High-def Scramble and Time Pilot announced for X360

[Thunder Force]

For those catching up on E3 news, a couple of shmup announcements so far...

Including a shiny new port of Konami's Scramble, the historical precursor to Gradius.

I have captured a few screenshots for us, from early footage (click to enlarge)

SCRAMBLE (high-def remake) for Xbox 360 Live Arcade



TIME PILOT (high-def remake) for Xbox 360 Live Arcade



They both look pretty good. However according to early impressions from the E3 floor, this version of Time Pilot unfortunately has some minor slowdown (!?)

[zakk]

I wonder if Time Pilot will retain the scoring exploit...

[louisg]

No '84?!

[system11]

I hope they include modes with the traditional graphics too.

[Bloodreign]

Too many pretty colors, I've gotten too used to the old Time Pilot, considering this last couple weeks I've played the hell out of it.

[Bishamon]

I wish they would include the original versions, but this is still excellent news.

[Vascilia Sky]

All the 360 live arcade conversions, have 'Enhanced' and 'Original' display modes, don't they?

[system11]

All the 360 live arcade conversions, have 'Enhanced' and 'Original' display modes, don't they?

So far.

[sffan]

I'm happy with the PS2 tate versions (oretachi geason ...). If you want the original graphics just get these.

[al138]

My hope is that they don't expect to charge $6+ for each of these titles. The classic gaming collection on the 360 is overpriced, and in the case of Gauntlet and Joust, slightly inferior to the original offering. However, I do like Scramble...

I get a fair amount of play out of Geometry Wars, but since I have PGR3 I haven't felt the need to shell out additional money to compare my scores online.

About the only promising XBox Arcade game I see on the immediate horizon is Street Fighter, but if it debuts for more than $10, I might look another way.

Wouldn't if be nice if they released a "Shooter Pack" or something similar?

[system11]

I don't think $6 is too much really. That's in the scheme of things, fuck all money. A copy of some game magazines costs more than that.

I just watched a montage of trailers - as well as showing Scramble (which looks nicer moving than it does in those screens), and Time Pilot, they show Defender and Galaga (among other things - the Frogger version looks especially nice). D and G are shown running arcade faithful graphics, it's not made clear if those also have 'enhanced' visual modes.

[Thunder Force]

They might be able to adjust the controls of Time Pilot for 360 degree firing, without breaking the gameplay too much. (The original already permitted more than 8 directions of firing, despite only having an 8-way joystick.)

[Thunder Force]

Release dates for these shmups have now been confirmed

Time Pilot HD is 23 August 2006.
Scramble HD is 30 August 2006.

[dave4shmups]

Too many pretty colors, I've gotten too used to the old Time Pilot, considering this last couple weeks I've played the hell out of it.

Besides which these are just more XBLA releases that you can get on home compilations; either the PS1 Konami Classics Collection, or the GBA one.

[Ed Oscuro]

Eh, I hope I can see what's going on in these. Scramble in particular looks like a fly buzzing over piles of manure in a horse barn...and again, yeah, that TP looks more like '84 just from the color scheme.

[Thunder Force]

Update: The previous Official Xbox Magazine announced release dates were wrong. Microsoft's finalized release dates are now:

Time Pilot: This futuristic fighter pilot classic from Konami lets you fight through different eras like never before. High-definition graphics and enhanced gameplay designed specifically for Xbox Live Arcade makes this version even better than the original from 1982. Download Time Pilot on Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday, August 30, for only 400 Microsoft Points.

Scramble: This classic side-scrolling shoot-'em up coin-op title from Konami takes off on Xbox Live Arcade in September. The 1981 classic, widely considered the first multi-level shooter, lands on Xbox Live Arcade on Wednesday September 6. Pick it up for 400 Microsoft Points.

[system11]

Eh, I hope I can see what's going on in these. Scramble in particular looks like a fly buzzing over piles of manure in a horse barn...and again, yeah, that TP looks more like '84 just from the color scheme.

If it's anything like Frogger, it should have a traditional graphics mode too.

[system11]

It came out today (Time Pilot). There are indeed options for original mode graphics and sound - although actually I quite like the new ones in this game.

[sffan]

Tate mode?

[Thunder Force]

Microsoft have stated on several occasions that they won't be adding Tate modes.

Time Pilot HD is not half bad... I think this one was definitely worth the wait.

The Achievements are handled marginally better than Galaga, but they still could have paced them out better. I received 8 Achivements in my first credit of just playing normally (and just seconds away from 9!)

[gameoverDude]

Time Pilot turned out pretty good. You can't go wrong with it for $5, especially when they bothered to add a redone graphics mode.

I agree with Thunder Force on the achievements. On my second play I had all but two of them. There should've been a few achievements offered for scores (i.e. reach 100000, 250000, and 500000).

[Bishamon]

Dang! I forgot to download Time Pilot last night!

As soon as I arrive home tonight, then...

[system11]

Scramble is now available. I'm pleased to report that it's as expected, the new graphics are really very nice, and the old graphics are still there as an option. And it's only 400 points. Konami aren't bad at this, so far.

[Thunder Force]

I agree, Scramble is another winner.

[BrianC]

The Time Pilot screen reminds me of the SFC remake, Time Pilot '95, in Gomeon 4 SFC, but better looking and in higher resoultion.

[professor ganson]

According to my sources, Time Pilot for XBOX 360 has SPLIT-SCREEN VERSUS MODE on XBOX Live. OK, it's not exactly Twinkle Star Sprites, but it's a big step in the right direction!

[Thunder Force]

UPDATE:

Peter Moore confirmed at TGS 06 that the next shmup from Konami on XBLA will be Gyruss. High hopes for this one too, based on how well Time Pilot and Scramble turned out.

[BrianC]

UPDATE:

Peter Moore confirmed at TGS 06 that the next shmup from Konami on XBLA will be Gyruss. High hopes for this one too, based on how well Time Pilot and Scramble turned out.

Gyruss rocks! I love the port in Konami Arcade Advance. The 2600 one from Parker Bros. is pretty good too.

I hope Konami will port or emulate Super Cobra. The 2600 version is ok but not great, though the Intellivision, Colecovision, and other 8-bit versions seem to be a bit better, from what I tried. The Oddessy 2 version is very odd, but not bad. The MSX port seems to be an original game, but only has four stages. It's good, but not as good as the original. SC needs another home version that's closer to the arcade.

Tutankham is another Konami game that I would like to see get emulated/ported. That one also has a lot of versions on classic systems. It's too bad the Oddessy 2 one wasn't released. It's quite impressive given the limitations of the system (played the prototype via emulation).

[jp]

Scramble is awesome. Quick question though:


Where do I launch the f'ing missile to hit the base? I almost made a perfect run if I had been able to land a hit on that stupid base...

[Kubrick]

Manoeuvre your ship all the way down to where the Base is, then shoot it. I don't think you can hit it by bombing from the top of the screen.

PS. Although you don't lose a life when it happens, it seems impossible to avoid hitting the next building after doing this if you have the "enhanced" graphics selected, but you can avoid it just fine with the original look.