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.
Tag Archives: rolling
Marble Madness, Amiga
The Amiga version of Atari Games‘ classic 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.
Marble Madness, Sega Master System
The Sega Master System version of Atari‘s Marble Madness was programmed by Steve Lamb and published by Tengen in 1992 and it is a relatively decent port overall.
Generations Lost, Megadrive/Genesis
Generations Lost is a scrolling platform action game for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, developed by Pacific SoftScape and published by Time Warner Interactive in 1994. And it really is rather good, in spite of it not reviewing so well when it was first released.
Rollaround, Commodore 64
Rollaround is an isometric action/puzzle game written by Tony Kelly of Mr. Chip Software and was published by Mastertronic in 1987. The gameplay is a combination of Marble Madness, Bobby Bearing, Spindizzy and Q*Bert, where the aim is to control a rolling ball that moves around a map of screens, rolling over tiles, activating switches, and collecting cross tiles for points.
Katamari Damacy, PlayStation 2
Katamari Damacy – meaning “clump spirit” – is a third-person action game that involves rolling-up items onto a ball called a ‘Katamari‘. You play as ‘The Prince‘ – a small, green boy who is the son of ‘The King of All Cosmos‘ and who pushes the Katamari around the landscape, making items stick to it, which in turn makes it grow in size. The aim of the game is roll-up a Katamari of a certain size in each of the game’s various levels.
Bobby Bearing, Amstrad CPC
Robert and Trevor Figgins‘ isometric action/puzzle game, Bobby Bearing, originated on the ZX Spectrum but is arguably slightly better on the Amstrad CPC.
The game features the titular character, Bobby, who is a smiling ball bearing who can roll around, fit through holes, push things, and… erm, not much else. He does have character, though.
Marble Madness, Game Gear
The Game Gear has a surprisingly good conversion of the classic Atari arcade game, Marble Madness, in its library. It was coded by Steve Lamb and published by Tengen in 1992.
Devil Dice, PlayStation
Devil Dice is a unique dice-moving puzzle game for one to five players that was developed by Shift, Inc. and published by Sony and THQ on the PlayStation in 1998. It is considered by some to be one of the best puzzle games on the PS1.
Devil Dice was originally created for a Japanese developer competition and went on to sell more than a million copies worldwide.
Marble Madness, X68000
The Sharp X68000 version of Atari‘s classic Marble Madness is pretty much arcade perfect – barring, of course, the trackball controls of the original arcade game. In fact: if you compare the graphics to the arcade game you might notice that they’re crisper and slightly higher resolution.