Scramble (arcade game)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Scramble.
| Scramble | |
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| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Stern (North America) Compu-Games A/S (Europe) Artic (Asia) |
| Release date(s) | JPN March, 1981 NA 1981 EU 1981 |
| Genre(s) | Horizontal scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Tomy Tutor, Game Boy Advance, Vectrex, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox Live Arcade |
| Input | 8-way joystick, 2 buttons |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade CPU(s) | Zilog Z80 @ 3.072MHz Zilog Z80 @ 1.78975MHz |
| Arcade sound system(s) | 2x AY8910 @ 1.78975MHz |
| Arcade display | Raster, 224 x 256, vertical orientation |
Scramble (スクランブル sukuranburu?) is a 1981 horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, arcade game. It was developed by Konami, and manufactured and distributed by Stern in North America.
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[edit] Gameplay
The player controls a spaceship 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 maintain 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, and the game continues by returning you to the first section again, with a slight bit more difficulty.
[edit] Legacy
Scramble was cloned to many of the computer systems and game consoles of the time. Its direct sequel was the helicopter arcade game, Super Cobra.
With the release of Gradius Galaxies for the Game Boy Advance in 2001, Scramble was retroactively added to the Gradius series and is officially referred to as the first game in the series. This is evident in a traditional Gradius introduction sequence where a pictorial history of previous games is displayed. (However, Super Cobra, via its exclusion, is apparently not considered part of the Gradius series, despite it being the prequel to Scramble).
Scramble joined the Xbox Live Arcade library for the Xbox 360 on September 13, 2006, its release having been delayed from September 6, 2006 due to bugs.
[edit] Legal history
Scramble was the subject of an important court case in the field of Intellectual Property, specifically copyrights. 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.[1]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Brandon Rash. Case: Stern Elec. v. Kaufman (2nd Cir. 1982). Patent Arcade. Retrieved on 2006-09-16.
- (2006) Gradius Portable Official Guide. Konami. ISBN 4-86155-111-0.
