If you're in to arranged soundtracks you should try and track down a few other FM Towns conversions are you'll probably love the arranged soundtracks they feature. It was kind of fujitsu's thing really.
@@jesuszamora6949 The FM Towns Marty can't run Super Street Fighter II at all, much less a Super Turbo port that doesn't exist; it only ran on an RAM upgraded FM Towns. Super Turbo was console exclusive to the 3DO and was published by Panasonic.
Mark is playing a bad version on some emulator with a joystick. the amiga version is perfect with the mouse on an original amiga 1000 that I owned. I hate the amiga but marble madness on it is pure gold !!!!!! 10/10 !!!!!!
@@DJDanceClassic ...but it has terrible Slowdowns as a two player game with two mice connected. I loved the Amiga-Version back then, but the Japan-only Tengen-Version for Megadrive is so much better. I still play it today.
Hmm, the Amiga controls thing seemed weird, so I fired up 2 different emulators and... the mouse controls are totally bugged. Even on WinUAE if I put my mouse sensitivity too high the ball starts darting around all crazy. This definitely didn't happen on a real Amiga, because I used to throw the mouse around like a loony (I *think* holding left button made it more sensitive as well). I played the arcade a lot, so I know what it was meant to feel like, so not sure what's happening there.
Retro Core This is true. I played this a lot back in the day, both arcade and an original Amiga 1000. The Amigas mouse controls are literally spot on to the arcades trackball control, with no slowdown whatsoever. I still have a real A1200, and this still plays fine. If I recall correctly you could even adapt one of those Marconi track ball controllers to work with this on the Amiga. Before the FM towns etc versions came out this was by far the best port. Unlike a lot of other arcade conversions this is 100% NOT a lazy ST port. Back in the day EA really supported the Amiga and actually did some great ports and original games for it. They were nothing like the EA that is always lambasted for the ‘yearly updates’ it is infamous for these days.
Hmmm. Interesting - He says the Amiga version is terrible to control. I finished it multiple times; it uses the mouse, and I never found it terrible to control. I have also been playing it loads on Mame, so happy to make the comparison. I think it feels slightly stodgier than the arcade, but basically I think the Amiga conversion very fine. Admittedly you can't say that about all Amiga conversions, many are indeed very rough. But I totally disagree about this one. Edit: I note that some comments below suggest that playnig this on real hardware Amiga and emulators can be somewhat different, and that the control issues may be caused by emulation. If that is so I can respect that Retro Core didn't get a good experience in the Amiga version, but this rather detracts from the episode which is a shame...
Thanks for the video, which provides a good overview of the different versions. I don't disagree that the X68000 and FM Towns versions are the best ports of the game. But I find the criticism of the Amiga version harsh. It's also one of the best and most faithful versions for me to this day. Regarding the controls: You can choose to play it with the mouse or the joystick (or trackball or joypad if you have one connected). I never had a problem with it, but that is of course a matter of taste. To be fair: The Amiga version is from 1986 and made for a hardware from 1985 with only 256 KB RAM (Amiga 1000), not for the later, better Amiga versions. The amazing thing: It is not only one of the best ports of the game Marble Madness, but it is also one of the very few good and faithful arcade ports on the Amiga at all (I may think of the countless grotty, sloppy and embarrassing US Gold ports of many great arcade titles). The X68000, FM Towns and Genesis/Mega Drive versions were released 5-7 years after the Amiga version. On newer, more powerful systems - at least X68000 and FM Towns (The Genesis hardware was in some aspects stronger, in others weaker than the OCS Amiga).
Before Sega Mega Drive/Genesis had Yamaha YM2612, this was the very first video game with a Yamaha soundchip, which is the YM2151. It's what I heard on vgmrips.
Megadrive owners lucked out there with an alternate version available as an import. Usually it was like it or lump it if the arcade game you'd been waiting for hadn't been ported so well.
I'll admit that in Klax's case I prefer the Tengen version, 'cause it's a lot closer to the original arcade (and was even done by the same programmers as that), although when it comes to Klax ports in general I prefer the TurboGrafx version a lot; feels better to play to me.
Amiga coder, Larry Reed spent nearly a year on the conversion and said the scrolling sometimes becomes jerky because so much of the CPU time is spent emulating the arcade machines specialist hardware, in software. The Amiga press were at one point claiming it'd feature 1,000 levels
I forgot to say in my other posts... Thank you for another BOTP! I cant believe all the comments on this game. Love it. just shows how great a game it is, and back in its day.... incredible!
Yep, this was one that many people requested but I kept putting it off due to the shear amount of ports there were. This video is actually missing two as well, the NEC PC9801 and Sharp X1.
I suggest going to the Tokugawa forums since that is where I found the vast majority of NEC PC-98 games there (including Marble Madness). As for the Sharp X68000 and NEC PC-88 theisozone.com has "Complete Game Collection" full rom entries for both of those that conveniently divide the games up into their respective genres include a separate category for arcade ports. You can also find huge rom/iso sets for the likes of the Fujitsu FM7, Sharp X1, Fujitsu FM Towns and many others through the "Neo Kobe" rom sets. (The Neo Kobe rom set for the PC-98 is currently under active construction in the Tokugawa forums.) A couple of things to note about this episode: The dos port was specifically designed for Tandy computers. Therefore, it actually utilizes the Tandy 3 speaker sound for music as well as 16 color Tandy graphics. (Not that it makes the gameplay any better but it certainly gives the presentation and sound a few marks up.) There are two ways you can access this: You can either go into the Dosbox config file and set "Machine" to "tandy" (or possibly "pcjr") or if that fails, there is a separate emulator called Tand-em that is specifically designed to play Tandy games. I noticed you are missing the Apple IIGS port of marble madness. I assume that's because, like me, you had trouble getting it to run. I actually managed to get it to run without crashing on the emulator Kegs. If you need help, I'll tell you how. Sorry for the long message but I want you to be best equipped to take on and assess all the ports to the best of your ability. Nevertheless, great episode and one that I had been diligently waiting for for a long time ;-)
Some good information there. I'll take a look at the tokugawa forums. That place would be a great resource for Japanese computer roms as they are kind of tough to find. Also thanks for the information regarding the Apple llGS I did have issues with that so next time I'll give kegs a go. I also didn't know about the DOS Tandy mode. Interesting that.
Retro Core Awesome. Glad I could be of service. I will warn you though. Kegs is far from perfect as it still ramains difficult or impossible to get certain games running. Also, the controls, much like the rest of the emulator, are incredibly buggy when it comes to setting up. Also, as someone who owns an authentic Apple IIGS, the framerate is also a bit choppier than a genuine machine. Sadly, as it stands, it's the best there is at the moment. A bit of advice for setup and use: 1. Instead of going through the agravation of installing the os, just download a preinstalled disk image on the e-maculation page for kegs (located at gs/os section). While your there, download the installation disks anyway they have tool files that some games (such as QIX) require. If they are propted, insert the "system tools" disk that contains the required tool file(s) and drag and drop them to the tools folder on the os disk. 2. Rom 1 is more compatible with games than rom 3 so for your purpose, use rom 1. 3. If a game crashes or fails to boot when opening it through the os (as was the case with me and marble madness), try booting from the game disk image instead of the os disk. To do this, replace the os disk with the game disk at the s7d slots. 4. For the most authentic experience, play at 2.8 speed since that was the defult speed for the stock apple iigs. Good luck. Hope it gets the job done for you. Also hope for a Donkey Kong ports episode in the future ;-)
I love Marble Madness Mark. Such a fun game and love to see videos of it regards of what version it was available for it for. My personal favorite is the NES version for it. Its a game I received for Christmas and means the most for me after spending hours enjoying it. Thank you as always Mark. Keep up the great work. Anthony..
Wow, i lived years thinking the Amiga version was the best conversion ever, but the Japanese MD, FM Towns and Sharp versions ROCKS!It must have been nice to be a Japanese kid at that time ...
