The 1981
Arcade Game Scramble was
Konami's original
Horizontal Scrolling Shooter; it was one of the first games in the genre, along with
SNK's
Vanguard.
The player flies a jet fighter armed with lasers and bombs to fire at enemy rockets and flying saucers, trying to avoid colliding with them or the terrain. Hitting fuel tanks not only scores a few points but replenishes your ever-dwindling fuel supply. After five levels, the player flies into the base of the enemy system and destroys a target, after which the game loops with higher difficulty.
A sequel,
Super Cobra, was released the same year, with the player now in control of a helicopter and carrying away a suitcase at the end instead of bombing a target. There were now ten levels before the base and the garishly colored backgrounds were slightly more textured, but otherwise the arcade versions of
Scramble and
Super Cobra looked and played pretty much the same.
Super Cobra was ported more widely than
Scramble in the 1980s, but
Scramble has since turned up more frequently on
Compilation Rereleases of
Konami's older games, including
remade versions on the
Game Boy Advance and
Xbox Live Arcade.
Scramble was
retconned into the
Gradius series in
Gradius Generations. While it doesn't fit into the
Gradius continuity (since it has no real plot), its influence on
Konami's later games is obvious.
Tropes in Scramble and Super Cobra:
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