Marble Madness (ARC)
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- For other games in the series, see Marble Madness.
Ever wonder what it would be like to take one of those simple marble labyrinths and turn it into a huge world where you get to control the marble and send it through all sorts of crazy mazes and obstacles? That's what the designer of Marble Madness had in mind. You control your marble and send it over jumps, ice, conveyor belts, and past acid puddles, steelies, and marble munchers to try and make it to the finish line. However, you also have to worry about sheer cliff edges, vacuums, and hammers that will block your way.
The game is fun, but only for awhile. Each of the six levels has unique obstacles to over come, but they're identical every time you play the game, so once you master them, the challenge is over. The arcade used a rollball controller which allowed you to easily control the direction and speed of your marble, something that was lost on the various ports.
Contents
Screenshots
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This page needs more screenshots. |
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Music
The audio team of Marble Madness consists of Brad Fuller, and Hal Canon. The music sounds great for 1984. Each tune escalates in complexity and tempo starting from the light happy tune of the Practice Race and becoming more foreboding and complex as the game becomes more difficult. The game is known for being the first released game to use FM synthesis; in particular, a YM2151 chip (though Paperboy (ARC) was supposed to be the first.) This was due to Earl Vickers making a deal with the Yamaha Corporation for Atari to be the first to use the technology. However, because Yamaha only provided Atari with Japanese documentation, he had to reverse-engineer the sound chip to figure out how it worked. The result is phenomenal, and Marble Madness is highly regarded in the world of video game music.
Marble Madness is also one of the earliest games with dynamic music. The percussion in the Intermediate Race changes through every other loop and, even more clever, the Silly Race music keeps getting faster and faster in order to give a feeling of intensity to the player.
According to Brad, he and Hal composed the music and sound together using the program RPM. According to Brad, he couldn't remember which songs he did, and said Hal may have wrote the sound effect that plays when the marble falls down a pit.
Recording
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There are issues with the timing of this recording. |
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| # | Title | Composer | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Practice Race | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 1:50 | Download | |
| 02 | Beginner Race | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 1:54 | Download | |
| 03 | Intermediate Race | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 1:30 | Download | |
| 04 | Aerial Race | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 1:14 | Download | |
| 05 | Silly Race | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 1:48 | Download | |
| 06 | Ultimate Race | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 1:29 | Download | |
| 07 | Congratulations | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 0:32 | Download | |
| 08 | Game Over | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 0:05 | Download | |
| 09 | Unknown | Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers, Hal Canon | 0:38 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: VGMrips
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- Sound Design: Brad Fuller
- Sound Design: Hal Canon
(Source)
Like most of Atari's arcade games at the time, the credits can be viewed by waiting after several demo screens.
Game Rip
The recording was taken from the Midway Arcade Treasures release for Windows.
Audio Devices
Marble Madness uses three audio chips. A YM2151 (clocked at 3.579545 MHz) was used for music and the most of sound effects, a C012294 (clocked at 1.789772 MHz) - only for some simple sound effects (like clicks), and a TMS5220C clocked at (650.826 kHz) used for digital sound effects.
Releases
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Links
- mobygames.com/game/arcade/marble-madness - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.com/arcade/563996-marble-madness - GameFAQs.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Madness - Wikipedia.
- w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/420.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).
| Marble Madness | |
| Marble Madness |  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 
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| Marble Madness Construction Set |  • 
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| Marble Madness: Deluxe Edition | •
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| Notable Songs | |
| Notable Personnel | Brad Fuller • Hal Canon |
| Notable Companies | Atari • Electronic Arts |
