Arcade Video game published 45 years ago:

Scramble (c) 1981 Konami Industry Company, Limited.

Scramble is a sideways scrolling shoot-em-up in which a single player takes control of a spaceship and must try to fight through six different enemy-packed levels - destroying as many fuel tanks and ground intallations as possible - before reaching the enemy base and destroying it.

Contact with any scenery, ground installations, enemy ships or projectyles results in an instant loss of life. The Scramble ship is armed with both a blaster and bombs. The blaster is forward-firing only while the bombs drop downwards to target ground-based enemy installations and to collect fuel from fuel dumps.

The fuel dumps are of particular importance, as the player ship's fuel gauge constantly depletes as the player progresses through the game and the only way to re-fuel is by bombing the fuel tanks that are located on the ground throughout the levels. Fuel usage increases as the game progresses, until fuel usage actually outstrips the amount of fuel dumps available and the game becomes impossible.

Scramble is rightly considered to be a classic and was the world's first ever 'multi-level' shoot-em-up.

- TECHNICAL -

The Scramble cabinet was the same basic cabinet design that Stern used for all its games. It featured a monitor that was set back at a 45 degree angle, and a very large marquee that was angled towards the player. Most cabinets have straight up and down marquees, so Stern ones are easy to spot. This title features rather primitive painted sideart that only uses two colours, but it makes up for it with the impressive comic-book style art on the control panel and monitor bezel.

Player layout in our catalog: 2P alt.

If you are exploring by feel rather than by title, jump from the tags above into the matching genre rooms, or return to the Arcade hall for the full wall.

Open Play on this page to start Scramble. Keyboard, USB/Bluetooth pads, and the on-screen touch gamepad all work inside the emulator bar. Save states and fullscreen live on that same bar so you can pause mid-session and resume later.

Scramble is filed in our catalog as a 1981 release.

Player layout on this cabinet: 2P alt.

Genre tags on Classic Arcade Games: Shooter.

Credit line lists Konami as developer.