Arcade Archives: Scramble (PS4-5 | Switch)

[Sturmvogel Prime]

DANGER ZONE (PART LXXXI)
THE OLD SHMUP TESTAMENT (PART I: THE SCRAMBLED PILOT)



The "Danger Zone" series of reviews so far.
DANGER ZONE VOL. I

Spoiler

I: REVVIN' UP YOUR ENGINE, LISTENIN' TO HER HOWLIN' ROARING - (E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
II: IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF FUN, MAV? - (Binarystar Infinity)
III: PLAYING WITH THE (ARCADE ARCHIVES) BOYS - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon 2)
IV: THAT'S RIGHT! ICE...MAN. I AM DANGEROUS (SEED) - (Arcade Archives: Dangerous Seed)
V: THE ELITE. BEST OF THE BEST. WE'LL MAKE YOU BETTER. - (Super E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
VI: GONNA TAKE YOU RIGHT INTO THE DANGER ZONE - (Star Hunter DX)
VII: IT TAKES MORE THAN JUST FANCY FLYING - (Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter)
VIII: INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION - (Devastator by Radiangames)
IX: ¿WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD TUBES? - (Arcade Archives: Tube Panic)
X: SWIMMIN' IN THE FLOODS, DANCIN' ON THE CLOUDS BELOW. I AIN'T WORRIED 'BOUT IT - (Arcade Archives: Fighting Hawk)
XI: PULLING A RABBIT OUT OF THE HAT - (Arcade Archives: Rabio Lepus)
XII: WINGS OF SILVER, NERVES OF STEEL - (Arcade Archives: Darius)
XIII: FULL SCALE ASSAULT - (Arcade Archives: Assault)
XIV: WE'RE GONNA NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF BUGSPRAY - (Arcade Archives: Gaplus)
XV: DOWN THE ALIEN SECTOR - (Arcade Archives: Baraduke)
XVI: WHEN YOU'RE DRAWN TO THE GROUND BY THE DRAGONS - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Spirit)
XVII: SOME RETICENT GODDESS PUT THE CHILDREN TO SLEEP - (Arcade Archives: Metal Black)
XVIII: I SHOT THE WILD LIZARDS - (Arcade Archives: Gun Frontier)
XIX: HOW WE GONNA GET THIS MUSEUM PIECE IN THE AIR? - (Arcade Archives: Galaxian)
XX: SHATTERED KAWAII SKIES - (Arcade Archives: Ordyne)
XXI: ENTER THE DRAGON (SABER) - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Saber)
XXII: SEEMS LIKE WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES HOLDING ON TO OLD RELICS - (Arcade Archives: Galaga)
XXIII: OLD WARBIRDS, RETRO ARCADE ACTION - (Arcade Archives: USAAF Mustang)
XXIV: ARCADE STYLED HELICOPTER BATTLEFIELD - (Arcade Archives: Metal Hawk)
XXV: CLASH OF THE GODS - (Arcade Archives: Phelios)
XXVI: BACK IN (METAL) BLACK - (Metal Black S-Tribute)
XXVII: NAMCO'S TAKE ON THE NBA - (Arcade Archives: Grobda)
XXVIII: DOUJIN SHMUPPING "GM" STYLE - (Graze Counter GM)
XXIX: MIXED AND REMIXED - (Raiden IV x Mikado Remix)
XXX: EXPLICIT DIFFICULTY - (Arcade Archives: Gradius III)

