Biplane Duel Review | Open Senses

Video A - The Game Imagine, if you will, a game so refined that it conveys a palpable sense of danger with every frame; a game where skill and strategy intertwine to create an environment where a split second decision can completely reverse your fortunes. In terms of two-player competitive gaming there are few titles which live-up to these lofty dreams. Biplane Duel, however, not only lives-up to expectation, but exceeds it by a considerable margin. That is until the game’s one flaw is discovered; a bug so heinous it would have prompted a product recall had the game been a commercial title and not public domain.

I wanna play

Biplane Duel is emulated well under WinUAE and, since the game is public domain, no pangs of guilt should be felt when downloading it and giving it a whirl. WinUAE can be found here and the Amiga disk image of the game can be found here. Anyone without a friend might be interested to know that there is a sequel (of sorts) called Salmon Pink Max, featuring AI pilots to fight against. Before we get bogged down in the nitty gritty of what makes Biplane Duel just so damn fine, lets get one thing clear: I’m not getting all teary eyed over some retro has-been. The original game (BiPlane) hit the arcade back in 1976 and, after a brief sojourn on the Intellivision, eventually wound up as an updated and altogether sexier looking remake on the venerable Amiga (which is the version discussed here). The story doesn’t stop there though because the game has been remade yet again for mobile phones, scooping a BAFTA in the process.

You know, giving him the bird! The key to Biplane Duel’s enduring charm lies within its ‘easy to learn - hard to master’ style of gameplay. The concept is simple: each player controls a small biplane and has to shoot down the opposing player’s craft. Unlimited ammo, one shot kills and the first player to sixteen points takes the match. The game is played from a two-dimensional side view with no scrolling: fly off the edge of the screen and you appear on the opposite edge. Each player has a runway at the bottom of the screen, where shot down planes respawn ready to take to the skies again. Players begin by accelerating their biplanes along the runway towards the middle of the screen, taking off before they crash into the house which divides the opposing runways. Once airborne the biplanes can be put through a stomach churning aerobatic dance, with the pitch of the plane being controlled by simply pushing left or right on the stick. Loop-the-loops and inverted flying (for that really cocky kill) quickly become second nature and a fast paced, adrenalin fuelled game of cat and mouse ensues.

Video B - The InspirationThis alone wouldn’t be enough to justify the hyperbole heaped upon the game in the opening paragraph and, indeed, extended play begins to unravel the finesse of the control system. In manual mode the game gives the player full control over the engine power of their biplane, making it quite possible to stall the aircraft, either deliberately or by accident (an instant stall occurs if the plane hits the top of the screen). Stalling the biplane effectively allows it to ‘hang’, but the player is still afforded the same pitch response as in the non-stall condition, so during the hang time the biplane can be rotated to take a well-aimed shot at your opponent. On the flip-side a stationary stalled biplane makes for a mightily tempting target. Of course gravity eventually takes over and the biplane begins to drop towards terra firma, and it’s during this heart-in-mouth descent that a well executed recovery becomes top priority. A good pilot should be able to recover most dire situations by simply increasing the engine power and getting the plane pointing in the direction of travel (i.e. down). By building up enough airspeed it should be possible to level the plane out a fraction of a second before impact. Get it wrong and the tiny biplane spins and flails like a winged bird until it ultimately ‘buys the farm’.

You can be my wingman any time. It doesn’t end there though… assuming you can master manoeuvres at stall speeds and recover your kite with Red Barron-esque skills, the game still has a couple of extra elements to mix things up. Firstly, every now and then a balloon will float up out of the house that separates the two runways. This can be shot or flown into for an additional point and collecting these soft targets is a sound tactic. More importantly the sky features a smattering of drifting cloud, which completely obscures your plane should you fly into it. Successfully using cloud to mask changes in direction is critical in gaining the upper hand in this never-ending dogfight. It’s particularly effective for taking a snap shot at your opponent: by quickly switching direction behind a cloud and firing a bullet, your opponent can be taken off guard and given enough practice these disguised shots begin to find their target more times than not.

Spoiler: ‘The Bug’

This is a final warning, reading on will almost certainly destroy your enjoyment of this great game unless you have resolute morals and cast iron willpower. Even if you have these commendable attributes it’s unlikely that your opponent will. The bug in the game registers a kill regardless of which biplane your bullet strikes. So it’s quite possible to fire a shot, flip over, wrap around the screen and fly into your own bullet, causing your opponent to explode. Nasty. But wait, there’s more… just as unscrupulous Quake and Unreal players ‘camp’ next to respawn points, skilled Biplane Duel pilots can also plumb the depths of immorality, by cynically camping out just over the other player’s airfield: strafing the runway just as they become airborne to get an easy kill before the other player has a chance to respond. Fortunately there are a couple of tricks that can be employed to combat camping tactics. By faking a take off to break their rhythm and then flipping over inverted as soon as your biplane gets off the ground to gather yet more airspeed it is possible with a bit of luck to make the treacherous ascent back into the stratosphere unscathed, ready to fight on and return the favour.

It's time to buzz a tower. The apparent simplicity of the digital control method belies a gem of a game (albeit a flawed gem) that clearly highlights the problems evident in more modern three dimensional dogfight games. By limiting the action to a two-dimensional plane, the game unintentionally and deftly sidesteps all the problems of its 3D siblings. You see, in two dimensions you always know where your opponent is, you always know where the shot came from that killed you and you always know just what to do to get on your enemy’s ‘six’. There’s no need for radar, no need for rear views and absolutely no place for mile-wide turning circles. No. Biplane Duel is direct, precise and absolute multiplayer magic, until ‘that’ bug spoils the party.....

Platform: Amiga
Developer: Peter Mason
Released: 1989

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