History Main / CaptureTheFlag

* UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} example from 1978: ''VideoGame/FlagCapture''.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn'' and ''CommandAndConquerRedAlert'': Skirmish mode adds a CTF win condition where a land vehicle can pick up an enemy flag and wins by bringing it back to their base (but their speed is greatly reduced).

** ''VideoGame/UnrealI'' has the RealCTF {{game mod}}, which implements the classic idea (each team has a base, each base has a flag, get the enemy flag and bring it to your base) and comes with specialized maps.

*** The game features both the gamemode and the proper VehicleCTF in the expected way. However, in Vehicle CTF, the Flag could not be carried in any vehicle, period, reducing vehicles as support units. As a compensation, the game introduced the Hoverboard, a single-player manned skate that increased their walking speed at the cost of not being able to shoot any gun. In addition, the slightest enemy hit would disrupt the player's equilibrium, making them fall.

* ''VideoGame/{{Quake|I}}'': The TropeCodifier, for VideoGames at least, is the Threewave CTF GameMod. It consists on two flags set at opposite sides of a map, and the players separated in two teams. In order to make matches more dynamic, two features were introduced: the Powerup Runes (modeled after the Runes in the original campaign, with each providing a powerup) and a GrapplingHookPistol. While initially the mod could be played only on some specific vanilla maps, a specialized mappack later emerged, with 8 maps specifically designed for the mode.

%%* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'', 1995, is the UrExample for video games.

%%* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'': The TropeCodifier, for VideoGames at least, is the Threewave CTF GameMod.

* ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit 2'' is a rare sidescrolling version. The Capture The Flag multiplayer levels revolve around a blue team and a red team trying to steal each other's flags and bring them to their base. The first team that catches the required number of flags wins.

%%* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' has this with Brenner.
%%* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'': Pretty much all of the games have this mode.
* ''VideoGame/FatPrincess'' has a rather odd take on this: as the title might suggest, the "flag" in this game is a princess, and you can fatten her up to make it harder for the opposing team to capture (or re-capture) her.
* The most popular type of game mode in ''VideoGame/TeamFortressClassic'', with the flag room and the capture points being in two different parts of the team's base.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' uses an intelligence briefcase with unknown contents. Unlike most FPS games, a team's own intel doesn't need to be in the base to capture the enemies'. It also can't be returned as fast: it needs to be guarded where it was dropped. It also provides a brief buff for the team that manages to take it to their base: guaranteed {{Critical Hit}}s for 10 seconds.
* ''VideoGame/GangGarrison2'' , a {{Retreaux}} VideoGameDemake of the aforementioned ''Team Fortress 2'', also features Capture the Flag as its most popular game mode.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', like most modern FPS games, features it as a multiplayer mode. Later games introduce an inversion in the Assault gametype (teams trying to deliver a bomb into the enemy base) and the option of a single flag that the teams take turns guarding and attacking.
** ''Halo's'' CTF mode[[note]]And ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''[='s=], also made by Bungie, although that game did it with skulls[[/note]] is special in that smacking someone with the flag is a OneHitKill. However, in the Creator/{{Bungie}}-made games you cannot use any other weapons (you hold the flag in your hands, after all), so this is your only means of attack. Aggressively using the flag as a serious weapon is ill-advised.
** In the Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries-made games, the Flag Carrier has access to an [[HandCannon M6H Magnum]] with infinite ammo. However, there's a slight accuracy penalty (considering you're firing it one-handed while carrying the flag in the other hand), and when carrying the flag you can't use any Armor/Spartan abilities (''especially'' Sprint, for obvious reasons). Melee attacks with the flag are still one-hit kills, though. While in ''{{VideoGame/Halo 4}}'', the carrier could no longer voluntarily drop the flag so as to better defend themselves when attacked like they could in previous games, ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' restored the ability to do so in response to fan outcry. ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'' gets rid of the "Flagnum" and introduces a new feature: You can now sprint while holding the flag, but doing so reveals your position to the enemy, giving you a choice between a slower flag run vs. a faster but more visible one.
** ''VideoGame/Halo4'' onwards has featured an AscendedHouseRules variant of CTF named "Husky Raid": Regular flag and player rules, but played on extremely narrow maps with random weapons on respawn.
* ''VideoGame/RedFaction Guerrilla'' also uses the one hit kill flag.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' series has used this in every incarnation so far. ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'' has a two-in-one LampshadeHanging and HandWave: Reaper, the main character, is initially confused as to why their mercenary team is apparently playing a game. His sister and fellow merc Jester explains that the flags are actually '''F'''ield '''La'''ttice '''G'''enerators which power the teams' respawners, and if they capture enough of the enemy's [=FLaGs=], it'll shut down the respawners for good and let them [[KilledOffForReal kill the enemy soldiers for real]]. Reaper's response? "It looks like a flag, it waves like a flag, it's a flag."
* ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' has "Capture the [[CreepyChild Little Sister]]" as its CTF mode. Holding her prevents you from using your physical weapons because you're too busy holding the clawing, hissing kitten, but you can still use plasmids.
* ''VideoGame/{{S4 League}}'' has Touchdown mode, which is a variant of CTF designed to look more like soccer. There's only one flag (or "ball" as the game calls it, in keeping with the ball game theme), placed initially in the center, anyone can take it, and it has to be taken to the ''enemy''[='=]s goal rather than your own. Or in other words, very much like ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004''[='=]s Bombing Run mode, which in that game is considered distinct from normal CTF. Yeah.

