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Scramble was an influential 1981 side-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game. It was the first side-scrolling shooter with forced scrolling and multiple distinct levels. The player controls an aircraft, referred to in the game as a "Jet," and has to guide it across a scrolling terrain, battling obstacles along the way. The ship 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 different obstacles. There is no intermission between each section; the game simply scrolls into the new terrain. Points are awarded based upon the number of seconds of being alive, and on destroying enemies and fuel tanks. In the final section, the player must destroy a "base". Once this has been accomplished, a flag denoting a completed mission is posted at the bottom right of the screen. The game then continues by returning to the first section once more, with a slight increase in difficulty. There was no official port for PC, but this faithful fan-made remake has improved graphics, an extra level, gamepad support and an option to continue when all ships are lost. In 2008, a revised remake, Scramble X2 was released with rescaled graphics, a brand new stage, a continue option and - last but not least - additional gameplay. In later stages you fly right to left. You can also hook up a gamepad or joystick to play. In 2020, MinionSoft made a remake of the arcade game in Pico-8. |
