Marble Madness (NES)

Marble Madness

Platform: NES Year: 1989 Developer: Rare, Ltd. Buy: Amazon

For other games in the series, see Marble Madness.

The NES port of Marble Madness is pretty similar to the original arcade game. One or two players move their marble through the courses and around the obstacles, while avoiding the steelies, acid puddles, and various other obstacles to reach the finish line. While the NES graphics and sound aren't very impressive, the courses from the original game are fairly accurately preserved.

The 8-directional d-pad of the NES controller isn't nearly as effective as the arcade's rollball. To make up for this, the NES port allows you to accelerate your marble by holding down the A button and pick the angle at which your marble will roll. Beginners will want to use the 90° angle because it's the same as the movements on the d-pad. The 45° angle movement is as if you turn the d-pad 45° clockwise. This makes control a little easier (once you get used to it) because most of the movement in the game is diagonal.

Screenshots

The title screen. Level 1, the practice race. Level 2, the beginner race. Level 3, the intermediate race. Level 4, the aerial race. Made it onto the high score list!

Music

VGMPF Album Art

The original arcade music of Marble Madness was composed by Brad Fuller and Hal Canon. The audio was arranged, completely by ear, for the NES by David Wise using an audio driver developed by Chris Stamper. The arrangement is well-made and the sound and tempo of the original music is left pretty much intact, Wise explained that he altered some portions which he felt were too ambient by making them a bit more melodic.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
00	Game Start	David Wise	David Wise	0:03		Download
01	Practice Race	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	0:50		Download
02	Beginner Race	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	2:05		Download
03	Intermediate Race	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	2:03		Download
04	Aerial Race	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	1:15		Download
05	Silly Race	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	1:20		Download
06	Ultimate Race	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	2:48		Download
07	Game Over	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	0:05		Download
08	Congratulations	Brad Fuller, Hal Canon	David Wise	0:30		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Neill Corlett
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Composer: Brad Fuller
  • Not Credited Composer: Hal Canon
  • Not Credited Arranger: David Wise
  • Not Credited Programmer: Chris Stamper

(Source: Verification from David Wise; game lacks credits)

While Rare was in the habit of leaving out credits in order to prevent their employees from getting offers from competing companies, they did include the names of several developers in the high score list. Unfortunately, the game's composer, David Wise is not among them, but Wise has confirmed his involvement personally. He explained in an interview that he arranged the arcade music using an audio driver developed originally by Chris Stamper. The driver was later expanded by Mark Betteridge, but it's not yet know for sure if the original or expanded driver was used.

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.

Releases

USA Title: Marble Madness Platform: NES Released: 1989-03-?? Publisher: Milton Bradley, Co.     Australia Title: Marble Madness Platform: NES Released: 1989-??-?? Publisher: Hasbro International, Inc.     EU Title: Marble Madness Platform: NES Released: 1989-??-?? Publisher: Hasbro International, Inc.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/nes/marble-madness - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.com/nes/587438-marble-madness - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Madness - Wikipedia.

View Marble Madness
Marble Madness	•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •
Marble Madness Construction Set	•
Marble Madness: Deluxe Edition	•
Notable Songs
Notable Personnel	Brad Fuller • Hal Canon
Notable Companies	Atari • Electronic Arts