Clones & Ports of Konami's Scramble

This article is concerned with computer-game clones and ports of Konami's Scramble coinop of 1981. Scramble-likes are defined by me as shoot 'em ups that feature dual-fire (forward-fire and downward or upward fire) of the craft, a mode of life-support or resource management (fuel, air) and horizontal or vertical auto-scrolling over and/or under terrain obstructions; most notably, caverns.

Scramble was the first auto-scroller. As such, Scramble is one of the most famous and replicated of classic shoot 'em ups: scores of early-80s to mid-90s shoot 'em ups look like, move like and play similarly to Scramble. That said, I am only concerned with the early Scramble-likes, not the many different kinds of h- and v-shooters that Scramble-likes evolved into, but you can browse through dozens of such shooters in my above-linked shoot 'em up history.

True Scramble-likes feature some sort of resource management that keeps the player-controlled unit going. Upon depletion of fuel or other resource, a life is lost.

The article is only concerned with Scramble clones and ports that appeared on Western computer game machines. The clones and ports are presented chronologically.

Scramble games are not the same as Defender or Gradius games. But as with Defender and Gradius games, Scramble games do not have to scroll horizontally to be considered Scramble-likes.

Scramble Clones

Arcade Bomber Scramble TRS-80 1981

Mike Chalk & Chris Smyth's Arcade Bomber Scramble of 1981 for the TRS-80 is one of the earliest Western micro clones of Konami's god-tier coinop of the same year, Scramble. The scrolling and sprite-shifting is great for the TRS-80 in 1981.

Penetrator ZX Spectrum 1982

Philip Mitchell of Melbourne House coded Penetrator for the ZX Spectrum in 1982. Supports joystick control. Note also that Penetrator comes with a built-in landscape editor.

Penetrator TRS-80 1982

For Beam Software, Philip Mitchell also ported Penetrator to the TRS-80 in 1982.

Scramble ZX Spectrum 1982

An unknown of Profisoft coded Scramble for the ZX Spectrum in 1982. The scrolling is jerky due to the pattern-filled terrain.

Sea Dragon TRS-80 1982

Wayne Westmorland & Terry Gilman's Sea Dragon of 1982 is probably the best Scramble-like of the very early 80s. Sea Dragon was one of the most famous TRS-80 games.

Green-screen suits the cavernous underwater environments to a T:

What made Sea Dragon interesting was the submarine's air supply, indicated by an on-screen gauge. The air supply is refilled by moving up to the surface, which sounds easy enough, but the problem is that some of the underwater caverns are quite long indeed, forcing the player to manage their life-support system efficiently (and search for "air pockets").

The sub can move in 8 directions while firing torpedoes horizontally across the screen at rising, tethered and stationary mines. The tethered mines can block off half of the vertical screen-space, which may already be reduced by terrain. Suffice it to say that the original TRS-80 Sea Dragon is extremely difficult even on the Novice setting, let alone Expert.

Sea Dragon is a TRS-80-original shoot 'em up; that is, it was coded originally for the TRS-80 and subsequently ported to various other micros. Some ports were "enhanced" and/or featured decreased difficulty.

Scramble ZX Spectrum 1983

Stephen Townsend of Mikro-Gen Ltd. coded Scramble for the ZX Spectrum in 1983. Does not support joystick control.

Scramble 64 Commodore 64 1983

Developed by Interceptor Software for the Commodore 64 in 1983, Scramble 64 is a clone of Konami's 1981 coinop, Scramble. And while its horizontal scrolling is not smooth the gameplay of the original has been faithfully replicated, and the sound effects are raw and realistic.

Sea Dragon Commodore 64 1984

David Simmons ported Sea Dragon to the C64 in 1984 from the TRS-80 original of 1982. The port is much easier than the original.

Cavern Fighter ZX Spectrum 1984

John Jameson of Bug-Byte Software coded Cavern Fighter for the ZX Spectrum in 1984.

River Raid Commodore 64 1984

Carol Shaw's River Raid of 1982 on the Atari 2600 was ported to C64 in 1984 by Arti Haroutunian of Micro Projects Engineering.

River Raid 1985 IBM PC Booter

Steve Hendricks ported Activision's River Raid of 1982 to IBM PC Booter in 1985. And while River Raid's ho-hum gameplay was most certainly old hat by 1985, the IBM PC version would not have gone by unplayed on such a platform. River Raid is a vertically-scrolling Scramble-like originally coded by Carol Shaw for the Atari VCS/2600.

Chronos ZX Spectrum 1987

Steven Tatlock coded Chronos: A Tapestry of Time for the ZX Spectrum in 1987.

cf.

Lilura1 cRPG

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Scramble Clones and Ports (Scramble-likes)