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Marble Madness

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Marble Madness
Marble Madness arcade cabinet
A Marble Madness arcade cabinet. Note the two player trackball controls.
Developer(s)Atari Games
Publisher(s)Atari Games
Designer(s)Mark Cerny
Composer(s)Brad Fuller and Hal Canon
Platform(s)Arcade game
Release1984
Genre(s)Platform/Racing
Mode(s)Up to 2 players simultaneously
Arcade systemAtari System 1

Marble Madness is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny, and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is an isometric platform game where the goal is to guide an onscreen marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit. The player controls the marble by using a trackball. Marble Madness is known for using certain technologies before other games. It was one of the first games to use true stereo sound—previous games used either monaural sound or simulated stereo. The game was Atari's first to use the Atari System 1 hardware and to be programmed in the C programming language.

In designing the game, Cerny drew inspiration from miniature golf, racing games, and artwork by M. C. Escher. He aimed to create a game that offered a distinct experience while utilizing a unique control system, and included a simultaneous two-player mode. Cerny was frequently impeded by technology limitations and had to forgo several design ideas. He was assisted in the creation of the game by Bob Flanagan, Sam Comstock, Brad Fuller, and Hal Canon.

Upon its release, Marble Madness met with commercial success. Common praise among critics focused on the game's difficulty, unique visual design, and soundtrack. The game was ported to numerous platforms and inspired the development of other games. A sequel was planned for release in 1991, but location testing showed the game could not compete against other titles. Plans for the sequel were dropped and resources were allocated to other efforts.

Gameplay

The blue, player-controlled marble traversing the second course.

Marble Madness is an isometric platform game where the player controls an onscreen marble from a third-person perspective. The player controls the marble's movements with a trackball—most home versions used game controllers with directional pads. The aim of the game is for the player to traverse six maze-like, isometric courses before a set amount of time expires. The game also features an option which allows two players to race against each other on the courses.[1][2][3][4]

Courses are populated with various objects and enemies designed to obstruct the player. As the game progresses, the courses become increasingly more difficult, and introduce more enemies and obstacles. Each course has a distinct visual theme. For example, the first course, "Practice", is a simple course that is much shorter than the others, while the fifth course, "Silly", features polka-dot patterns and is oriented in an opposite direction from the other course.[1][2][3][4]

Development

Marble Madness was developed by Atari Games and designed by Mark Cerny. Programming was handled by Cerny and Bob Flanagan. Following the North American video game crash of 1983, video game development within the company focused on offering a distinct experience while utilizing a unique control system. Emphasis was also put on including a simultaneous two-player mode. Cerny was first inspired by miniature golf and was captivated by the idea of a playfield's contours influencing the ball's path. He then began testing various ideas using Atari's art system. After deciding on using an isometric grid, Cerny began developing the game's objective. His initial idea involved hitting a ball similar to miniature golf, but internal responses within Atari were not positive. Cerny thought of racing games and planned for racing on long tracks against an opponent. Technology limitations at the time could not handle the physics necessary for the idea, and Cerny switched the objective to a race against time.[2]

Cerny and Flanagan programmed Marble Madness in the C programming language—Atari games had previously been programmed in assembly language—which provided positive and negative consequences. The language was easier to program, but was less efficient which resulted in the game operating at 30Hz instead of the normal 60Hz frequency arcade games operated at. Cerny decided to use a trackball system (marketed by Atari as Trak-Ball) to provide the game with a unique control system. He initial chose a motorized trackball to implement faster spinning and braking while the in-game ball traveled downhill and uphill respectively. When building prototypes, Atari's design department informed Cerny that a motorized trackball's design had a inherent flaw—one of the four supports used usually has poor contact with the ball—and a regular trackball would be more feasible. Cerny had anticipated powerful custom chips being used which would have allowed for RAM sprites that could be animated by the central processing unit (CPU). However, the hardware uses ROM-based, static sprites and was named "Budget System".[2] Marble Madness uses the Atari System 1 hardware, an interchangeable system of circuit boards, control panels, and artwork.[5] The game features raster graphics on an 19 inch Electrohome G07 model CRT monitor, and uses a Motorola 68010 CPU with a MOS Technology 6502 subsystem to control the audio and coin operations.[6] Marble Madness was Atari's first game to use an FM sound chip produced by Yamaha, which is similar to a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and creates the music in real time.[2][7] The game's music was composed by Brad Fuller and Hal Canon who spent a few of months inspecting the capabilities of the sound chip.[2]

Design documents of various concepts intended for the game; most of which were not used in the final product.

The technical limitations forced Cerny to simplify the overall designs. Inspired by M. C. Escher, he designed abstract landscapes for the courses. In retrospect, Cerny admits the designs were partly the result of his limited artistic skills. Instead of drawing the courses on the pixel level, he created a ray tracing program that generated the courses based on a heightmap (in this case a raster image used to store elevation data). This format allowed him to create shadows and use anti-aliasing to provide the graphics with a softer appearance. Cerny's course generator also allowed him more time to experiment with the level designs. When deciding what elements to include in a course, practicality was a big factor; some elements would not work or did not look good. Cerny's personal interests changed throughout the project, which led to including new ideas that were not in the original design documents. The game's enemies were designed by Cerny and Sam Comstock, who also animated them. Enemies had to be small in size due to technical limitations. Cerny and Comstock purposely omitted faces to give them unique designs and create a minimalistic appearance similar to the courses. As Marble Madness neared completion, Atari's in-house focus testing exhibited positive feedback. In retrospect, Cerny wished he included more courses to give the game more longevity. Extra courses would have required more time and increased hardware costs. However, Atari was experiencing severe financial troubles at the time and could not extend the game's development time as it would have left their production factory idle.[2]