Rare were the ones who developed the NES port; they ported a few arcade games to the NES during the system's heyday. They did a great job though. IMO, the Nintendo version is probably one of the best home ports, play-wise.
Ah yes, you are right. It was Rare who made the port. It's a excellent port too. Maybe not the best as that's got to go to the FM Towns version but it's sure up there along with the X68000 and Japanese Mega Drive ports.
Also not to sound like a broken record, an unreleased port for the PC Engine, I suppose developed by the same Tengen crew behind the Japanese Mega Drive release. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EbLdzPWKWBA.html
AFAIR the amiga version had the possibility of using mouse as the control. Are you using it or the joystick? Allways heard good things about the amiga verion although being one (if not the first) arcade conversion for the machine...
With either mouse or joystick the controls were poor compared to other elements Ports. Amiga fans do praise the game a lot. And for its time it was a very impressive port but I can't lie, the controls are pretty ropey when you compare them to the NES version and the Japanese developed Ports on the FM Towns, X68000 and Mega Drive.
There was a letter in an A issue of ANTIC Magazine from Trip Hawkins, then CEO of Electronic Arts. It stated they were going to bring a number of titles to Atari 8-bit, including "Marble Madness". Nothing ever started it seems..
Yeah, I did buy the Atari ST version. They only saving grace of the Atari ST was that it had full MIDI support. I had a Casio keyboard with MIDI connectors and let the ST transmit all the game's soundtrack to play on my Casio during gameplay.
Question: The Game Boy versions "music" reminds me of my toddler sons efforts at tickling the ivory's. Now is he remarkably musical or the Game Boy's Marble Madness BGM laugh out loud bad? Hint: Watching the Game Boy footage I actually laughed out loud!
That's too bad you had problems with the Amiga controls. I found that using a mouse or trackpad were as close as you can get to the arcade. Assuming you choose the right type of controller in the selection screen.
I remember there was a "carbon copy" of MM on Spectrum, called Gyroscope. Melbourne House as publisher, I think... It was definitely a better version than the one showed here. It was ported to most 8-bit machines...
You are right but I couldn't really add that since it's not technically a port of Marble Madness but a rip off. Still, it is better than the crap actually released under the Marble Madness name.
The real reason why the game boy advance version is absolutely terrible is because the devs were only given six weeks to work on that game along with klax And this port is also unfinished
Digital Eclipse didn't stink when they were working with emulation or porting source code. Marble Madness on Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2 for the Sony PlayStation with the Nyko Trackball is the best official home conversion of the game.
For one, a show where even the bad graphics are reasonably decent. There are a few episodes featuring ZX ports that I, as a developer, would be ashamed of putting out. "If the machine can't handle it and you're not good enough, don't embarrass yourself trying"
Well said. But I guess we do have to consider that some of those early British developed games were done by kids in many cases. Still, no excusing the publisher for releasing such crap.
Well there is one special thing in C64 port of marble madness it,s a secret level called water maze it's can be accessed in level 1 in one spot almost close to goal this secret level also exists in Apple 2 version
I played the Arcade version a lot back when it came out. I bought the Amiga version and it was Spectacular with a mouse. I don't think this guy is using a mouse. I was able to go much further on the amiga version. (It obviously helped that I did not have to pump quarters into my Amiga). The sound was very good too.
I know it's well past the others, but the PlayStation version on Atari Collection 2 was pretty solid, and it even had mouse/nyko trackball support! Though you needed a controller to get into the game.
it should be noted that the gba port was made in something like two weeks by a developer house who, iirc, had never worked with the gba before. almost no enemies were implemented at all and most levels are missing. lexx has a great video about how this and other atari classics ports to the gba came to be
I think the Master System port could've been compatible with the Sports Pad, but since that controller was never released in Brazil and the PAL regions, and the Master System port of Marble Madness was released in those regions...
