"Sopwith" was created to demonstrate the "Imaginet" proprietary networking system developed by BMB Compuscience. David L. Clark, employed as a programmer at BMB, developed Sopwith as a multiplayer game. The multiplayer function would not operate without the Imaginet hardware and drivers. However, single-player functionality was also included, with the player flying alone or against computer-controlled planes. Because of this, the game was widely distributed, even though the Imaginet system itself was not hugely successful. Sopwith 2 added the ability to play multiplayer over an async serial interface, but a BMB dictionary driver (NAMEDEV.SYS) and a BMB serial communications driver (SERIAL.SYS or SERWORK.SYS) are then needed.