Tomy’s Alien Attack squeezes a Konami arcade blast into a desk-top cabinet: steer a fighter along a glowing, multi-coloured vacuum fluorescent screen and shoot down oil tanks, missiles and UFOs.
The screen surround carries a © Konami Industry credit, and collectors identify the game as a version of Konami’s 1981 arcade hit Scramble. It was made in Singapore and runs on four C batteries.
Interesting facts
The arcade original. Konami’s Scramble reached Japanese arcades in January 1981, with Stern selling it in America. Its jet burned fuel constantly and could refuel only by blasting fuel tanks. More than 15,000 US cabinets sold in five months.
Japan’s licensed twin. At home in Japan, Tomy sold an LSI Scramble made under an official Konami manufacturing licence. One Japanese collector notes that its ship moves only up and down, and that two of its stages run in reverse order.
A family of Scrambles. Tomy also squeezed Scramble into a compact Tomytronic handheld in 1982. Arcade Express magazine gave it 9 out of 10, calling it “engrossing” and saying it “rates as one of the year’s best so far”.