Scramble (1981). Play online

Summary

Scramble blew onto arcades in ’81 as Konami’s breakout hit, and for a long time I’d hear coworkers brag about beating its endless scrolling gauntlet. You pilot a single‑seat jet, juggling a forward‑firing laser, bombs and a dwindling fuel gauge; the only way to refill is blowing up orange tanks that pepper the six distinct terrain sections. There’s no pause between them—just a seamless push into jungle, icy cliffs, volcanic tunnels and more—so you must keep your reflexes sharp or crash into the scenery. Points rise from simple survival seconds to bonus hits on UFOs and the final base, and hitting ten‑thousand nets an extra jet, but there’s no safety net after that. The arcade run was legendary: over 15,000 cabinets moved in the U.S. in five months, topping RePlay’s June‑81 chart and cementing Scramble as the prototype for later side‑scroll shooters. A court later declared Stern’s copyright covered not just code but the sounds and images, underscoring how novel the experience felt at the time.