The NES conversion of Marble Madness was developed by Rare and published by Milton Bradley, in North America and Europe, in 1989. I don’t think the game was ever released in Japan, though. And it’s a very good port, with some small enhancements and decent controls and playability.

From the main menu you choose either a one or two-player game. Then you enter your name, and choose either a 90 or 45 degree control setup (what this does is simply change the direction of the ball when you press diagonals on the gamepad). Then you play the Marble Madness we all know and love: you control a rolling marble and must reach the goal as fast as you can, without running out of time.

There are six courses in total – Practise, Beginner, Intermediate, Aerial, Silly, and Ultimate – and each of them have unique layouts and elements. The first course is extremely easy*, and the last course is extremely difficult. The remainder are somewhere in between.

*= Something that always bothers me about Marble Madness, even the arcade original, is that the first course (Practise) is a waste of a level. It’s too easy, too short, and would benefit from a secret or two that somehow extends the level for more experienced players. Also: more levels wouldn’t have gone amiss, because six isn’t enough.

Falling off the course, being eaten or dissolved by enemies, or being stopped by barriers wastes precious time, which you need to avoid since the more time you have left when you complete a course, the more extra time you’re given in the next level.

The NES port has pretty much everything that is in the arcade original, including the animated waves on the third course (not all Marble Madness ports have these), and the tiny enemies that you can roll over and squash for extra time.

The only criticism I have of the game is that the score counter sometimes partially disappears due to sprite tearing – if the player marble is horizontally in line with it (since the NES can only display a certain number of sprites on the same horizontal line). Otherwise this is a very authentic, playable and relatively complete conversion of Marble Madness.

And, since you enter your name before starting the game, if you get a high score: your name is automatically entered onto the high score table when a game ends. Which is a small but useful enhancement.

More: Marble Madness on Wikipedia