Vanguard

Vanguard is a 1981 scrolling shooter video game developed by Tose and published by SNK. It was released in Japan and Europe in July 1981, and licensed to Centuri for manufacture in North America in October and to Zaccaria in Italy that same year. Cinematronics converted the game to cocktail arcade cabinets in North America. It is the second game to be developed by Tose, who was not credited for being outsourced under SNK, after Sasuke vs. Commander.

Vanguard is one of the first shooters with forced scrolling, following Scramble and Super Cobra from earlier in 1981 and released the same month as Cosmic Avenger. Like Sega's Space Odyssey, also from 1981, there are both horizontally and vertically scrolling sections; Vanguard adds portions with diagonal scrolling. The player flies a ship through tunnels to reach a boss at the end. The ship is controlled with an 8-way joystick. Four buttons in a diamond arrangement allow shooting in four directions independent of the ship's movement.

Atari, Inc. released a port for their Atari 2600 console in 1982 and the Atari 5200 in 1983. Vanguard II, an arcade sequel with top-down, multidirectional scrolling, and gameplay similar to Time Pilot '84, remained obscure.