Flag Capture (Video Game)

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Flag Capture is an early Atari 2600 game from 1978. It's the first video game example of Capture the Flag, though the mechanics are incomplete - there is only one flag, there are no bases to bring it back to, and there is no fighting.

One or two players wander around a 9x7 grid of squares, and press the fire button to find out what's in that square. It may be the flag, or a hint about where the flag is, or a bomb that sends them back to their starting square.

There are 10 variations:

  1. Free For All: Both players move in real time.
  2. Double Two-Player: Players take turns moving and checking a square.
  3. Double Two-Player with a moving flag that bounces off the edges of the screen.
  4. Double Two-Player with a moving flag that wraps around the screen.
  5. Solo Two-Player: Players take turns moving and checking until they find the flag.
  6. Solo Two-Player, moving flag with wall.
  7. Solo Two-Player, moving flag with wrap-around.
  8. Single Player Timed.
  9. Single Player Timed, moving flag with wall.
  10. Single Player Timed, moving flag with wrap-around.
Tropes used in Flag Capture (Video Game) include: