Scramble

Scramble

Developer: Konami
Publishers: Leijac, Konami (JP), Stern Electronics (INT)
Platform: Arcade (Galaxian hardware)
Released in JP: January 8, 1981
Released in US: March 17, 1981
Released in EU: 1981

This game has unused graphics.
This game has regional differences.
This game has revisional differences.

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, they neglected to put any kind of anti-piracy measures or copy protection on it, so both the game and the hardware it ran on were bootlegged to hell and back. Later games wouldn't be as easy to copy.

Unused Graphics

This small UFO icon in the game's font. It could have used in place of the flags on the HUD to mark the current loop.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

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.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

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.

Original	Modified

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:

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.