* ''VideoGame/DayOfDefeat'' games typically require the sides to capture territory, each territory having a white neutral flag which changes to the side holding that territory upon capture.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' has relic run, which sometimes functions as a normal CTF game, and sometimes functions as a race to see who can take their own "flag" to a shrine in the center of the map more times than the enemy teams.
* UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} example from 1978: ''VideoGame/FlagCapture''.
* The [[VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii Wii remake of GoldenEye]] features a rather odd take on CTF. In this mode, called Black Box, one team has to pick up the eponymous Black Box and capture it. However, the other team is trying to find and destroy the same.
* The early RTS game ''VideoGame/TheAncientArtOfWar'' had capturing all the flags as an InstantWinCondition.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonDefenders'' has DownloadableContent that adds a (semi-working) CTF mode.
* Online game ''Bearbarians'' has this as one of its four playable modes. It has an interesting bug in which your AI teammates have trouble actually getting the flag to the drop-off, and everyone respawns an infinite number of times, meaning that it can also be used to LevelGrind so long as you prioritise the guy who just picked up yours (since the enemy AI does ''not'' have this bug).
* ''VideoGame/{{Timesplitters}}'' has this mode, called Capture the Bag instead. The bag's appearance varies to match the level's theme.
* ''VideoGame/{{Loadout}}'' has Jackhammer mode, which presents an odd twist on the formula. The "flag" in this case is a massive sledgehammer, which is perfectly capable of being used as a weapon itself. The more kills the hammer racks up, the more points the team that captured it earns. It can only be used five times before it's depleted though.
* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' has two odd variations on the formula with its Rainmaker and Tower Control ranked modes.
** In Rainmaker, the eponymous Rainmaker sits on the center of the stage as a single "flag", with the objective being to take hold of it and carry it to the enemy base. The Rainmaker gives its holder access to a slow but powerful ChargedAttack; however, it slows the holder down severely, constantly marks their location to opponents, and it self-destructs if they hold on to it for too long, doing it faster if they try to retreat. If no team manages to carry it all the way before time runs out, then the team that made the most progress to the enemy base with it is the victor.
** In Tower Control, the flag takes the form of a mobile tower at the center of the map. If a player jumps on top while there are no enemy players on it, the tower will move along a fixed path toward the goal; if no side occupies the tower for a few seconds, it will move back to the centre. As with Rainmaker, if neither team makes it all the way to the goal, the winner is whoever gets further.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' offers Cephalon Capture as a possible type of match for Conclave. The Cephalons, being [=AIs=], will chatter with players throughout the match.
* ''VideoGame/PiratesVikingsAndKnights'' has a slight variation on the gamemode, in which [[PirateBooty several chests full of Booty]] have to be carried back to your base and kept there until your team's ticket counter reaches zero. The more chests you have in your base, the faster it goes down. Of course, the more chests your team has, the more likely it is that the other two teams are going to try and take them from you.
* ''VideoGame/{{Nexuiz}}'', as a multiplayer game has this. However, the rules are different to most of the other incarnations of the gametype: your team can score both by capturing flags (25 points) and by fragging enemies (1 point per frag). This comes in handy at some maps such as Eggandbacon, where, in spite of its simple design, it's near impossible to get flags, so teams must rack up frags in order to increase their score.
** The same is true of ''VideoGame/{{Xonotic}}'', its SpiritualSuccessor, although the game uses a classic flag-based scoring system instead of Nexuiz's frags+flags score system.
* ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'' had Capture the Flag as one of its first four 4-player modes.
* ''VideoGame/AtlasReactor'' has a variant called Extraction: Both teams are competing to capture a single, neutral 'flag' (a briefcase) and bring it back to their extraction zone to win. Each team's extraction zone spawns when that team reaches 10 points (holding the flag for one round is a point, and killing an opposing team's freelancer is two points) on the opposite side of the map of their current location, and the flag has its own health bar which, when depleted, causes the carrier to drop it in his/her current square, allowing the other team to pick it up (this means you can't constantly heal/shield a single flag carrier ''ad infinitum'').
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' didn't launch with one, but added "Capture the Rooster" as its featured mode for the Chinese New Year event in 2017 (which, despite the name, used the traditional flags), then playable only on Lijiang Tower and can be playable during the event only; it has since been added to the full game on the Bastion rework patch on March 2017, with the addition of other Control maps (Oasis, Nepal, and Ilios) as official CTF maps. The reason it lacked one to begin with was because mobility based heroes would have been {{Game Breaker}}s, however the mode got around this by requiring a player to stay on the flag for a few seconds to capture it (giving the opposing team a chance to knock them off the point, instead of allowing Tracer or Genji to rush in and out with it).
** The Lunar New Year of 2018 (Year of the Dog) brought the mode back as part of the event, but this time with an official CTF map to go with it (previous versions were just reused Control maps). Along with this, the mode received balance changes so that the flag can now be picked up instantly, but using any movement abilities (Tracer's Blink, Lucio's Wall Ride, etc) would drop the flag.
* ''VideoGame/AnUntitledStory'' features the "heist" mode in which two players try to get all the money bags from the opponent's base (including a lone one found on the map) to their own in one of twelve maps based on areas from the main game.
* ''VideoGame/MidtownMadness'': Multiplayer Cop & Robbers mode. Take the gold and head it up to your or team hideout.
* One of the three game modes (and by far the game mode with the most stages) in ''VideoGame/LEGOBrawls'' is a team based mode where the main objective is to capture a central area.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn'' and ''CommandAndConquerRedAlert'': Skirmish mode adds a CTF win condition where a land vehicle can pick up an enemy flag and wins by bringing it back to their base (but their speed is greatly reduced).

