Atari 2600 Vangard 1982 Atari

Channel:

djgyixx

Subscribers:

4,730

Published on November 29, 2012 5:42:48 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WutodHfer-Y

Duration: 0:36

386 views

3

PlotThe Gond has been terrorizing nearby space colonies with its periodic raids of destruction. The time has come to put an end to his reign of terror. The player has been selected to pilot an advanced fighter ship with high offensive capabilities, and must enter the cave inside the asteroid where the Gond makes his home, and safely fly through every zone; the Mountain Zone, Rainbow Zone, Styx Zone, Stripe Zone, Bleak Zone, and the City of Mystery (aka Last Zone) where the Gond is rumored to reside. The player must take the Gond out, and succeed in the mission. If unsuccessful, the colonies will be doomed.

GameplayVanguard is very similar to Scramble, in the sense that the player controls a ship urged along a surrounding conduit with a constantly varying profile, and with a limited amount of fuel that constantly depletes. Some zones start off primarily as a horizontal scroller, but in some zones, the ship flies vertically. Also, at the end of each zone the player must defeat a boss that is guarded by two moving force fields with holes in them while scrolling vertically. 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/Last Zone. The second tunnel consists of in order Mountain Zone, Stripe Zone, Styx Zone, Rainbow Zone, Bleak Zone, and the City of Mystery/Last Zone. The player loses a life if fuel runs completely out, but gains more as enemies are destroyed. The ship can independently fire lasers in any of the four cardinal directions using the four buttons. By securing the energy pods, a short time of invulnerability can be granted. This turns the ship effectively into a weapon, and the enemies change attack patterns to avoid the player. The player must constantly avoid colliding with the walls, which change in thickness and visual appearance all throughout the stages. The walls can be used defensively to avoid oncoming enemy fire. Pushing the joystick opposite the direction of scrolling allows the player to temporarily "park" the ship with respect to the direction of scrolling. This maneuver may be performed while the ship is protected by a wall, allowing enemy ships and their fusillade to pass without harm.

Ports and related releasesVanguard was ported by Atari, Inc. to the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 home consoles.

Vanguard uses a number of custom sound chips to produce digitized voices and custom synthesizer sounds. The speech is used to announce the name of the current zone or the next zone that is about to be entered. Theme music composed by Jerry Goldsmith for the 1979 sci-fi film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, later utilized for Star Trek: The Next Generation, is borrowed as Vanguard's introductory theme. Vultan's theme (composed by Queen's Freddie Mercury) from the 1980 movie Flash Gordon is used as the sound effect when a power-up is attained. A Vanguard unit appeared in the 1982 movie Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again.