The manual

01Starting

Boot the Flatline volume and the game comes up on the title screen. The title song plays until you pick something. The game runs in 2 MB and is comfortable in 4 MB. The fighters are mirrored and compiled to code in memory when a match loads, and on a 2 MB machine that can come back NO MEMORY FOR THE FILE, THE MIRRORS or THE SPRITE CODE at the VS screen, depending on what else is in memory at the time; Esc to the title and pick the match again.

02Controls

Keys are read straight off the ADB keyboard, so two players can hold keys at the same time and nothing is lost to key repeat. A fighter always faces the opponent; forward and back below mean toward and away from them, whichever side of the screen you are on.

The joystick

One Apple II analog joystick is supported, on either side. The title screen says J JOYSTICK IS P1 when one is plugged in; J hands it to P2 instead, so the second player can take the keyboard's arrow keys. The stick is read as a digital eight-way: past about 40% of its travel counts as a direction, and the centre is measured when the game starts, so leave it at rest for the first second. Button 0 punches, button 1 kicks. On the select screen the stick moves the cursor and button 0 picks.

03Moves

Every fighter has the same set of basic moves on the same inputs, plus one special of their own. The frames below are Wade's; the fighter pages show each one's own.

Stand

no input

Guard up, facing the opponent. You turn to face them automatically.

Walk

← / →

Forward or back. Each fighter has their own pace, from Rook and Kessel at 3 pixels a tick to Kuro at 6.

Crouch

↓

Drop low. The first half of the special motion. You cannot block while crouched.

Jump

↑, or ↑ with ← / →

Straight up, or an arc forward or back at walking speed. Two thirds of a second in the air, 55 pixels at the top. Packets and floor waves pass underneath.

Block

hold back

Standing on the ground, not attacking, holding away from the opponent when a blow arrives. Takes 1 point of chip damage instead of the hit and a shorter stun. Rook's slam cannot be blocked.

Punch

Z / G

The quick one. 6 to 10 damage depending on the fighter. Also comes out in the air.

Kick

X / H

The heavy one. 10 to 16 damage, slower to come out and to recover. Also comes out in the air.

Special

↓ → + P

Down, then forward, then punch, the three inside about half a second. Each fighter's is different; see their page. A fighter with a projectile cannot throw another while the first is still on screen.

Hit

—

A clean blow stuns for a third of a second and pushes you back a step. Blood marks build on the face as a fighter wears down (B on the Help page turns the blood off).

Knockout

—

Health at zero. The round is over when the fighter is down.

Jumping attacks

Press punch or kick in the air and the strike comes out while the arc carries on underneath. A jumping kick over a crouching opponent, or over an incoming packet, is the standard way in on Wade and Kessel. Someone hit out of the air drops straight down.

04A match

• Two rounds to win. The pips under each health bar count rounds taken.
• 60 seconds a round. The clock sits between the bars. When it runs out the fighter with more health takes the round; equal health is a draw and nobody gets the pip.
• 100 health each. Lady Marais has 120 as the final opponent in the ladder.
• Knockout ends the round at once. The announcer calls KNOCKOUT or TIME, then the winner's name.
• Blocking costs 1 point per blow. A long enough round of chip can take a round on points.
• Esc pauses. R resumes, Esc again leaves the match. In a network game the other machine sees THE OTHER GS PAUSED and waits.
• The stage scrolls with the fighters; the skyline moves slower than the floor. The arena is about 270 pixels wide; you stop at the walls.

05The fighters

Walk is pixels a tick (30 ticks a second). Punch and kick are the damage on a clean hit out of 100 health.

WADE

29 · SHIBA HARBOUR · DOCK BOXING

Ran code off the docks until the wrong people noticed. Fighting his way back in. "Still jacked in. Still standing."

Walk4Punch8Kick12Punch isjab, crossKick isroundhouse

ICE BREAK ↓ → + P

A data packet leaves his fist at head height and crosses the screen at 8 pixels a tick. 10 damage, normal stun, can be blocked, and a jump clears it. Only one packet at a time. Throw from range; up close the throw frame is slow and he eats a kick.