DANGER ZONE VOL. II

Spoiler

XXXI: HAVING THE EARTH IN MY SIGHTS - (Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute)
XXXII: FAST, FURIOUS AND DANGEROUS - (Arcade Archives: Turbo Force)
XXXIII: CHORUS AND CHORES - (Chorus)
XXXIV: SAVE THE SUN - (Sol Cresta)
XXXV: NAMCO WHISPERS IN OUR EARS AND SAYS THAT "YOU ARE IN NAVARONE" - (Arcade Archives: Navarone)
XXXVI: A SHORT (ASTEROID) BREAK TIME - (Space Scavengers by Xitilon)
XXXVII: GIVE ME A "REZON" TO HOLD ON TO WHAT WE'VE GOT - (Arcade Archives: Rezon)
XXXVIII: A COSMIC TROUBLESOME GANG - (Arcade Archives: Cosmo Gang The Video)
XXXIX: WHAT'S THE PLAN? SAVE THE MOON, SAVE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Moon Cresta)
XL: A HERO FOR THE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Terra Cresta)
XLI: BACK TO THE '88 - (Arcade Archives: Galaga '88)
XLII: SUPER ROBOT SMASH - (Arcade Archives: Mazinger Z)
XLIII: FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF THE FUTURE - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon)
XLIV: HAMSTER SAID "IT'S SHARK WEEK ON ARCADE ARCHIVES" - (Arcade Archives: Mad Shark)
XLV: MESSED UP NETWORK - (RayCrisis)
XLVI: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION - (Ray'z Arcade Chronology)
XLVII: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION II - (RayStorm x RayCrisis HD Collection)
XLVIII: 99 NAMCO BALLOONS GO BY (Arcade Archives: King & Balloon)
XLIX: ATTACK ON BOSCONIAN - (Arcade Archives: Bosconian)
L: MIXED AND REMIXED II - (Raiden III x Mikado Maniax)
LI: ALLUMER'S TOON SQUADRON - (Arcade Archives: Zing Zing Zip)
LII: GO STRIKE! - (Arcade Archives: Strike Gunner S.T.G)
LIII: A THING CALLED TUNA SASIMI - (Arcade Archives: Darius II)
LIV: RAIDER ZONE: YOU KNOW, IT IS WHAT IT IS - (Arcade Archives: Raiders5)
LV: COMET OF DESTRUCTION - (Arcade Archives: Halley's Comet)
LVI: FORCE AND BURN: NO FLY ZONE - (Arcade Archives: Burning Force)
LVII: THE SHENANIGANS OF SHENANDOAH - (1993 Shenandoah)
LVIII: GREAT, JUST LIKE A KING - (Arcade Archives: Daioh)
LIX: THE TIMELESS CLASSIC - (Arcade Archives: Gradius)
LX: A NINTEN-SIVE ARCADE PORT - (Arcade Archives: VS. Gradius)

DANGER ZONE VOL. III

Spoiler

LXI: THE (LIFE) FORCE AWAKENS - (Arcade Archives: Life Force)
LXII: THE TIMELESS CLASSIC RETURNS - (Arcade Archives: Gradius II)
LXIII: HEARTFUL TRIGGERHEART (Triggerheart Exelica - Switch Re-release)
LXIV: RETURN OF THE AERO FIGHTERS - (Arcade Archives: Aero Fighters)
LXV: THE POWER OF THE (TASK) FORCE - (Arcade Archives: Task Force Harrier)
LXVI: THIRTY MINUTES (AND MANY HOSTILES) OVER TOKYO - (Arcade Archives: Scramble Formation)
LXVII: THE HAMSTER EDGE: ARCADE ARCHIVES BLASTS OFF XEVIOUS - (Arcade Archives: Xevious)
LXVIII: HIGHWAY TO THE SECTOR ZONE - (Arcade Archives: Seicross)
LXIX: THE GALAXY'S LOUDEST HEAVY WARHEAD CRUISE - (Arcade Archives: Space Cruiser)
LXX: STRATO FIGHTER: THE (OUT OF THIS) WORLD WARRIOR - (Arcade Archives: Strato Fighter)
LXXI: WE'RE MESSIN' UP IN SPACE - (Arcade Archives: Nova2001)
LXXII: (MEGA)BLASTED AWAY - (Arcade Archives: Megablast)
LXXIII: DRIVE OR FLY? - (Arcade Archives: Silk Worm)
LXXIV: A (GUN)NAIL ON THE RISK COFFIN - (Arcade Archives: Gunnail)
LXXV: JALECO AND HAMSTER'S EXCELLENT EXERION ADVENTURE - (Arcade Archives: Exerion)
LXXVI: ...AND THIS WORLD WILL BECOME A BATTLEFIELD - (Arcade Archives: Master of Weapon)
LXXVII: SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED - (Arcade Archives: Magmax)
LXXVIII: CYBATTLER AND THE EXTREMES OF DIFFICULTY - (Arcade Archives: Cybattler)
LXXIX: WHO OR WHAT IS MEIOU? - (Arcade Archives: War of Aero)
LXXX: THE TIME-BENDING LEGIONNAIRE - (Arcade Archives: Legion)

For this review we will take a leap back to 1981, when the shmup genre was on its first steps; the "Old Testament" of shmups if you want to call it like that.
This time we will talk about Konami's Scramble.




