Vanguard & The Show Must Go On releasing tonight on IntellivisionCollector.com

[gunoz]

1 hour ago, Sinjinhawke said:

Yes.  And the seal has been broken because games should be played.  

Completely agreed, but given how crazy my schedule is, they'll probably make a pit stop under the 🎄 first.

[Eisengrim]

I got my Vanguard yesterday. Overall, this is a very good arcade port. Great music, great graphics, and very smooth scrolling. It even has some destructible landscape when you're invincible! Auto-fire is a nice touch. The only problem I've seen is sometimes it switches into auto-fire when using the fire buttons instead of the keypad.

[Kamikazi26]

27 minutes ago, Eisengrim said:

I got my Vanguard yesterday. Overall, this is a very good arcade port. Great music, great graphics, and very smooth scrolling. It even has some destructible landscape when you're invincible! Auto-fire is a nice touch. The only problem I've seen is sometimes it switches into auto-fire when using the fire buttons instead of the keypad.

I have never experienced this while I was testing it my testers. Could it be that your controller is starting to act up and selecting button pushes on its own when other buttons are pushed (matrix failing)?

 

I’d appreciate it if others that bought this game could chime up if they experienced the same issue. 
 

thanks. 
 

I’ll let the programmer know. 

[Eisengrim]

11 minutes ago, Kamikazi26 said:

I have never experienced this while I was testing it my testers. Could it be that your controller is starting to act up and selecting button pushes on its own when other buttons are pushed (matrix failing)?

 

I’d appreciate it if others that bought this game could chime up if they experienced the same issue. 
 

thanks. 
 

I’ll let the programmer know. 

That might be it, it seems to be a more common issue with the left controller than the right.

[Jaxivision]

Received.

[Intymike]

On 9/9/2022 at 4:47 PM, Kamikazi26 said:

I have never experienced this while I was testing it my testers. Could it be that your controller is starting to act up and selecting button pushes on its own when other buttons are pushed (matrix failing)?

 

I’d appreciate it if others that bought this game could chime up if they experienced the same issue. 
 

thanks. 
 

I’ll let the programmer know. 

 

It seems I have the same experience. Suddenly the voice says the auto fire mode, even if I don't use it. Two, Zero... I only use the side buttons. Will test it on another system.

[mr_me]

If a keypad button activates autofire, it's likely a mechanical issue with the controller, specifically a side button.  It happens with other games, and there isn't much a programmer can do about it.  Some Intellivision controllers are better than others. Mattel did change the flex-circuit design to make button presses more reliable.  It's also possible to modify the controllers to eliminate the problem.

 

Curious, Vanguard was an arcade game with four separate fire buttons, how does it work in this version?

 

Edit:

Maybe some more debouncing on the side buttons can help somewhat.  They can try in the software if possible.

Edited September 11, 2022 by mr_me

[Eisengrim]

15 minutes ago, mr_me said:

If a keypad button activates autofire, it's likely a mechanical issue with the controller, specifically a side button.  It happens with other games, and there isn't much a programmer can do about it.  Some Intellivision controllers are better than others. Mattel did change the flex-circuit design to make button presses more reliable.  It's also possible to modify the controllers to eliminate the problem.

 

Curious, Vanguard was an arcade game with four separate fire buttons, how does it work in this version?

One fire button fires both horizontal lasers, and another fire button fires both vertical lasers. It also has several autofire modes (and the Intellivoice tells you which mode it is) where it can fire horizontally automatically, vertically automatically, and also in a rotating pattern one laser after another. A final mode will fire in just one direction constantly, and the direction can be changed by pressing that mode button again. While it's in one of these modes you can still shoot horizontally/vertically with the fire buttons. It's really cool to try different styles for the different areas.

Edited September 11, 2022 by Eisengrim

[Eisengrim]

16 minutes ago, mr_me said:

If a keypad button activates autofire, it's likely a mechanical issue with the controller, specifically a side button.  It happens with other games, and there isn't much a programmer can do about it.  Some Intellivision controllers are better than others. Mattel did change the flex-circuit design to make button presses more reliable.  It's also possible to modify the controllers to eliminate the problem.

 

Curious, Vanguard was an arcade game with four separate fire buttons, how does it work in this version?

Do you know of a source that shows how to modify the controllers?

[mr_me]

The modification is just something I tried for myself, and it's worked well for me.  Each button brings three circuit lines together, one ground and two data pins.  One side of the sheet under the button has ground and a data line, the other sheet has the other data line.  Problems happen when one data line is grounded before the other, and combined with a disc action it acts like a keypad press. 

 

I added a very small drop of conductive paint to the data line on the side with the ground line.  That ensures the two data lines touch first and ground last.

Edited September 11, 2022 by mr_me

[+fdr4prez]

For Vanguard, is there a two controller firing mode? 

 

One disc for movement and one disc for firing? 

 

Or one disc for movement and the keypad on the other controller for firing? 

[Intymike]

6 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

For Vanguard, is there a two controller firing mode? 

 

One disc for movement and one disc for firing? 

 

Or one disc for movement and the keypad on the other controller for firing? 

You don’t fire with the keypad. You fire with the side buttons. You can activate/deactivate auto fire by the keypad.

 

 

[Jaxivision]

That evil jester guy is creepy.

