Rear Guard

Adventure International advertisement
from 80-U.S. Journal

The original version of Rear Guard was written by Neil Larimer for the Apple II. It was released by Adventure International, Scott Adams’ company, which also commissioned versions for other computers:

• John Anderson wrote the Atari 400/800 version
• Jim Hurd wrote the TRS-80 Color Computer version
• Wayne Westmoreland and Terry Gilman wrote the TRS-80 Model I/III version

One Adventure International advertisement described Rear Guard this way:

Rear Guard for the Apple II

Waves of Cyborg ships are attempting to attack your fleet’s crew pods. If they penetrate your defenses, they’ll kamikaze your fleet. The enemy is relentless, your crew pods weaponless, your firepower endless. Are you made of the right stuff to successfully defend your fleet?! FIND OUT NOW!

Like many of the different versions of Adventure International games, the TRS-80 version of Rear Guard differs quite a bit from the Apple II original.

Title screen

Wave #1

In the TRS-80 version, the player is a member of the “rear guard,” protecting the outskirts of the fleet. The player’s ship is positioned at the left side of the screen and is constantly moving over the landscape (the fleet is presumably to the left of the player). Alien ships approach from the right, intent on overtaking the player and attacking the fleet. The goal is to destroy those ships before they can move past the player.

An additional problem is that most of the alien ships shoot at the player. The only options are to maneuver to avoid the shots or to activate the shields to absorb them. Unfortunately, the shields have limited power and must be used sparingly. The game ends when either lives run out or if too many alien ships get past the player.

Shields activated

Wave #2

What makes Rear Guard especially interesting is the behavior of the aliens. Each new wave is different, with differing characteristics and behaviors. The advertisements promised “nearly two dozen types of enemy craft,” but I must admit I have never reached far enough in the game to confirm that number.

Rear Guard demonstrates the extremely smooth graphics common to the Wayne Westmoreland and Terry Gilman games (dubbed “Arcade Action Graphics®” in the advertisements). Because they created it for “business instead of fun,” Wayne Westmoreland described Rear Guard as their least favorite game. But I disagree with their assessment, and consider Rear Guard to be one of my favorites.

Wave #3

Game over

In 1995, Wayne Westmoreland released all of their TRS-80 games into the public domain. You can download Rear Guard and all of their other games here:

Games by Wayne Westmoreland and Terry Gilman

Written by Matthew Reed | Filed Under Arcade Games · Adventure International · Terry Gilman · Wayne Westmoreland