Scramble (Arcade)

Scramble is a sideways shoot 'em up that sets a number of first: It's the first one with clearly delineated stages, and the first that implements any kind of fueling system.

Unfortunately for Konami, the copy protection they implemented within the game was very basic, which meant that both the game and the hardware it ran on were bootlegged to hell and back. Later games wouldn't be as easy to copy.

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Prerelease Info

Unused Graphics#

This small UFO icon in the game's font, used in early versions of the game to mark progress.

Extra Life Value#

Like in The End, RAM 4017 (Which would have been used to store the extra life score threshold) is always set to 10 on boot, but was probably planned to be set by a dip switch at one point. The difference is that in this game this RAM address is only referenced when the game has to draw the "BONUS JET FOR XX000 PTS" text on the "PUSH START BUTTON" screen. Changing the value at 4017 will update that text but not the extra life threshold - It's hard set at 10,000 points.

Version Differences#

There are three distinct sets in MAME's ROM set: scramble (Konami set), scrambles (Stern set 1), and scrambles2 (Stern set 2).

• scramble is the Konami original and is the earliest set.
• scrambles2 is almost identical to scramble code-wise: The only major changes are the addition of Stern's copyright string and a few graphical changes.
• scrambles is the latest set, containing a good number of changes to the code as well as some layout and difficulty adjustments.

Attract Mode#

Konami Version	Stern Version

• The title screen replaces Konami's copyright with Stern's. Yep.

• The gameplay demo in the older set (if you could even call it that) just had the player ship flying straight into a Rocket. In scrambles, there's some attempt to put an actual demo in, with the player's ship firing bullets and dropping bombs at set intervals. The timer that controls the shooting and bomb dropping isn't cleared when the demo ends, so where the player dies changes a bit each time the demo runs.

Gameplay Differences#

• In the older sets, the player takes 10 frames to deplete one unit of fuel on the first loop, 8 frames on the second loop, and 6 frames on every subsequent loop. In scrambles, this was changed to 6/5/4 frames per fuel unit depending on the loop.
• To accommodate this increased fuel consumption, a number of changes had to be made to the layouts of Area 1, 4, and 5:
• In the older sets, only one rocket could fire at a time in accordance with the looping background noise. In scrambles, multiple rockets can fire within the same interval.

Original	Modified

• The first Mystery Target in the game was replaced by a Fuel Tank.

Original	Modified

• Two Rockets near the end of Area 1 were removed.

Original	Modified

• An extra Fuel Tank and Mystery Target were placed near the beginning of Area 4. Three of the Rockets were deleted.

Original	Modified

• There's one less Rocket in this part of the middle of Area 4.

Original	Modified

• Two more Fuel Tanks were placed near the end of Area 4. One of the Mystery Targets was removed, and so were two of the Rockets.

Original	Modified

• Three Fuel Tanks were added near the end of Area 5. Without these Fuel Tanks, the player would be unable to reach the enemy base after the first loop.

Graphics#

Konami	Stern	Notes
		The question mark graphic was changed. For the better? Maybe.
		The "S" in the "1ST" and "BASE" markers was changed too, and definitely not for the better. Seems more like a mistake.
		The flame on the player's ship was thickened in the Stern sets.
		The Rockets' flames, however, are thinner in Stern's versions.
		The "Base" enemy had its design completely changed from some kind of drilling robot to some kind of spinning octagon. Hmmm.

Konami	Stern

In the Konami set, the tallest building at the end of the game has the company name on it. In the Stern sets, the building is nameless.

References#