This program is copywrited by: BMB Compuscience Canada Ltd. 555 Industrial Drive Milton, Ontario L9T 5C2 Canada SOPWITH a WWI biplane video game Syntax: sopwith [-s] [-k] [-i] [-q] [-r] [-d*] [-p#] [-c] [-j] [-m] [-a] Description: SOPWITH is a video war-game played over the IMAGINET network or on a stand-alone PC. The object of SOPWITH is to destroy all enemy targets with a somewhat limited airforce. SOPWITH may be played in four ways: Single Player Single Player against the computer Multiple Players on a network Two Players over an asynchronous communications line SINGLE PLAYER Single player SOPWITH should only be used to "get the feel of the stick". The player (blue airplane) must destroy all the enemy (red) targets before losing five (5) airplanes. If the player is successful, the game is restarted at a higher level of difficulty. SINGLE PLAYER AGAINST THE COMPUTER This game is of the same flavour as single player SOPWITH with the additional realism of having someone else (red airplanes) out to get you. MULTIPLE PLAYER Multiple user SOPWITH allows 2-4 IMAGINET users to form opposing air forces with the goal of being the first to destroy all enemy targets. The airplane which the player controls, and the airforce for which the player flies, are determined by the number of players and the order in which they attach themselves to the game. 2 players: - first player receives a blue airplane - second player receives a red airplane 3 players: - first player receives a blue airplane - second player receives a red airplane along with a computer controlled plane eager to bring about the demise of the dreaded blue enemy - third player receives a blue airplane 4 players: - first player receives a blue airplane - second player receives a red airplane - third player receives a blue airplane - fourth player receives a red airplane In all cases, each player attempts to destroy the targets of the opposing colour while defending friendly targets against enemy aircraft. Each player is limited to ten (10) aircraft. 2 PLAYER ASYNCHRONOUS SOPWITH Two Player SOPWITH is a limited version of Multiple Player SOPWITH using an asychronous communications line in place of a network. The players' colours are determined randomly. Two Player SOPWITH may be played locally using direct cabled PC's, or remotely using modems and a telephone system capable of 300 baud communications. Scoring: The point score acquired is of no importance in determining whether a player has won or lost. However, to assist in determining a flier's skill level, the following points are associated with airplanes, targets, and the like: 50 - airplane 100 - factory, hangar, or tank 200 - fuel depot penalty of 25 - bird penalty of 200 - ox or falling flier In single player games, points are gained if enemy targets and airplanes are destroyed; points are lost if friendly targets and airplanes are destroyed. If all enemy targets are destroyed, the game is restarted at a higher level of difficulty. The player's score to this point is retained, and the player is given an incrementing bonus for each unused plane. In multiple or two player SOPWITH, points are always gained by one side or the other. The game ends when one team's targets are destroyed. Keyboard: SOPWITH supports two types of keyboard input, hereafter called IBM and non-IBM keyboard types. IBM keyboard support allows the use of more than one keyboard key at one time, providing the flexibility available during joystick play. Non-IBM keyboard support allows SOPWITH to be played on PC look-alikes which do not treat their keyboards in the same manner as the IBM PC. In non-IBM mode, only one key depression is acknowledged at one time. Which type of keyboard support will work best on a given system can only be determined by trial and error. The following keys are used during the play of SOPWITH: Ctrl-Break - (Non-IBM keyboard) Break - (IBM keyboard) 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 upside-down. . - roll airplane / - elevator down. The airplane will drop if right-side-up, rise if upside-down. x - accelerate airplane z - 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. Shift-PrtSc - (Non-IBM keyboard) PrtSc - (IBM keyboard) Performs the standard shift-printscreen function upon completion of the next screen update. Output of a given scene is guaranteed to be complete. Joystick: SOPWITH supports joystick input through joystick A. Functions supported by the joystick are listed below. The keyboard may still be used as need be, and must be used for Ctrl-Break, Shift-PrtSc, home, and sound functions. x - elevator down x - elevator up x - accelerate