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Marble Madness

Marble Madness - Japanese Title

Marble Madness - marquee

Manufacturer: Atari Games
Year: 1984
Class: Wide Release
Genre: Labyrinth/Maze
Type: Videogame

Monitor:

  • Orientation: Horizontal
  • Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
  • CRT: Color
  • 19-inch Electrohome G07
Conversion Class: Atari System I
Number of Simultaneous Players: 2
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Either
Control Panel Layout: Multiple Player
Controls:
  • Trackball: Optical

Sound: Unamplified Stereo (requires two-channel amp)

Marble Madness


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Marble Madness Control Panel Image


Marble Madness Description

Guide your marble through various courses to the goal. Obstacles include marble munchers, acid pools, an evil steelie marble, etc. The playing field includes a maze, ice patches, a funnel, catapult, etc.

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Cabinet Information

An upright cabinet, sometimes found with plain black sides and sometimes with the blue and silver striped "ATARI" side art.

Cheats, Tricks and Bugs

Flipping the test switch (on the Audio/Regulator III board) while pressing either of the start buttons adds 99 seconds to the game play time for each flip of the test switch. Note: I've seen this crash the game on several occasions.

Conversion

All of the Atari System I games should be convertable by changing the game cartridge (ROM board), control panel, and marquee. Road Blasters also requires a pedal. Note: I'm told that not all System I mainboards have the trackball decoder, used only on Marble Madness.

Game Play

Steer your marble to the end of the course in the minimum amount of time. Watch out for other inhabitants that try to slow you down or bump you off - the marble munchers, the steelie, the vacuum, etc. You have an infinite number of lives, but getting killed loses you valuable time. On the "silly level" almost all of the rules are reversed. Some levels have alternate paths to the goal. If you run out of time before you complete a course, the game ends - but sometimes you will be "charmed" with extra time. Each level has its own stereo audio score.

CAPS/VAPS Arcade Census

There are 6,489 members of the Classic Arcade Preservation Society / Video Arcade Preservation Society, 3,729 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 61,171 machines (3,629 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 100 known instances of this machine owned by Marble Madness collectors. Of these, 77 of them are original dedicated machines, 8 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 15 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

This game ranks a 59 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 31 VAPS members currently looking for Marble Madness. There is one VAPS member looking for a Marble Madness circuit board set.

This game ranks a 76 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

For Sale - There are 3 VAPS members with Marble Madness machines for sale. VAPS members are totally independent of VAPS and the International Arcade Museum, and we are unable to recommend, endorce, or guarantee any person or company selling games or game parts.

Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them even though arcade operators might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses, while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up.

Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector.

In particular, since VAPS started out focusing on videogames, statistics for other types of machines should not (yet) be an indication of scarcity.

For a clue to value, look at absolute numbers of owners and potential owners above, compare a ratio of how many people want this game vs. how many people have this game (31%) and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range.

Alternate Cabinet Images

http://www.atarihq.com/museum/coinops/games/marble.jpg

Technical

The main CPU is a 68010, with the sound and coin subsystem controlled by a 6502. A "slapstic" chip is used for copy protection. This game is emulated (as of 5/98) by MGE (internal beta) and MAME.

Trivia

This was the first Atari System I game. A successor, Marble Madness 2: Marble Man was playtested but never released.

Fixes

1) Trackball rollers wear out, making control of your marble difficult and slow. Replacement rollers, bearings, etc. are available from Happ Controls (888-BUY-HAPP). 2) IC sockets of this age often make poor contact. If you get a ROM error on powerup or erratic operation, check for oxidation on both the sockets and the IC pins. FOR EXPERTS ONLY: you might want to replace the sockets with Augat or similar machine-pin versions for better contact.

Legacy

  1. Marble Madness
  2. Marble Madness 2 Marble Man

Manuals

  1. Operator's Manual  55 Pages, 5033 KB File.
  2. Manual  39 Pages, 3408 KB File.

Foto-Finder™

  1. The Encyclpedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 183; Color photo;

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Marble Madness Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for machines and parts made by Atari Games.

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Marble Madness

1. Atari Marble Madness System I pcb CLEAN & WORKING 100%

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2. Atari MARBLE MADNESS Arcade Flyer KEY CHAIN

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3. MARBLE MADNESS ATARI SCHEMATIC video game manual

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5. MARBLE MADNESS ATARI SET owners manual

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6. Atari MARBLE MADNESS Video Arcade Game MANUAL

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7. Original Atari Marble Madness Schematic

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8. Original Atari Marble Madness Schematic

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9. Marble Madness Arcade Game Manual Original

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10. Marble Madness Non Jamma Pcb Arcade Marquee / Header

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Marble Madness - Cabinet Image


Marble Madness - Title screen image


Marble Madness - Title screen image

Marble Madness - Title screen image

Marble Madness - Title screen image

Marble Madness - Title screen image


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