High Score Club Week 10: Vanguard

[Ze_ro]

Important note: This weeks competition is over. If you still wish to discuss Vanguard, then feel free to do so, but no further scores will be accepted. Thanks to everyone for all their contributions! Please join in on the latest High Score Club competition!

 

Gond, the City of Mystery was always believed to be a myth... but it's time to board your ship and travel through the dangerous tunnels of Aterria in search of it, because this week's game in Vanguard!

 

Game Information
Left Difficulty	Your Choice!
Right Difficulty	Your Choice!
Game Mode	Game 1: 1 Player
Chosen By	HermChase

 

Note that the difficulty switches in this game don't really affect the difficulty of the game, but rather let you customize the way your ship fires. Since this is a matter of preference, you get to choose your own settings this week.

 

Difficulty Switch Settings
A	A	Press the red controller button and move the Joystick in the direction you want to fire. Release the button to stop firing.
A	B	Same as method 1 except that you do not have to move the Joystick forward to fire forward. The forward laser gun fires automatically when the red button is pressed.
B	A	Move the Joystick in the direction you want to fire. Press the red button to stop firing.
B	B	Same as method 3 except that the forward gun fires automatically.

 

Post your scores right here in this thread, and I will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone elses. The deadline for posting scores will be approximately Sunday, June 14th at midnight (CST). In case you haven't already done so, please read the High Score Club rules. There is other useful information contained in that previous link, including a list of previous High Score Club games!

 

If you don't have a copy of this game, you can find a copy of the ROM at AtariAge's Profile Page for this game. You can find such things as a typed copy of the manual, reviews, screenshots, and other information there.

 

If you are not a member of the High Score Club, but would like to be, then all you have to do is post a reply saying so, and I'll add you to the list!

 

Next week's game will be chosen by Goochman Please send me a Private Message letting me know which game (and difficulty settings) you've chosen as soon as possible Goochman! (Already done!)

 

High Scores:

• 
  [*]386,230 (Jeffy Arensmeyer)

[+10]
[*]342,590 (the 5th ghost) [+8]
[*]292,870 (Stingray) [+7]
[*]243,890 (crsdawg) [+6]
[*]227,050 (Chris++) [+5]
[*]223,470 (NintendoDieScreaming) [+4]
[*]210,930 (Tsukasa) [+3]
[*]186,100 (Ze_ro) [+2]
[*]161,000 (Robert M) [+1]
[*]154,710 (khryssun)
[*]106,770 (jedijeff)
[*]104,230 (Tsukasa)
[*]102,050 (karnov)
[*]98,870 (Shannon)
[*]83,000 (Saldo)
[*]76,270 (InanimateCarbonRod)
[*]74,690 (homerwannabee)
[*]55,870 (gospeedde)
[*]53,940 (Numan)
[*]47,750 (Goochman)
[*]46,540 (davepesc)
[*]41,270 (bjk7382)
[*]31,270 (sku_u)
[*]26,680 (Keir)
[*]15,840 (The 8th Passenger)
[*]11,390 (Dan Iacovelli)
[*]4420 (Gamemaster_ca_2003)Twin Galaxies Top 3:

• 858,560 (Todd Rogers)
  [*]449,270 (Ron Corcoran)
  [*]239,800 (Todd Smith)
  

Best Tips:

Score Statistics

• Average Score: 159,461
  [*]Std. Deviation: 38,115
  [*]Total Score: 4,305,450

 

Current Standings

Member List Goochman, NE146, Cootster, 128bytes, Kurushimi, liquid_sky, intvgene, ScottHuggins, InanimateCarbonRod, pmpddytim, Xot, Scooterb23, Dan Iacovelli, LarcenTyler, sku_u, Luigi301, Max-T, adams_ale, gamerz, Christophero Sly, Trooper, Nateo, homerwannabee, lost child, Happy_Dude, video game addict, Spirantho, bobafett07728, mikefrevino, Paul Slocum, fsuinnc, Gamemaster_ca_2003, Robert M, DeV0, Gateway, Mendon, Fretwobbler, PaulEMoz, killersquirel, shining slade, chadtower, gospeedde, stayrunner, Big Player, Swingtown, Chris++, hotpants, hobbles, Ze_ro, maibock, moycon, somePUNK, Saldo, Stingray, Kepone, xmetalhedx, chrisbid, Kialan, Jeffy Arensmeyer, Keir, ToddRogers, Numan, iguana, LU8, jeepnut24, Albert, Tsukasa, Adrian M, dykesr, EricDeLee, Thomas Jentzsch, The 8th Passenger, the 5th ghost, Bunsen, atari_wizard, jedijeff, davepesc, maximebeauvais, buzzguy, bjk7382, khryssun, HermChase, wiz21mx, karnov   Scoring Points in Vanguard - Yes, after 999,990 (?)   Hints and Tips As always, you really should read the manual. What's that? You don't have the manual? Well no problem, because AtariAge has a typed copy of the manual available online right over here. What's that? You're too damn lazy to click that link? Well, here's what it has to say: FIRING SLOWS YOU DOWN. Your spaceship moves twice as fast when you aren't firing. Hold your fire when you're passing barriers or diving for energy pods. [*]MISTS AND HARLEYS. Keep the spaceship moving up and down to avoid missiles and lay down a barrage of lasers vertically, against the enemy's line of flight. A Mist can only fire once, so you can dodge its missile and then go for it. [*]HELMS AND AMMOS. Try to hit these with your starboard and port lasers before they cross your path. Avoid getting caught between two balloons, since it is hard to fire without moving into them. [*]KEMLUS AND ROMEDAS. Fire horizontally across their line of flight. [*]STRIPPED ZONE. Don't try to shoot everything you pass; think mainly of surviving. Fire at barriers and Garimes through crevices in the rocks, but take care not to crash into the rocks. Don't fire at Paynes. You can't destroy them, and firing slows you down when you need a burst of speed to pass safely. [*]CITY OF MYSTERY. If you want to earn lots of points, hold your fire until the last minute. The trick of course, is to dodge the missiles. Gond aims directly at you, so keep moving. As soon as you enter the city, move up to avoid the first missile. When it passes, move down. Keep changing your position until you run out of room, then fire.   Good luck everyone!   --Zero (the manual) You can fly either to the left or right while playing in the Stripe Zone. Stay on the right side until the Energy Pod appears, then follow the left side. (AtariAge) One tip that seems to work well for the horizontal scrolling levels is to try and stay between the enemies so that you don't get shot, and then use your side lasers to blast them as they go past you. On the vertical scrolling levels with the giant balls, try to stay between them too, and use your side lasers again to blast balls that head straight for you. (Ze_ro) It's easiest if you leave the left difficulty switch on B, so the ship's always firing. Then you barely have to move at all; just tap the controller to the side (or up or down, depending on the wave) as aliens fly past you. Dodging baddies in your path is simply a matter of holding down the fire button (which stops your guns and makes your ship move faster) and moving an inch or two to safety before resuming the normal "sit and shoot" strategem. Subtle movements and preventing overcompensation while dodging are the keys to making it through a wave without dying. The exception is the Striped Zone, which requires a lot of navigation and calls for a definite pattern (even when its layout changes on every other trip). Once you get the pattern down, which primarily involves firing through the rocks on the right to shut off the barrier, don't deviate from it, and you'll soon find yourself getting all the way through without losing a single life. (Chris++) Never pass up one of those energy things. There's no reason to avoid something that renders you completely invulnerable for a few seconds. Remember that in most any game, the main cause of a high score is a longer playing time. (Chris++) In the final zone, you can "dock with" (run into) three of those snake things for points before they all turn deadly on contact. But you can also dock with a snake you've just shot, before its explosion disappears. So for higher points in this wave, shoot a snake and then dock with its debris. Remember that you can only do this three times before you can't touch them anymore. (Chris++) Stop your guns before the Gond scene starts, or you'll shoot him right away, without even touching the joystick (assuming that you've left the difficulty setting on B). Move up and down to dodge the Gond's bullets until you're almost out of room (the top barrier is not deadly; only the bottom barrier and the Gond's "nose" will kill you up there), and then shoot him. You'll get a lot more points than just offing him right away. (Chris++) On the "striped zone", the left and right sides will be the same for each iteration, so if you find one side easier, then stick with that one and forget about the other side. The left side is easier, but the right side will net you more points. (Ze_ro) If you're feeling brave, you might want to pass up the invulnerability... you'll be able to shoot down ships easier with your guns than by running into them while invulnerable, so as long as you can avoid getting killed, you'll likely get more points if you don't get the invulnerability! (Ze_ro) For the horizontal scrolling levels, you're better off staying near the far left of the screen. This gives you more time to react to missiles that are fired at you. Enemies on these waves only move to the left, so you never have to worry about getting hit from behind or anything like that. Resist the urge to move forward to shoot a stalled enemy, even if he's the last one left... once he's gone there may be another wave of enemies that'll show up immediately after he dies, and you'll be in a bad position to deal with them. (Ze_ro) There are only two "worlds" in this game (I'm referring to the map they show you after you beat Gond), and they keep repeating the same levels in the same order... it might help to keep in mind which level you'll be going into so that you can prepare yourself for where the enemies will be coming from. (Ze_ro) For the Kremlus wave (the snakes that you can dock with), you might want to only dock with them twice, and then start shooting them. This leaves you a small margin of error in case you hit one by accident later on. However, docking with them is worth a good chunk of points, so try to make sure you get in that 3rd docking before the Romeda's come after you! (Ze_ro) When the Romeda's attack, park your ship at the very bottom of the screen. Starting the second time they attack, they'll fire lasers at you from their sides which are incredibly hard to dodge. If you're at the bottom of the screen, there's a good chance they'll have already fired before they get to you, so you'll (hopefully) be in the clear (Ze_ro) Your ship moves pretty slow in Vanguard, even when you're not firing, so an important strategy is to know when you can and can't get to certain places in time. For example, when you're invincible, things are often going fast enough that you can't catch up to them in time, so if you go after an enemy anyways, and you miss him, you'll have wasted some invulnerability time. Instead, only try to ram enemies that you're confident you can hit. (Ze_ro) Not really a useful tip, but if you wait a REALLY long time before shooting Gond, the bottom barrier will actually disappear entirely! However, you'll only get 1000 points for shooting him after this happens (instead of the 8000 points you could have gotten if you'd have shot him before the barrier disappeared). If you wait long enough, the barrier might reappear from the bottom, but I haven't tested this. (Ze_ro) Another useless-yet-interesting trick: The theme song will stay on the first note for as long as you're touching the E block... so if you stay near the very right of the screen while it's scrolling, and then sit on the E when it shows up and follow it as it scrolls across the screen, the first note of the song will be played extremely long. This doesn't seem to have any real use, aside from keeping you invulnerable for slightly longer (Although for all the extra time, you'll be in a position where you can't hit anything anyways, so it's prety much useless). (Ze_ro) [*]Todd Rogers [72] [*]sku_u [65] [*]jedijeff [54] [*]Jeffy Arensmeyer [47] [*]Stingray [33] [*]Ze_ro [33] [*]Saldo [27] [*]bobafett07728 [27] [*]stayrunner [24] [*]bjk7382 [23] [*]Chris++ [21] [*]taxman [19] [*]Shannon [17] [*]The 8th Passenger [17] [*]HermChase [13] [*]homerwannabee [12] [*]NovaXpress [12] [*]Christophero Sly [12] [*]Numan [11] [*]Thomas Jentzsch [9] [*]crsdawg [8] [*]NintendoDieScreaming [7] [*]dykesr [7] [*]Keir [7] [*]mikeftrevino [7] [*]Kurushimi [6] [*]Tsukasa [6] [*]Paul Slocum [6] [*]Goochman [5] [*]StanJr [5] [*]DeV0 [4] [*]maibock [2] [*]chrisbid [1] [*]InanimateCarbonRod [0] [*]shining slade [0] [*]Robert M [0] [*]LarcenTyler [0] [*]gospeedde [0] [*]Saikyo [0] [*]Scooterb23 [0] [*]moycon [0] [*]gamerz [0] [*]128bytes [0] [*]video game addict [0] [*]LU8 [0] [*]fsuinnc [0] [*]iguana [0] [*]Dan Iacovelli [0] [*]Albert [0] [*]pmpddytim [0] [*]pitfallaimee [0] [*]Happy_Dude [0] [*]Gamemaster_ca_2003 [0] [*]Kialan [0] [*]xmetalhedx [0] [*]Adrian M [0] [*]intvgene [0] [*]ScottHuggins [0] [*]jeepnut24 [0] [*]davepesc [0] [*]figgler [0] [*]Old_Atarian [0] [*]hobbles [0] [*]johnnywc [0] [*]PaulEMoz [0] [*]atari_wizard [0] [*]lost child [0] [*]Nateo [0] [*]NE146 [0] [*]Bunsen [0] [*]chadtower [0] [*]Big Player [0]