x - decelerate x - roll airplane red button - drop a bomb black button - fire a shot Screen: During play the screen is divided into two sections, a window and a status display. The window comprises the upper ninety percent of the screen and provides a display of the player's airplane along with a display of other airplanes, targets, and ground in the immediate vicinity. This window is scrolled left or right keeping the player's airplane centered. The lower ten percent of the screen is used for displaying the status of the game. From left to right, the status display consists of: blue team score red team score (multiple or two player game) plane gauge showing the number of airplanes not yet destroyed. Each airplane is represented by two (2)* vertical dots. The game begins with the gauge indicating five airplanes available. The gauge shows two (2)* dots when the player is using the last airplane available. (* in multiple and two player games, each dot represents one airplane) fuel gauge relative display of fuel remaining. bomb gauge relative display of bombs remaining. shot gauge relative display of the number of gunrounds remaining. Note: fuels, bomb, and shots may be topped up while remaining stationary at one's home base. A player is at home after a crash, or after completing a return to home by using the "h" key. ghost face The above four gauges may be replaced by a ghostly friendly face. This indicates you are a "ghost" player in a multiple player game. Ghost players may fly about observing the ongoing battle, but may not take any action which would change the world in any way. world display a miniaturized display of the entire playing world showing the positions of all airplanes, targets not yet destroyed, bombs, and the occasional flock of birds. Play: To play SOPWITH, simply key: sopwith or: ?:sopwith where ? is the device indicator of the disk containing the SOPWITH program file "sopwith.exe". SOPWITH will then display the following to determine how the game is to be played: Key: S - single player C - single player against computer M - multiple players Sound: -q initializes the game to the no-sound state. Pressing "s" during play will start sound generation. The default is to initialize the game with sound. CommuniCommunications Port: -p# Overrides CommuniCstandard IMAGINET disk address, or asynchroverrides asynasynchronous port 1 as the pocommunications port to use. Recovery: If for some reason, a player's SOPWITH program fails to end properly while in multiple player mode, the game number in use at the time is rendered unusable. In order to reset the game in question, SOPWITH must be run with the "reset" option: sopwith -r [-d*] Continue through the game number and maximum player prompts as usual. Keying "sopwith -r [-d*]" and specifying a game which is in progress will yield unpredictable results. Installation: The program file SOPWITH.EXE must be available to each player. For single player games, this is the only installation needed. Two player SOPWITH requires the following hardware and software: * asynchronous communications adapter on each PC with a direct attach cable with a data line cross-over (hardware handshake is not required) or asynchronous modems and a phone system capable of supporting 300 baud transmission. * BMB dictionary driver (NAMEDEV.SYS) loaded. * BMB serial communications driver (either SERIAL.SYS or SERWORK.SYS) loaded after NAMEDEV.SYS. * consistent versions of SOPWITH (See note below) OR * BMB IMAGINET board for asynchronous communications over the BMB IMAGINET network. * consistent versions of SOPWITH (See note below) For multiple player use, the following files must be available at the root directory of an IMAGINET disk common to all players: semaphor - IMAGINET semaphor file sopwith#.dta - SOPWITH communications files where the symbol # corresponds to any valid game number between 0-7 inclusive. Sopwith#.dta files may be created by copying existing SOPWITH.dta files, or by using any other output method to allocate one disk sector under the root directory. In all cases, newly created SOPWITH.dta files should be initialized by using the "sopwith -r [-d*]" command line described above under RECOVERY. Notes: IMPORTANT NOTE - If playing 2 or multiple player SOPWITH, all players MUST use the same version of the game. As the game acquires world-wide recognition, reasonable suggestions and/or improvements are acted upon, resulting in several versions of the game being used. Differing versions of the game will not maintain consistent views of the world. Game versions can be checked by the file date and time of the file SOPWITH.EXE.