History
Bip, also known as Biplane Duel, is a public-domain Amiga game by Peter Mason, released by Five-Star Software in September 1990. Its compact one- or two-player aerial duel belongs to the Amiga public-domain scene, in which complete games circulated through disk libraries and magazine collections outside conventional boxed retail publishing.
The duel
Keep your biplane airborne, turn onto your opponent, and fire when the other aircraft crosses your line. Aircraft retain momentum: climbing trades speed for height, while diving restores speed. A collision with the ground or the other aircraft ends the exchange.
Game options
- Opponent: choose Computer for a one-player duel or Human for two players.
- Game level: the original offers So-so or Hard and stores the choice, but its AI never consumes the distinguishing bit, so both settings play identically. This option is skipped in a two-player duel.
- Acceleration: Manual requires explicit throttle input; Auto retains the original assisted-acceleration instruction.
- Sound: Fake Stereo uses alternating Paula channels; Real Stereo enables all four channels.
The original options appear one at a time. Press Left or Right to choose each side of the displayed prompt; the duel starts immediately after the Sound choice. A pointer can select the left or right side of that prompt too. Press R during play to return to the options screen.
Controls
| Mode / side | Flight | Fire |
|---|
| Two player: Player 1 (left) | W A S D | Shift |
| Two player: Player 2 (right) | Arrow keys | Space |
| Computer opponent: human (right) | Arrow keys | Space |
P pauses or resumes. R returns to game options. F enters fullscreen; Escape leaves fullscreen. A Switch Joy-Con can be held horizontally, with its stick for flight and its right-hand button for fire. In a two-player duel, connect two Joy-Cons; the first controls Player 1 and the second controls Player 2.
After the match
When the original Again / Enough! prompt appears, press and release Left to reset both scores and play again. Press and release Right for Enough!; this runs the original shutdown semantics and then returns to Bip's opening screen. On the Amiga, Enough! returned to the program that launched Bip rather than reopening this screen. You can also click the corresponding half of the prompt.