The Commodore 64 version of Marble Madness was developed by Will Harvey and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. It has something unique that most other Marble Madness conversions don’t have, which is: a secret extra level that is accessible from the first stage. It also has the two player mode from the arcade original, where both marbles can race to the goal simultaneously.

Getting to the secret level is pretty hard, but completing it is super difficult because it can only be done in two-player mode… Which is disappointing. To access the secret level you have to roll your way to near the goal of the first level, but don’t enter it. Stop just before the goal and then make a quick save if you’re playing in an emulator. Then you need to move back up the course and use the elevated peaks to jump across the gap onto the area on the left. When you’ve done that you’ll get a message saying “jump bonus” – just make sure to boost the marble on the other side so that you don’t fall off the edge due to inertia. Then you need to position the marble on a specific square in that area: count four full squares from the left edge, and eight squares up. After waiting for a short time a message will pop up saying “Entering the Water-Maze…” and the floor will open up… You’ll then be transported to the secret water level and be given 98 seconds to complete it. As I said earlier: you need to be in two-player mode to complete the water maze – it’s impossible to complete it otherwise. If you want to see how to complete the secret level, click here.

Graphically, the C64 version is okay. The marble is a little small; the courses are also miniaturised and look a little weird, and the use of colour isn’t very good. The gameplay also has serious problems and lacks authenticity, like the first black marble chasing you down to the ground on the second course (which it shouldn’t do); dodgy collision detection, and falling through the course when you shouldn’t; the marble not resting on the goal while the remaining time is counted (the screen just goes black instantly, which is sloppy); the screen scrolling not keeping up with the movement of the ball; you can be on one side of course, lose a marble, and it’ll put you on the other side of the course, and other annoyances.

Will Harvey also ported Marble Madness to the Atari ST, PC MS-DOS, Apple II and Apple IIgs, and also created the classic Zany Golf and The Immortal (among others). Harvey‘s other Marble Madness ports I believe also have the secret level, but it’s not something that’s worth getting excited about because it’s actually not very good. If you haven’t got the patience to get to the secret level, there’s a hack/remake by Nostalgia that allows you to access it with a simple keypress.

I wouldn’t recommend Marble Madness on the C64. It’s too flawed and frustrating; it lacks authenticity, and the secret level is a big, fat missed opportunity.

More: Marble Madness on Wikipedia
More: Marble Madness on CSDb