VIDEO GAME CARTRIDGE FOR THE ATARI 5200 SUPERSYSTEM ATARI(R) 5200(TM) THRILLING SPACE ODYSSEY VANGUARD* *Trademark licensed by Centuri, Inc. Insert your 5200(TM) game cartridge so the label faces you and reads right-side-up. Be sure the cartridge is firmly seated in the center of the console, but do not force it. Then press the POWER switch on. See your owner's manual for further details. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Fed up with Routine Space Flight? 1 2. Game Play 1 3. Using the 5200(TM) Controllers 6 4. Scoring 7 5. Strategy 8 VANGUARD WANTS YOU! 1. FED UP WITH ROUTINE SPACE FLIGHT? Looking for new frontiers to conquer? Then Vanguard is looking for YOU! We seek courageous space pilots for exploration of Planet Aterria. Come fly through the tunnels of Aterria in the Vanguard ship of tomorrow. Be the first to enter the fabulous City of Mystery and face the great Gond. High risk pay, five lives, bonuses! Don't wait! Sign up for high adventure today! 2. GAME PLAY So you enlisted for adventure, did you? Well, you've come to the right place. Your mission is to reach the City of Mystery at the end of the tunnel and destroy the great Gond with your four-directional laser guns. Sound easy? Wat and see. First you have to make it through the seven tunnel zones without getting smashed on the tunnel walls, crunched by enemy objects, or zapped by missiles. The more enemy objects you destroy, the more points you earn, but the rougher it gets. If you make it to the City of Mystery and destroy Gond, you earn bonus points. Then you head into the next tunnel, which also leads to the City of Mystery and Gond. Then what? Well, to quote an old Aterrian saying, "Life is just one tunnel after another." Now before you climb into your spaceship and enter the first tunnel, take a look at the options. OPTIONS One or two players. VANGUARD is set for a one-player game. Press the # key on the 5200 keypad to select a two-player game. Single or Repeat Fire. VANGUARD is set for Single Fire. To select Repeat Fire, press the * key on your keypad. * Single Fire. Press the red fire button (any red button) each time you want to fire. * Repeat Fire. Hold in the red fire button and fire continuously. Tunnel. In order of difficulty, the tunnels are NOVICE, FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD. In the NOVICE tunnel the pace is slower, you never run out of fuel, your enemies don't shoot, and there are no barriers to trap you in the Stripe Zone. VANGUARD is set for the FIRST tunnel. Press the 7 key to change tunnels. Zone. You can start the game in any zone except the City of Mystery. VANGUARD is set for the first (Mountain) zone. Press the 9 key to change zones. When you have selected your options, press the START button and enter the tunnel. LIVES Your spaceship has five lives and earns a bonus life at 10,000 and 50,000 points. The number of lives remaining is shown at the top left of the screen, along with the scores and fuel gauge (Figure 1). FUEL GAUGE Keep an eye on your fuel gauge as you fly thorugh the tunnels. You use one notch of fuel every second but gain a notch each time you zap an enemy object. It takes about 40 seconds to empty the fuel tanks. Don't run out of fuel or you'll crash. You get a new supply of fuel with each new life. NOTE: You never run out of fuel in the Novice Tunnel. TUNNEL MAP Use your tunnel map (Figure 1) to see where you are in the tunnel and where you're heading. The blinking dot marks the location of your spaceship. [Screen shot] Figure 1 - Game Elements LASER GUNS Now try out the laser guns mounted forward, aft, and on either side of your spaceship (Figure 2). To fire the aft, starboard, or port guns, move your joystick in the direction you want to fire and press any one of the red fire buttons on your 5200 controller. The forward gun fires automatically when you press the fire button. IMPORTANT! Your spaceship moves faster when you are not firing. [Diagram showing PORT, AFT, FORWARD, STARBOARD] Figure 2 - Laser Guns TUNNEL TOUR Ready for a short tour of the tunnel? Then man your spaceship controls, keep your finger on the fire button, and take off! Mountain Zone (Figure 1). This zone's no picnic! First Mist copters try to impact on your spaceship, the Harley rockets fire missiles at you. You can destroy Mists and Harleys with your lasers but you have to dodge missiles, except when you spaceship is operating on energy pod power. Energy Pods. When you fly thorugh a pod marked E, your spaceship becomes indestructible. You can't fire lasers, but you can crash into enemy objects and score points fast. Pod power lasts only as long as the VANGUARD theme music plays. When the music ends, a siren warns you to stop crashing and start firing. Rainbow Zone. From the Mountain Zone you fly up into a Rainbow Zone sparkling with crystals. The scenery's fantastic, but you'll probably be too busy shooting Helm balloons to admire it. [Graphic showing Energy Pod, Mist, Helm, and Harley] Styx Zone. Styx and stones can break your bones, so steer a tight course through here. It won't be easy with Harleys and Mists shooting missiles at you in the narrow passageways. [Graphic showing Base, Garime, Floating Payne and Barrier] Rainbow Zone 2. Are you still with us? Then down you go into another Rainbow Zone. Watch it! Ammo balloons are attacking in force. Stay on top of them, and fire in all directions. Whew! What next? Stripe Zone. Better decide fast which route to follow in this zone. Garime monsters jump out and stomp on your spaceship on the upper route. Barriers bar your way on the lower route. You can pass barriers if you shoot them at the top or bottom; shooting them in the middle gets you nowhere. Both routes lead past enemy bases and Floating Paynes. Lasers