Standings are current as of the beginning of this week, and do NOT include points from this week's game. If you think there has been a mistake in any of the scoring, please contact me.

[Shannon]

Hmmm. Can't remember if I like the 2600 version.

 

Guess I'll have to check it out.

[sku_u]

331,270 I hate this game, so this will likely be my only entry as a score. I'm sure plenty of people will demolish it.

[Shannon]

Well I can see this game is gonna be torture for me.

[Goochman]

25590

 

Wasnt paying attention

[khryssun]

74190 for this first session

[Tsukasa]

54,120

[Brad2600]

I hate this game.

 

Still waiting for something that I'm familiar with to be picked as game of the week. Until then, no scores from me.

[Stingray]

227,220

 

-S

[Goochman]

47750 - Cant seem to get this one

[NintendoDieScreaming]

I love this game.

 

223,470

[InanimateCarbonRod]

53,390

 

Short-Term disability here I come - woohoo! Carpal Tunnel! Mmmmm....time off work

 

 

Jerry

[sku_u]

331,270  I hate this game, so this will likely be my only entry as a score.  I'm sure plenty of people will demolish it.

 

Oops, I messed this post up. My score was 31,270. Sorry about that.

[karnov]

Vanguard 77,620

[Keir]

14,880

 

Yay, I'm last!

[karnov]

Vanguard Score: 102050

Killed by a Barrier!

[Ze_ro]

Only played it twice so far... but I'm up to 39,480. One tip that seems to work well for the vertical scrolling levels is to try and stay between the enemies so that you don't get shot, and then use your side lasers to blast them as they go past you. On the horizontal scrolling levels with the giant balls, try to stay between them too, and use your side lasers again to blast balls that head straight for you.

 

--Zero

[jedijeff]

Another one I'll have to play on the emulator.

 

Jeff

[Saldo]

OK here is my first results after an hour or so playing.

 

46,540

 

- Sal

[gospeedde]

39,230 I'm starting to figure it out.

[Chris++]

227,050

 

I know I can do better than this. I've had this damn game since it came out. Will report back.

[Dan Iacovelli]

I'm having a hard time playing this game (espiaclly on the emulator)

I'm using setting b/b what is evrybody else using.

Also I'm using the keys and not conrtoller.(I'll try with controller see if I'm better)

[Chris++]

It's easiest if you leave the left difficulty switch on B, so the ship's always firing. Then you barely have to move at all; just tap the controller to the side (or up or down, depending on the wave) as aliens fly past you.

 

Dodging baddies in your path is simply a matter of holding down the fire button (which stops your guns and makes your ship move faster) and moving an inch or two to safety before resuming the normal "sit and shoot" strategem. Subtle movements and preventing overcompensation while dodging are the keys to making it through a wave without dying.

 

The exception is the Striped Zone, which requires a lot of navigation and calls for a definite pattern (even when its layout changes on every other trip). Once you get the pattern down, which primarily involves firing through the rocks on the right to shut off the barrier, don't deviate from it, and you'll soon find yourself getting all the way through without losing a single life.

 

Never pass up one of those energy things. There's no reason to avoid something that renders you completely invulnerable for a few seconds. Remember that in most any game, the main cause of a high score is a longer playing time.

 

In the final zone, you can "dock with" (run into) three of those snake things for points before they all turn deadly on contact. But you can also dock with a snake you've just shot, before its explosion disappears. So for higher points in this wave, shoot a snake and then dock with its debris. Remember that you can only do this three times before you can't touch them anymore.

 

Stop your guns before the Gond scene starts, or you'll shoot him right away, without even touching the joystick (assuming that you've left the difficulty setting on B). Move up and down to dodge the Gond's bullets until you're almost out of room (the top barrier is not deadly; only the bottom barrier and the Gond's "nose" will kill you up there), and then shoot him. You'll get a lot more points than just offing him right away.

 

Hope this helps!

[Stingray]

I've had this damn game since it came out.

 

Same here. This is one of those games that I clearly remember buying as soon as it hit the shelves - blew my whole allowance on it! I'm even still playing with my original cart.

 

292,870

 

-S

[Ze_ro]

Ah, much better: 88,550.

 

Since Atari gave the enemies stupid names, I think I might use some screen captures to add graphics to the scoring summary.

 

Oh, and I find firing scheme A-B to be the best. In fact, there's really no advantage to having the right difficulty set to A, since you don't get the advantage of always firing forward (thus firing two shots at once in most cases).

 

--Zero