* ''VideoGame/{{Loadout}}'' has Jackhammer mode, which presents an odd twist on the formula. The "flag" in this case is a massive [[DropTheHammer sledgehammer]], which is perfectly capable of being used as a weapon itself. The more kills the hammer racks up, the more points the team that captured it earns. It can only be used five times before it's depleted though.

* The WebVideo/InternetHistorian covers an instance of flag capturing in this YouTube video: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9zyxm860Q]]. Creator/ShiaLaBeouf grew disgusted by his public art project in Queens being subverted by trolls. So he put up a "He will not divide us" flag somewhere in the United States, and aimed a streaming camera at it. There was nothing but blue sky behind the flag, so no landmarks were visible. But as night fell, 4chan's /pol/ got busy, and noticed Polaris was almost directly behind the flagpole. Using social media, airline traffic routes and star charts, /pol/ deduced the flag was near Greeneville, Tennessee. Not long after, someone homed in on it, and the flag was replaced with a MAGA hat and Pepe the frog shirt, a mere 38 hours 14 minutes after the HWNDU flag was raised.

* ''LightNovel/ChromeShelledRegios'' shows the moving cities fighting for rights to various fuel mines in epic ''Wars'' to capture each other's flags.

* The first issue of KOL's ''WesternAnimation/PrincessNatasha'' (published by DC) centered around a school contest to capture an opposing team's flag. Natasha participates in the search while trying to recover the Zoravia national flag, which her evil uncle Lubek has stolen.

* [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1776 SCP-1776]] of the Wiki/SCPFoundation uses MindManipulation to get people to play Capture the Flag, but makes them think it's real rather than a game. Anyone who's been a member of a military force, been a PrivateMilitaryContractor, or been a member of LaResistance will view SCP-1776 as a flag of their country or unit, and believe that anyone near SCP-1776 is a real-life enemy who intends to destroy the flag. Those affected will use any means necessary, including very real violence, to get the flag, and then will find the closest flagpole to hoist it on, spreading the effect to others.

* The Creator/AchievementHunter guys created a version in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' called Capture the Tower, played twice so far in their ''[[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterMinecraftSeries Let's Play Minecraft]]'' series and for an additional game at RTX. The two teams play on an arena, each holding two of the four pieces of the Tower of Pimps. First team to erect a complete tower at their base wins. They also played a ''Minecraft'' version of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' Capture the Flag on 4J Studios' recreation of [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved Blood]] [[Machinima/RedVsBlue Gulch]] in Episode [[MythologyGag 117]].

