Scramble (arcade Game)

is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game released by Konami in 1981. It was distributed by Leijac for manufacture in Japan and Stern in North America. It was the first side-scrolling shooter with forced scrolling and multiple distinct levels,Game Genres: Shmups
Professor Jim Whitehead, January 29, 2007, Accessed June 17, 2008 and it established the foundation for a new genre.

It was Konami's first major worldwide hit. In the United States, it sold 15,136 arcade cabinets within five months and became Stern's second best-selling game. ''Scramble'' was not ported to any major contemporary consoles or computers, but there were releases for the Tomy Tutor and Vectrex as well as dedicated tabletop/handheld versions. Unauthorized clones for the VIC-20 and Commodore 64 use the same name as the original.

''Scramble''s sequel, the more difficult ''Super Cobra'', was released the same month in 1981. ''Gradius'' (1985) was originally intended to be a follow-up to ''Scramble''.

Gameplay

The player controls a futuristic aircraft, referred to in the game as a jet, and has to guide it across scrolling terrain, battling obstacles along the way. The jet is armed with a forward-firing weapon and bombs; each weapon has its own button. The player must avoid colliding with the terrain and other enemies while simultaneously maintaining its limited fuel supply, which diminishes over time. More fuel can be acquired by destroying fuel tanks in the game.

The game is divided into six sections, each with a different style of terrain and various obstacles. There is no intermission between each section; the game seamlessly scrolls into the new terrain. Points are awarded based on the duration of survival, as well as for destroying enemies and fuel tanks. In the final section, the player must destroy a "base". Once this objective is achieved, a flag indicating a completed mission is displayed at the bottom right of the screen. The game then repeats, returning to the first section with a slight increase in difficulty.

Scoring

* Per second the jet is in play: 10 points
* Rockets: 50 points on ground, 80 in air
* UFO ships: 100 points
* Fuel tanks: 150 points
* Mystery targets: 100, 200, or 300 points
* Base at ends of levels: 800 points

The player is awarded an extra jet for scoring 10,000 points, and none more thereafter. A jet is lost upon contact with anything. Once the final jet is destroyed, the game is over.

Development and release

The United States Court of Appeal states the following regarding the game's development and release:

Handheld versions

A dedicated Tomytronic version of ''Scramble'' was released in 1982. A second electronic tabletop version of ''Scramble'' was released the same year in the UK by Grandstand under licence from Japanese firm Epoch Co., who sold the game in Japan under the title ''Astro Command''. Gameplay differs from the arcade version as no scenery is rendered and the ship has no need to refuel. A handheld compact LCD version known as "Pocket Scramble" was released the following year. ''Scramble'' was also made available on the 2002 Game Boy Advance cartridge '' Konami Collector Series Arcade Advanced''. This version is a close port of the original game in the arcade cabinet.

Reception

''Scramble'' was commercially successful and critically acclaimed. In its February 1982 issue, ''Computer and Video Games'' magazine said it "was the first arcade game to send you on a mission and quickly earned a big following". In the United States, the game sold 10,000 arcade cabinets worth in sales within two months of release in 1981, and it topped the US monthly ''RePlay'' arcade charts in June 1981. It sold 15,136 arcade cabinets in the United States within five months, by August 4, 1981, becoming Stern's second best-selling game after '' Berzerk''. Its sequel, the more difficult ''Super Cobra'', sold 12,337 cabinets in the U.S. in four months that same year, adding up to 27,473 U.S. cabinet sales for both, by October 1981. In Japan, ''Scramble'' was tied with ''Jump Bug'' and ''Space Panic'' as the 14th highest-grossing arcade video game of 1981.

The Vectrex version was reviewed in ''Video'' magazine where it was praised for its fidelity to the original arcade game and was described as the favorite among Vectrex titles they had reviewed. The game's overlays were singled out, with reviewers commenting that "when you're really involved with a Vectrex game like ''Scramble'', it's almost possible to forget that the program is in black-and-white". David H. Ahl of ''Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games'' reported in 1983 that no test player was able to get past the fourth level of the Vectrex version.

