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oligophagy .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 28
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:32 pm Post subject: Marble Madness |
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Played a mediocre Flash derivative today and was struck thusly: What am I doing? I've never even tried the original. This is more shameful than writing a high school book report from the movie adaptation.
So, please, your opinions: which of the many versions ought I play? |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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do do do doo do, do doo do, do doo do, doo do do.
you can't go wrong with the nes port! _________________
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Winged Assassins (1984) .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 996 Location: Super Magic Drive
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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I'm quite a fan of the Megadrive port myself. _________________
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wourme .
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:52 pm Post subject: |
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Gyroscope is a Commodore 64 clone with excellent music. |
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duomo .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 25
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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You could always stick with the original and play it on MAME. However, if you want to play it for reals real you should probably buy a trackball controller just for Marble Madness. |
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oligophagy .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 28
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:26 am Post subject: |
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These are all good suggestions! I'm playing the NES port now. Do all version have the same overarching structure, i.e., play until my running total of time runs out, then back to level one? |
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Hot Stott Bot .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 366 Location: Boston
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:26 am Post subject: |
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That game has some mad crazy awesome audio. |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:30 am Post subject: |
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dessgeega wrote: | do do do doo do, do doo do, do doo do, doo do do. |
also, emily short's if marble madness is beautiful. _________________
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oligophagy .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 28
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:39 am Post subject: |
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Oh no!, Everything I Know Is Wrong. |
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internisus .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 354
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:11 am Post subject: |
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Hey, oligophagy, what's happenin'. So, Marble Madness, eh? Yeah, unfortunately, the truth is you're getting a mere shadow of the experience without a trackball like the original arcade. Given that, however, I think the general consensus is that NES is pretty alright.
And what a game. |
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oligophagy .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 28
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:00 am Post subject: |
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internisus wrote: | the truth is you're getting a mere shadow of the experience without a trackball like the original arcade. |
Agreed. But playing the Flash clone, it was really the arrow key controls that set me going. Using a thumb to move doesn't tax my attention much, but three fingers has a real visceral novelty to it. Played against the gravity and the eighth-turned grid, and I feel like my right hand is dancing.
I wish there was a Zelda with a Marble Madness overworld, even if just for the architecture.
Hell, there should be a Marble Madness Classic.
internisus, I lost track when IC went down: is the hacking game shelved for now? |
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:57 am Post subject: |
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I seem to remember that there was a seriously boss version of Marble Madness for the Amiga -- or at least I remember playing such a thing with my neighbor, who even had a trackball.
I have a decent trackball mouse around here somewhere, does anybody know offhand whether it work well in MAME "out-of-the-box" or would I have to tweak it? |
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internisus .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 354
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 3:12 am Post subject: |
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No, the hacking game is not shelved at all! I am still working on a detailed design document.
oligophagy wrote: | I wish there was a Zelda with a Marble Madness overworld, even if just for the architecture. |
Now that is an interesting crossover.
I am going to recommend two games to you. First is Ballance, essentially a modern Marble Madness for your PC. It controls with the arrow keys, very simply, plus basic camera pivot at 90 degree intervals. The physics feel very, very consistent, and you almost immediately get a feel for all three ball materials (paper, wood, and stone). The game is a thick mixture of skill and physical puzzle solving, and the deeper you get into it, the cleverer it gets. You'll spend half your first playthrough shaking your head, smiling, and thinking to yourself, "those bastards; those clever, clever bastards." It's not nearly as surreal as Marble Madness, but it has its moments. For example, I just quit playing around stage 6, and the backdrop far below the hovering course, rather than yet another hue of clouds at sunset, was actually the Earth. It's not that far away, as though you are in a high orbit, and I didn't even notice it at first. It was the kind of thing that made me chuckle, a little bit scared, when I first recognized it. The music is something sparse and wonderful that keeps making me think Thomas Newman did it. It sounds straight out of American Beauty. I'm loving the game in every way, and it's easily worth the retail price; you can get it for a little over $20 on Amazon. There are lots of movies on the site as well as a free demo version of the game. Sadly, it does not seem that there is a level editor.
The second game I want to recommend is Within a Deep Forest. I wouldn't have brought this up if you didn't mention a Marble Zelda cross. Within a Deep Forest is basically a beautiful Metroid game with no enemies in which you are a ball. You use the ball materials available to you to explore the world and discover new materials. Each ball material behaves differently, and for every advantage there is a shortcoming. For example, one material is a glass ball, which, if I remember correctly, can pass through lasers, but if you bounce too much or fall from too great a height you will shatter. The physics of the game feel wonderful, and it is a very tight challenge, though of a different sort than Ballance. You have to combine skill and puzzle-solving in much the same way; however, the form of the puzzle-solving is very different. Perhaps this is simply because the gameplay is focused on bouncing around rather than rolling steadily. It's hard to put my finger on a more exact comparison between the two. The graphics and music are gorgeous, and the screenshots below are essentially of the most mundane areas in the game. It's a real one-of-a-kind piece of work, and it's free, too!
Edit: I found some more screenshots! =) Someone let me know if it's frowned upon to post many images like this, please.
