The History of Marble Madness II Marble Man - Unreleased arcade - documentary 

I'm glad that marble madness 2 is now found so everyone can play the game including me as well. 😀👍🎮

God bless patmanqc

Never heard of Marble Madness II. But I was blown away by the first version when it hit my arcade. Thank you Sir for sharing this information. Always learning something new (I missed out) by watching your videos. 🙂

I adore Marble Madness 2; and at this point I definitely like it better than the first game. I hope that other sought-out prototypes in the arcade community get unearthed so that other people can have the same experiences too.

Marble Madness is one of those games that was more fun to watch people play than to play myself because I was pretty young, but it did inspire my friends and I to build elaborate levels with Legos, and real marbles(together we had tons of both) Marble Madness 2 looks fantastic and it's too bad we didn't get it back in the day. I kindof like the concept of Marble Man.

It is indeed a good game, i had it up and running when the rom appeared on the internet archive. I played it with my 5 year old but she soon got bored of it, i think because it is fairly difficult. Nice video on it as always.

Another great review. Marble Madness is one of the coolest looking isometric games that I have played. It is fun. but incredibly challenging. The sequel looks like a lot of fun too.

One thing I particularly like about the Marble Madness is its surreal world. Marble Madness 2, however, mixes in snowmen and trees and other things that, while cartoonish, lessen the “alienness” of the world.

Hey bud, just wanted to say that I have been checking out your videos out for about 4 years now. I think we come from the same generation, give or take 5 years. Recently found about your tragic complications from pneumonia. By the sound of your voice and the joy you take in your hobbies, you my friend are a testimate to the human spirit and proof to anyone, that tragedy can be overcome. God is good. God bless you. Love your videos.

I love marble madness. The graphics are simple and clean, but also still modern and good looking. Always loved the design choice and now so many years later it still looks awesome to anyone and not only to hard core nerds from the 80th. :D I also love your videos. So many facts and information I did not know about all those games even as I lived in that era and played at least one version of the games you explain the history of. Arcades around here in Germany, was basically 3 days a year, when the fair came into town. They had a single trailer with 8 or 10 cabinets inside. Who needs bumper carts, when you can play asteroids, right? Keep up the great work. Stay safe and always keep the next save point in sight!

When Marble Madness came out, it felt that Atari was The Beatles of arcade gaming, Marble Madness was arcade gaming’s Sgt Pepper, and Mark, Brad, Hal and Bob was arcade gaming’s Fab Four that made this game changing magic happen. Never in the history of gaming did we have graphics that are artistic and deep and an experimental, original soundtrack that goes well beyond cute chip tunes of classical songs and sound effects of space ship blasts or a circle eating pellets. This game is what turned gaming into a serious art form and marble madness felt like a gaming concept album. Where would the soundtracks for Mario, Sonic, Metroid and Donkey Kong Country be without Marble Madness? This game was the one that started it all. The sequel is a well worth sequel with more to offer.

Pat, my brother was a Game Play Counselor for Nintendo of America back in the late 80's to mid-90's. He once had 1 of 5 known copies of Mother "aka Earthbound" for the NES...was on a ROM pack. He sold it for a pretty penny to a collector years ago and was actually featured on the documentary! True story!

Great video! I never heard of this at all. That’s crazy man. Love all the work you put into this. It looks like Snake Rattle Roll maybe… without the snake tongues and snakes. I dunno. It looks good.

Woah, perfect timing!

Thanks for the history of this fun game with cool sound effects, MM. I originally got it for my old Amiga 2000 as a kid. Great challenge and mostly about counter steering against momentum as the key to winning. MM2 looks great, which I never played yet. Thanks!

7:34 Once again, a terrific cameo by Cloak & Dagger. One of my personal faves. Great video as always, Your Patness.

I really enjoyed this video. I wish this game was released back in the day. It's a nice upgrade to the original, very vibrant and colorful. It's also too bad Atari shied away from the designer's original vision to have a track ball and feature the Marble Man character.

I know of a few canceled arcade games. One was a William's prototype of Dungeons and Dragons. You shouldn't confuse it with Capcom's two DnD games. The control was a bot compulated (your a warrior going down an endless 3D corridor, you had a button for swinging your weapon, a joystick to move left, right, and forward, and you have a menu button and lever to choose spells and abilities of your party). I remember this at GenCon one year, but it was late 80's (about the same year Williams showed off Xenophobia).

Superman pretty sweet....that theme song music takes be back to seeing the movie when my parents were still alive..life can be rotten.. enjoy what you have....nice videos sir

You, Sir are my favorite video game nerd! I'm always happy watching the videos you make :))

Another great video! Very interesting. The game looks very cluttered and not at all as charming as the original. It doesn't look like the higher-ups understood why the first one was so popular.

I enjoyed this episode and it’s classic commentary.

