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Marble Madness 2: Marble Man


DarkSyne

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MM is not necessarily my style of game today. But I will play it from time to time in MAME. What was fun was discovering the multiple secret levels in the Apple II version.

 

Back in the day it was one of the hallmarks of a sophisticated taste and we all clamored for a run at it.

Edited by Keatah
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22 hours ago, roadrunner said:

I didn't read all 9 pages, seen a youtube vid of MM2 
someone posted that rom will be released in Nov 2020 true?

Idk anymore man. Caronavirus is being quite a bitch. But if you go to page one. Read through some messages. Go to messages posted in November 2019. It's all in page one.

Edited by Jack the gamer 3
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On 7/26/2020 at 2:51 AM, Keatah said:

MM is not necessarily my style of game today. But I will play it from time to time in MAME. What was fun was discovering the multiple secret levels in the Apple II version.

 

Back in the day it was one of the hallmarks of a sophisticated taste and we all clamored for a run at it.

 

Wait what?  There are secret levels in the Apple 2 Marble Madness?

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On 7/29/2020 at 6:36 PM, Propane13 said:

Wait what?  There are is a secret levels in the Apple 2 Marble Madness?

According to an entry from this post the 'secret level' is also accessible under the PC version in addition to the Apple IIe and C64.

 

The Water Maze

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20060522222950/http://www.video-fenky.com/archives/000227.html

 

For posterity: 

 

The Commodore 64 and Apple IIe (not IIgs) versions of Marble Madness (both coded by Will Harvey, one of EA's first "software artists" and nowadays the head of There.com) had a secret level, the Water Maze, that was unavailable in any other home version released. It wasn't even in the arcade version, actually, and Mark Cerny (creator of the original game) didn't even knew about it until somebody told him after it was already in stores.

Why is it there? This is just a guess, but I imagine Will Harvey (a) noticed that Level 1 is so tiny that there was space left in RAM for him to play around with, and (b) decided to make gamers' lives as depressing and grief-stricken as possible.

 

marble1.gif   marble2.gif

 

Here's how to access the Water Maze, in case you aren't aware of its existence. In Level 1, you have to pull off the "Jump bonus" trick (fly off the lip of the zigzag ramp) and hop over to the left-hand side of the stage. Once there, park your marble at a position roughly seven squares northwest of the "3" painted on the ground. When the timer reaches 13, you'll get the "Entering the Water-Maze..." message and the floor you're resting on will sink into the ground. You'll then have to wait until time runs out -- once it does, you'll be deposited in the Water Maze with 99 seconds on the clock.

This procedure already goes far beyond a mere secret to discover and enters the realm of "easter egg", but the Water Maze itself is an even greater burden on the mind. Fifteen long years I have toiled at the task of completing the level. It took me all of this time to realize that two players were required. Yeah, so I didn't play C64 games with other people too often. The C64 was too intellectual for my NES-owning friends.

 

marble3.gif   marble4.gif

 

If you enter the Water Maze all by your lonesome, as a blue marble, then there's no way past the first screen, even. Cross the bridge, and it breaks apart on you, sending you to your death on the right side of the screen. Try to hitch a ride on one of those water lilies, and it immediately sinks, drowning you.

I don't need to tell you, of course, that unlike all the other levels, losing a marble in the Water Maze results in an instant Game Over. Your marbles float on water, but they're otherwise uncontrollable.

The secret lies in that colored block on the lower right-hand side of the screen. When a marble is sitting on that block, the lilies will not sink when you hop on them, but instead they'll take you across the river, bouncing you to the other side and then back again. So, one player has to park his marble on the square while the other hitches a lily over to the entrance at the left-center of this screen.

 

marble5.gif   marble6.gif

 

Once that's done, the lily-riding marble (blue, in this case) will reappear at the passage directly below the entrance. You'll need to jump into the water and then get up to the next pathway before falling down the waterfall. Then, you'll have to cross the paddle-wheel elevator when a platform is lined up with your path, coming to a final stop at the flashing square at the end.

Now the red marble must repeat everything the blue marble just did -- riding a lily to the entrance, navigating the water-filled passage, and so on. This is very tricky, because the blue marble's progress has scrolled the screen downward a fair bit, giving the red marble less space to work with. (You lose your marble, of course, if you go off the top of the screen. Marble Madness is no whistle-ass wimpy game.)

 

marble7.gif   marble8.gif

 

Instead of joining the red marble at his cliffside parking spot, the red marble will continue to ride his elevator platform downward, hoping against hope that the game doesn't get confused and think that the marble's falling to its death in the progress (which happens sometimes, of course). If it makes it to the next path down, you'll find two flashing squares; park your red marble at the closest one to the edge.

Now the blue marble must also take the elevator down (a bit easier, since the game isn't scrolling the screen and tends to get confused less often). Once both marbles are parked on both flashing squares, the platform will drop down, revealing a great, flashing arena with two evil black marbles circling about. You'll need to take them on in battle.

 

marble9.gif   marble10.gif

 

Knock both marbles off the arena, and that's it. You've done it! You've completed the Water Maze! In addition to getting this cryptic message, you'll receive approximately 100,000 points and be transported posthaste to Level 2, as if nothing had just happened.

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I'll say this again... I would bet the entire house Marble Madness II would've tanked in the arcades in the early 90's. I had a good friend that routed games in the mid to early '90. Not only the scene shifted the  the Street Fighter genre of games but also those classic Konami and Capcom beat-em ups like Turtles, Simpson Xmen and Capcom with Final Final, Knights of the Round and Captain Commando.