SABLE

26 · THE SPAN · BLADEWORK

Freelance muscle, mirrored eyes. Nobody has seen her blink. Charges by the hour. "Paid for the hour. That took a minute."

Walk5Punch8Kick12Punch israzor jabKick isthrust slash

Both buttons are the razors, so her strikes reach 14 pixels further than the hand. Her kick is the slash, a straight thrust with a steel streak off the blade.

RAZOR CYCLONE ↓ → + P

She launches forward spinning, blades out, 6 pixels a tick, a ring of steel around her. Live three times on the way across, 9 damage a cut, so a point-blank cyclone that connects every time is the biggest single hit in the game. Blockable, and she is open on the landing. Best from 50 to 110 pixels out.

ROOK

44 · THE KOBO · BAR BRAWLING

Keeps the Kobo and the peace in it. The arm is surplus. The grudge is his. "Last orders."

Walk3Punch10Kick16Punch ishookKick ispiston uppercut

Slow, and hits harder than anyone. Both buttons are the metal arm: the hook is the quick one, the uppercut is the piston punch on the kick button.

SURPLUS ARM ↓ → + P

A grab and a slam. The reaching hand has to touch a standing opponent who is not mid-attack; it pulls them in and holds them, then the elbow comes down for 18 damage that cannot be blocked. Someone in the air or in the middle of a strike is not caught, and then Rook is open for the length of the whiff. Use it close, inside 50 pixels, on a blocker.

KESSEL

38 · TABERNACLE · DUB RHYTHM

Tug pilot off the orbital cluster. Hears a fight a beat before it happens. "Heard that one coming."

Walk3Punch10Kick14Punch isuppercut jabKick isflying kick

DUB DROP ↓ → + P

He rears up and slams into a deep crouch, and a wave rolls out along the floor at 6 pixels a tick. 12 damage and a long stagger (16 ticks), so a wave that connects leaves time to walk in behind it. Jump it; blocking takes the chip. Throw from 90 pixels or more, one wave on screen at a time.

KURO

?? · VILLA NIGHTFALL · SILENT GUARD

The family's bodyguard. One of many with the same face under the mask. ". . ."

Walk6Punch6Kick10Punch isjab to elbowKick ishurricane kick

The fastest fighter and the lightest hitter. The elbow counts on the punch, so it lands a little deeper than a jab looks.

GUARD STEP ↓ → + P

He fades out, reappears behind the opponent, and fades back in. No damage; while he is thin he has no hurt box either, so a strike aimed at where he was passes through. Comes out from any range inside 90 pixels. The payoff is the opponent facing the wrong way for a tick while they turn, and a projectile thrower with nothing between you.

VANE

41 · HIGHSIDE · MILITARY CQC

What the war left of a colonel. Someone else holds the leash now. "Orders received."

Walk4Punch8Kick13Punch isjab, crossKick isroundhouse

FLASH KICK ↓ → + P

The roundhouse launched straight up, live through the rise with a streak off the boot. 12 damage, 12 ticks of stun. It is his answer to a jump-in: an opponent coming down onto it is hit out of the air. Close range only, inside about 56 pixels, and the landing is slow.

RODRIGO

33 · THE SOUK · CAPOEIRA

Fixer, smuggler, dancer. Sells you the blade and then the bandage. "The odds were never yours."

Walk5Punch6Kick10Punch isjab, crossKick isroundhouse

MEIA LUA ↓ → + P

The roundhouse travelling: he dashes 6 pixels a tick through the first four steps and the kick is live twice on the way, 8 damage each. Closes 40 to 80 pixels in one motion. Blockable, light, quick to recover; the point is the distance it covers.

LADY MARAIS

24 · THE CORE · FENCING

Heiress of the Marais-Rand house. The tournament is hers. So are the rules. "The house always wins."

Walk4Punch8Kick12Punch isjab, crossKick ismarteloHealth as the boss120

FLECHE ↓ → + P

A fencer's running attack: she lunges 10 pixels a tick for four steps, 40 pixels in all, with the energy wand out of the cross hand and a burst at its tip. The hit box runs the whole length of the wand, so it lands from 40 to 90 pixels out. 18 damage, 14 ticks of stun, blockable, and a slow recovery if it whiffs.