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Slonie .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 141
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 3:51 am Post subject: |
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Current Music: Ryan8Bit - Sweep Up the Broken Pieces
(My contribution to this thread, I think it was on vgmix which sure ain't up, so here's a rehosting for all you all) _________________ -Slonie
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Nana Komatsu weak sauce
Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: |
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the last time I tried to play the NES port, the emulation didn't work well at all (this was on a Dreamcast) so my hope for playing this game again was lost. |
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internisus .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 354
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:50 am Post subject: |
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I've had difficulty emulating it as well, but I remember the NES version being solid back when I had the machine. I had assumed my ROM was bad, but perhaps it's one of those NES games that just doesn't emulate, at all? That's the case with Castlevania 3 for me, for instance. It's not unprecedented. But then, I don't really trust my computer for anything. |
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Ethoscapade .
Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 276
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:42 am Post subject: |
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i've only really played the nes version, but i love it very dearly.
for the first year or so that i was in the flashcart "scene," by far the most frequent use of my ez2 was marble madness on pocketnes.
(although you know what's even better guys is the level design of the first monkeyball that's right i said it) |
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Dracko .
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:50 am Post subject: |
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Used to play it on the good old Atari ST.
I'm second Within a Deep Forest. Quite a beautiful game and there's something I find enjoyable about the surreal prospect of a bomb going wrong and turning into a living ball. _________________ "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!" |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:08 am Post subject: |
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internisius, you would probably like dis, a prince of persia- and ico-like game by nifflas, the author of within a deep forest. it's unfinished, but set on a train! _________________
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Wall of Beef .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 66 Location: Slightly south of the Great White North.
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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dessgeega wrote: | internisius, you would probably like dis, a prince of persia- and ico-like game by nifflas, the author of within a deep forest. it's unfinished, but set on a train! |
That website is closed dess. |
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kirkjerk .
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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Have people seen the Marble Madness 2 attract mode video?
http://www.atarigames.com/multimedia.html
(They had this weird thing w/ faces appearing on the marbles at the end of the round... based on some prior ddescriptions I had rea, I was expecting even more of an anthromorphic transformation)
Seeing that video made me realize that I love the setting of Marble Madness, and the characters, but find the gameplay itself kind of blah, with too few courses hidden by the rather large difficulty. I was thinking that it would be neat setting for a "running around and shooting each other" style game, but then realized the end result would look a lot like "Realm of Impossibility". Not that that's a bad thing.
For the record, "Spindizzy" isn't really a clone, it just has a roughly similar look. |
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dark steve .
Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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I like the way the music sounds on the genesis version. _________________
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Winged Assassins (1984) .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 996 Location: Super Magic Drive
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, the music is why I like the Megadrive port so much. _________________
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internisus .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 354
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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Wall of Beef wrote: | dessgeega wrote: | internisius, you would probably like dis, a prince of persia- and ico-like game by nifflas, the author of within a deep forest. it's unfinished, but set on a train! |
That website is closed dess. |
I posted on their forum and someone was kind enough to link me directly to a download for Dis.
Apparantly, that unofficial fansite was suddenly taken down within the last few days simply because the webmaster feels that he does not have the time to keep it updated. Members of the community seem to be discussing ways to replace it, as it offered a more extensive collection of Nifflas's games than his personal site does. |
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oligophagy .
Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 28
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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internisus, thanks for the links. I only have a Mac until winter break, but I'll certainly try them then.
The first video on the Ballance site already has me sold on the atmosphere. The way other balls are used to push and switch and trigger, so high above the earth, suggests a kind of heavenly Rube Goldberg device, the timeless clockwork that runs our mortal affairs. The amazing stilts some platforms stretch terrestrially only reenforces this. And that one cog has gained sentience, through me, is somewhat thrilling, even a bit frightening considering how ambiguous the music and the solemn quiets leave the mood (similar to the play of SoTC's "yay, I'm saving my love" against "I am killing so much beauty.")
I like it when games suggest the connection of their totally fictional worlds to our own (where the "our" needs no futuristic, 20XX qualification). Like how towns in Animal Crossing are, by proof of you, real towns that humans can visit but seldom do, if they ever even have before. Wish I could remember a better example.
ALSO: I've been playing Marble Madness on Nestopia and that works pretty well! |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:31 am Post subject: |
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internisus wrote: | Wall of Beef wrote: | dessgeega wrote: | internisius, you would probably like dis, a prince of persia- and ico-like game by nifflas, the author of within a deep forest. it's unfinished, but set on a train! |
That website is closed dess. |
I posted on their forum and someone was kind enough to link me directly to a download for Dis. |
sorry, internis! that website was totally still up when i posted the link. _________________
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internisus .
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 354
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Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 3:33 am Post subject: |
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That's okay! I got it in the end, and I'm going to try it now. |
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OtakupunkX .
Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730
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Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:39 am Post subject: |
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It might not be the most popular port around, but my favorite is the Midway Arcade Treasures port of the game on Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2. Analog controls make the game a whole lot more entertaining and challenging, and, for me at least, it feels better than most of the console ports.
If you can though, MAME and the trackball mouse is probably your best bet. I've never really been able to play the console versions very long due to the lack of analog controls (kind of picky I guess, but totally true). _________________
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