Capture The Flag!

Two-player madness at machine language speed

By Brad Timmins

Armed with disintegration pistols, you and your opponent race through giant mazes in a mad dash to Capture the Flag! This month's Antic Super Disk Bonus is programmed entirely in speedy machine language. It's a challenging two-player game that requires two joysticks and at least 48K memory.

It's the year 2044. Ultra-violent TV game shows are at the height of their popularity. The most popular game on the airwaves is Capture the Flag! which is played in a giant maze.

The two home bases are placed in the upper left and right corners of the maze. A flag is placed at the very bottom of the maze. Two contestants enter with their disintegration pistols. The player who captures the flag and successfully returns it to home base wins the round. The first player to capture five flags wins the game and saves his life!

Capture the Flag! author Brad Timmins lives in Sandy, Utah. His program Macro RESET appeared in the January, 1989 Antic.

USING THE PROGRAM

You'll find Capture the Flag! on this month's Antic Disk as CAPTURE.OBJ. Copy this file to another disk formatted with DOS 2.0 or DOS 2.5. Don't try to run it directly from the monthly Antic Disk.

Be sure your new disk contains the DOS.SYS file. Use DOS command E to rename CAPTURE.OBJ to AUTORUN.SYS. Turn off your computer and remove all cartridges. Place the disk in drive 1. If you're using an XL or XE computer, hold down the [OPTION] key while you turn on your computer. Capture the Flag! will load and run automatically.

HOW TO PLAY

Capture the Flag! requires two joysticks, plugged into ports 1 and 2. At the beginning of each round, both players are placed on their home bases. To move your player, press the joystick in the desired direction.

Each player is outfitted with a disintegration pistol that has a maximum of four shots. To fire, move the joystick in the direction you want to fire and press the button. Pistols can be used to blast through walls, or to blast the other player. A player who is hit goes immediately back to home base. If the player was carrying a flag, it will be dropped where the player was hit.

Each maze that's generated is far too large to be displayed on a single screen. Instead, each player has a scrolling window. A master map is displayed at the bottom of the screen, showing players' relative positions - but not the actual walls of the maze

To pick up the flag, simply move on top of it. The flag is quite heavy and will slow down the movement of the player carrying it. Also, when the flag is carried by one player, the other player gets unlimited ammunition - but only while the fist player holds the flag. As soon as the flag is dropped, the amount of ammunition returns to its previous level.

If you manage to make it back to base safely with one flag, a new maze appears, and off you go again. The first person to collect five flags is the Grand Champion.

RAPID DISK

Your October 1989 Antic Disk - featuring the Capture the Flag! Super Disk Bonus as well as every type-in program from this issue - will be shipped to you within 24 hours after receiving your order. Just phone Toll-Free to the Antic Disk Desk at (800) 234-7001. The monthly disk is only $5.95 (plus $2 for shipping and handling) on your Visa or MasterCard. Or mail a $5.95 check (plus $2 shipping and handling) to Antic Disk Desk, 544 Second Street,
San Francisco, CA 94107. A

Binary: CAPTURE.OBJ Download