Skramble!

The Good
Back when I was just a child, small developers began producing various clones of popular arcade games for the popular microcomputers either because no official port for that system was available, or the developer just ran out of ideas on something original. Terminal Software was one of these small developers, and a year before they produced this Amidar clone, they released a game called Skramble!, which is, of course, a clone of Scramble. They had the title misspelt to avoid being sued by Konami, the developer of the original arcade game.

This clone is faithful to the original coin-op: fly your spaceship through various landscapes, shooting enemy ships that hone in on you. The more you survive, the more you run out of fuel. Dropping bombs on fuel tanks will replenish your ship’s fuel supply. Although the game can be played with keyboard, it’s easier with the joystick.

Although most of the graphics are in monochrome, you can tell the difference between the terrain and the space in which the starship travels through. The other sprites, like the enemy ships and the fuel tanks, are much bigger than its arcade counterpart, making it easier to drop bombs on targets.

The sound effects are faithful to the arcade version as well, minus the humming of the spaceship. I like Terminal's rendition of “Yankee Doodoo” as soon as you start up the game.

The Bad
I can see problems as soon as a game is started. Skramble! suffers from choppy animation as it refreshes the screen to show more terrain, and your score and fuel supply are shown in numbers, rather than nice displays.

If you are playing the game with the joystick, there is only one button to fire your laser as well as dropping bombs. I have no idea why developers back then didn't think of using the space bar so that you can tap it and put your secondary attack to good use. Finally, the worst thing about this game is the way that the developers had this attitude where “one hit and the game's over”.

The Bottom Line
Skramble! is a decent clone of the popular arcade game that is easier playing with the joystick than keyboard, but a poorly programmed game sees you dropping bombs at the same time you fire your laser. Also, with only one life, I doubt that you will be playing this for a long time.