Hit-and-Run meets a Fuel Heist.

Scramble might give you the impression of being a simplistic Defender-like horizontal shooter. But things are extremely different and they'll take down that expectation of yours as soon as you start the game. At first it looks indeed like any other old shmup but as soon as you are in the game, the objective switches from engagement to refueling. Why? The ship has a time limit in the form of the fuel gauge located on the bottom of the screen. This is the major challenge player of the game as you are almost not allowed to lose more than 1 Fuel Container for your ship, if you do you might be unable to make it to the next one. Fortunately, you have two types of weapons; the first one is your ever-trusty straight vulcan which you can take both air and ground targets and the second is what I think was a major feature in shmup gameplay: An Air-to-Ground bomb. Mastering this weapon required a precise calculation of its falling trajectory since it slightly moved forward before arching and dropping down, you also need to calculate according to the altitude you're dropping them. Base the bombing in calculations added more challenge to a concept that looked experimental for 1981 where taking a target down was taked for granted. Rather than having stages, the game was one whole level with checkpoints as the segments. The objective of the game was to reach the "BASE" and take the main target down. It is worth to mention that the stages have very elaborated surface layouts resembling natural obstacles like caverns that made navigation more difficult breaking with the traditional tunnels. Like Galaxian, Scramble had score-specific enemies and the missile type had two score values; When a missile was stationary it was 50 points worth, but if you took it down in-flight, its worth increased by 30 points for a total of 80. There was tricky enemies like the UFO which was kinda hard to take down due to the flight pattern they used and in the 3rd part of the level, you'll be facing indestructible asteroids which forced you to fly on a low altitude, making you vulnerable to missile collisions unless you drop the bomb on them before they take off.




No Room for Error.

Fuel runout is will be the least of your problems as your reach the end of the run 'cos you'll be facing an obstacle course which will require precise manuevering since we're talking about multiple screen sized drops with a quite slow ship and a mid-paced screen scrolling combined with tight segments where one pixel of distance could mean the difference between success or death. Newcomers will find this part of the game as the dead end due to the precision required on this section.




Precise Bombing on the head office of Konami.

After clearing the obstacle course there's one more objective left: Take down the main enemy located in Konami's headquarters, and you have to take it down if you want to clear the game because if you don't take it down, the segment will loop until you take it down or your run out of fuel and die.




You've lost ships but you've ran onto first base.
But looks like we're challenged to do that again.

Even on the dawn of arcade, Scramble had a good amount of home ports. Curiously, Scramble's ports were mostly unofficial since they lacked of either Konami or Scramble logos. Starting off with the PC-8801 by Koichi, which feels terrible not just in graphic limitations, but also in gameplay. Imagine your bombs fall slower than they did in the arcade, that will make ground targeting more difficult than it should be. Got it? Well, also add flickering graphics and that horrible screen shaking effect when you die and the result is a disaster. The BBC Micro had more than one Scramble bootleg port. One of them is Rocket Raid by Acornsoft, which was a great port/clone. The one featured on Battle of the Ports was Scramble by Swift, released in 1985. Like the Koichi PC-8801 port, it is terrible too despite the better approach to the graphics, the reason of this are not just the controls, but also the horrible hit detection. The Commodore 64 version known as Scramble 64 (sorry Nintendo, Commodore predated the 64 moniker first) is another unofficial port done by Interceptor Software which due to its shoddy nature is another terrible attempt to recreate the arcade experience at home. But things go downhill with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Yeah, this computer got an unlicensed port of Scramble too. If the Spectrum sucks with official ports, imagine how disastrous an unofficial port would be. Well, check this out: How you can fuck up the basic keyboard control? Instead of using arrows, the controls now go like this: 2 is Up, S is Down, Q is Left and E is Right. To shoot you have to press P for Bomb and L for Laser. Also, you can get killed by touching your own shots, all of these disasters combined with the horrible sound effects. For some reason, Scramble lacked of ports on the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master System as well, and thinking on a 16-Bit remake for Super Nintendo or Genesis was a dumb idea back then. Seems like during the 90's many gamers thought that Pre-Atari games were "for old people" because with the SNES and Genesis around they got the "No one needs a dinosaur like Scramble anymore" mentality. I remember those comment's 'cos I heard them back in the 90's and early into the 2000's.

