A 1981 shoot ’em up from SNK, featuring four-directional shooting, horizontal, vertical and diagonal scrolling, synthesised speech and some gratuitously stolen music. And some of the strangest promotional art you’ll ever see.

Developer: Tose
Publisher: SNK
Available on: Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200
Original release date: 1981

Articles about Vanguard

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 25 – WTF Space Tarantulas - Pete and Chris discuss the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, along with the usual news and "what we've been playing" talk.

SNK Essentials: Vanguard - As you may have noticed already, early-days pre-Neo Geo SNK is a real treasure trove of classic shoot ’em ups. And few come more classic than Vanguard. First released in 1981, Vanguard was another game of “firsts” for the fledgling SNK. It was not, as some sources claim, SNK’s first colour game — Sasuke vs. Commander predates it by … Continue reading SNK Essentials: Vanguard →

SNK 40th Anniversary Collection: (Almost) Perfect Preservation - As the years advance and old gaming hardware and media gets more expensive, harder to find and even more difficult to maintain, the matter of gaming preservation is of increasing importance. I’ve previously talked about how emulation and ROM archives have an important role to play in all this — in spite of interference from … Continue reading SNK 40th Anniversary Collection: (Almost) Perfect Preservation →

Atari A to Z: Vanguard - This one was a new one on me until quite recently. I present to you Vanguard, an unusual shoot ’em up originally released by SNK in the arcades. Vanguard is unusual because it’s not just being one thing, unlike a lot of shoot ’em ups at the time. Instead, it shifts between horizontal, vertical and diagonal … Continue reading Atari A to Z: Vanguard →

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