It’s a shame this never got released. Galloping Ghost Arcade has a lot of near impossible treasures, but this is one even they don’t have yet, as far as we know. By the way, I’m glad you brought up the Beavis & Butthead game they have. Doc Mack told a really cool story about how he went to get the game, I believe to California, and the game wasn’t working when he got it. Doc powered it up to try to diagnose the problem, and he recognized the boot sequence as being identical to the 3DO. It turned out all he needed to do was put a 3DO disc drive into the machine to get it working! He has since backed up the discs just in case anything happens to the originals, so there is no need to worry about their machine going kaput any time soon. Doc never said who he got the game from, but I have always wondered if it could have been Scott Evans, who had a lot of Atari Games prototype games, including at least one Marble Madness 2, though I believe he actually had two of them, one with a trackball and one with a joystick. I have a feeling he got rid of the games he owned, because the Bradley Trainer he saved is owned by someone else now, and I could very well be wrong on this, but I have a hard time believing he would get rid of that game unless he was planning to get rid of them all. I also wonder if Scott worked at Atari Games, or if he got all the prototypes from the dumpster like he did Bradley Trainer. It’s a very good thing he did spot Bradley Trainer, or that one would have been lost forever! As far as the original Marble Madness, Galloping Ghost Arcade has it now of course, but they didn’t when I first visited in 2015. I did visit Game Galaxy that year also, and they had it at their Goodlettsville location. Game Galaxy used to have two locations in Tennessee, one at the RiverGate Mall in Goodlettsville and one in Antioch. These days they are in a much larger location in Smyrna, which accommodates many more games. I could also swear that I also saw it at The Place Retro Arcade in Cincinnati later that year, which has since closed down. I really miss The Place. The owner, Cary Chaney, told me that he kept the selection of games to 1986 and before, with the exception of Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting, and he always had 80s music playing, some selections being from Cheap Trick and Journey, and it just made for an awesome atmosphere. The Place was in a small location, but it had a lot of games for the same location, and Cary truly made the most of what he had, and he was super nice to me the two times I visited. But yeah, Game Galaxy in Goodlettsville was the first place I saw a Marble Madness cabinet, and I’m pretty sure The Place had it also.

What a great looking sequel. It's a crime it was never released. Thanks for the video.

"pubes with attitude" LOL OMG

I love the Terri Hatcher pic when you said they're spectacular.....great seinfeld reference buddy P.s. would love a beavis and butthead arcade doc...seriously that just blew my mind, lol

I could of sworn seeing this game with trackballs at Sunnyvale GolfLand back in the early 90's. I thought I was going crazy/Mandela effect till it turned out this game was there as it was close to the Atari HQ at that time.

Loved Marble Madness, had no idea they made a sequel! Gonna have to grab this for MAME. Thanks!

I am loving your retro-arcade video game mini-docs! Brings back a lot of memories. Any plans to cover Congo Bongo? It seems to be one of the few 80s games missing from your repertoire.

Another great video! I'd love to see more unreleased games or prototype content covered.

Looking forward to the "Guardians of the Hood" video! It looked amazing in the gaming mags at the time. When I finally got to play it years later via MAME, it was NOT amazing.

I knew you would make a documentary on this eventually!!! ^^

This is a fantastic video! THANK YOU!

Another quality watch. Nice one!

First game footage shown looks like "stunt fox" aka .... It's annually speadrun in Canada, it took me years to find the game, it's well worth a look if you're into retro racer's

Your Marble Madness video was the first video I saw of yours after having a Marble Madness bug up my butt. Ended up listening to the music tracks cernys speech about making it and then found your video. Subbed ever since. About over a year now.

Marble Madness is one of my favorite games. Marble Madness 2 looks cool I will have to check it out . Marble Blast/Marble It Up is a good successor.

Fun Fact : Mark Cerny (one of the original Marble madness designers) went on to be lead designer of Playstation 3,4 & 5 hardware for Sony.

I can't wait also for your Guardians of the Hood documentary...

What Hard Drivin have NES port in development and it's look so good compare to other port ?

Thank You patman👍is amazimg all about Marble Madness arcade game.

I love Marble Madness!

Happy little games. God Bless you sir. Thank you for sharing this with all of us.

While I would love to try MM2 someday, after looking at the video you presented, I can't help but feel that this sequel got a bit too fancy for me. The original had an elegant simplicity that I greatly appreciated, while the sequel looks a bit too busy and flashy, at least for my tastes. Regardless of my opinion on the game, I think you did a marvelous job on the video, and I thank you for being the first to bring this sequel to my attention. Kudos!

If I recall the difficulty was incredibly hard on this game. Personally I think what it gave birth to eventually (super monkey Ball) was the better game. Great work as usual Patman.

Never heard of Marble Man before - interesting!

Marble madness to PS4 developer what a life mark cerny

I found the original Marble Madness unplayable with trakballs. It would never do what I thought it should be doing.

