Flat, two-dimensional graphics, usually constructed of pixels. Not three-dimensional.
Written by John F. Cain (who also made Booty, Moonlight Madness and Super Dragon Slayer on the Spectrum), and published by Melbourne House in 1986, the ‘official’ Marble Madness on the ZX Spectrum bears little resemblance to the classic arcade original.
Continue reading Marble Madness: The Construction Set, ZX Spectrum
Konami’s Ping Pong was the first video game to accurately reflect the gameplay of table tennis, rather than earlier simplifications like Pong. It was first released into arcades in 1985.
The Game Boy Color version of Marble Madness was developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Midway in 1999. It’s an okay port, but it does have a few flaws…
The original black and white Game Boy version of the classic Marble Madness was published by Mindscape in 1991. I’m not a hundred percent sure who developed it, but it could be Tengen as they are mentioned in the copyright small print on the back of the box and on the title screen.
Developed by Konami and first distributed into arcades in 1991, The Simpsons is a scrolling multiplayer beat ’em up based on the award-winning animated series of the same name. You can play as either Marge, Homer, Bart or Lisa and must rescue Maggie, who’s been kidnapped by Mr. Burns and Smithers after a diamond heist gone wrong. The game features the show’s original voice actors: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith, reprising their roles as the Simpsons family.
The Atari ST version of Marble Madness was converted by Will Harvey (who also programmed the C64 and Apple II versions – among others), and Jim Nitchals, and was published by Electronic Arts in 1987. It is very similar to the 8-bit ports Harvey produced, rather than the more authentic Amiga version (that he didn’t).
Kiki Kaikai (the literal translation being “Strange and Mysterious World“) is a shoot ’em up developed and distributed into Japanese arcades by Taito in 1986. Set in Feudal Japan, the player assumes the role of a Shinto shrine maiden, called Sayo-chan, who must use her ‘O-Fuda’ scrolls and ‘Gohei’ wand to defeat renegade spirits and monsters from Japanese mythology. Sayo’s ultimate aim is to free The Gods of Fortune who have been imprisoned by evil spirits.
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.
Tugboat is a relatively early colour arcade game, created by Enter-Tech and first distributed as part of the Moppet Video range in 1982. It is a very simple game that was designed for children – housed in a miniature arcade cabinet – in which you control a tugboat moving down a river and must avoid floating logs (and collisions with the banks), and can collect floating buoys by moving left and right.
The PC version of Marble Madness runs under MS-DOS and was developed by Will Harvey (and a small team of other people at Sandcastle), and was published by Electronic Arts in 1987.
Since they were all coded by the same person, the Commodore 64, Atari ST, Apple II, Apple IIgs and PC versions are all very similar. This one also contains the hidden secret level accessible from the first course, although don’t get too excited about it because it’s not very good.
The King of Grabs 