In 1982, ''Arcade Express'' gave the Tomytronic version of the game a score of 9 out of 10, describing it as an "engrossing" game that "rates as one of the year's best so far".

''Scramble'' made the list of Top 100 arcade games in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition. In 1996, GamesMaster ranked the arcade version 60th in their "Top 100 Games of All Time" list.

Legacy

According to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance '' Gradius Advance'' intro and the ''Gradius Breakdown'' DVD included with '' Gradius V'', ''Scramble'' is considered the first in the ''Gradius'' series, but the '' Gradius Collection'' guidebook issued a few years after by Konami, lists ''Scramble'' as part of their shooting history, and the ''Gradius'' games are now listed separately.

An updated version of ''Scramble'' is available in '' Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced'' by inputting the Konami Code in the game's title screen. This version allows three different ships to be chosen: the Renegade, the Shori, and the Gunslinger. The only difference between the ships besides their appearance are the shots they fire. The Renegade's shots are the same as in the original ''Scramble'', the Shori has rapid-fire capabilities triggered by holding down the fire button, and the Gunslinger's shots can pierce through enemies, meaning they can be used for multiple hits with a single shot.

Impact

In an interview with ''RePlay'' magazine in January 1990, Konami founder Kagemasa Kōzuki (Kaz Kozuki) stated that he considers ''Scramble'' to be Konami's most important game. He said that ''Scramble'' was the company's first major hit that launched Konami into world prominence. The game also served as a foundation for the horizontally scrolling shooter sub-genre. While not the first horizontally scrolling shooter (it was predated by '' Defender'' two months earlier), Wayne Santos of ''GameAxis Unwired'' notes that ''Scramble'' and its sequel ''Super Cobra'' "created the side-scrolling shooter that progressed to the end of a level, rather than having a self-enclosed level that warped on itself in an infinite loop, like ''Defender''".

Konami's ''Gradius'' (1985), the first title in the ''Gradius'' series, was originally intended to be a follow-up to ''Scramble'', with the working title ''Scramble 2''. It reused many of its materials and game mechanics. Game designer Scott Rogers named ''Scramble'' as well as Irem's ''Moon Patrol'' (1982) as forerunners of the endless runner platform genre.''Swipe This!: The Guide to Great Touchscreen Game Design'' by Scott Rogers, Wiley and Sons, 2012

In other media

''Scramble'' gameplay is featured during the opening credits of the 1982 Spanish film '' Colegas'' by Eloy de la Iglesia, along with some other arcade games of the era like '' Defender'', '' Monaco GP'' and ''Missile Command''.

Re-releases

* Xbox Live Arcade library for the Xbox 360 on September 13, 2006.
* Microsoft's ''Game Room'' service for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on March 24, 2010.
* 1999 for the PlayStation as part of '' Konami Arcade Classics''.
* 2002 for the Game Boy Advance on the compilation '' Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced''.
* 2005 for the PlayStation 2 in Japan as part of the '' Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono'' series.
* 2007 for the Nintendo DS as part of '' Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits''.
* PlayStation 4 as part of the ''Arcade Archives'' series in Japan in 2014, North America and Asia in 2015, and for the Nintendo Switch in 2019.
* PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows on Steam on April 18, 2019 as part of the ''Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection''.

Clones

Atari 8-bit games ''Airstrike'' (1982) and ''Bellum'' (1983) are both ''Scramble'' clones. ''Skramble'' (1983) is a clone for the Commodore 64. ''Whirlybird Run'' (1983) is a TRS-80 Color Computer clone.

Legal history

In Stern Electronics, Inc. v. Kaufman, 669 F.2d 852, the Second Circuit held that Stern could copyright the images and sounds in the game, not just the source code that produced them.

See also

* ''Cosmic Avenger'' (1981)
* ''Vanguard'' (1981)

Notes

References

*

External links

Official Arcade Archives website
*

''Scramble''
at the Arcade History database

{{Gradius series

1981 video games
Arcade video games
Gradius video games
Konami games
Horizontally scrolling shooters
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
Stern video games
Vectrex games
Xbox 360 Live Arcade games
Konami arcade games
Video games developed in Japan
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Arcade Archives games
Hamster Corporation games