Back when I was a kid, I had the NES and DOS versions of this game. The DOS one came in a nice EA fold out case with floppy disks. I also had a local arcade I could go to that had the arcade version set up. So I had a pretty well rounded feeling for this game when it came out. I never did seem to like any of the versions of this game where the marble isn't animated in some way when it rolls. It looks stupid just moving around as a solid object with no animation in my opinion. But yes, Marble Madness is definitely part of my childhood. ^.=.^
Did you know there is also a Construction Set version on the Speccy, CPC and C64 where you can create your own levels? Also, have you ever had a go on the Arcade Cabinet with the trackball? I remember when I visited my Brother in Tokyo last summer, we went to a Amusement Arcade called Mikado and we saw a Marble Madness Arcade Cabinet with the trackball. I had a few goes at 100 yen per go and I must admit that it can be a coin muncher if not had much practice.
Yep, I did try out the Speccy version of the construction kit. Quite nice for an early attempt but still too slow for my liking. I have played the Arcade version quite some time back in the UK. It was pretty good but did take a while to u derating how much spin to apply to the track ball.
Thanks for an awesome video! The main question is, what were the main problems of the western developer's problem of creating a console and computer port of an arcade game? Is it due to the lack of affordable access to the original arcade game and other source materials?
Basically a lack of programming skill. The Arcade game was American so there's no reason why western developers couldn't get hold of reference code. Basically the developers behind the Japanese versions just took so much more care.
Amazing! Another great video. I would've imagined this game being on the Super Nintendo/Famicom, I think it would be a great port close to the Arcade game.
Plus i found screenshots of Atari Lynx version and i found TI99 version but there is only a demo on RU-vid showing the unfinished stage 2 and last version what i found is atari 2600 version
Rare programmed the NES port of Marble Madness and Milton Bradley released it in the West. As far as I know there was no Famicom release for this. Not officially anyway. I loved the arcade version can found the NES port to be extremely faithful and played great for using a pad. Rare did a great job with it.
Back in the 80s, I think I only ever made it to the uphill level on the Amiga version. Some Marble Madness trivia; Atari made a sequel, Marble Man: Marble Madness II, but it tested poorly against more popular games like Street Fighter II, so it never went into full production. Prototypes exist and the ROM has been dumped by one of their owners, but he refuses to release it. :( The C64 version had a secret level. To get to it, you had to jump the marble off one of the ramps near the goal and stay on one of the numbers on the floor until the timer reached a certain amount. Unfortunately it was a two player only level. There's a freeware remake for Windows called Rolling Madness 3D. Besides being a faithful port of the arcade game, it has all sorts of options, like changing the camera view.
Find the issues raised with the amiga a bit unfair. Some if the better releases are on machines costing more than an amiga or released many years later. I played this to death on my a1000 and used my amiga mouse and even my atari 2600 trackball and it played well. Consoles are generally later and have a benefit of adapting to a controller sold with the system. Even the arcade has to be compared with the machine not an emulator. I like these videos but just found this harsh. My opinion is from the actual amiga version on hardware :-)
The game boy advance port is also completely unfinished. It only includes the first three levels. After you complete the third level it just says game over.
Did you use the mouse on the Amiga version? (just curious) It always seemed fine on mine as long as I used the mouse. It also seemed a bit smoother. I played on an A500. I can't remember if I had the PAL version or NTSC though.
@@RetroCoreit is not a matter of what you used. Not sure if anyone mentioned it already but it does not control properly on an emulator (I just tried with WinUAE, PUAE and a couple more and it is twitchy). Running it on actual hardware (also just did that) it scrolls smoothly and the mouse control is almost as good as the arcade trackball. Precise like you wouldn't believe.
One thing about the NES version, it was actually developed by Rare themselves. For some odd reason Tengen didn’t credited or mentioned them at the title screen
Did you emulate the Amiga? I'm currently trying to debug an issue where it's as though the mouse is getting stuck on the borders of the host system, certainly not an issue on the original hardware
Yep. I live in Japan. The Amiga over here is none existent so emulation is the only viable option. I'm not importing an Amiga. Maybe some FPGA solution in the future may work though. . The C64 exists though as a strange console like system. Not that one which got a UK release but something that came much earlier. I can't remember the name of it now but I can tell you it is rare. I've only seen two in the 24 years of living here.
