Find the Flag™

[Author's note: Runs best in Firefox.  That wasn't intentional, it's just how it worked out. Still working on making it load faster]

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Oh boy!  While digging through the attic at your parents' place, you found your old Syzygy 7850 Video Computer Console™!  And your favorite game, Find The Flag™!

Sure, it's been buried under a pile of dust since 1979, but I'm sure it'll still work fine!

Won't it?
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QUICK CONTROL LIST:

R or Start button: start new game.

Arrow Keys or joypad: move P1.
Z or bottom button on controller: reveal clue

I, J, K, L: move P2.
F: reveal clue

S or Select button: Glitch level select

N or L1: Number of player select (Timed mode, Vs. CPU mode, PvP mode, and CPU vs. CPU)
M or L2: CPU speed in vs. CPU games
D or R1: Difficulty select (aka "MUD MODE")

T or L3: High Score Table

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Controls: arrow keys to move, Z to reveal clue, R to restart game.  (You can also use a connected gamepad to move the character, and reveal clues with the bottom button: Cross on Playstation controllers, B on Nintendo controllers, A on Xbox controllers).

On a controller, restart the game with the Start button (Option on PS4 and PS5 controllers).

Be careful, you can restart the game in the middle of a game!  The Syzygy 7850 Video Computer Console™ doesn't care!

Instructions: Find the Flag that's hiding in one of the 63 tiles!  Moving the controller will jump you from tile to tile, and pressing Z will reveal what is hidden in the tile.  The things you can find are a Clue, a Bomb, or the Flag!  There are two types of Clues, Arrows and Numbers.

If it's an Arrow Clue, then the Flag is vaguely in the direction of the arrow. An arrow pointing directly up, down, left, or right tells you that the flag is directly up, down, left, or right (respectively) of your position.  Diagonal arrows are non-specific, and the flag could be anywhere in that direction (e.g., an up-right arrow could mean that the flag is five tiles right and one tile up, or three tiles up and seven to the right, or any other combination of "up" and "right"). 

If it's a Number Clue, then the Flag is in on the border of a square whose edges are that many tiles away from the player's tile.  For example, if you get a 2, then the Flag could be anywhere in the following area (P is the player's tile, F is where the flag could be):

FFFFF
F---F
F-P-F
F---F
FFFFF

But beware, because there's eight Bombs scattered across the playing field!  If you uncover one, you'll be blasted back to the starting tile and penalized some time. On the bright side, the bomb will be removed from the board for the current round!  (Also, you may have overloaded something in the poor old console's memory banks.  Things may start looking a little funky)

If you find the Flag, you're again sent back to the starting tile, but you get a point and time is added rather than subtracted!  The board is reshuffled and you have to find the flag's new location!

Repeat until time runs out!  Try to beat your high score!

NEW MODE: Press N (or the left shoulder button / L1) to add a second CPU player who will also be trying to find the flag!  In this mode, the winner is the first player to get to 10 points.  Press M (or the left trigger / L2) to change the CPU player's speed. You can also watch the CPU's clues to help you find the flag, but don't let it get there first!

Press N again and you will be in Player vs. Player mode!  The second player uses I, J, K, L to move and F to reveal clues. [DEVELOPER NOTE: as of this update there is no controller support for the second player, mainly due to lack of a second controller to test it with.]

Press N a third time and you can also select a zero-player game, and watch the CPU fight itself! Both move at the same speed.  Press N again to return to Timed mode.

High scores are not saved in Player vs. Player or CPU vs. CPU mode. 

In Timed mode, the HUD will show PLAYER and TIMER (or "TIME'S UP!") in Player vs. CPU mode it will show PLAYER, CPU, TIMER, and SPEED; in Player vs. Player mode it will show PL 1 and PL 2; and in CPU vs. CPU mode it will show CPU 1, CPU 2, and SPEED.

Game too easy?  Try flipping the Difficulty switches!  Between games, press D (or the right shoulder button / R1) to turn on MUD MODE, which makes your explorer move much slower, as if walking through mud!  Press D again to turn it off.  This will affect both players in Player vs. Player mode.

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HIGH SCORE TABLE

While your overall high score (in Timed mode) and best time (in Player vs. CPU mode) are always visible between games, press T on the keyboard (or the left stick button / L3 on a controller) between games to show the full high score table, which keeps track of your high score in all modes and difficulty settings (including the secret ones mentioned below).

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Special: There's a very Secret Select option you can type (or press on your controller) to change some of the game's other rules!  Try to find it!

(... S.  It's S.  Or Select.  It changes the rules about "glitches": When the message says "Welcome to Find The Flag!", bombs are removed when found and the glitch level is reset to 0 when finding the flag.  When it says "We1ceem tu F!nb Teh F1l449g!", bombs remain on the field when found, glitch level is reduced rather than reset when you find the flag, and that background static becomes foreground static.  And when it says "Teddy Bear Mode!", bombs are not removed but there are no glitch graphics at all no matter how many bombs you hit)