VOGONS


First post, by UnstablePusheenicorn

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Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to find the name/release of a specific game I remember from my childhood - would have been late 80’s to early 90’s.

I’ve asked Claude, and got some close results, but nothing that matches exactly. Those were Acornsoft’s Dogfight (‘82) and Bandits at 3 o’clock (‘83). I remember my dad getting an IBM PC after the Acorn, so Claude suggested that it might be a lesser known/documented DOS shareware or type-in game from a PC magazine release and that I should ask the Vogons forum.

The specifics I remember from the game:

- single or two-player modes

- a side on view of two bi-planes on a static screen comprising of just a pale blue sky background with a white puffy cloud which obscured the planes when flying through it; no ground was visible and each round would begin in mid-flight.

- the planes could fire bullets straight ahead in whichever 2D direction the plane was flying. but would pass each other when entering the same space instead of colliding

- planes flying off the edge of the screen would appear a second or two later on the opposite side, but bullets fired towards the edge of screen would not reappear in the same way

Does all of this sound familiar to anyone? Any help in identifying the game would be much appreciated, thanks.

Reply 1 of 10, by NeilKnows

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UnstablePusheenicorn wrote on 2026-03-13, 10:30:

Does all of this sound familiar to anyone? Any help in identifying the game would be much appreciated, thanks.

Does indeed ring a bell/played that, but cannot think of the name, or even the platform. Sorry.

Reply 3 of 10, by UnstablePusheenicorn

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Thanks for the suggestion, but that’s not it - the graphics looked a lot more basic than Amiga’s BiPlane.

Reply 4 of 10, by leileilol

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The big early dos 2D biplane game I know is Sopwith (BMB Compuscience 1984). Sometimes this would see a "public domain" hack edit under the title Red Baron (NOTE NOT TO BE CONFUSED with Dynamix/Sierra Red Baron and Snoopy vs The Red Baron)

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Reply 5 of 10, by Rwolf

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The Microsoft Flight Simulator v2.x (and maybe v1.x) had a WW1 duel mode you could activate as an alternate to the civilian flying.
The biplanes spawned over a WW1 trench area as I recall, so there was a rudimentary terrain, so it's probably not the one you remember.

Reply 8 of 10, by UnstablePusheenicorn

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I’ve had a fun time investigating all of the games mentioned, but unfortunately none of them fit what I remember. I guess maybe it’s just a little too obscure.

Reply 9 of 10, by UnstablePusheenicorn

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Forgot to say, thanks everyone for your input.