-->-- ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* An early plot point in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. Asking why the flag matters is apparently considered insubordination.
** After the Blue Flag is recovered near the end of the first season, the flags of the Blood Gulch bases are only ever brought up once later, when the Reds consider asking for it in a hostage negotiation but decide against it when the fear of taking it again would result in [[ActionGirl Tex]] kicking their asses to get it back like before.\\

* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' has relic run, which sometimes functions as a normal CaptureTheFlag game, and sometimes functions as a race to see who can take their own "flag" to a shrine in the center of the map more times than the enemy teams.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has two odd variations on the formula with Rainmaker and Tower Control.
** In Rainmaker mode, the eponymous Rainmaker sits on the center of the stage as a single "flag", with the objective being to take hold of it and carry it to the enemy base. The Rainmaker gives its holder access to a slow but powerful ChargedAttack; however, it slows the holder down severely, constantly marks their location to opponents, and it self-destructs if they hold on to it for too long, doing it faster if they try to retreat. If no team manages to carry it all the way before time runs out, then the team that made the most progress to the enemy base with it is the victor.

* ''VideoGame/PiratesVikingsAndKnights'' has a slight variation on the gamemode, in which [[PirateBooty several chests full of Booty]] have to be carried back to your base and kept there until your team's ticket counter reaches zero. The more chests you have in your base, the faster it goes down. Of course, he more chests your team has, the more likely it is that the other two teams are going to try and take them from you.

* ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit2'' is a rare sidescrolling version. The Capture The Flag multiplayer levels revolve around a blue team and a red team trying to steal each other's flags and bring them to their base. The first team that catches the required number of flags wins.

* An early shareware game actually titled ''[[http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/capture-the-flag Capture the Flag]]'' portrayed the actual outdoor sport, with the player running a team of kids in a field strewn with trees and rocks. It incorporated line-of-sight mechanics, and the goal was the same as in a real game: to reach the other team's hidden flag, steal it, and return it to your side while preventing the other side from doing the same to you.
* The UrExample for video games was ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' in 1995.
* Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' (December, 1994) was planned to have this mode, but it was cut due to taking too much time. In ''Marathon 2'', it's Capture the Skull.
* The TropeCodifier, for VideoGames at least, is the Threewave CTF GameMod for ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}''.
* A minigame in underground Sinnoh in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''/''Platinum''.

* The Castle Wars game in ''VideoGame/RuneScape''.
* ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit 2'' is a rare sidescrolling version. The Capture The Flag multiplayer levels revolve around a blue team and a red team trying to steal each other's flags and bring them to their base. The first team that catches the required number of flags wins.
* ''VideoGame/JediKnightIIJediOutcast'', in addition to your normal Capture the Flag, also has "Capture the Ysalamiri", a little reptile that [[AntiMagic nullifies the Force when in close proximity to it]], which means you can't use your Force powers but nobody can use them against you either.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront II'' has Capture the Flag among its modes. There are two versions: Single-flag, where there is one flag in the middle of the field that both sides fight over, and two-flag where each side has a flag at their home base that the other side must capture and bring home. The one-flag version is available on space maps.

* Pretty much all of the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games have this mode.

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' cartoon effectively featured this, as every episode revolved around Link and Zelda trying to get the Triforce of Power away from Ganon while ''he'' tries to steal the Triforce of Wisdom away from ''them''.

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptureTheFlag'': The main protagonist Mike and his two friends Amy and Marty frequently engage in Capture the Flag surfing competitions, but so far never managed to win. And of course, the main plot is this trope UpToEleven when Mike, Amy and Mike's grandfather Frank go to the moon to secure the flag from the original Apollo XI team before CorruptCorporateExecutive Richard Carson can get it.

** In the Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries-made games, the Flag Carrier has access to an [[HandCannon M6H Magnum]] with infinite ammo. However, there's a slight accuracy penalty (considering you're firing it one-handed while carrying the flag in the other hand), and when carrying the flag you can't use any Armor/Spartan abilities (''especially'' Sprint, for obvious reasons). Melee attacks with the flag are still one-hit kills, though. While in ''{{VideoGame/Halo 4}}'', the carrier could no longer voluntarily drop the flag so as to better defend themselves when attacked like they could in previous games, ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' restored the ability to do so in response to fan outcry.

* ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'': It's revealed that in ''Ancients of the Creek'' that the first game since the foundation of the Creek ended up GoesHorriblyWrong to the part it became an all-out war between different Creek kids to the point the Founders left the Creek and the result of it became a mystery which lead to Craig finding the flags used for the game in ''The Last Game of Summer'' before keeping them away from anyone. This all comes back in the Season 3 finale "Capture The Flag" special, when Craig uses the flags in form of a GodzillaThreshold to [[spoiler:challenge King Xavier in a winner-takes-all for the liberation of the Creek from his tyranny.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' has this with Brenner.