Scramble

By AV Club Staff  |  November 23, 2005 | 5:52pm
Games Features Games

Scramble was one of the most popular and original side-scrolling multi-stage shooters of the '80s. It spawned several clones, a sequel, and joined Berzerk, Armor Attack, Star Castle, and Pole Position on the ahead-of-its-time Vectrex system, where gamers did everything they could to infiltrate the Scramble base.

Gameplay: The Scramble base lies at the end of the scramble system, which is alternately mountainous, cavernous, spacious, and city-ious. Your jet fighter is armed with an unlimited supply of bombs and lasers, but an extremely limited supply of fuel, so while you're busy dodging the Scramble defense forces, or blasting rockets out of the sky, you'll also have to blast as many fuel tanks as possible so you don't run out of gas.

If you manage to penetrate the defenses, make it through all five levels and destroy the Scramble base, you'll be rewarded with a chance to do it all again, harder and faster… and that is where Scramble's comparisons to The Devil In Miss Jones II begin and end.

Could be mistaken for: Super Cobra, Strafe Bomb, Vanguard

Fuel consumption nerds at MIT may not like it because: When they blast a fuel tank, and their ship magically refuels, it completely takes them out of the otherwise perfectly realistic recreation of an actual assault on the real Scramble system.

Fuel consumption nerds at MIT might like it because: The fuel is consumed at a constant rate that is unaffected by the speed of their ship.

Enduring contribution to gaming 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.

Wil Wheaton really misses his Vectrex.

Historical information and image provided by Wikipedia.

 
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