the Arcade versions

There are two official arcade versions of Scramble. A Konami version and a Stern Version. Konami developed the game and released it in February 1981. They then licensed it to Stern for U.S. (and European?) manufacture and distribution. Stern released Scramble in April 1981. The two versions are almost identical. There are just one or two differences in graphics and gameplay. The gameplay of the Stern version is harder because fuel runs out faster and there are more rockets on the screen. But both versions are awesome games that I like playing over and over again.

Take a look at the complete scramble map. Looks quite easy doesn't it?

scramble and stuff

What I like about scramble:

1: The sidescrolling because it gives you a realistic position as the "viewer". 2: The levels that are far from identical which creates this wonderful adventure feeling. 3: The enemies are all very different. So you have to change your tactics on each level. 4: The overall gameplay. Firing lasers, dropping bombs, dodging enemies, manoeuvring through levels and watch fuel consumption all at the same time. 5: The 'forgiving' collision detection. 6: The nice graphics, nice animations and beautiful colors.

Personal memories:

Back in 1981 when Scramble was released I was just a Junior Highschool student. It was the year in which Ronald Reagan became president of the US. Raiders of the Lost Ark was the top grossing film of the year. IBM introduced what has come to be known as the first PC. I was listening to Queen and The Police records. Queen had just scored a big hit with 'Another One Bites The Dust' and later 'The Police' had a huge hit with 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic'. The arcade games that I had been playing until then were: Pong, Night driver, Laguna racer, Cosmic Guerilla, Astro Invaders and of course Space Invaders. But then one day there was Scramble.

I can't remember if I was blown away when I first saw the game. I do know that I played it a lot and that it cost me a lot of 'Guldens' (local currency back then. About 60 Dollarcents). I also remember that a friend from school was a real Scramble addict too. To lend a coin in order to play Scramble, he kissed the shoes of a kid from school! Hahaha! Yes we were addicted and played it a lot but somehow never got passed the third level (fireballs). And then, out of the blue, there was this kid who played Scramble like he had been playing it for years. He knew all the tricks and he easily made it to the last level. So then we finally saw all the levels of Scramble. Very Cool!

This is all that I can remember of that period in time. Other games that I played back in 1981/1982 were Phoenix, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Galaga, Donkey Kong junior, Jungle Hunt, Moon patrol, Pole Position, Time pilot, Xevious and Zaxxon. These are all great games but Scramble was, and still is the best!

Scramble PCB:

Some time ago I bought a Scramble PCB. On the pictures page you can look at it. It's in good shape and works well. Sound quality is good and picture quality is excellent. In order to connect it to a normal television set I made a Scart-to-PCB connector. You can only use such a connector if you have a tv with scart connectivity.
I'm thinking about building a cabinet. Not just a cabinet, but a cabinet made out of oak so it fits in with the furniture of the livingroom!

Arcade controller:

Take a look at the pictures to see a prototype of an arcade controller that I built some time ago. The joystick and buttons are from Happ-controls. they are connected to a pcb of an old joypad. This 'hacked' joypad is connected to the gameport. Maybe one day I will make a better arcade controller with more buttons and a nice finish.

Pictures:

I have made some pictures from my scramble/arcade stuff. Please take a look.

Pictures

the Gameboy advanced version

The Gameboy Advanced version was released in 2002. It was on the "Konami arcade classics" collection cartridge together with: Gyruss, Frogger, Green Beret, Time Pilot and Yie Ar Kungfu.

This is a great Scramble remake. Graphics and gameplay are almost exactly like the original. The two main differences are the screenlayout and the vertical scrolling. The fuel meter and level meter are on the right side of the screen and the screen scrolls up or down when the jet goes up or down. This is done because the height of the screen on the Gameboy advanced is only 160 pixels while the height of the arcade version is 256 pixels.

And there is more to this version. At the Scramble title screen, press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, and you get advanced resolution! Brand new graphics, animations and parallax scrolling together with the old gameplay!

the Playstation version

The Playstation version was released in late 1999. It was on the 'Konami arcade classics' collection disk together with games like: Gyruss, Time Pilot and the sequel to Scramble: Super Cobra.

This is a great version of Scramble. Except for the screen layout and a different starfield it's exactly like the original. I don't play it much though. Those playstation controllers are just not for me.

the Vectrex version

The Vectrex version of Scramble was released in 1982. Vectrex is a video game system that uses vector graphics instead of pixels. This makes the games look completely different.

I haven't played this version on a Vectrex system yet. So I don't know how those, arcade-like, controls work. I only played an emulated version using the MESS emulator. This version look is far from the original. I know the graphics may not be everyone's taste, but you have to realize that the whole game is just 4KB! The construction of the levels are much like the original and everything else is there: The lasers, the bombs, the fuelmeter and the enemies that move like the enemies in the original Scramble. Great game!

the C64 versions

There were a few versions of Scramble on the Commodore 64. Most of those have choppy scrolling and lame gameplay. Just one of them, I think, is fun to play. This version was released in January 1984 and was written by Nigel Rowlan.

the PC versions

There are several Scramble versions for the Personal computer. There's no commercial version to my knowledge. All of them are freeware remakes. There's of course my own remake which you can download from the remakes page.

Another very good Scramble remake for the PC comes from Shaun. Just look at the screenshot's and you'll see that he did a magnificent job on the cartoon like graphics. And that's not all. The animations, the parallax scrolling and of course the gameplay are all great!

You can download Shaun's remake here

More to come...

In time I will add more reviews and screenshots...