 

If Atari was to green light a sequel for Marble Madness, should've been done in the '87 or '88 era when the game was somewhat relevant...

Edited by schuwalker
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4 minutes ago, schuwalker said:

I'll say this again... I would bet the entire house Marble Madness II would've tanked in the arcades in the early 90's.

Omg why are you phrasing that as if the 90s was only about fighting games XD. If marble madness for the genesis was a huge success why don't you think that the sequel would not have? Its litteraly the bigger marble madness with a challenge. That's like saying sonic the hedgehog had no population in the 90s because it was not fighting based. Yes games street fighter were popular as hell but there were still tones of games that were not fighting based and were successful as crap. I'm sorry to disagree with what you said but the there were games like daytona, snow bros, spin master, virtual racing, NBA jam. And metal slug. And they were the shit in the 90s! All of those were not fighting based. Marble madness 2. Just by looking at gameplay I myself!! A young 14 year old gamer Got impressed so bad at the game. If I'm not getting you're point. Please reply back

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8 hours ago, Jack the gamer 3 said:

Omg why are you phrasing that as if the 90s was only about fighting games XD. If marble madness for the genesis was a huge success why don't you think that the sequel would not have? Its litteraly the bigger marble madness with a challenge. That's like saying sonic the hedgehog had no population in the 90s because it was not fighting based. Yes games street fighter were popular as hell but there were still tones of games that were not fighting based and were successful as crap. I'm sorry to disagree with what you said but the there were games like daytona, snow bros, spin master, virtual racing, NBA jam. And metal slug. And they were the shit in the 90s! All of those were not fighting based. Marble madness 2. Just by looking at gameplay I myself!! A young 14 year old gamer Got impressed so bad at the game. If I'm not getting you're point. Please reply back

I really think you want to believe this in your mind but the reality was far different. Your first mistake is comparing the home market to the arcades - different beast. Even some of the home video games you cited were post '91.

 

I understand your love for Marble Madness 2... but like I said earlier, I don't think it would've fared well in the arcades. Remember I was sorta helping my operator buddy at this time time frame, so I has some knowledge what was hot. Like it or not... fighting games were the up and coming thing. Neo Geo was getting attention as well. NBA Jam wasn't released till '93.

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Plus arcade games at that time, if they weren’t Uber hits, they disappeared into obscurity pretty quick.

 

Having looked at the fantastic Easter egg on PC/AppleIIe/C64, I’m really bummed it’s not in the awesome Amiga version :(

Edited by Loafer
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6 hours ago, schuwalker said:

I really think you want to believe this in your mind but the reality was far different. Your first mistake is comparing the home market to the arcades - different beast. Even some of the home video games you cited were post '91.

 

I understand your love for Marble Madness 2... but like I said earlier, I don't think it would've fared well in the arcades. Remember I was sorta helping my operator buddy at this time time frame, so I has some knowledge what was hot. Like it or not... fighting games were the up and coming thing. Neo Geo was getting attention as well. NBA Jam wasn't released till '93.

Okay so you're going way specific into the 90s so you're saying I can't compare home consoles to the arcades? You do know some genesis games got ported to an arcade machine right? The sega mega tech and mega play existed... idk if that was rlly a mistake.... and there was the Nintendo play choice and the nintendo vs system. Tho idk if that one counts.

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1 hour ago, Loafer said:

Plus arcade games at that time, if they weren’t Uber hits, they disappeared into obscurity pretty quick.

 

Having looked at the fantastic Easter egg on PC/AppleIIe/C64, I’m really bummed it’s not in the awesome Amiga version :(

So the arcade was a now or never situation basically? Wow unthinkful kids those days...

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17 minutes ago, Jack the gamer 3 said:

Okay so you're going way specific into the 90s so you're saying I can't compare home consoles to the arcades? You do know some genesis games got ported to an arcade machine right? The sega mega tech and mega play existed... idk if that was rlly a mistake.... and there was the Nintendo play choice and the nintendo vs system. Tho idk if that one counts.

I'm confused on the disconnect here. I know you're younger , but I lived in that era (17-18) to be exact.

 

Yes some of the Genesis titles were ported over: Strider, Ghouls n Ghost and Forgotten Worlds. You can't compare PC 10 since that was just a timed Nes machine and the VS. is a different beast altogether.

 

Two of my favorite arcade gamers were Atari 720 and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Did you try playing those on the NES? It's abhorrent! 

 

Hence my statement on the difference between home market and the arcade scene...

 

You can make the argument of comparing the two in the mid '90s where I think the tech caught up.

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On 8/2/2020 at 4:31 PM, Keatah said:

It's not just the unthankful brats, but the greedy operators too. Can't have a slacking performer take up valuable floor space..

To the defense of the operators I've known a few back in the day and know of one who's still at it.  I am aware of none driving around a ferrari eheh so personally I don't see it as greed but as survival.  Back in the day, the competition was fierce and the $$$ investment you put in had to bring in the coin and fast.  

 

People here of the big success stories but I'd like to remind you there are thousands of arcade games and only a fraction of those were ever big money earners.  For every big hit like Pacman, DK, Space Invaders, Frogger, etc, there are dozens of very good games that did decent business but didn't bring home the bacon, well except for maybe those 3-4 magical years of the early 80's where the arcades were constantly filled with arcade nutballs like me :).

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