DOS game: "Red Baron"?

[pookdolie]

I'm trying to find this game. It's NOT the 3-D game by Dynamix/Sierra. It's not the old Atari vector game. It's a 2-D side-scroller with CGA graphics. You used your guns by hitting the space bar and when you dropped bombs, they created craters in the earth (which, on my screen, was all white). You could dogfight with red enemy planes. The sounds were PC mono-channel, I think.

Did anyone ever play this?

 

[Trixter]

Yes, you're thinking of Sopwith: http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/sopwith-games

 

[pookdolie]

By George, you got it. Thanks!

 

[barythrin]

One of my favorite games. Flying towards the birds with guns blazing then doing a loop and watching the enemy hit a bird and go flying. I rarely beat the game but had lots of fun dogfighting.

 

[pookdolie]

One of my favorite games. Flying towards the birds with guns blazing then doing a loop and watching the enemy hit a bird and go flying. I rarely beat the game but had lots of fun dogfighting.

I used to play this on my Tandy 1000, except it was the "Red Baron" version, (which was just a different title screen). No birds in the original. I remember that, after you destroyed all the enemy bases, you flew into the sunset, and the game ended.

 

[barythrin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_(computer_game)

Wow.. all these years I was playing Sopwith 2 without knowing it lol. Next thing I know someones gonna tell me SpaceWar! for my Zenith wasn't the original. (j/k)

My poor link?! It took me forever to b0rk it. j/k Thanks Ahm. Also found the following mentioning the other versions as you implied (The Red Baron). I remember flying into the sunset also so I'm not sure what version I had since I do remember the Ox and the birds. Although now I think my next quest will be to bug Josh to see if he'll make me a few shirts lol
http://sopwith.classicgaming.gamespy.com/FAQ.htm

 

[Jorg]

played it for hours on my PC-10III

 

[spicoli420]

I used to play this on my Tandy 1000, except it was the "Red Baron" version, (which was just a different title screen). No birds in the original. I remember that, after you destroyed all the enemy bases, you flew into the sunset, and the game ended.

The tandy 1000 brings back so many memories for me I played games like red baron, grime(I think), willy the worm, this lunar pod game, and this game that helped me memorize the rivers, capitals, states etc. I found this forum in search of the red baron game so its nice to see that others remember the game. I would love to be able to play it again...........

 

[per]

The tandy 1000 brings back so many memories for me I played games like red baron, grime(I think), willy the worm, this lunar pod game, and this game that helped me memorize the rivers, capitals, states etc. I found this forum in search of the red baron game so its nice to see that others remember the game. I would love to be able to play it again...........

I think the game have dropped into the "freeware" class by the time. As fo todays status, it is licensed under a GNU license, and an expanded version is avalible from the authour's web site.

The original game was supposed to be a showpiece for some network product back in the middle '80s. However, the network product failed to sell, and the company obivous dissapeard sometime in the late '80s.

@Moderators: Is it OK if I post the link to the authou's or a fan-made web-site? I don't know how the GNU license works, so I'm kindof unsure.

 

[Vlad]

@Moderators: Is it OK if I post the link to the authou's or a fan-made web-site? I don't know how the GNU license works, so I'm kindof unsure.

It should be fine to link to their website and such. Most GNU licensed projects I've seen encourage it to get the word out about whatever their project is.

-Vlad

 

[per]

It should be fine to link to their website and such. Most GNU licensed projects I've seen encourage it to get the word out about whatever their project is.

-Vlad

That's fine.
Dave's homepage is: http://www.davidlclark.com/ , you find a folder named "Sopwith" on the left.
The fan site: http://www.sopwith.org

Dave's page has the newest version from 2003 (still 8088/CGA compatible), released under the GNU license. The fan site got both the early versions from the '80s, and a version of the newest that still got imaginet support (from 1997). They even got a fan-made Sopwith 3 for windows and some other fan-made sopwith-related programs.

 

[spicoli420]

Thanks alot guys!!! I just got done with one round and it warped me back to the 3rd grade

 

[per]

I'm currently got the drivers required to play the game as multiplayer over a serial port (version 2 and later)!

Would it be Ok if I post them here?

 

[per]

I'm currently got the drivers required to play the game as multiplayer over a serial port (version 2 and later)!

Would it be Ok if I post them here?

I've now confirmed that the drivers do work. Tested with DosBox on two computers.

*Edit*
Description of the drivers.
The first driver, NAMEDEV.SYS, is some kind of server name-dictionary & buffer.
The second driver, SERIAL.SYS, is an I/O device for the Serial port, taking use of NAMEDEV.SYS.

Both drivers are pretty small; Both drivers installed takes about 4Kb, whitch shouldn't be a too great deal in a PC. Each of them can be used with parameters, but their default values are compatible with Sopwith.

You can even play over a modem (dial your friend on the other side of the countery and play multiplayer realtime)! but remember to set the modem to 300 Baud.

Nore: NAMEDEV.SYS must be loaded before SERIAL.SYS!

 

[Vlad]

I'm currently got the drivers required to play the game as multiplayer over a serial port (version 2 and later)!

Would it be Ok if I post them here?

I don't think posting them will be a problem, the GPL allowed what you linked to earlier and worst case is we get asked to take them down but I highly doubt they will care.

-Vlad

 

[per]

I don't think posting them will be a problem, the GPL allowed what you linked to earlier and worst case is we get asked to take them down but I highly doubt they will care.

-Vlad

I'm just staying on the safer side. (In adition to the existing guidelines in 'how to not post spam', there should be some guidelines in 'where the limit goes for uploads'.)

Extract the files to your hard drive, and add

DEVICE=[Drive:Path]NAMEDEV.SYS
DEVICE=[Drive:Path]SERIAL.SYS

to your CONFIG.SYS file.

Enjoy (don't forget to use a standard null-modem cable!)

 

[retroexo]

I've now confirmed that the drivers do work. Tested with DosBox on two computers.

*Edit*
Description of the drivers.
The first driver, NAMEDEV.SYS, is some kind of server name-dictionary & buffer.
The second driver, SERIAL.SYS, is an I/O device for the Serial port, taking use of NAMEDEV.SYS.

Both drivers are pretty small; Both drivers installed takes about 4Kb, whitch shouldn't be a too great deal in a PC. Each of them can be used with parameters, but their default values are compatible with Sopwith.

You can even play over a modem (dial your friend on the other side of the countery and play multiplayer realtime)! but remember to set the modem to 300 Baud.

Nore: NAMEDEV.SYS must be loaded before SERIAL.SYS!

I am sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but how exactly did you get this working in dosbox?

In dosbox I tried devload, dtload, loadsys, and a few other programs to load NAMEDEV.SYS and SERIAL.SYS. Even though a few seemed to return decent feedback, once I ran the game I got a "error opening NAMEDEV dictionary device error).
I then created a bootimage with MS-DOS 6.2 loaded to it. I loaded the two sys files in the config sys and booted the game from there. This time it actually states it is "waiting for other player", which tells me the sys files loaded fine. But.... I am unaware of how to use dosbox's serial commands through a virtual drive load.

For typical nullmodem games in dosbox I am using the command:
serial1 nullmodem port:5000 (for the host)
serial1 nullmodem server:%IP% port:5000 (for the client)

This generally works for most games loaded via dosbox. However, when booting two virtual images in two different instances of dosbox, I was unable to get them to see eachother. Presumably dosbox isn't passing the connected ports through to the MS-DOS boot.

So, to circle back around. May I ask how you tested this? Thank you.

 

[retroexo]

I've now confirmed that the drivers do work. Tested with DosBox on two computers.

*Edit*
Description of the drivers.
The first driver, NAMEDEV.SYS, is some kind of server name-dictionary & buffer.
The second driver, SERIAL.SYS, is an I/O device for the Serial port, taking use of NAMEDEV.SYS.

Both drivers are pretty small; Both drivers installed takes about 4Kb, whitch shouldn't be a too great deal in a PC. Each of them can be used with parameters, but their default values are compatible with Sopwith.

You can even play over a modem (dial your friend on the other side of the countery and play multiplayer realtime)! but remember to set the modem to 300 Baud.

Nore: NAMEDEV.SYS must be loaded before SERIAL.SYS!

Sorry for the necro thread. Can I ask how you tested this on DOSBox? I was able to try loading the namedev.sys and serial.sys files using ctload, however the game didn't detect them. I then tried a virtual image boot into real DOS. Here I was able to load the sys files directly in the config.sys, however I am unable to pass the serial port nullmodem connection from dosbox into real DOS, so both systems just hang waiting for a connection.

 

[Earlton2]

After building a half-scale Sopwith Camel The Hackberry Men's Shed built a 'cockpit simulator' to run Sopwith. A member donated an old KAL engine oscilloscope and meter and we were able to swap the CRT for an old Apple monitor. The control box contain a RasPi Pico and Zero W. The Pico coverts switch and stick controls to USB keycodes and also generates a PWM signal to display RPM on the meter. The Zero-W runs the game in Linux and can also trigger sounds from switch settings on the KAL front panel.