When did Scramble Spirits release?

Scramble Spirits was first released on December 31, 1988.

Scramble Spirits

Dec 31, 1988ShooterArcadeArcadeCommodore C64/128/MAXZX SpectrumAtari ST/STEAmiga

Scramble Spirits — frequently asked questions

What platforms is Scramble Spirits on?: Scramble Spirits was released on Arcade, Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST/STE, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Sega Master System/Mark III, MSX.
When did Scramble Spirits release?: Scramble Spirits was first released on December 31, 1988.

About Scramble Spirits

Sega's take on the 1943 style of vertically scrolling shoot 'em ups was set in the future. Your fighter plane is aged and under-powered, yet you must face down large planes, tanks and ground targets to achieve victory. Each level ends with a close-viewed section of particular intensity before finally facing a boss. Smart bombs are occasionally found lying around, and can destroy everything on the screen, although you can't use them on the bosses. A simultaneous 2-player mode is provided.

Summary via IGDB.

Scramble Spirits on Wikipedia

Scramble Spirits is a vertically scrolling shooter game released for the arcades by Sega in 1988. It was ported to the Master System the following year in 1989, then to personal computers in 1990.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).

Game details

Developer: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer
Themes: Action, Science fiction

Details via IGDB.

Every version compared

Prices, contemporary reception and the studio credited for each release

Platform	Year	Loose	Complete	Sealed	Period reviews	Fake risk
Sega Master System	1989	$15	$36	—	3 reviews	Low (look-alike)

Also released on: Arcade · Commodore C64/128/MAX · ZX Spectrum · Atari ST/STE · Amiga · Amstrad CPC · Sega Master System/Mark III · MSX. We haven’t priced or authenticated those versions yet.

Collector value & authenticity

Sega Master System · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-28

Loose

$15

Complete

$36

Sealed

—

How often it sells

Loose: about once a month
Complete: about once a month
Sealed: about once a year

Sales frequency from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, as of 2026-10-28.

Price over time

Loose
Complete

A loose copy sold for about $14.99 in Oct 2009, $15.13 five years ago, and $15.28 as of Oct 2026.

Show as table

Month	Loose	Complete
Jan 2010	$15.12	—
Jan 2011	$12.51	—
Jan 2012	$18.45	—
Jan 2013	$51	—
Jan 2014	$16.99	$51
Jan 2015	$25	$51
Jan 2016	$27	$30
Jan 2017	$19.99	$30
Jan 2018	$16.70	$29
Jan 2019	$16.77	$22
Jan 2020	$12.06	$27
Jan 2021	$14.29	$29
Jan 2022	$18.17	$28
Jan 2023	$19.84	$38
Jan 2024	$12.54	$23
Jan 2025	$8.90	$30
Jan 2026	$13.06	$28
Oct 2026	$15.28	$36

Monthly price estimates from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, sampled quarterly, through Oct 2026.

Release record

Territory	Date	Product number
Europe / PAL	1989	7031

Source: Product numbers: MAME's Master System software list and the No-Intro serial records in the libretro database, published only where both agree on the same cartridge dump; Japanese numbers also checked against Sega Japan's software list. Board and ROM numbers: MAME's software list

Region: EU
Released: 1989
Authenticity: Low

Modern re-releases, such as Sega Ages and Virtual Console, are not tracked hereLow look-alike risk

Sega Master System prices, all games & how to spot a fake

A flickery arcade shooter conversion that Mean Machines and CVG did not warm to, priced a little above the European middle.

Scramble Spirits is Sega's vertically scrolling arcade shooter, converted for the Master System by Sega and Arc System Works and released in Europe in 1989. The Master System version is a one or two-player conversion.

Computer and Video Games, in its March 1990 issue, said the coin-op conversion generally fails to impress and called the sprite flicker atrocious.

What the press said at the time

Computer + Video Games Issue 100	March 1990	GRAPHICS 57% SOUND 59% VALUE 48% PLAYABILITY 44% OVERALL 49%
The Games Machine Issue 32	July 1990	50%
Mean Machines Sega Issue 3	December 1992	OVERALL 49%

“Graphics themselves aren't very good either, come to think of it.”
— Computer + Video Games, March 1990

“The sprites flicker terribly, forcing the player to don their shades. A disappointing conversion of an average coin-op (as I'm fond of saying)”
— The Games Machine, July 1990

“This is a one or two-player conversion of an extremely obscure coin-op which was one of Sega's few arcade failures. The exceedingly bland game¬ play is marred even further by blurred, flickering sprites and the "power-ups" are fairly pitiful, too. Unless you're really desperate for a vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up, this isn't worthy of consider¬ ation.”
— Mean Machines Sega, December 1992

Also on other platforms

Arcade · Amiga · Amstrad CPC · Atari ST · Commodore 64 · ZX Spectrum

Before you buy

The European cart is the one to look for, and loose it sits a little above the typical European-only game. A complete copy costs noticeably more than a loose one. The manual is the part most often missing.