06One player: the Shiba Circuit

Press 1 on the title.

1. Step 1, the difficulty. E Easy, N Normal, H Hard, or the arrows and Return. M shows a page about the ladder.
2. Step 2, your fighter. Arrows and Return on the select grid. Esc backs out to the difficulty.
3. Eight fights. The other six fighters in a shuffled order, each at their own home stage; then yourself, in the Grid; then Lady Marais at The Core. Pick Lady Marais and the final is Kuro at Villa Nightfall. The VS screen says which fight it is and where.
4. The results screen after a win shows the roster with the fighters you have beaten crossed off, your fighter's line, and who is next. Return goes on.
5. Lose and the screen counts down from ten. Return fights the same opponent again, Esc walks away to the title.
6. Win the last fight and your fighter's ending types out over the beach, with the ending's own song, and the last word stays up until the song has played through (about two minutes). Any key goes back to the title sooner.

What the difficulty changes

The final opponent gets a little more of everything at any level. The computer plays by the same rules you do: it walks, jumps, blocks by holding back, and does the down-forward-punch motion tick by tick for its special.

The endings

07Two players at one keyboard

Press 2 (or P) on the title.

1. P1 moves the cursor (arrows, or WASD, or the stick) and locks with Return, Z or G.
2. P2 does the same. The header shows the pairing and where the fight is: AT SHIBA HARBOUR (P1 HOME).
3. With both locked, ← / → switches the venue between the two fighters' homes. A mirror match is always at the Grid.
4. Return starts. Esc steps back one pick at a time, and out to the title.

The match loads behind the VS screen, the portraits spinning in meanwhile; how long depends on the disk. After the match, the select screen comes back with the same picks.

08CoGS network game

With a CoGS card in each Apple IIgs, two people anywhere on the internet fight each other through the Game Room at a2cogs.com. The title shows N NETWORK when the game finds a card.

1. Press N. Type a name (up to 11 characters) and Return.
2. Type a room code and Return to join a friend who typed the same code, or leave it blank and Return to be paired with the next player who does the same. Esc backs out at any point.
3. When the lobby seats you both, the select screen comes up with both cursors. Each player picks their own fighter on their own machine: Return to lock, Return again to say ready. The first to be ready fights at home. Esc steps back a stage.
4. The match runs on both machines in lockstep, three ticks (a tenth of a second) of input delay. The other machine's pause shows as THE OTHER GS PAUSED. If the two simulations ever disagree the screen says DESYNC; back out and rejoin.

The lobby and the pairing are the same Game Room that Pole Position and Doom deathmatch use on the card. The card carries only the inputs each tick, so the connection needs almost no bandwidth, but a long round trip shows as sluggish controls on both ends.

09Options and pages

• Blood. On by default: spatter on a clean hit and marks on the face as a fighter wears down. H for Help on the title, then B toggles it. The Help page shows the current setting.
• Joystick side. J on the title.
• Help, Story, Credits. H, S, C on the title; any key comes back.
• Watch. A runs a scripted bout. Esc ends it.

10Tips

• Block by holding back, not down. There is no crouch block. Holding back also walks you away, which is fine; the block takes over the moment something arrives.
• Hit stun is ten ticks, block stun six. A blocked kick leaves the kicker open longer than the blocker. Punish a blocked kick with your own.
• Kicks beat punches on damage, punches beat kicks on speed. Rook's uppercut at 16 is a sixth of a health bar; Kuro's jab at 6 comes out and goes away before most fighters have moved.
• Jump the projectiles. Wade's packet is at head height and Kessel's wave is on the floor; a jump clears both, and a jumping kick coming down out of the jump is the follow-up.
• Only one projectile at a time. A thrower who has one on screen cannot throw again until it is gone. Close the distance behind it.
• The grab needs you standing still. Rook's Surplus Arm misses anyone in the air or mid-strike. Against Rook, keep swinging or keep jumping; never stand and block inside arm's reach.
• Watch the clock. With a lead and twenty seconds left, backing off and blocking costs a point a hit and keeps the round.
• Buffer the motion. The down-forward can be done during a walk or while the opponent is in hit stun; the punch at the end is what fires it.