Keatah

Yeah, of the two, Time Pilot '84 is definitely the better-polished of the pair.  I get what they were going for in Vanguard II with the strict 8-way firing being a mechanic that mimicked the original's 4-way shooting, but it doesn't work quite as well.

I think it was just laziness in programming. Not bothering to make a routine that smoothly changes direction.

My solution for smooth turns with a digital 8-way controller was to make an invisible object that appears in one of the 8 directions as the player moves the controller. Then the player object rotates toward the invisible object; adjust the rotation speed to taste. I don't know if that's standard but I was proud to come up with something that works!