Early days, but thanks to c64.com and in an interview, we are able to put up an entry about a game by Pagoda Software which was reported to be something very ground-breaking for its time, which sadly never quite made it.
Before Video Classics (Aka Blip!) came about, Jason Daniels and Tom Lanigan were working on a new game called Autoguard. According to both, the game was the most significant piece of work they did. It was the first time they tried to design and code a fully-fledged commercial game, and rather than starting with something relatively quick and easy – they threw themselves into the deep-end by spending a year and a half working on this ground-breaking game, unlike any other title seen on the C64.
Unfortunately this is all we know at present about the game, and also we didn’t actually know what the game was comparable to or going to look like until Jason Daniels supplied GTW with some screenshots.
The great news was that Jason and Tom both have dug out remains of the game, and planned to finish and release around 2012. We were asked to keep an eye on the Pagoda Facebook page for any screenshots or developments and also check out the recent C64.com article which tells more about the game here: http://www.c64.com/articles/autoguard.html
Jason added the following update on the game:
“We will hopefully be releasing video of Autoguard gameplay in the near future and there is no exclusivity on that, so I will send you a copy when it’s ready. We are hoping to edit the raw video into some sort of promo with some original backing music (music and SFX hadn’t been done when we shelved the game).”
After a long delay, we asked Jason on how things were going. It was basically going slowly, and is still on Jason’s long term to-do list, but was still some time before it would get finished. Almost over 10 years after we first reported about the game, it looked like it may have been cancelled, but there is some good news at last.
We met with developer Jason Daniels at the Retro Collective in February 2025 (see gallery) when a talk was given about Games That Weren’t. Jason demonstrated the prototype, including a rare glimpse at a section where you could build your droid. There was some amazing hydraulics animations and segments which were mind-blowing for something from around 1987. Tom’s graphics and Jason’s code looked fantastic!
The isometric engine was clearly ahead of its time, and featured some wonderful hi-res overlaid sprites and a sub game which could be activated within the actual game screen. It was certainly something to behold.
Jason is now working at Retro Collective within the Developer Den, and hopes to re-create the innovative isometric engine to use for a few other game developments. Afterwhich, there are plans to finally finish Autoguard and release on a new label from the Retro Collective. More details on this very soon.
When we hear more details, we’ll continue to update this page. Watch this space!
Contributions: C64.com, Jason Daniels, DemongerX
This looks so cool