I'd love to do more console related videos however they do take some time to put together. I'm currently working on the next Retro Core 5 show which will be focused on the PlayStation.
In this video everything in emulated however I have played the Game boy, Mega Drive and FM Towns versions on real hardware in the past with all playing and looking just as they do on this video.
Of course the Arcade is the best, but for home ports, I would say Tengen Mega-Drive Marble Madness is the most true arcade faithful port, though the NES version is great too
Watching these battle of the ports is really making me want an Amiga. Which model Amiga do I want to look for? When I go on ebay to do some research I see Amiga 500, 600, 1200, 2000, 3000, and 4000. What should I be shooting for?
A600 is probably a good bet as it will play most of the 500 games just fine. The A1200 is the best choice however quite a few games are incompatible and will need a crack to make them work.
You'll find A500's the cheapest way. 95% of games were released for it. A600 are the last model and didn't sell too many so are more expensive (and don't do anything more compared to A500, unless you want an easy way to include an external compact flash 'harddrive'). A1200's are the next gen model with upgrades such as 16 million colours. Some later games have A1200 versions, but not enough to justify the extra cost they are going for.
@@RetroCoreif you boot an A1200 holding both mouse buttons it will take you to a bios like screen where you can disable cpu cache and select between ocs/ecs/aga chipset which usually solves all compatibility issues. Actually what will conflict sometimes with AGA is the crack intros of non original games
I recently purchased the Japanese Marble Madness version by Tengen and am very happy with it. It's much better than the EA version we got here, and apparently in Japan as well. I saw you mentioned a Mega Drive trackball, but do you know if one actually exists? I've only been able to find the Mega Mouse, but I'd love to use a trackball. I've heard the SMS trackball (Sports Pad) works, but only in digital mode, so it's basically like using an awkward non-analog controller.
I've never seen the trackball myself and to be honest I don't even know if it exists. Maybe the manual was referring to the Master System trackball? Or I guess you could turn the mouse upside down and use that as the track ball :)
@@RetroCore You said MM could be played on a trackball with the Mega Drive (19:40) but it does not have one. Maybe you got the md and sms mixed up. I learnt about that crazy control pad the XE-1 AP from Dempa today from the Starblade video which is the precursor to the Saturn analogue, Dreamcast and Xbox 'Duke' pad though.
@@iwanttocomplainThat's not true. The sports pad only had three games made specially for it (where it's only control method) but it's compatible with dozens of other games designed for the ordinary controller. Don't know if MM is one of them, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't work on it.
Digital Eclipse did the GBC ports of both 1942 and Marble Madness. Also a slight correction; Tengen didn't develop the NES port. Some copyright strings in the PRG lead to Rare as the developer. Yes, the Rare that did Donkey Kong Country and Battletoads.
Not all digital eclipse games are bad. They made Ms pac man on SNES, and the Disney retro game collection on nowadays systems. Oh wait, and the genesis collection in the 2000s. Not Sonic's ultimate genesis collection (even though I prefer that one, because at least it has sonic 3), or the Sega Genesis classics compilation.
Nice video, however there's something wrong with your game boy emulator's sound. The high-pitched beeps in both the game boy and game boy color versions are not supposed to be there.
Haha, only PC fanboys would come out with such a phrase to make them selves feel better. Even now I'd say console users are still the "master race". Yes, consoles are less powerful but they're much cheaper than the equivalent PC and simpler to set up. I only own a very small amount of PC games, probably under 10.
The text has been replaced with subtitles for that past few months now. Basically the software that was used for the text bar decided to unregistered its self and now the company that made it is gone so there is now way to reactivate it. This is why I hate digital media. Use the "CC" option on RU-vid for text. Select "English" not the automated crap as that is awful. The "English" option is correct as it's taken from the show's actual script, not made by RU-vid's voice recognition software.
TraxAxPC. All the hack versions out there won't work. I've tried a few. They all end up running the trail version which when tried on my machine says it's expired.
