Line #12 VideoGame/Vanguard


1	[[quoteright:167:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vanguard_5092.png]]
2	Vanguard is an arcade game made in 1981 by {{Creator/SNK}}, long before the company started making {{Fighting Game}}s. The game is known as one of the first scrolling shooters ever made and is additionally notable by being the first ShootEmUp where a player can shoot in four directions. Unlike other comparable games at the time, ''Vanguard'' was unique in that the player must focus on avoiding obstacles while firing in order to survive, which makes this game a precursor to Konami's ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' and Irem's ''VideoGame/RType''. It also has the distinction of being the first color game created by SNK. The game was licensed to Centuri for manufacture in North America in October 1981. Vanguard was followed up by a sequel, Vanguard II, which is similar to the original but with gameplay and graphical improvements.
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4	Vanguard is very similar to ''VideoGame/{{Scramble}}'', in the sense that the player controls a ship with a limited amount of fuel that constantly depletes. The player loses a life once your fuel is gone, but gains more as enemies are destroyed. The player must constantly avoid colliding with the walls, which change in thickness all throughout the stages. The ship can independently fire lasers in any of the four cardinal directions using the four buttons. Vanguard is primarily a horizontal scroller, but in some levels (during the final level and also during the final boss), the ship flies upward, with a few transitional stages where the ship flies ''diagonally''.
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6	By securing the energy pods, a short time of invulnerability can be granted. This effectively turns the ship into a [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming]] weapon, and the enemies change attack patterns to avoid the player; the player could even destroy and burrow through terrain, though it wasn't a good strategy. At the end of each level the player must defeat a boss that is guarded by two moving force fields with holes in them. There are a total of ten zones in the game: Mountain Zone, Rainbow Zone, Styx Zone, Rainbow Zone 2, Stripe Zone, Rainbow Zone 3, Bleak Zone, and the City of Mystery where the player has to face the boss, known as Gond, which was similar to the boss level of ''Videogame/{{Phoenix}}''.
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8	Theme music composed by Jerry Goldsmith for the 1979 sci-fi film ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', later utilized for ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', is borrowed as Vanguard's introductory theme. Vultan's theme from the 1980 movie ''Film/{{Flash Gordon\|1980}}'' is used as the sound effect when a power-up is attained.
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10	''Vanguard'' was also one of the earliest arcade games to feature a voice synth chip. For example, when a power up was about to end, the game warned, "Be careful!" The voice also announced each new stage.
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12	The game was ported to the Platform/{{Atari 2600}} and Platform/{{Atari 5200}}. A Platform/ColecoVision homebrew port was released in 2019.
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14	!!''Vanguard'' has examples of :
15	* BossBattle: Sort of. It only takes one shot to destroy Gond, but you get more points the longer you can hold off taking that shot. If Gond destroys you first, you get zero points and move onto the next level anyway.
16	* DirectContinuousLevels: Each zone led right into the next in the arcade and Atari 5200 versions. The Atari 2600 version instead showed the map between each zone.
17	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Including, as usual for a game of this type, [[DeadlyWalls the walls]]. However, you can try to park your ship within the center of a Kemlus snake three times for bonus points.
18	* InvincibilityPowerup: It also refills your fuel. It only shows up in the Mountain Zone and the Stripe Zone (and only once or twice in the latter), however.
19	* OneHitPointWonder: Your ship ''and'' all of the enemies are destroyed in a single hit. This includes Gond, the boss of each level.
20	* PragmaticAdaptation: The game's controls were modified to use the Atari 2600's single button joystick controller, with four different options for how you want to control your firing.
21	* SpellMyNameWithAThe: The arcade manual calls the boss "Gond", but the Atari version calls it "The Gond".
22	* SyntheticVoiceActor: As mentioned above one of the first games to come equipped with a voice synthesis chip.

Context VideoGame / Vanguard