I Love Pixels: Marble Madness

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(Administrator) 2010-06-14, 21:34 #1

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Subject: I Love Pixels: Marble Madness

Marble Madness is a lot of fun with two players and large trackballs, but when emulated it's a very poor experience. The shallow quarter-eating arcade-style gameplay, very typical of Atari at the time, is all too clear when you're playing it by yourself with a digital pad or (gasp!) keyboard.

But it looks great. The levels only get better, but it's so much un-fun effort playing to reach the later stages I'm having trouble giving enough of a shit to bring them to you. I'm 80% through the third stage and I just. don't. care.

But look at the pixels. Very typically of Atari's games at the time it has a hand-drawn feel to it. Despite the isometric appearance, it looks a little sketchy, especially at the bottom of the blue level. The non-fixed components - enemies, tubes, moving parts - look hand-drawn, and they almost certainly were, by gamers and programmers, not artists. You only have to look at the title screen of Gauntlet II to know that Atari didn't employ a lot of really talented artists.

Still, it really appeals to me.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MarbleMad1.png]

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MarbleMad2.png]

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MarbleMad3.png]

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MarbleMad4.png]

Click for larger!

[Image: http://nfggames.com/system/arcade/special.php/b-d/bp-5/y-kof97/z-10/x-She told me she was 18!/.png]

This post was edited on 2010-06-14, 22:35 by NFG.
Edit reason: Added stages 3 and 4

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(Guest) 2010-08-14, 04:32 #2

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It's odd that you say it has the look of being hand-drawn. Marble Madness actually employed a rudimentary raytracer to draw the levels, be leave it or not. It was only possible because they were using their new state-of-the-art 68000 arcade board.

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(Administrator) 2010-08-14, 08:56 #3

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That ruidmentary ray-tracing device was probably used in preparing the levels long before the ROMs were burned and the game shipped to arcades, and was probably used for the shadows and shading. Interesting footnote though, thanks for sharing it (Got a source, mr. anonymous guy?).

I was referring though to all the animated elements, and only a few background bits. All the shading on, for example, the wave in the second last map, the lifting mechanism, tubes and the circular ice-patch on the second map, or the flippers and other hazards in the last one. Atari's pixel artists basically sucked at what they did. =)