Vanguard

Vanguard brings to the Atari 5200 the SNK arcade hit that in 1981 was among the first shooters with smoothly scrolling environments in four directions. The player pilots a fighter craft that flies progressively through desert, forest, cavern, and mountain regions toward a final confrontation with the enemy base Gond, with each region offering a different layout of enemies and obstacles, such as rocky cliffs or narrow tunnels the player must fly through without hesitation.

A special feature of Vanguard was the ability to fire in four directions at once – the player could shoot forward, backward, and to the sides, which was exceptional at a time of predominantly single-direction shooters and demanded a new way of thinking about defense from players, since enemies could attack from every side simultaneously. The Atari 5200 port, developed directly by Atari, tried to preserve the smooth scrolling and colorful variety of each section, though the television screen's lower resolution required minor compromises in background detail and the density of enemies on screen. Transitions between the individual regions were also accompanied by distinct color palettes, letting the player easily track how far they had flown toward the Gond base.

Thanks to the console's analog joystick, the game also offered finer control of flight direction than classic digital controllers, distinguishing the Atari 5200 version from ports on other home systems and bringing it closer to the precision of the arcade original. The gradual progression through four distinct environments also gave the game an unusually strong sense of journey and escalation for its time, motivating players to see it through to the final confrontation with the Gond base.

Why play it: Vanguard brings pioneering multi-directional shooting and smooth scrolling to the Atari 5200, features that pushed the genre forward at the time of its creation.