Scramble 64

The Good
Back during the golden age of gaming, amusements were plagued with straight shooters, along the lines of Galaxian and Space Invaders. A lot of smaller companies that focused their attention on home computers of the day took the same arcade games and ported them over. One of these companies was Interceptor Software, who produced a conversion of Scramble called Scramble 64.

The Commodore 64 port remains faithful as far as the gameplay is concerned. One thing that I like about this port is the way the bomb is dropped in a straight line, making it much easier to kill targets. It reminds me of what you do in those Bomber games where you have to drop bombs at skyscrapers in the same straight line. Everything is drawn quite nicely, including the spaceship itself.

The sound is of the same quality as the C-64 games that were released around the same time. I like the siren heard when you get a high score. In fact, it sounds so good that I have to keep beating your previous score just for the sake of hearing it. Hence, the replayability of the game.

The Bad
The C-64 version is quite basic compared to the original arcade version. It lacks the noise of your spaceship zooming along; the enemies are really small, making it difficult to get a clear shot; and there is nothing that indicates which zone you are in.

Also, there is no joystick support. You only use the [Control] and the [Commodore] keys to move in a direction, the [Return] key to fire, and the [Shift] key to drop a bomb. This means that you hands are crossed during a game, and it is a strain eventually.

The Bottom Line
Despite its problems, Scramble for the Commodore 64 is enjoyable. The game is similar to its parent, minus a few features.