BALLS OF INSANITY - Marble Madness (Arcade)
7Has anyone ever used the words "marbles" and "madness" in the same sentence since this game came out?
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Marble Madness is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny and published by Atari Games in 1984. The player uses a trackball to guide an onscreen marble through six obstacle-filled courses within a time limit. Marble Madness was Atari's first game to use the Atari System 1 hardware and to be programmed in the C programming language. It was also one of the first games to use true stereo sound; previous games used either monaural sound or simulated stereo.
Cerny drew inspiration from miniature golf, racing games, and artwork by M. C. Escher. He applied a minimalist approach in designing the appearance of the game's courses and enemies.
Marble Madness was commercially successful. The game was ported to numerous platforms and inspired the development of other games. A sequel was developed and planned for release in 1991, but canceled when location testing showed the game could not compete with other titles.
Marble Madness is an isometric platform game in which the player manipulates an onscreen marble from a third-person perspective. The player controls the marble's movements with a trackball, though most home versions use game controllers with directional pads. The aim of the game is for the player to complete six maze-like, isometric race courses before a set amount of time expires. With the exception of the first race, any time left on the clock at the end of a race is carried over to the next one, and the player is granted a set amount of additional time as well. The game allows two players to compete against each other, awarding bonus points and extra time to the winner of each race; both players have separate clocks.
As the game progresses, the courses become increasingly difficult and introduce more enemies and obstacles. Each course has a distinct visual theme. For example, the first race (titled "Practice") is a simple course that is much shorter than the others, while the fifth race (named "Silly") features polka-dot patterns and is oriented in a direction opposite that of the other courses.
Marble Madness was commercially successful following its December 1984 release and was positively received by critics. Around 4,000 cabinets were sold, and it soon became the highest-earning game in arcades. However, the game consistently fell from this ranking during its seventh week in arcades that Atari tracked the game's success.
Bruce Webster of BYTE wrote that the graphics of the Amiga version of Marble Madness in December 1986 "are really amazing". While criticizing the lack of a pause function or a top scores list, he stated that it "is definitely worth having if you own an Amiga". Many reviewers felt that the high level of skill required to play the game was part of its appeal.
Beginning in 1986, the game was ported to numerous platforms with different companies handling the conversions; several home versions were published by Electronic Arts, Tiger Electronics released handheld and tabletop LCD versions of the game, and it was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System by Rare. Early versions featured simplified graphics, and the different ports were met with mixed reception. John Harris of Gamasutra thought the arcade's popularity fueled the sales of the home versions, while Thomas Hanley of ScrewAttack commented that most versions were not as enjoyable without a track ball. Grannell echoed similar statements about the controls and added that many had poor visuals and collision detection. He listed the Amiga, Game Boy, and Sega Mega Drive ports as the better conversions, and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, PC, and Game Boy Advance versions among the worst. Compute! writers called the Amiga version's graphics and gameplay "arcade-quality". Editors for Computer Gaming World stated that the Amiga version was superior to the arcade original, while the Commodore version had an extra level not present in other versions.
Wikipedia contributors. Marble Madness. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. August 2, 2016, 02:54 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marble_Madness&oldid=732611446.