Difference between revisions of "Marble Madness"

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Revision as of 11:22, 3 December 2020

File:Marble Madness - ARC - USA.jpg
North American arcade cabinet.

Marble Madness is an action video game where you must guide a marble down a dangerous course to a goal at the bottom while avoiding hazards and not falling off the track. The game was developed and published by Atari Games and first released in the Arcade in 1984, and then ported to about 20 different platforms. This is the first game in the Marble Madness series. The arcade game used a large rotating ball for a controller which gave fairly precise control over the marble's speed and direction, but was lost on most ports.

The game saw a lot of technical firsts for the arcade. It was the first published arcade game written in the C programming language, the first to feature stereo sound (by using two mono sound boards), and the first to use the Atari System 1 hardware.

Personal

Being a fan of toys like marble runs, I was immediately attracted to this game. I presume I saw it in a magazine before buying it, but I did buy it new in stores. However, when I began playing it at home, I discovered that the game wasn't all that interesting and very repetitive. I never got that great at it, and, even at my best, I could only reach level 5.

Status

I own this game on the NES, but I have not beaten it.

Review

Video Game Review Icon - Enjoyment.png Video Game Review Icon - Control.png Video Game Review Icon - Appearance.png Video Game Review Icon - Sound.png Video Game Review Icon - Replayability.png
4 6 6 6 2

Best Version: Arcade

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • Using a ball controller was a great way to allow for precise control over your marble, and a nice gimmick.
  • The game's graphics, drawn by Sam Comstock, looked amazing in 1984, and stand up well to this day. The heavy shadow makes the game look surreal.
  • Hal Canon composed some unique and enjoyable music for the game. The every increasing tempo of the Silly Race was interesting indeed.
  • The game's design, by Mark Cerny, has some pretty creative aspects to it like the acid puddles and marble munches, and I like the Rube Goldberg style mechanics of the levels. I also like the little broom that cleans up a shattered marble.

Bad

  • With only six short courses, the entire game can be beaten by an expert player in about 4 minutes!
  • Although there are a couple sections of the game where there are multiple paths and expert control allows for shortcuts, most of the game relies on following a very strict path.

Ugly

  • The game is far too hard to beat with the allotted time.
  • Despite the intricacies, the game is terribly repetitive. Due to it's shortness and high difficulty level, most new players will see a game over on level 2 and require a lot of refinement to reach the later levels where they're just playing the same thing over and over again. It's really boring.

Media

Box Art

Documentation

Maps

Videos

Longplay, Amiga.
Longplay, Arcade.
Longplay, Atari ST.
Longplay, Commodore 64.
Longplay, Game Boy.
Longplay, Game Boy Color.
Longplay, Game Gear.
Longplay, Genesis.
Longplay, Master System.
Longplay, NES.
Longplay, PC Booter.
Game play, Apple II.
Game play, Apple IIgs.
Game play, FM Towns.
Game play, Game Boy Advance.
Game play, PC-9800.
Game play, Sharp X68000.

Titles

Language Native Transliteration Translation
English Marble Madness
Japanese マーブルマッドネス Maburu Maddonesu Marble Madness

Links

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