What is the game shown at 7:34 ? Wow, after seeing this game in the mid '80s in the arcade and years playing it on the NES, I am thrilled to know that there is a sequel. Thank you for this. Though big video game publishers don't really make games I like anymore, I'm finding that gaming today is exciting, not because of these new games with high end graphics and a production budget of millions. But because the golden age of gaming hasn't entirely passed by. Everytime they discover a lost prototype from those days, I'm transported back to the '80s and the excitement I felt seeing a new game returns.

Do you have any more videos on unreleased arcade games up your sleeve? This was really interesting. Bang up job again sir.

Thank you kind sir!

Man!! I'd love to have this game next to my original Marble Madness machine

Humm Ranma 1/2 Anything Goes Martial Arts comes to mind.

Getting a nose is quite a disability for a marble.

Hold the phone, there was a Tengen 007 game that we missed out on? Looking online it would have been the Amiga game. There’s just one screen shot that I found.

Sonic 3D Blast took Marble Madness concept it seems.

Happy little marble madness history game😁

The 2000’s had “brooding” character makeovers in video games. This is much, much, much worse. Wow. I got to meet Mark Cerny once, at the Kojima Productions 4th anniversary party. I was much more excited to meet him than he was to meet me. 😂

Actually for king of the mountain, depending on how many players there are. you get a limited amount of chances to finish

Very interesting.

Kind of a shame Marble Madness II didn't get an arcade release, it at least deserved a console/computer release.

Marble Madness had a noble looking stylish surreal appeal (very 1980th New Wave inspired), so Atari's cartoon makeover looks silly (although at least a bit trippy - reminding English platform stuff like Jetset Willy). The joystick version of Marble Madness 2 is now on regular MAME. Someone should really hack into the code to bring back trackball (mouse) support.

2:34 God bless you man 😇🙏

Happy little games!!

AWESOME GAME

I wasn't aware of the sequel. I like the colorful graphics and idea of it (MM in general, either of them) but I never cared for playing the game itself it was way too frustrating constantly falling off edges left and right.

I always thought Marble World was the spiritual successor to Marble Madness. I guess I was wrong. There was one in between.

This seems like a hybrid between Off Road and Crystal Castles. I’m gonna have to find this and play it

I never played MM in the arcade, but loved MM1 on C64 when EA released it. Sad that they never really got to MM2.

I have the original MM machine. I used to be pretty good at it and I think I got to about 3rd place on the twin galaxies scoreboard. The original high score on there is controversial and is still unbeaten from 1984. Many people claim that score is not possible. I can still complete all levels but in order to get a good score you have to never die and go extremely fast.

A sequel that never went beyond prototype.

That NWA game must’ve sat there because they didn’t have the bread

Does focus mean they did a focus group instead of user testing?

That Superman game would’ve been hot!

I liked Marble Madness - the look, music, trackball... but I was not good at it

This game looks like a case study in reactionary design and not understanding your source material. So many knee-jerk band-aides throughout it.

Perhaps it was best this game was not released. It would have been overshadowed by Street Fighter ll, followed by Mortal Kombat.

Hey please also CRISTAL PALACE have importance etc.... ! ☺✌📺

Ya I only played the first one on the N.E.S. not knowing it was a port and seeing the video of it being played on an arcade cabinet i can tell now it was not the greatest port for the N.E.S.

That NWA game they did make a WCW game

Another masterpiece, similary at marble madness, is Cameltry

Ummmm, what's with the Terri Hatcher reference at the beginning???? I had the biggest fucking crush on her when I was younger!!!!! Lois and Clark baby!!!!

Licensed by the NWA? So where Dre, Easy and Cube?

Have you ever played p.o.w in arcade or nes

Such a stupid decision to put a face on the marble. The music of the first game helped the player emotionally connect with the struggle of the "hero", and little touches like the "dizziness circle" were enough to make the player think of the marble as a sentient being. Putting a human face on it- an ugly, goofy one, at that- just made the player identify it as a cartoon. It actually reduced the sense of connection.

You still look as young as when you were a kid, specially with the beard.

@00.22 In that Steven Seagull game, the goal is to lie about your entire life as you get as fat as possible.

Man, if there had been a game with my beloved, all time favorite tag team The Midnight Express in it back in the day, I'd have played nothing else. Especially those crap early WWF games.

Do you have links for the high resolution Marble Madness 2 artwork and promotional material?

Is MAME a home console? I want to play arcade correct classics as if it was a PS2

Well, fart and queef in my face, I had no idea there was a planned sequel to Marble Madness!

Could you do Beavis & Butt-Head?

Who is the actress at 0:44 ?

Hi

mm 2 is not bad i like it for what is it but i don't like it all the face and the personality added in the sequel

The trackbal always sucked, I always hated it. A useless gimick and I will splain why. it is not 1 to 1 control. If u spin th eball so it spins fully 3 times for example, the ball in game does not move that far. It wil not move exactly back and forth as you roll it, it is just actualy a Ssloppy analog control input.

When you listen to the video in 1,25 speed the voice is less annoying.

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐦 😜

Looks kinda stupid!