Reception and legacy

Marble Madness and several of the home ports received a positive reception.[8] The arcade game met with commercial success following its release. Several thousand cabinets were shipped, and it became the highest-earning game in arcades. However, the game consistently fell from this ranking during its seventh week in arcades. Cerny attributes this to players losing interest in the game after completing it and moving on to other games.[2] The arcade cabinets have since become moderately rare.[9] Many reviewers felt that the difficulty was part the game's appeal.[3][10] In 2008, Levi Buchanan of IGN listed Marble Madness as one of several titles in his "dream arcade", citing the game's difficulty and the fond memories he had playing it.[10] Video game author John Sellers commented that the difficulty was a major factor in attracting players. Other factors included the graphics, visual design, and soundtrack.[1] Craig Grannell of Retro Gamer referred to the game as one of the most distinctive arcade games ever made, and praised its visuals calling them "pure and timeless".[2] Marble Madness was one of the first games to use true stereo sound and have a recognizable musical score.[3][7] British composer Paul Weir commented that the music is characterful and helped give the game a unique identity.[7] A common complaint of the arcade cabinet was the frequency of the track ball controls breaking from repeated use.[10][11]

The game was ported to numerous platforms with different companies handling the conversions. Several home versions were published by Electronic Arts.[12] Tiger Electronics released handheld and tabletop LCD versions of the game.[13] The game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System by Rare and published by Milton Bradley.[14] The ports met with mixed reception. Thomas Hanley of ScrewAttack commented that most of the home versions were not as enjoyable without a track ball.[3] Grannell echoed similar statements about the controls and added that many had poor visuals and collision detection. He listed the Amiga, Game Boy, and Sega Mega Drive ports as the better conversions, and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, PC, and Game Boy Advance versions among the worst.[2] John Harris of Gamasutra commented the arcade's popularity fueled the sales of the home versions.[11] In 2003, the game was also included in the multi-platform title Midway Arcade Treasures, a compilation of classic games developed by Williams Electronics, Midway Games and Atari Games.[15] Marble Madness inspired several clones and other games which featured similar elements. Such games are often described in terms relating to Marble Madness.[2][11] Melbourne House's Gyroscope and Electric Dreams Software's Spindizzy were the first such games. Both met with moderate receptions.[2] In 1990, Rare released Snake Rattle 'n' Roll which featured similar elements.[16] Other games include Marble Blast Gold and Super Monkey Ball. Super Monkey Ball was a popular game which spawned a series of games. The series featured similar gameplay based on rolling a ball, but added new features.[2]

An arcade sequel titled Marble Man: Marble Madness II was planned for release in 1991, though Cerny was not involved in the development.[2][8] Development was headed by Bob Flanagan who designed the game based on what he felt made Marble Madness a success in the home console market. Because the market's demographic was a younger audience, Flanagan wanted to make the sequel more accessible and introduced a superhero-type main character. Marble Man expanded on the gameplay of the original game. It featured new abilities for the marble such as invisibility and flight, included pinball minigames between sets of levels, and allowed up to three players to traverse isometric courses. Flanagan intended to address the short length of the first game and with the help of Mike Hally developed seventeen courses.[17] Atari created prototypes for location testing, but the game did not fare well against more popular titles at the time like Street Fighter II. Atari assumed the track balls resulted in the poor reception and commissioned a second model with joystick controls. Because the new models met with the same reception, production was halted and focus shifted to Guardians in the Hood, a two-dimensional beat 'em up game.[8][18] The prototypes that were produced have since become collector items because of their rarity.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c Sellers, John (2001). Arcade Fever: The Fan's Guide to The Golden Age of Video Games. Running Press. pp. pp. 142–143. ISBN 0762409371. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Grannell, Craig (2008). "The Making of Marble Madness". Retro Gamer (53). Imagine Publishing: pp. 82–87. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e Hanley, Thomas (2007-08-16). "Video Game Vault: Marble Madness". ScrewAttack. GameTrailers. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  4. ^ a b "Marble Madness". Nintendo Power. Nintendo: pp.56–59. 1989. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Ellis, David (2004). "A Brief History of Video Games". Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games. Random House. pp. p. 11. ISBN 0375720383. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  6. ^ "Marble Madness". Killer List of Videogames. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  7. ^ a b c Morris, Dave (2004). "Funky Town". The Art of Game Worlds. HarperCollins. pp. p. 168. ISBN 0060724307. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  8. ^ a b c Fahs, Travis (2008-05-05). "Beta Blues, Vol. 1". IGN. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
  9. ^ Ellis, David (2004). "Arcade Classics". Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games. Random House. pp. p. 391. ISBN 0375720383. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  10. ^ a b c Buchanan, Levi (2008-09-15). "Dream Arcades". IGN. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
  11. ^ a b c Harris, John (2008-05-30). "Game Design Essentials: 20 Atari Games". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  12. ^ "MobyGames Quick Search: Marble Madness". Moby Games. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  13. ^ Ellis, David (2004). "Classic Handheld and Tabletop Games". Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games. Random House. pp. p. 243. ISBN 0375720383. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  14. ^ "Marble Madness Tech Info". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  15. ^ Harris, Craig (2003-08-11). "Midway Arcade Treasures". IGN. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  16. ^ Edge Staff (2006-08-29). "A Short History of Rare". Edge. Retrieved 2008-10-14. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ Wild, Kim (2008). "Whatever happened to... Marble Madness II: Marble Man". Retro Gamer (55). Imagine Publishing: pp. 64–65. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ "Marble Man: Marble Madness II". IGN. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
  19. ^ Ellis, David (2004). "Arcade Classics". Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games. Random House. pp. p. 355. ISBN 0375720383. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
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