10 points per second of flying.

Missile on ground : 50 points
Missile in air : 80 points
UFO : 100 points
Fuel Tank : 150 points
Mystery Base : 100, 200, or 300 points
Main Base : 800 points

A) Always watch what passes below you as you fly, especially in Sectors One through Four.

B) Ignore the 10 points added to your score every second : you want to finish each round quickly, because running out of fuel is bad news.

Try also to hit as many fuel tanks as you can, even in preference to mystery bases. One hundred and fifty points plus fuel is more desirable than an average mystery score of 200 points.

C) When you fuel gets low, the rule is to ignore everything but speed survival, and getting more fuel.

D) In Sector One, fly close to the ground. Your object should be scoring points rather than precise maneuvering, so keep in mind just a few simple rules :
1. Fly slowly only when you must to destroy a rich cluster of targets.
2. Release a couple of bombs just as you top each mountain, then descend quickly into the valley.
3. Once there, shoot any threatening rockets by slowing down for a second and using your laser. Descend to the lowest plateau at the earliest opportunity, shooting lasers constantly to clear your path of targets.
4. Rise with the terrain, using your laser against targets in the foothills, and go all the way up only when the next mountain forces you to.
5. After the last mountain, be prepared for the UFOs.

E) Through Sector Two, simply fly relatively low at medium speed, pressing LASER and BOMB constantly. The laser shots will take care of almost all the UFOs in your way. If one or two survive until you reach them, shift to full speed until you pass them, dodging vertically if necessary.

Try to time the release of your bombs so that they hit fuel tanks, compensating for your middling speed.

F) Don't try to stay alive among the fireballs. Staying below them makes sense for two reasons - you keep your jet, and you even have a chance to pick up some points from the sparse targets below.

As for making if from valley to valley, just go where the fireballs aren't. Fly quickly through each valley, then stop just before you leave shelter. Wait there until a fireball passes just over you; then chances are that you will have a second in which to duck swiftly over and into the next valley. You will find there is definitely a rhythm to it.

G) If you fly through the city too fast, you might not be able to react in time to a juicy cluster of targets or to a rocket rising in your path. Fly at medium speed, lasering and bombing for all you are worth, especially at rockets in front of you and fuel tanks beneath you.

When you fly over silos too deep for your bombs to penetrate, accelerate for a moment in case the rockets suddenly take off toward your underside.

Treat a low roof just as you would a Sector One valley; descend and laser the row of targets into oblivion. Be careful, though, when reascending; the rises here are much more abrupt than Sector One.

H) Without excellent vertical control, you will never make it through Sector Five. Blasting away the fuel tanks blocking your path is vital, but requires much less of your concentration than does piloting the jet through such a tortuous maze.

As soon as you emerge from a passageway, stop. Then move up or down, whichever you need, as far as you can until the screen catches up with you and pushes you forward. Keep the joystick to the left; while the screen propels you, you should have time to find just the right height for entering the next passage.

Once you are in the next passage, speed up right away, giving yourself a head start for the next cavern; you will have to stop once again when you enter it. The cycle requires concentration even once you know the rhythm.

Sometimes, you will enter a cavern at top left and need to leave it through a passage at bottom right, but fuel tanks will block the mouth of the passage, cluttering even the cavern floor. If you are worried about crashing into these tanks from above before you have a chance to laser them, just drop a couple of bombs at the right moment in your descent. The tanks will stand in your way no longer.

I) Once you know its secrets, the base may actually be slightly easier than Sector Five. To destroy the enemy octagon, all you have to do is gun your engine before you enter its canyon, then pull sharply down and back, and nose up to it. If you are on its level, fire your laser; if just above, drop a bomb. You will destroy the base.

You will also crash your own ship, but no matter : you will start the next round with a free replacement. Most players are afraid of crashing, so they fly too high for their bombs to have any hope of reaching the base. Eventually, they crash or run out of fuel.

J) By now, you have probably realized the one step essential to mastering SCRAMBLE; memorization. Since the pattern repeats itself every round, being prepared for upcoming opportunities and dangers is what the game is about.

0.35b8 [Zsolt Vasvari]
0.06 [Nicola Salmoria]

Artwork available

WIP:
- 29th July 2012: Smitdogg - Andrew Welburn dumped Bomber which is an Alca version of Scramble.
- 0.141u1: Roberto Fresca, Team Europe and Hal9k added clone Scramble (bootleg?).
- 20th January 2011: Roberto Fresca - Team Europe and Hal9K dumped a new clone of Scramble. Seems to be bootleg, but not 100% sure, since they have only the eproms. Not the PCB. Here some snaps.
- 0.138u1: Changed description of clone 'Scramble (Stern)' to 'Scramble (Stern Electronics)'.
- 0.136u3: Stephane Humbert fixed dipswitches and inputs (after verification of the Z80 code) for clones Scramble (bootleg on Galaxian hardware) and Scramble (bootleg). Changed description of clone 'Scramble (Galaxian hardware)' to 'Scramble (bootleg on Galaxian hardware)'.
- 0.135: Joachim Bassmann added clone Scramble (Karateko, French bootleg).
- 25th October 2009: Smitdogg - Joachim Bassmann dumped a French bootleg of Scramble. I attached a bunch of pics of it running.
- 0.133u5: Couriersud fixed missing sound in clone Explorer.
- 0.133u1: Renamed (scrambls) to (scrambles).
- 0.129u6: Scramble now is a lot closer to reports and recordings (background sound, sound of bullets) [Couriersud].
- 0.124u1: Replaced 4x RC Filter sound with Discrete. Changed visible area to 224x768 and palettesize to 32 colors.
- 0.122u7: RansAckeR verified DIP locations from manuals for Scramble.
- 0.122u5: Couriersud fixed flipped tilemap offset for Scramble and clones (playable cocktail mode).
- 0.119u1: David Haywood added clone Scramble (bootleg).
- 0.116u1: Mark McDougall updated the protection implementation in clone Scramble (Stern) to use equations based on the implementation from fpgaarcade.com.
- 0.100u4: Hans Andersson added filters back into the Scramble driver. Added 6x RC Filter to Scramble and Scramble (Stern).
- 0.96u3: Pierpaolo Prazzoli improved sound in clone Explorer.
- 11th April 2005: f205v dumped Scramble (bootleg).
- 0.88u5: Thierry Lescot fixed rom filenames in Scramble.
- 0.78u5: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added clone Strafe Bomb (Omni 1981).
- 0.74: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added clone Explorer (bootleg 1981). TODO: Check these 3 bootlegs are worth supporting, if not remove them.
- 8th September 2003: Pierpaolo Prazzoli re-added Explorer (a Scramble bootleg) with sound.
- 26th April 2003: smf added a bootleg Scramble called Explorer to the Scramble driver, though sound does not work yet in it.
- 0.63: Changed description of clone 'Scramble (bootleg on Galaxian hardware)' to 'Scramble (Galaxian hardware)'.
- 0.53: Changed palettesize to 99 colors.
- 1st June 2001: Zsolt Vasvari fixed the Galaxian / Scramble starfield graphics emulation.
- 31st May 1999: Zsolt Vasvari made the Galaxian/Scramble hardware games multi-session friendly.
- 0.35b8: Changed clone 'Scramble (Konami)' to parent 'Scramble'. Renamed (scramble) to (scrambls) and (scramblk) to (scramble).
- 0.35b7: Changed description of clone 'Scramble (bootleg)' to '(bootleg on Galaxian hardware)'.
- 0.35b6: Zsolt Vasvari added clones Scramble (Konami) and Scramble (bootleg). Changed parent description to 'Scramble (Stern)'.
- 10th March 1999: Zsolt Vasvari added two clones Scramble (a Konami version and a bootleg).
- 0.34b1: Added color prom.
- 0.30: Appropriate blue background in Scramble, Super Cobra and other games running on the same hardware [Mike Coates]. Frank Palazzolo fixed music tempo in Scramble.
- 0.28: Merged mooncrst, moonqsr and scramble vidhrdw into the new Galaxian driver [Nicola Salmoria]. Mike Balfour added high score saving to Scramble.
- 0.15: Sound support in Scramble [Nicola Salmoria]. I discovered that the garbled sound I experienced in Scramble was caused by a bad ROM. Therefore, if sound doesn't work, check your ROM set. Note that I also changed one ROM name from "2c" to "2d". All these require -frameskip 1 on my 486/100. I have no idea how accurate the tempo and pitch is. If you can compare it with a real machine, please let me know what's wrong.
- 0.12: Set up the second CPU to emulate sound in Scramble [Nicola Salmoria], but the sound that comes out is completely wrong. I don't know what I'm missing, anyone can help? The background stars in Scramble / Super Cobra now blink. However I don't know how close to the real thing it is. Known issues: The star background is probably not entirely accurate. Also, maybe it should be clipped at the top and bottom of the screen? Added audiocpu roms 5c, 5d and 5e ($0, 800, 1000).
- 0.07: Scramble has 100% correct colors. The same palette is used by Super Cobra, but it doesn't look right [Nicola Salmoria].
- 0.06: Nicola Salmoria added Scramble (Stern 1981). Game is playable with wrong colors and no sound. Control: Arrows = Move around CTRL = Fire and ALT = Bomb. The video hardware is very similar to Galaxians, main differences being that bullets are not vertical lines and the star background doesn't scroll. Known issues: The background stars don't blink. Maybe it should also be clipped to the top and bottom of the screen? Two players mode doesn't work.

LEVELS: 5

Other Emulators:
* CottAGE
* FB Alpha
* GalEMU
* HiVE
* JAE
* Retrocade
* Sparcade
* Tickle
* VAntAGE

Romset: 27 kb / 14 files / 15.0 zip