For oldschoolers fortune, the first arcade accurate port was done on the PlayStation as part of Konami Arcade Classics. While the gameplay, graphics and sounds are arcade perfect, being the position of the HUD the only difference between the Arcade and PlayStation in that attempt to fill the whole screen. The Gameboy Advance got a port as part of Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced. While faithful in the three key elements of the game, due to the screen size of the GBA it relies on screen scrolling and this adds an unintended element of difficulty as it can hide enemies and terrain obstacles. Also, it adds a new Scramble logo on the "PLAY SCRAMBLE" screen. If that wasn't enough, it had an "Enhanced" version with updated graphics, new backgrounds and new sounds, and what's even better, you can select one of three ships. ¿Who could imagine that an old game like Scramble could get a modern treatment? Believe it or not, the Vectrex got a port too. Developed by GCE (General Consumer Electronics) and published alongside Milton Bradley (Abadox: The Deadly Inner War, Captain Skyhawk). This version is a vector graphic rendition of the game which gives it an unique look due to the novelty of vector graphics like Atari's Star Wars despite limiting the colors of the game. So, how GCE fixed that? with a background overlay and using white vectors in pure Cinematronics style. Simple, but functional combining the home-made improvement with arcade graphics. The PlayStation 2 had a port as part of the Oretachi Gesen Zoku series, in fact, this was the first entry of the series. The only flaw is that the resolution looks "crammed" and squashed to make the whole thing fit on the screen. There was a rerelease on the XBOX360 as a Live Arcade game that featured not just the original graphics and sound, but also new music and visuals, while it is a stepback from the music-filled background of the GBA port, it was good to see how Scramble got a slight HD breath of fresh air. In June 30th of 2015, Hamster and Konami re-released it as part of Arcade Archives as one of the first Konami titles in the library. The emulation is what we all expect of Hamster's compilation: Arcade-perfect with no screen-filling adjustments like in the PS1. Since it has to be "Konami" only, it ditches the localization by Stern. But on the bright side, it carries trophies and the additional Hi-Score and Caravan Modes, although Hi-Score is useless here since the Original Mode is a 3 lives, no continues type of arcade game.

Graphically, Scramble makes a constant color shift throughout the game, which it would work to divide each segment of the game, but it cycles constantly with weird color combinations. Every 5 or 6 seconds or so the scenery colors will change from red mountains with blue lines to green with red and the space background from black to blue. The artificial structures (buildings in 5th and BASE) will be using color combination that might be eye hurting, especially the pastel blue-red-white combination and purple-red-green ones. It was a nice detail the idea of making stages using irregular mountains and later shift to buildings add more variety to what in the early 80's was a norm: desert landscapes which were simple to make, or the "do-it-cheap" space void. Konami decided to do both at the same time and add a new one. It was also nice to see the interior of your ship moving as if it had machinery inside rather than having a static sprite. The sound department is this "Vmvmvmvmvmvmvmvm" noise from your ship that will be following you after the introductory fanfare until you're shot down for good. Like most arcade games of the time, it had realistic explosion sounds despite having videogame-y sound effects for the missile. So, plug speakers to your mobile phone and play Alien's "Video Games (Gets in your brain)" for a retro-arcade experience and there you go.



THE CURIOSITIES OF SCRAMBLE



Book of Gradius, CH.1 V.5
In the times of need, ye blasted a base for thy fuel demands.

- During the opening of Gradius Generation/Gradius Galaxies tags Scramble as the prequel of Gradius.
- Several aspects of Scramble were indeed inherited to Gradius such as the bomb drop weapon and the obstacle course seen in Gradius II and Gradius III as "Speed Zones" or "Speed Dimension".
- Scramble was distribuited in Spain by the Madrid based companies Recreativos Franco S.A. and Dinar.
- The Arcade Archives release is the second Konami title in the library.
- Johnathan Griffiths was the writer of Rocket Raid at Acornsoft.
- According to Griffiths, the vertical scrolling in Rocket Raid was terribly shaky because he only knew how to scroll vertically in 8-pixel chunks, but wanted to move the digger in 4-pixel increments. So up 2 increments, then scroll the screen 8 pixels down. On his own words "Repeat until you get a headache!"




Just finished doing the vintage fuel run.

As one of the first incursions of Konami in the shmup genre, it was more than clear that they had a good amount of ideas that turned out to be one hell of an arcade cult classic. Scramble might look old, but still fun enough to play today unless you are an "anti-retro" snob or something like that.



Might be old, but Eda still approves this game.