Scramble, a horizontal-scroll shooter released back in 1981, was the first of its kind. Specifically, it is the arcade world’s introduction to forced scrolling - the game itself forced progression through a map, making players continuously adjust. Scramble was developed by Konami and designed to keep you endlessly reacting.
The main object of attention is an aircraft referred to simply as a Jet. This jet is essentially pushed through levels by a terrain that scrolls along the screen on its own. At the same time, players have to guide the jet to avoid obstacles, including a host of enemies and the map’s terrain. In this effort, the jet is equipped with two weapons: an on-board blaster and bombs. The blaster fires forward at oncoming enemy ships. As for the bombs, they come in handy when destroying fuel tanks down below. Doing so replenishes the jet’s fuel, which diminishes over time.
Players are taken through six levels, each offering up a different sort of terrain and obstacles. The objective is, basically, to stay alive for as long as each level requires before moving on. At the end of the final level, players are challenged to destroy a “base.” Once this is done, the game starts itself over, going back to the first section, but with an increased difficulty.
The scoring rewards both staying alive and being aggressive: 10 points for each second the jet is still up and running, 100 points for hitting UFOs, 150 points for destroying a fuel tank, 800 points for blasting bases at the end of levels. If a player managed to score 10,000 points, they were awarded an extra jet.
Although it wasn’t ported to any major consoles, Scramble was a massive success upon its release - It only took five months for US distributor Stern to sell 15,136 cabinets. Reviewers touted its level design, noting that it was so easy to get lost in the world this game side-scrolled through. It also proved to be notoriously difficult for the pros, with review writers noting that it was rare anyone got beyond the fourth level.
For some more nostalgia, check out the Retro Gamer feature on this side-scroller here:
https://www.retrogamer.net/retro_games80/scramble/
Gameplay: Controlling a jet, players were forced to deal with constantly changing enemy formations and weapons as well as terrain elements. A forward-firing weapon combined with bombs to serve as players’ weapon choices, each operated by separate corresponding buttons.
Play: The game got even quicker when you successfully finished all six stages, adding an extra challenge. Interestingly, there was also no break between levels as each stage just naturally scrolled to the next upon completion.
