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]

[NEW MODES!  11/26/2025: Press U on the Timed Game to play Fog of War (the board starts blacked out, and there's other bonuses and penalties hidden in the fog), Chase The Flag (where the flag moves one space every time you check a clue), and Drawing Mode (no object, just make whatever 9 pixel by 6 pixel art your heart desires).  Mud Mode is not available with these new modes.]

[ANOTHER NEW MODE! 12/2/2025: Press U after Drawing Mode for Find The Frog mode, where all the rules are entirely different.  It's basically Hunt The Wumpus on a square grid... but the Wumpus is a giant frog instead]

[ANOTHER NEW MODE, 12/10/2025: Press U when on the 1P vs. 2P mode for two new variations: Alternating Moves, where each character can move freely until they look at a clue, at which point the other player takes over; and Alternating Turns, where each player plays until they find the flag, at which point the other player takes over, the first one to use 50 Clues loses]

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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

In Find The Frog mode:

C or top button on controller: move cursor (determines where Net will be thrown)
Z or bottom button: throw net

I, J, K, L: move P2.
F: reveal clue

S or Select button: Glitch level select

U: special mode select (on Timed game only)

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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GAME VARIATIONS

Pressing U in Timed Mode will allow you to select new modes!

FOG OF WAR: In this mode, the board starts out dark, and in addition to the clues, there's various bonuses and penalties hidden in the fog.  You may find:

Bonus Point: +1 point
Penalty Point: -1 point
Bomb Shield: You are immune to the next bomb you uncover.
More Bombs: Four more bombs are hidden on the board
Bonus Time: +10 seconds
Flagaport: The flag moves to a new random location, and you have to start looking all over again.

CHASE THE FLAG: In this mode, the flag moves one space every time you check the clue.  It always moves in a straight line, but that line might be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal.  The clue shows you where the flag is now, and the flag moves after you release the button.

DRAWING MODE: A simple drawing mode that lets you be as creative as you can on a 7 x 9 grid!  The explorer is replaced with an X-shaped cursor.  Press the Check Clue button to change the square you're on from black, to light cyan, to red, to green, to blue, and back to black.  Press the Move Cursor Button (C or the top button on the controller — Triangle, X, or Y depending on what controller you have) to make your cursor disappear so you can screenshot your masterpiece!  (Cursor reappears when you move or press the Check Clue button again)

FIND THE FROG MODE: A drastically different mode, a game unto itself.  In this game variation, there are no Clues, Bombs, or even a Flag.  Instead, a giant Frog is hidden somewhere on the board, along with many Bogs, a quartet of Swamp Bats, and a Net to catch the Frog with.  You start with only a Rope, which will allow you to get out of one Bog.  Your job: find the Net, then find the Frog and capture it, without falling into a Bog or stumbling directly into the Frog itself!

At the top of the screen will be indicators that show you what is in neighboring rooms, but without telling you in which direction those items, enemies, or obstacles are.

Creatures, Traps, and Items

THE FROG: Your enemy and goal.  If you enter into the same square as the Frog, it's immediate Game Over.  When the Frog is nearby, the game will pause and emit an audible alarm in addition to showing the indicator at the top of the screen.
THE BOGS:  If you fall into one and you have a Rope, then you can extract yourself, and the Rope relocates itself somewhere on the board for you to find again.  If you don't have a Rope, then it's Game Over!  The square where you found a Bog will change color to remind you of where you stumbled into one.
THE BATS: They will grab any Explorer who dares to enter their square, and drop them in another random square, possibly right into a Bog or the Frog's lair!  They can even drop you on another Bat, sending your careening around the board.  They can't directly harm you, but they are frustrating and still dangerous.
THE ROPE: Will get you out of a Bog... once.  Then you have to find it again. A brief tune will play when the Rope is in an adjacent room.
THE NET: When you have it, you can hit C (or Triangle/X/Y) to bring up a cursor pointing, up, right, down, or left.  Pressing the Check Clue button will throw the net in that direction.  If the Frog is there, you capture it and get a point!  If not, then it just disappears back into the maze.  Either way, you have to find it again. Like the Rope, a brief tune will play when the Net is in an adjacent room.

Your goal is simply to score as many points as you can before a Bog or the Frog inevitably claim you.

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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).  F12 on the keyboard will reset the high score table.  (Warning: there is no in-game warning!)

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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 "Glitch-Free Mode!", bombs are removed when found and there are no glitch graphics at all no matter how many bombs you uncover)

(In Find The Frog mode, the glitchiness levels still apply, but they're activated by finding a Bat instead of a Bomb)

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If the game seems to be acting really strangely, then you probably accidentally activated the Super Duper Secret Super Glitch Mode.  Try to figure out what you did!