Manufacturer:
Atari Games
Released: 1984
Designer: Mark Cerny
Added to my collection: Spring, 2003
Cost to date : $612
Current Condition : Working 100%
Marble Madness
is one of those games that could probably never be made in today's game industry.
It's odd, it's abstract, and it's lots of fun!
The object of the game is to roll your marble from the starting point to the finish line, wending your way through a series of pseudo-3D obstacle courses that look like Escher drawings. In addition to the terrain--which includes steep hills, mazes, and patches of ice--you must avoid enemies like an ominous black marble, snake-like creatures that gobble your marble if given the chance, and animate ooze that slinks around waiting to melt your marble into a sizzling puddle. The game is timed, and the faster you get through one course, the more time you have on the next one. Marble Madness really shines in two-player mode, where you get to race your opponent as you both wend your way through the course simultaneously.
The controls are simple--just one trackball for each player. This is the perfect controller, as it emulates the marble's movement perfectly.
There was a sequel produced--Marble Madness 2: Marble Man--but that game never made it past the prototype stage.
This
is one of the games on my list that I figured I would never get in my collection.
Marble Madness was the first of Atari Games' "System 1" games.
System 1 consisted of a generic cabinet with a basic set of control boards that
was designed to accommodate a wide variety of games. All that arcade operators
had to do was swap out the main board, the control panel, and the marquee and
voila! Brand new game! As a result, many Marble Madness games
were changed into something else. (Other System 1 games included Road
Blasters, Road
Runner, and Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom.)
Most Marble Madness games exist only as kits, and collectors who want the game in their collection usually hope to find a cheap System 1 cabinet that they can convert on their own. Whole Marble Madness machines are rare, and when you find one, it's usually really expensive (in the $800+ range on eBay). I got lucky. A local collector decided to thin out his collection and advertised his machine for sale on the local news group. I got a good deal--$600 for a near-perfect machine. There are the usual signs of wear on the side art and cabinet, but overall it's in fine condition.
Tecnical info and a .pdf version of the manual coming soon (hopefully).