[+fdr4prez]

5 hours ago, Intymike said:

You don’t fire with the keypad. You fire with the side buttons. You can activate/deactivate auto fire by the keypad.

 

 

Yes, I know that you use the side buttons to fire. 

 

This is why I am asking about a two controller mode, so one controller can be for directions and the other controller can be used for firing. 

 

So the game would play more like the original arcade cabinet with a joystick and 4 buttons for firing. 

[Kamikazi26]

2 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

Yes, I know that you use the side buttons to fire. 

 

This is why I am asking about a two controller mode, so one controller can be for directions and the other controller can be used for firing. 

 

So the game would play more like the original arcade cabinet with a joystick and 4 buttons for firing. 

Unfortunately not. 
 

firing is done with the side buttons (as you know), and on the keypad, some numbers are pressed to activate auto fire. Pressing them again changes the auto fire mode. 
 

there isn’t directional firing like on Tron deadly discs or night stalker. 
 

[+fdr4prez]

3 minutes ago, Kamikazi26 said:

Unfortunately not. 
 

firing is done with the side buttons (as you know), and on the keypad, some numbers are pressed to activate auto fire. Pressing them again changes the auto fire mode. 
 

there isn’t directional firing like on Tron deadly discs or night stalker. 
 

Thanks for confirmation. 

 

It would have been a nice addition to the game to use two discs or a disc+keypad combo. 

[Intymike]

9 minutes ago, Kamikazi26 said:

Unfortunately not. 
 

firing is done with the side buttons (as you know), and on the keypad, some numbers are pressed to activate auto fire. Pressing them again changes the auto fire mode. 
 

there isn’t directional firing like on Tron deadly discs or night stalker. 
 

The idea to use the upper and lower fire buttons for horizontal and vertical shooting is very clever.

It’s an almost perfect arcade port (watched an arcade video the other day).

I will check out another controller for the hick ups. Without the voice that announces the change I probably wouldn’t have noticed anything.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Intymike

[Kamikazi26]

17 minutes ago, fdr4prez said:

Thanks for confirmation. 

 

It would have been a nice addition to the game to use two discs or a disc+keypad combo. 

Yeah, but maybe just for a minority of people. Had to think of an overall acceptance of gameplay. 

[Kamikazi26]

15 minutes ago, Intymike said:

The idea to use the upper and lower fire buttons for horizontal and vertical shooting is very clever.

It’s an almost perfect arcade port (watched an arcade video the other day).

I will check out another controller for the hick ups. Without the voice that announces the change I probably wouldn’t have noticed anything.

Thanks Mike. In all our testing, this wasn’t found or noticed. We did our best to eliminate all bugs.  

[+fdr4prez]

2 minutes ago, Kamikazi26 said:

Yeah, but maybe just for a minority of people. Had to think of an overall acceptance of gameplay. 

Only as an added mode, so the current firing modes should still be there 

[Eisengrim]

I just noticed that on my Vanguard the final boss Gond just dies when I approach. I thought it was due to me being in an autofire mode and getting a lucky shot as I entered the Last Zone, but he also dies if I go in with no autofire and not pressing any fire buttons. This happens with and without Intellivoice plugged in. Anyone else seeing this?

[Kamikazi26]

1 hour ago, Eisengrim said:

I just noticed that on my Vanguard the final boss Gond just dies when I approach. I thought it was due to me being in an autofire mode and getting a lucky shot as I entered the Last Zone, but he also dies if I go in with no autofire and not pressing any fire buttons. This happens with and without Intellivoice plugged in. Anyone else seeing this?

I copy your comments.  
 

I’m looking into it with the programmer. 

[Intymike]

I now played the game with the Intellivision Arcade controller. And with it no auto fire messages came thru. 

So, probably it's a controller issue. 

But I also tested the boss. I approched him and fired no shoot and he exploded on his own.

 

Btw. funny to use a Neo Geo X Arcade stick on an early SNK game.  

Edited September 13, 2022 by Intymike

[Kamikazi26]

Well, more research needs to be done on my end, but it appears to be a bug that only showed up on real hardware. My testing team were mainly using emulators, and nobody used original hardware for the very last release candidate version (the bug was accidently created when we transitioned from Release Candidate 3 to Release Candidate 4.

 

Be it as it may, i have halted all sales of Vanguard for the moment. After a bug fix, and additional thorough testing, I will initiate a board recall at my own expense. This will wipe out any and all sale profit I made / will make from this title (and may even dip me in the negative,) but we will stand by our products and customer support. Please enjoy the game as-is until further information comes out.

 

Our sincerest apologies...

Team Intellivision Collector.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Kamikazi26

[Intymike]

6 minutes ago, Kamikazi26 said:

Well, more research needs to be done on my end, but it appears to be a bug that only showed up on real hardware. My testing team were mainly using emulators, and nobody used original hardware for the very last release candidate version (the bug was accidently created when we transitioned from Release Candidate 3 to Release Candidate 4.

 

Be it as it may, i have halted all sales to Vanguard for the moment. After a bug fix, and additional thorough testing, I will initiate a board recall at my own expense. This will wipe out any and all sale profit I made / will make from this title (and may even dip me in the negative,) but we will stand by our products and customer support. Please enjoy the game as-is until further information comes out.

 

Our sincerest apologies...

Team Intellivision Collector.

 

I will bring my board with me to the PRGE.