One Must Fall: 2097 is the first of a series of fighting games, developed by Diversions Entertainment (Rob and Ryan Elam, Joshua Jensen, and Kenny Chou) and published for IBM PC compatible computers in 1994 by Epic MegaGames. Now playable through emulators of DOS, One Must Fall: 2097 has been freeware since 1999.
Story[]
The year is 2097. Friday. You've waited for this night since you were a child. Fifteen years of training will be used tonight - your future career the main prize.
"The left elbow still needs a little work... Just three more days! Move the fight to next Friday and they won't know what hit 'em!"
Lying on the table, you can't see where the voice came from, but you recognized the colorful language of Team Chief 'Plug' McEllis.
"Don't be nervous, Plug. This 'bot is fresh from the factory and the best there is." You reply, trying to hide the shaking in your own voice. "I'll show you just how good a job your team did."
"I know you will. It's just that this is your first match and your opponent's tenth. Should give you more time..."
Time to what? Sim training gets old. There's no simulator that can compare with the real thing. "I have to do it now. The Board will see me as a challenger and hothead. I need the edge to get in this season's schedule."
"Good luck to ya... Give 'em an uppercut for me." says Plug.
The attendants begin checking your suit. You can feel the small needles in the helmet pressing into your skull. Fifteen minutes to show time. You feel a slight burning sensation as the drugs which connect you to the super computer seep into your spine. A cute attendant leans over the bed and gives you a wink.
"Nighty night... Remember me when you're famous."
Your eyes begin to shut. You blink a few times, trying not to fight the medication. Finally, your eyes begin to close as you lose consciousness.
METAL! You can't believe the feeling! Your eyes open, but they're not your own. You look at your hand and flex it into a fist. You strike the fist against your opposite palm and the sound is like two trains smashing together. You realize you'll never get used to "jacking in," the feeling of power you get from suddenly becoming a few hundred tons of dangerous equipment.
"You there, kid?" says a voice inside your head.
You now hear several voices in the background, "Physical attributes steady. All systems mark."
You turn your head over to the body lying on the bed ten meters away and almost 30 meters below. You speak, your voice amplified a hundred times, "I'm slice, Plug. Let's do some crushin'!"
It is no longer blood you feel pumping, but Synthoil. Your eyes now show you heat dissipation factors, metal strength, weapon power, damage scales, and some other figures so complicated you know to ignore them. Even though you no longer have blood, it feels like your pulse is climbing as the clock over the door nears 00:00.
"Zero hour. Let 'er roar!"
The door opens. The crowd cheers. The game begins.
Welcome to One Must Fall 2097. In this future, national governments are puppets of the multinational corporations. One such corporation, World Aeronautics and Robotics (WAR), runs the entire show with a silk-covered iron fist. "All's fair in love and WAR" is the most common phrase of the day. WAR was started as a research institute to provide human-assisted robots for space travel. Their first prototypes were activated in 2009 and were immediately put to use by a conglomeration of companies from Japanamerica to build the first ACTIVE space station (the first attempt at a space station was abandoned by the later defunct United States of America before becoming operational). The HAR's were better than conventional robots in that they were completely operated by a single human whose brain controlled the robot's systems via remote. The "pilot" actually "became" the robot for all intents and purposes, but no danger to the pilot was possible.
Now, WAR is Earth's leading corporation. Every other company relies on WAR for space travel to Earth's four off-world stations. WAR provides systems for governments and companies alike for security and defense.
WAR is power. And you're a part of it.
Ganymede, the next moon on Jupiter to be colonized, needs a WAR representative to watch over it. The Board at WAR has decided that the applicants for the position, being equally qualified, should fight for it. Now, the ten applicants must choose which HAR will be their weapon and beat the others in a one-on-one competition.
Anyone who has even a remotely important position at WAR is trained in the use of HAR's. Most have spent considerable time "in" a real working model to get the feel of it. But the use of HAR's for sparring is a completely new scheme brought about by the need to know that when one company attacks another the 'bots can handle the stress. The idea of using WAR robots for entertainment is a new one, but The Company believes that it will be good press for the next prototypes from the WAR design rooms. Therefore, the public is invited to view the proceedings.
It will be the greatest one-on-one combat since the Roman Era. Years of training on the 'bots makes you think you can take the other pencil-pushers who show, and you know that your reason for being V.P. of this hunk of rock is much better than any they could have. As the 21st century comes to a close, you prepare to put a big dent in the 22nd!
Overview[]
One Must Fall: 2097 iterates on the original tech demo (One Must Fall) that was inspired by Street Fighter II. In the 2097 game, the combatants are replaced with a variety of human-assisted robots (HARs), the lore is expanded, and you have a greater selection of characters to choose to pilot said robots.
One Must Fall: 2097 differentiates itself from other fighting games with its rather advanced AI development, RPG elements (in tournament mode only), extensive lore, and cyberpunk themes. The game has a single player campaign, a two player mode, and a tournament mode. Controls can be mapped to the keyboard, or on joysticks if being played on a machine made for that time that supports it. The game additionally has a networked mode where players can compete across two connected computers.
Setting[]
The setting takes place in a dystopian cyberpunk future of 2097, where multinational corporations, such as the prolific World Aeronautics and Robotics (WAR), control governments across nearly half of the solar system.
The campaign's story revolves around a televised tournament with two objectives: First, to generate press buzz for new, combat-oriented robots that have been designed in the event that one company should declare war on another. Second, to decide which of ten qualified applicants (the pilots in the campaign mode, most of them being employees of the company), are to become WAR's leading representative in the colonization of Ganymede, a moon orbiting Jupiter.
Through banter between pilots delivered before each match, backstory provided in the manual, and in ending text, each of the characters show an established backstory and an objective accomplished in the tournament of campaign mode. While most of the characters have their own individual goals, a number of them have tangential connections to the subplot surrounding a secretive research project and the deaths of the parents of the Devroe twins.
Tournament mode, in contrast, is about the player's own custom character achieving simple championship titles with the help of a team of engineers and a piloting coach. Presumably, this tournament takes place after the events of the campaign when HAR combat is established as a sport.
Gameplay[]
Three-hour longplay of One Must Fall- 2097
Before Fighting[]
Gameplay largely consists of the player choosing a character avatar and controlling a human assisted robot (HAR) to fight against other HARs operated by various opponents. Each of these characters (except for the ones you can choose when beginning tournament mode) and robots each have unique balances of stats that affect you in a match, for replay value purposes. In tournament mode, you additionally get to name your character and opt in for a tournament.
Fighting[]
When the match begins, combatants utilize their respective robot's unique abilities to land own melee moves as well as additional, special attacks executed with a string of inputs. Players discover these moves when opponents use them or in a strategy guide that breaks down how the gameplay works.
Stats[]
When fighting, your stats affect various aspects of your gameplay, mostly with relation to your speed, or the degree of scale that particular aspects of your combat or abilities reaches. The stats are power, agility, endurance, limb power (arm, leg, blade, etc.), limb speed, armor, and stun resistance. Presumably all of these factors are present in the game modes.
After Fighting[]
At the end of each match, scores are added according to numerous factors including remaining health, perfect matches, destruction bonuses, and more. In the campaign and tournament modes, a reporter for WRDE News begins recapping the match with several photos of the carnage that were taken as the match progressed. In the tournament mode, costs for repairs are summarized by your easily disgruntled coach before returning to your custom character's shopping, selling, trading, and customization options.
Characters[]
Single Player characters[]
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| Crystal | Steffan | Milano | Christian | Shirro | Jean-Paul |
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| Ibrahim | Angel | Cossette | Raven | Major Kreissack | |
Tournament characters[]
Other Characters[]
HARs[]
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| Jaguar | Chronos | Thorn | Pyros | Electra | Katana |
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| Shredder | Flail | Gargoyle | Shadow | Nova | |
Arenas[]
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| Stadium | Danger Room | Power Plant | Fire Pit | The Desert |
Tournaments[]
Cheats and Tips[]
Advanced Options[]
Start at main screen, or gameplay screen. Hold down the 2, 0, 9, and 7 buttons at the same time, release and go to Gameplay screen, there should be a new "Advanced Options" that contains a lot of options that affect gameplay, especially Rehit Mode is of interest.
Note: you can also get this menu by starting the game with "FILE0001.EXE ADVANCED" from DOS (or command prompt)
Once in the Advanced Options,
- Rehit Mode: Off / On (Recommended On)
- Defensive Throws: Off / On (Recommended On)
- Throw Range: 0% - 300% (Recommended default 100%)
- Jump Height: 80% - 130% (Recommended default 100%)
- Hit Pause: 0 - 10 (Recommended 0)
- Vitality: 80% - 400% (Recommended 400%, does not affect Tournament mode)
- Knock Down: None/Punches/Kicks/Both (Recommended None or Both)
- Block Damage - 0% - 35% (Recommended 20%)
Sound Test[]
Start at main screen, or gameplay screen. Hold down the ALT key and S+F at the same time, release the keys and go to "Configuration" screen, there you should now have an option called: "Sound Test 0" You can press left and right keys to cycle between the 300 (0-299) sounds in the game, Just hit Enter or Punch button to listen to the selected number.
Hidden Difficulty 1[]
Start at gameplay screen, select the "CPU:" option, and press the Right Arrow Button until it says "CPU: Champion" which is the highest difficulty rating. Now press the: Right Arrow Button, and press it down ca 10-15 times, until it display: "CPU: Deadly"
This is quite a bit harder than Champion.
Hidden Difficulty 2[]
Start at gameplay screen, select the "CPU:" option, it should now say: "CPU: Deadly" as it did in the previous post. Press and hold down the buttons: O+M+F release the buttons and press the Right Arrow Button again, now it should say: "CPU: Ultimate"
More Scrap Metal[]
This code works from in game, so start a fight, for example a 2 player game, and any time during the fight, you can type in: B+I+G+1 (or B+I+G+2, or B+I+G+9) to have the amount of scrap metal that comes loose from each hit increase, or decrease. The BIG0 disables scarp metal completely, and BIG9 is the most scrap, BIG1 is normal. bigger numbers can be very annoying in length.
To end this, change to BIG1 or exit the game, and start it again.
Scrap Rain[]
This code works from in game, so start a fight, for example a 2 player game, and any time during the fight, you can type in: R+E+I+N
Now all the scrap metal that is blown off a robot, will start to rain down from the top of the screen, this lasts for a few seconds per hit, and will stop raining if nobody hit each other. To end this exit the game, and start it again.
Change colors in one/two player game[]
While on robot selection screen player one can press the 1,2,3 buttons to change colors. Player two can press the 4,5,6 buttons in similar way to change he's colors. The F9 button will reset the colors.
Victory screen replay (Tournament play)[]
After watching the tournament victory screen, press E to replay it, this works as long as you are ranked number 1 in the tournament.
Quick exit[]
Press F10. Pressing F10 immediately after a tournament mode loss causes the loss to be not registered.
Changing abilities in one/two player[]
This allows to change how much Power, Agility and Endurance the pilot will have. You only change the already existing abilities, you do not add more.
Start on any character, and move the selector over every pilot (in no particular order). Then move to any pilot you want, and press and hold down the KICK button. Use arrow keys to change the abilities, right and left change the amount, and up and down change witch ability to change.
Playing Nova in one/two player[]
To play Nova in a one or two player game start on any bot, and move the selector over every bot (in no particular order). Then go to Katana, and press DOWN 11 times (or press 20 to be certain), go to the flail and press Punch or Kick.
You should now see the Nova instead of Flail in the loading hangar, if not press Escape and try again.
Fight Vs Kreissack first[]
You need to have selected Nova to do this. Use the tips for getting Nova in single player from above, then when you stand in the loading hangar with the nova, hit ESCape, you will return to robot selection screen. Now hit Punch or Kick again to go back to hangar and Kreissack will be your first opponent.
Note that you still have to fight the other 9 after you defeat Kreissack.
Recording: OMF.EXE REC (Filename/SAVE_REC)[]
This option allows you to "record" a fight, so you can replay the fight another time. very useful to show off your skills.
Simply start the game from the DOS prompt (or CMD) with the syntax: OMF REC (or FILE0001 REC) This will record the last fight you fight to the file: LAST.REC, so if you play OnePlayer game and fight against Crystal first, then against steffan, the fight against steffan will be recorded.
You can specify a filename like: OMF REC RAPTOR.REC to have the file named RAPTOR.REC automatically. Also by using the SAVE_REC command, you have record all fights you play. eks: OMF REC SAVE_REC will save every fight you play into files like OMF00001.REC, OMF00002.REC and so on.
To replay the .REC files type: OMF PLAY this will automatically replay the LAST.REC. Or you can specify a filename. example: OMF PLAY RAPTOR.REC which will of course replay the RAPTOR.REC fight.
Just press F10 to escape from replay mode, or wait for the fight to end, you can also use ESC button to select QUIT as well as most normal options inside game like speed and sound options.