretty low (a
| non-trivial port meets it, a Learner's First Project
| usually meets it, etc) but a straight fork-and-recompile
| stretches the meaning of 'worked on' to the point of
| meaninglessness.
|
| You can't really respond to feedback if you didn't make
| the thing you're showhning.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| "something you've worked on personally" pretty clearly
| does not cover pubolishing a completed project from
| someone else on a new platform.
| speps wrote:
| My point was that it could have been a PR on the original
| repository, hosted by the original author, and that would
| have been a nice Show HN even if posted by the person who
| helped build it for the web. Contribute positively to a
| good project.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Would have been nice to share your emscripten build with the
| original project.
| dang wrote:
| Ok, I've added "via https://fragglet.github.io/sdl-sopwith/" to
| the top text. I'm sure readers will appreciate looking at both.
| Thanks!
| BeetleB wrote:
| This was also sold as "The Red Baron". I've looked online to see
| why it had two names, but haven't found a reason. Anyone know
| why?
| opencl wrote:
| The "Red Baron" version was just from a company that sold
| freeware games and changed all the names presumably hoping that
| nobody would notice.
|
| http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Strike_F...
| bbarn wrote:
| Wow, that's wild. I feel like you could sue for damages now,
| but I can't be sure if that was possible then.
| BeetleB wrote:
| Interesting. So the Sopwith code was always out there?
|
| The site mentions Striker. I assume it is this Striker? https
| ://www.mobygames.com/game/33720/striker/screenshots/dos... I
| also had that game. It claims Striker is a copy of Scramble
| but the Scramble game I find online is significantly
| different.
|
| I also recognize Flightmare.
|
| Thanks for the memories!
| xeckr wrote:
| This is fun! I didn't know that it was possible to play games
| over IP in 1984.
| mrweasel wrote:
| Oh no, the pull down key isn't available on my keyboard, I have
| to loop to go down.
| livrem wrote:
| For some reason that I can not remember there was no pull down
| key available in the first version of Sopwith I remember
| playing. Possibly something with the layout of the (Swedish)
| keyboard I played on. But a later copy I got from some friend
| had a key to pull down, making the game far easier. But I want
| to remember I managed to get quite far even when only being
| able to pull up.
| peteforde wrote:
| I was a regular player when this was released. Thanks for the
| nostalgia!
| hypertexthero wrote:
| One of my favorite childhood games!
|
| Me and my friend would wake up a couple of hours early before
| going to school in order to play a few sessions!
|
| Tips when playing against the computer: Try to make the enemy
| planes crash into each other or into the ground.
|
| More info: http://sopwith.org/
|
| There seems to be a lot of video game content on HN lately, and I
| like this very much :)
| earthboundkid wrote:
| I loved this as a kid. Not sure it has a lot of attraction
| outside of nostalgia though. It's not like Mario or something
| where it's timeless.
| continuational wrote:
| Reminds me of this DOS jewel, Triplane Turmoil, which must have
| been inspired by Sopwith:
| https://www.mobygames.com/game/23228/triplane-turmoil/
| Sharlin wrote:
| Yeah, the first thing that came to mind. One of the gems of the
| 90s Finnish shareware gamedev scene.
|
| Edit: Huh, I had no idea it has a sequel, released by 2006:
| https://www.mobygames.com/game/30613/triplane-turmoil-ii/
| esafak wrote:
| Blast from the past! Looking at its author David Clark's profile
| on LinkedIn, I see he went back to school ten years ago to get a
| PhD in geophysics!
| contingencies wrote:
| From the CGA era that brought you Alleycat... with far better
| sound... https://rawgit.valky.eu/gabonator/Work-in-
| progress/master/Do...
| rzzzt wrote:
| Alley Cat has a remake called the "Remeow Edition", which looks
| pretty good and also has some levels that weren't in the PC
| version. However the executable is flagged by online scanners
| and I'm afraid to run it: https://www.joflof.com/alley.html
| eesmith wrote:
| This plays rather faster than I remember on my 8088.
|
| My favorite was to launch the bomb while making a vertical climb.
| It goes off-screen but eventually comes back.
| rzzzt wrote:
| Is there any connection to the level in DuckTales where you are
| traveling between locations on the map with the help of Launchpad
| McQuack? The flight mechanics are very similar.
| kmill wrote:
| I remember playing this game on an old DOS laptop, even in the
| early 2000s.
|
| This version is demonstrating an interesting gotcha with
| emulating sound. The old PC speaker hardware ran at over 1 MHz,
| and it would generate square waves at integer divisors of this
| rate. This version of the game is sampling these square waves at
| 48 KHz, and the jitter from the waves not lining up perfectly
| adds a bunch of noise known as aliasing artifacts. It's what's
| giving the music a sort of DTMF (touch tone) quality to it.
|
| I recompiled the game locally with a mitigation for this effect,
| just by oversampling and taking an average, and it sounds a lot
| better.
|
| Game Boys also have audio hardware that runs at such high
| frequencies. I wonder how many emulators run at that rate and
| downsample properly? High-quality square waves are tricky!
| lizknope wrote:
| I remember playing this on my roommate's 386 DX 33 in 1992. It
| was way too fast so we had to hit the turbo button to slow the
| CPU down to 16 MHz in order to not immediately crash because it
| was too fast to control
| soup10 wrote:
| Altitude is a very nice multiplayer game inspired by biplanes
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/41300/Altitude/
| holoduke wrote:
| I played this game many hours as a 6 year old kid on my dads
| philips 8088 pc. It even had multiplayer, but never managed to
| get that working. I did manage making a giant hole with bombs in
| the void below.
| spacecadet wrote:
| Sky Kid 8D
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(page generated 2023-11-25 23:00 UTC)