The Apple II port of Atari Games‘ classic Marble Madness was first published by Electronic Arts in 1986. It was converted by Will Harvey of Sandcastle Productions, who also made the Commodore 64 version, of which this is basically a copy. Lack of colour aside, this conversion does have some playability issues that make it frustrating to play.

For me the controls were sluggish and unresponsive, and I wondered if there was something wrong with the version I was playing, or the emulator setup. I struggled to get the marble to move properly for quite some time before I managed to get used to the controls. Even after hours of practise I’d often be tearing my hair out when the marble would inexplicably fall through the landscape, or off the edge of the course, due to what seemed to be bugs. What I was seeing with my eyes, and what was happening to the marble, were not corresponding (and no – I wasn’t high on drugs while playing it).

Graphically, Marble Madness on the Apple II is pretty poor. The courses are a pale shadow of those seen in the arcade original and the player marble looks too small. The scrolling is also slow and jerky and the simultaneous two player mode is missing.

On the plus side: this version does contain the secret level and the two-player mode of the C64 version, but the secret level (the Water Maze) is disappointing as it’s difficult to access and can only be completed in two player mode.

Playing Marble Madness on the Apple II isn’t much fun and I don’t really recommend it. Try the arcade original or the Megadrive/Genesis version instead. They are at least good fun to play.

More: Marble Madness on Wikipedia