destroy bases but not Paynes. Sneak past Paynes while thier arms are retracting. Take heart! Energy pods grow along the lower route...if you can only reach them in time. NOTE: Barriers and Floating Paynes do not operate in the Novice Tunnel. Rainbow Zone 3. Yes, another Rainbow Zone. Finish off the Helm balloons, then head into the Bleak Zone. Bleak Zone. Flying Kemlus snakes and spear-shaped Romeda ships call this zone home. Touch a Kemlus and he'll carry you through the tunnel to the tune of 1090 bonus points. But beware! You only get three rides. After the third ride, you have to shoot to kill. HINT! Kemlus snakes revive if you touch the debris. So you can shoot a Kemlus and then ride it to score bonus points on top of points. Just be careful not to touch the debris after the third ride. A rain of Romeda ships follows the Kemlus snakes. Shoot all the Romedas you can, but be careful not to run into the debris; it's deadly. Watch out for Romedas in even-numbered tunnels. Some of them return your fire. [Graphic shows Riding a Kemlus and Romeda] CITY OF MYSTERY You can see that it isn't going to be easy to destroy Gond. He's well protected by the two barriers moving in opposite directions in front of him (Figure 3). Your lasers can hit him only when (and if) the barriers move in sync and leave an opening you can fire through. Keep on firing while you wait for a break. Meanwhile, dodge misiles aaimed at the spaceship's starboard (right) side and watch out for the lower barriers...they're creeping up on you. Keep cool and don't panic. The more time it takes you to hit Gond, the more bonus points you earn. [Graphic shows City of Mystery] Figure 3 - City of Mystery NOTE: Gond doesn't fire at you in the Novice Tunnel. CONTINUE FEATURE When you lose your last life, you can continue your mission from wherever you are in the tunnel; you do not have to return to the beginning. To continue through the tunnel, press the 0 key on your keypad or your red fire button when GAME OVER appears on your screen. The lives counter will reset to 5 and the score counter to 0. If you're holding the fire button when you lose your last life, there will be no interruption in the game. The lives and score counters will reset but GAME OVER will not appear. TWO-PILOT MISSIONS If there are two of you, the pilot using the left controller has the first command. When he loses a life, the second pilot takes over. Pilots alternate turns until one pilot loses his last life. The surviving pilot continues until he too loses his last life; then the game ends. Use the left controller to start a new game or continue through the tunnel. [Graphic shows joystick directions] Figure 4 - Joystick Moves 3. USING THE 5200(TM) CONTROLLERS For solo missions, plug one 5200 controller into jack 1 at the front of the console unit. For two-pilot missions, plug another controller into jack 2. CONTROL KEYS Press START to begin a game, PAUSE to freeze and unfreeze action, and RESET to bring up the options display. To interrupt a game and begin again, press PAUSE and the START. To interrupt a game and change options, press PAUSE and then RESET. KEYPAD * # selects ONE or TWO PLAYER option. * * selects SINGLE or REPEAT FIRE option. * 7 selects TUNNEL option. * 9 selects ZONE option. * 0 selects Continue feature. JOYSTICK Use the joystick on your controller to steer your spaceship and direct laser fire (see LASER GUNS, Section 2). The joystick moves the spaceship left, right, up, and down on the television screen (Figure 4). To move faster, push the joystick as far as it will go in the direction you want to travel. RED FIRE BUTTONS Press any of the red buttons to fire your laser guns. 4. SCORING ENEMY OBJECT Mist ship 70 points Harley rocket 50 points Helm balloon 80 points Ammo balloon 100 points Base 100-400 points Garime monsters 100-400 points Barrier 800 points Floating Payne Can't be destroyed; no points Kemlus snake 100-400 points Romeda ship 100 points BONUSES Bonus Lives At 10,000 and 50,000 points Riding a Kemlus (three times only) 1090 points each time Destroying Gond 1000 - 8000 points NOTE: The longer you wait to destroy Gond, the more points you earn. 5. STRATEGY FIRING SLOWS YOU DOWN. Hold your fire whenever you need a burst of speed to pass Paynes, dodge missiles, or dive for energy pods. MISTS AND HARLEYS. Keep the spaceship moving up and down to avoid missiles, and fire vertically against the enemy's line of flight. RAINBOW ZONES. Before entering a Rainbow zone, advance your spaceship to the middle of the screen. This will prevent you from crashing into the tunnel walls as you enter. To avoid getting zapped from above or below, fire your starboard and port guns alternately. STRIPE ZONE. Go for the energy pod first; then crash into as many high-scoring targets as you can while pod power lasts. When firing, fire on approach. Don't fire at Paynes. You can't destroy them, and firing slows you down. CITY OF MYSTERY. To stay alive in the City of Myster and earn lots of bonus points, you have to dodge missiles. Wait for the first missile to appear, then quickly move to avoid it. Keep changing your position while firing at Gond. If you're lucky, you'll hit Gond before he hits you. ATARI ATARI SERVICE FACTORY AUTHORIZED NETWORK Call toll-free (800) 672-1404 (in California) (800) 538-8543 (Continental U.S.) Atari welcomes your comments. Please address all correspondence to: ATARI, INC. Customer Relations 1312 Crossman Avenue Sunnyvalue, CA 94086 ATARI(R) A Warner Communications Company ATARI, INC. Consumer Division, 1312 Crossman Ave., P. O. Box 61657, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 C018281-16 REV. A MODEL 5216 PRINTED IN U.S.A. (C) 1983 ATARI, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED