Tag Archives: isometric

Marble Madness, Atari ST

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).

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Marble Madness, Apple II

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.

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Marble Madness, PC

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.

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Marble Madness, Commodore 64

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.

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Marble Madness, Megadrive

The Japanese Megadrive release of Marble Madness is completely different to the North American and European release of the game and was developed and published by Tengen in 1993. It is far superior to the Western Megadrive/Genesis release and is more authentic to the arcade original. In fact: it is very, very close to the arcade game, in terms of graphics, sound and gameplay. If you didn’t know that the Japanese version of the game was different, I’d recommend checking it out as it may shock you to find out how good it is…

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Marble Madness, Megadrive/Genesis

Did you know that there are two completely different versions of Marble Madness on the Megadrive/Genesis? The European Megadrive and North American Genesis versions of Marble Madness were published by Electronic Arts in 1991. They were coded by Michael Schwartz, with sound and music by Steve Hayes, and while they’re excellent ports of the classic arcade game, they’re nowhere near as good as the superior Japanese version, which is a completely different game.

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Marble Madness, NES

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.

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Marble Madness, Amiga

The Amiga version of Atari Gamesclassic arcade game, Marble Madness, was converted by Larry Reed and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. It is one of those relatively early 16-bit ports that is a little rough around the edges, presentation-wise, but plays perfectly well.

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Chimera, Commodore 64

Set on an uninhabited spaceship, Chimera is an isometric adventure/puzzle game where you control a robot* that must destroy the ship before it crashes into Earth. The game was written by Shahid Ahmad and published by Firebird in 1985. The music is by Rob Hubbard.

*= The player character looks like a robot, but does in fact require food and water to survive, so there’s a bit of a contradiction going on in the story, as far as who or what the player actually is.

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