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Scrambling for points
A FAST and furious fight through the air is promised with the Mikro Gen Scramble, a better-than-average version of the popular arcade game. The game can be played in fast, normal or slow modes but it is better to play it in slow mode if you are a beginner with this kind of game.

The game goes through four sectors in which missiles, UFOs, meteors and fortresses provide obstacles for your fighter aircraft as it shoots across the sky.

The player is provided with weaponry of laser and smart bombs. Even they are not sufficient to deal with the missiles and UFOs.

Scramble is available from Mikro Gen, Berkshire and costs £5.50 plus 50 pence p&p.

WorkForce has produced a less interesting version for the 16K Spectrum.

This version of Scramble uses only the missile stage. That does not detract from its playability and in some ways it is more difficult than its bigger brother. The missiles are certainly larger and the large player ship is an easy target.

An unusual feature is that you can steer the ship diagonally, although if you use those control keys as well as the others you could become confused. The controls are set out on the keyboard as if a joystick was being used. At some stages you could begin to feel like a contortionist grappling at the controls.

Apart from the difficulties with the controls Scramble is an exciting and addictive game which can be speeded using the thrust control. It is produced by Work Force, Beds, and costs £4.95.

A version of arcade classic Sramble for the ZX Spectrum - called Scramble!

Mikro-Gen (of Pyjamarama fame) released Scramble in 1983 which would run on a 16K Spectrum - and it shows.

When the game loaded up you could choose game speed options which were either slow, medium or fast. Nice customization.

For anyone who doesn't know Scramble - it was a right to left scrolling arcade game and your ship could move in all four directions as well as firing rockets and dropping bombs.

The object of the game was to score the most points - and that was it! (It was 1983 remember). Your bombs and missiles would get points as follows:

Surface to air missile (on the ground) - 30
Missile in the air - 50
UFO - 50
UFO Base - 100
Fuel dump - 150
Final Base - 2500

There were four stages to play through which were missile area, UFOs, Meteors, Fortress and final base.

You began the game with 4 ships to play with and a Bonus ship was awarded once you scored 10,000 points. Throughout the game your fuel was slowly being burned up. The only way to replenish it and keep it topped up was to hit the fuel dumps on the ground (just like the arcade version).

Every dump you hit gave you twenty more 'fuel units'. If you did run out of fuel your ship fell from the sky and crashed and burned Mav.

If you were a bit of a player you would eventually make it to the Final base. This base was at the bottomof a steep hill guarded by 4 UFO bases.

If you destroyed it the game restarted (as usual) back at the first level with increased fuelconsumption and more hazards to avoid. If you failed to destroy it you were given another chance and would come round to it again - this time without any fuel dumps so you had to blow that mother up quick smart.

On Release:
Scramble as we all know was a mega popular arcade game, so versions for your Spectrum were pretty popular. There were other versions released on the Speccy that were far better such as Cavern Fighter and Penetrator. Scramble was never a huge hit and suffered from being one of the poorer Scramble type games.

The test of time:
Well this game was pretty average back then and has really suffered over the years. For a 16K game it's not bad, but Spectrum Games really took off and became a lot more sophisticated after 1983. Play it for nostalgia.

It's Scramble - so it makes it worth a go I suppose.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download Scramble for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews and programmer interviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Scrolling arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Mikrogen
DEVELOPER(S): Stephen Townsend
PRICE: £5.50- UK